Drillers Review: Bit By Bit
Transcript
Hey everybody, I'm Tom Vassel.
I'm Camila.
I'm Joey Evans.
I'm Chris Yeay.
Are you?
We're gonna question mark.
We're taking a look at Drillers. This is the newest game from CGE and it is certainly incredibly popular as we're recording this. I just got an email that they've sold incredibly well.
I know that [snorts] they're re Huh.
Just keep going.
Uh they are reprinting it at the Essen Fair, but this was easily I think the most sold game at Gen Coning, you know, and lots of people play it.
So, we're going to take a look at Trillers. I'm going to give you a quick overview and we'll be right back. In this game, players are going to operate old drillers and they're going to be running them down to the mines drilling uh to get both different resources and to break down walls and get various victory points. You can see there's victory points on the different wall sections here. Each player has a player board and as you drill through wall sections, you'll be able to put sections of those walls up here at the top. Getting them all the way to the end or at least to where they cross you where you getting gems here is one of the game end triggers. Each of these wall sections worth victory points. Although at any point during the game, you can take less victory points to let's see this turns from 15 to 14 to get whatever's on the bottom. Here I'd get a resource. Here I get a resource, but I lose two points for that. This is also kind of the player's console. As the game goes by, you're going to have fuel. You're going to be using that fuel to move your mech down. You can pay whenever you come to the surface to move up the max quantity of your fuel. You also have a storage spot where you have two spots to put the different uh things you collect, although you can also pay to move that up so that you have more storage. You have drones that you can send to deliver goods back and forth from if you're down in the mines up to the surface. And then here, these are sort of trackers to keep track of your
movement and your drilling. This is done through some deck building. Players are going to start with a handful of cards that aren't particularly good. You got a claw, a crotch, a grabber, your torso here. And you're going to be playing these cards on your turn. You have the hand of cards. You'll play them. You'll either be playing them to gain fuel or you can use them to spend fuel, which will give you drilling points and or movement points at the beginning of the game. Not too many of each of those. But and you also have damage cards that will be in your deck, and you'll get more damage as the game goes by, which are also worth negative three points at the end of the game. But there will be a market next to the board where you'll be able to buy much better pieces. You can see this one. This zero fuel let you move four, although you'll take a damage. This is only one to move three fuel, but there are other things. This one here refreshes one of your drones when you use it. Some will heal damage.
And so there's all sorts of cards in here that have a cost. You'll need to get money to do these costs. Players are going to be drilling. Like I said, the movement points are to move you down different spots. You'll have to open up new sections by drilling through the floor, which will also do a carb that will affect people as they go in and stay on that level. Once a floor is drilled into, players can go here. they can start drilling the sections next to it. And when you do that, you're going to get that piece which will give you points on your board, but it will drop these on the ground. Players can also drill to pick those up and place them in your board. And when you get to the surface, you can then put them in the different spots of different different colors and sell them. You can sell three of each and you can sell after that where they'll get you less money, but they're all worth points at the end of the game. Like I said, if you collect more than three, you'll start collecting gems up here. And when that crosses your tokens as you collect them here, that will trigger the end of the game.
There's a few other things in here. Every player has a token where they can refresh the card display for buying cards. Uh players also will get bonuses for being the first people to cross these different spots here with tokens. If at the end of the game the game ends and you are down in certain of these tunnels, you will lose points and then there's all sorts of various cards. But that's basically what the game is is running down, getting stuff, taking it to the surface and selling it. You can use drones to sell a few, but to refuel and buy new cards and that you need to go back to the surface and then just drilling and getting better and better stuff as you get to the bottom.
Okay. So, this is a very simple game. Even though it has a lot of pieces, I don't think it's particularly complex to teach and play,
right?
You're you're playing cards, you keep track of your your points, you do the different things, you gather stuff, and you know, blah blah blah.
It's not it's not rules complex of what can I do. It's complex in what should I do? Oh, I agree on that.
You know, it's one of those like, okay, I understand the rules and what I can do, but
but what do I do? Like, just somebody tell me my first move. I have no idea the first couple rounds, you know, of playing [snorts]
it. And it does have some weird back and forth in that regard in a sense of like, oh, I'll take this that gives me points. And the next person's like, thank you for giving me some resources, which I will now sell for points. And you're like, oh, probably shouldn't have set you up like that. And then the other part that's tricky is when you go back up to surface, you're like, "What card should I buy?
