Boardgame Session; 8March2020

This will be a short entry because we only played the one game before I started to feel a migraine coming on and the session was abandoned.

Anyway, we tried Val’s new purchase, ‘Ecos – First Continent’. In this game players jointly construct and populate a ‘new’ landmass, scoring points as they do so. One player draws resource tiles from a bag, which all players then use to distribute power cubes to complete cards previously laid in front of them. Once completed, the cards trigger a set of actions; adding terrain tiles, adding new animals, adding terrain (mountains and trees) to existing tiles, moving existing animals, gaining victory points depending on circumstances etc. Once used, the cards age (rotate) at differing rates. An interesting touch is the ability to use a resource to rotate a ubiquitous player tile and eventually trigger a ‘bonus’ effect; gaining a power cube or new card, or laying another card. This means a player can always perform an action of some sort. The game proceeds until a player reaches 80 points, triggering the final round of play.

The component quality is good; the tiles are sturdy, the animal chits and player cards are fine. The terrain markers stand out, and the resource tiles are excellent. Game play is quick and smooth. It soon becomes clear that what you are really doing is creating an ‘engine’ where the effects of one card can trigger a sequence of beneficial consequences. The problem is the potential to set other players up, because the ‘landmass’ (and animals) are a joint project and available to all. Therefore you need to pay attention to the cards others have in front of them, and the options they are striving to complete e.g. you may have created a nice herd of antelope and scored some points, only to allow a subsequent player to activate a cheetah which eats them all!

I would have liked to play another game because I’m sure there are hidden depths to this game. The game mechanisms are not difficult but require thought, and are sufficiently different to those used in other games to make ‘Ecos’ stand out. I can see this game being a hit in 2020.