|
Chris Heuer
United States
Eagan
Minnesota
-
Introduction:
I playtested Legacy: Gears of Time many months ago for the first time (before it even had a name). Since then it has come a long way. The designer, Ben, recently gave me a copy to do some playtesting with using the latest rules. Those rules are what I'm going to describe here along with my thoughts. Keep in mind that this is subject to change.
The premise of Legacy: Gears of Time is to go back in time to influence the discovery/invention of various technologies. Doing this will bring the players influence (that can be used to further a player's goals) and Legacy points. The goal of the game is to have the most Legacy points at the end.
Gameplay:
Setup of Legacy: Gears of Time is very quick. There is a deck of cards that needs to be shuffled and each player is dealt seven cards. A specific number of time frames are layed out depending on the number of players. Each player gets a number of cubes of their color. Lastly, each player looks at their watch; whoever is furthest back in time goes first. This is a really clever mechanic to determine player order and get the players into the theme (even though not everybody wears a watch and cell phones are often on the same time). It is the kind of start player mechanic that will cause someone to wear a watch and set it behind when they might be playing this game at game night.
A full game of Legacy: Gears of Time consists of four rounds. In each round each player will have four opportunities to take three actions. There are four available actions that players can spend the three actions of their turn on:
 Travel back in time. Each player has a cube on the timeline. To move back in time the player moves their cube backwards as far as they desire.
 Invent a technology. This action allows the player to play a technology from their hand on to the timeframe they currently occupy. To play the technology the player must discard cards from their hand equal to the cost on the card being played. The player then gets to put a number of influence on the technology played equal to the cost. There is a limit to the number of technologies allowed on each time frame so this option isn't always available.
 Draw two cards and discard one of the two. Eventually every player will need more cards. This could be due to the desire for more options or from spending cards on technologies. I think there was a good design choice here to give the players an option rather than just drawing a card.
 Influence a technology. This action is not available in the first round of the game because players don't start with any influence. Once influence is in the hands of players this becomes very important. To control a technology a player much have the most influence on it (control can be shared if players have equal influence). Having control of technologies matters for scoring.
Notice that moving forward in time is not an option but it does happen. At the end of each round all players are pulled back to the present, any technologies that have been prempted (same technology played in an earlier time) are removed from the timeline, and scoring occurs. The scoring system initally seems complicated but after going through it once it becomes easy. Starting from the present and going back in time points are given out to the controller of technologies that have their dependencies met. For example:
Flight requires Combustion Engine (which requires Wheel and Fire) and Basic Sciences. If either of those technologies do not appear earlier in the timeline or if Combustion Engine's dependencies (e.g. Wheel and Fire) aren't met Flight will not score.
After scoring, a cube is removed from each technology of the player who controls it. Those cubes go into that player's influence poor and can be used in the next round.
Legacy: Gears of Time ends after scoring of the fourth round and whoever has the most Legacy points wins the game.
In the deck of technology cards are some special fate cards. These cards are extremely powerful and can be played as free actions. The abilities include moving forward on the timeline, putting free influence on a technology, removing a dependency from a technology, and more. These are so powerful that I have seen a player using actions to draw cards specifically to get one of these because it could help win the game. They add a bit of luck but definitely fit the theme of the game. Here is an example:
That is a brief rundown of the rules and remember that they could change in the final product.
My thoughts:
I really like the concept of time travel. There are some great movies and books about it however there is a lack of games. I own the new Back to the Future from Looney Labs and it is fun but I still find it lacking. The feeling of time travel is there but you cam only influence time, you don't stay in those time frames. There is also a ton of back and forth play because players have conflicting objective.
In Legacy: Gears of Time you are directly traveling along the timeline. The restriction of not being able to move forward makes the choices really interesting. Moving back in time is a good move to play early technologies but advanced ones need to be played closer to the present. It can be a gamble to play an advanced technology if you don't have all the prerequisites in your hand though. Also, which technologies should you spend and which should you play? An when should you draw cards? Spending some early actions drawing cards will help layout a plan for the rest of the round but early movers might take some of your opportunities away. There are a number of difficult choices to make and they will shape the rest of the game. I will point out that because of the number of choices there is some analysis paralysis at the beginning of each round but things seem to flow well after that. The influence is a nice touch to round out the game. It allows players to play not so great technologies in an effort to get influence to control better technologies. The influence adds a "take that" feeling in some of the later rounds and can create opporuntities for scoring swings.
Ben is a friend of mine and I have tried to be as brutally honest with him as I could be during playtesting. He has taken all cristicism well and I think in the end he has created an excellent game. I already Kickstarted Legacy: Gears of Time at the $50$100 level. I love the artwork in the game and am looking forward to having nice prints of it. I plan to donate my second copy of the game in the next Jack Vasel auction from The Dice Tower. If Legacy: Gears of Time sounds interesting to you I highly recommend that you Kickstart it as well. Otherwise be sure to check out the Floodgate Games booth at GenCon 2012.
One final note:
I wanted to comment on the artwork in the game. It is fantastic! I don't think I've seen another game with this style. Each technology has a goofy steampunky look to it and comes off really fresh. Just look at space flight:
-
Hunter Bennett-Daggett
United States
Dover
New Hampshire
-
Thanks for the review. I liked it. Would you mind commenting on how many people you played this game with? I primarily play 2-person games, so I'm curious how well the game works with two. Many games CAN be played with two but don't exactly thrive there.
-
Chris Heuer
United States
Eagan
Minnesota
-
Ben insists that three players is the sweet spot for the game. I have not played with three. I have played with four but mostly two players.
With two players the game is very tight. My fiance and I would end the game consistently with between 110 and 120 points each. There was only one blow out (with one player around 110 and one around 125) but the card that made that possible will not be part of the standard base game.
The influence aspect of the game gets really tense with just two players because it is difficult to estimate what your opponent will try to influence. Remeber for a card to score all of its dependencies must have influence on them. You have limited influence so stealing a tech from your opponent requires you give up other opportunities. You need to make sure you don't give up influence that needs to be placed on your dependenices unless your opponent needs them as well. I have purposely not dropped influence on a tech that had none because it would have given more points to my opponent than me in the long run.
-
Hunter Bennett-Daggett
United States
Dover
New Hampshire
-
OK, that's very helpful. Thank you.
-
Teik Chooi Oh
United Kingdom
Chorley
Lancashire
-
nice preview. Wonder if kickstarter stretch can get it to 5th player since our group usually have 5?
-
|
|
|
Posted Tue Feb 7, 2012 6:08 pm