They all look interesting and good and or bad and I don't know." It's an odd deck building game for me.
At its core, I think it's I mean it the theme is [snorts] like drill, get stuff, sell that stuff, get better drillers, go down, get more stuff. But it's like it's
that's in the back of the box.
But it's interesting the fact that I mean there's a push your luck mechanic about going down. There's you have a very tight tight deck and like what you buy and everything, but I I really enjoy what it gives a lot of those decisions like as far as like do I want to go now or do I wait till next round? Wait till I do I till I can do like this huge combotastic turn, you know? I like that multi-use card system a lot.
I also like that loop of as you are buying those cards and stuff, it does have that feeling of upgrading your mech or robot, which one anyway, whatever your your fella. Um it does feel like you are upgrading him or her uh because because you because you also run such a lean deck in this game as well. There are significant opportunities to purge those cards. And so while you're getting a new arm and you're equipping that to to your robot here and putting it in your deck, you're also at some point probably purging another one. So you're running less than 10 cards most of the time.
A lot of it. you're really encouraged, trash these starting cards. And it makes it very obvious that you should do that by making them worth -2, three points. You know, I mean, a lot of deck building games kind of trip people up at first when they say like, but why should I get rid of that card? It's kind of useful. This one from the get-go says, "No, it's negative points. Get it out of there."
Yeah. In fact, I didn't mention that in the overview, but yes, you when you're in the surface, you can chuck cards for five coins a card. So, there's this constant economy of what should I do with these coins? Oh, and how cool is it that you can send your drone up to go get like to go do an action and sell stuff for you. And
yeah, I like that.
Oh, I love that. I love the whole drone mechanism of that to really encourage you to the the really crux or core of the game is staying down in the mine, right? And getting those resources in order to be able to sell them, to get the money, to get the upgrades. I mean, that's kind of the core loop here, right? And so it becomes this puzzle almost of how long can I stay down there and having those drones to have those little like blips up to the surface to extend your time down there. Oh, it's so so I love that part of the game. I think that's really juicy.
And the theme ties into the rule really well. I've never had someone ask like how does this work again? Like most parts of this seem to work just just fine.
CG has produced a game that's very popular called Lost Runes of Arnack. And one of my most tiresome arguments on the internet is people comparing Lost Runes of Arnack to June Imperium because they're both deck building games with worker placement. And that's where the
similarities
comparison and similarities die out. I don't really see them as similar, but it seems to go on forever.
Drillers is having the same sort of identity crisis with a lot of people I've talked to with the game Clank. People are like, "It's just like Clank." I love Clank. This ain't Clank. This, like you mentioned earlier, push your luck. But you really only push your luck on the final turn.
And even then, it's not
I disagree because if you're running low on fuel, you say like, well, do I move up or do I I can push it a little bit longer. You do it a few times throughout the game
and hope that I get those other cards.
Oh, I see you're saying right.
But that whole, oh, if you're in a if you're in a dungeon, if you're in the the mines at the end of this game, you can lose points. And that's that's not insignificant, but it's also not game losing like it is in Clank. You get you're down in the bottom of Clank, you've lost. No, I think the comparison works because it's the the main thing about this is deck building. So, of course, you're going to compare it to the deck builder, you know, and there is a push your luck element. But that being said, it is a totally different game.
I think the I think the only comparison point I use is when I teach this game, I say, you know, people like leftover point or negative points if you're still in the bottom. They go like Clank close enough and like and people but people get it and they'll never forget that rule now
if they played Clank. But yes.
Yes. Yeah. So, and I have two other issues with the game. And so, I'm kind of middling on this game. There's a lot of parts of it I like. The other two issues are I think that it can have some downtime lengthwise. Um, tremendous amount
where one person's doing a ton on their turn and on my turn I go, I'm moving four and then saving up to do a better turn next turn.
I do feel like it has a similar feel to Lost Ruins of Arnack. And not just to compare it to lots of different games, but I feel like it has a similar feel to that in Lost Ruins of Arnack. these differences in lost and arac that happens at the end of the round when you're like and I pass and they're like oh okay cool well I have 12 more things to do so give me five minutes you know and then you're like I suck you know like that just doesn't sometime and I love lost Zarnac um this is more a turn to turn can have that structure but I do feel like that evens out throughout the game you're going to have those turns where it's like I'm just moving but I'm also only just moving because I'm saving up for something big or I didn't quite get the combos there's usually some reason for it to be a little lackluster Um, it's not just like wah wah I got hosed. So it doesn't it feels like more of an investment than it does like just a to me a a wash of a turn specifically.
The other issue that I have with this is I'm I'm a math guy to some degree and when I get deck building games or any games like these, I usually like to look and say what's the most expensive card? What's the cheapest card? What are these cards? I for the life of me can't figure out the math in this game. When I see a card and it's selling for five, I'm like, "That card looks unbelievably amazing. This card costs 10. That five card looks better." I'm not saying that they're incorrect in design at all. Okay? I'm not foolish enough to do that. I'm just saying I can't see it. I have a hard time figuring out which cards I should buy or not. So, I'm kind of just like, I'll buy these and see. Oh, I need movement. That seems to be the best one for movement right now. And just for me that kind of was a little I I just felt like it was all over the place and when I was buying
I think I think for me
the values don't bother me as much because I think that this game did a great job of having four stacks of cards that all specialize in things. So you always have movement, you always have drilling, you always have
drone/ extra money kind of, you know, I mean, like I feel like the the way they laid those out helps me. So I can say I'm not interested in two of these three types of or two of these four types of cards at all right now. Uh and so I'm not as hung up on the on the costs and the the other things. I just kind of look for what do I need? I'm definitely lagging on movement. Let me focus on movement
or what is my strategy? It's my strategy. I'm just going to drill a bunch or I want to be able to pop up more often, you know, whatever strategy you're pursuing, right?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I enjoy the multi-use cards. I like everything about this. I love the aspect. I love the theme really. I mean, it it's great going down there. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to go past you and grab these gems, run it fresh back up there, and sell. Yeah.
Although, I will say, oddly enough, with components, this is the one game where those little gem pieces would have worked in and you gave me cubes.
That is funny. That is a good POINT. WE DON'T LIKE THOSE ARE IN EVERY GAME IN EXISTENCE.
UM,
some of the coloring on the cubes because they are that kind of translucent. The the gray and the light green or a few of the colors kind of blend
the blue and the green specifically I have a really hard time like to the point I am immediately looking to replace them.
Yeah.
Oh yeah. You know, I probably I might put a non-transucent ones almost. That might be easier.
Or just get some of those gems. You know
what? Yeah, that's a good idea. This I I do want to do a shout out. I'm I'm continually happy with the art. I think the art in this game is good. It gives that idea of old batter drillers trying to just find any salvageable part to make their thing work. The little mechs are cool. Um the the little your dashboard is great. I really like the dashboard and putting all the pieces on. It's very satisfying to build the line at the top.
Very satisfying to increase your uh your how much you can hold and also your fuel gauge. It's just it's a really well-designed dashboard. And even those two tracks where you're like keep track of your movement points and your drill points, you're like, I don't need that. Yeah, you probably do.
I was going to say that is one thing that I've heard feedback from other people that have played the game is it's like it just gets so confusing. It's like, well, I got four movement. I only used two. And it's like, well, did you put the movement on your movement track? You know, it's like that's a player issue, you know? I mean, they the game I don't think you can necessarily fault the game when it has that built in. Move it up the track and then you know if you spent it or not.
Yeah. If I have on my turn one movement and two drill, I'm not going to move up the things. But when I teach people, I I do say use the trackers because it builds a good habit when you have seven movement and 14 drills and you're paying a couple of extra fuel just to use the free bonus drill action and oh, I have this card over here that gives me a permanent plus one drill every turn. Yeah.
Like track them because the and the game knows that that's going to be tricky. So, it gave you the tools to succeed.
Yeah. Overall, I'm not down on this game. I'm just middling on it. Um, I'm a 6.5. I'm close. I I get why people like it. It's also very simple. I wouldn't play it with four. Just straight out. I think four is too long. The downtime in between turns, but I don't think it actually I don't think it benefits from four necessarily other than number of players. The interaction is still there, and there is a lot of fun going down and dragging it. That stuff's all good. So, I think I'm just the outlier. Again, I don't dislike it. That's just where I'm at. At 6.5,
I'm I have enough issues that this drags the score down a little bit for me. I think it's a tremendous design. I think it's very clean in a lot of ways. I love running that deck and being able to customize it the way that I do, but I do have a few issues with it. And one of them is, and I can't really understate it, is that unevenness of turns, right? Watching someone take a huge turn and you think, "Wow, that was a pretty long and significant turn. Good for them." And then they say, "Also, I'm moving up to the surface this turn, and now I'm going to do all of the end of round surfacing stuff." I think it feels too long, right? I think the two-player game is better. It will compensate for that. But the fact that someone can have a huge series of actions and then a huge end of turn bonus is just it's a little too long, a little too frequently for me. Uh that and someone pointed this out to me and they said, "Hey, have when you've played, Chris, have you ever seen the person who triggers the end of the game and get that 18 point bonus tile? Have you ever seen them lose?" I thought, "I haven't."
And I'm sure more plays will create more variety with that and like, you know, different ways of pursuing score. But that's a really huge point swing all at the endame trigger. 18 points to the person who fills up their board and everyone else gets one card draws compensation. It It's It sits a little odd. Have I said my score yet? No.
7.5.
There it is.
I was like, is it a four?
Really? A lot lower.
I don't know how low it is. BUT SO YOU LIKE IT OVERALL.
I like it overall, but I have these issues. And I think the thing is that that's
Sorry, 7.5. very good game with enough issues that I think ah I wish that I if it didn't have those things this would be this skyrocket score for me. Uh but overall wow I should have spent a little bit more time saying very good. I like I liked it. Sorry Shyamalan score.
I'm interested to see if I'll be the highest then. We'll see here. I am a nine on this game. I absolutely adore it. I think it scratches a very similar itch too like Loster and Zarn neck but it does enough different that it is absolutely standing standing on its own. Um, I love the opportunity to run a very lean deck in this and so you can know all your cards. You can kind of have that energy that that efficiency energy energy efficiency um, you know, on your turn and your round, you can plan ahead for them because you know your entire deck by the end of the game, you know. Um, I love that you have different strategies that you can go into. You know, am I going to have a lot of movement and always be able to get where I want? Am I going to stay down in the mine as soon as as long as I can? Am I going to bounce back up? Am I going to work on getting the gems and selling them and having high point cards? I mean, there's just so many different ways you can go about it. And I've enjoyed um exploring all of them. I absolutely agree that this is going to be better at lower player counts. To me, this is a two-player game. I will play it at three. Um but I think that is where this game is really going to shine because there can be those longer turns.
Um, but I am still invested in that turn and the the I'm I'm invested in the outcome of your turn because I know those resources might be coming back to me and it might shape what I do on my turn. So, I can't necessarily completely plan my turn ahead of time until I know what you did and what the outcome of that is. And I I really just love that player influence. I don't even know if I'd call it interaction, but it's that player influence of turns is is really really interesting. So, it's a nine for me.
All right, coming a bit lower at an eight. I can see this going to 8.5. Here's the thing I love about this game. It looks so visual. Even the end of game, you see that creeping up as as as they start to line up up there. Also, I love the different cards you can buy. And like you say, it's a lean deck. You know exactly what you're doing, what your objective is. Now, I can see the turns being long, but I think it really matters because I'll have a long turn than a short term. Long term, short term. I think it does even out like you said later. I think this is great. Um, I don't know which one I'd go to. I do compare it to Clank. I do like Clank more, but this gives me something Clank doesn't. It's very visual. It looks great. It is exactly what you want it to be. You go down, grab stuff, go up, sell it.
By the way, my favorite rule in the game is when you mine through the floor, your mech then falls to the next level.
It's such a I don't even know why that rule is there other than thematic, and I just like it.
It's satisfying, too, though. It's a way to get down to that floor, you know, like without a move. Yeah, I really like that.
Yeah. Fantastic. Well, there you go, folks. That is drillers. Get it when it's in print. It's going to be hot for a while. Anyway, I'm Tom.
I'm Camila.
I'm Joey.
I promise I liked it. I'm Chris.
Let's drill. Hey everybody, thanks for watching this video. If you like this review or whatever you just watched, wasn't it amazing? Uh, check out our channel, Dice Tower. We have all kinds of things. We review games. We do top tens. We play games live. It's all about board games, but especially the people who play them. Check out Dice Hour YouTube channel.