Ascendia - Seasons of Thargos - The Boardgame Preview

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components will change in the final game. You can follow the crowdfunding page here.

Coming from first time designer, Philipp Kehl, but backed by the experienced design team at SBG Editions, Ascendia - Seasons of Thargos is a gateway style family weight game that incorporates some great dice-chucking, engine-building, free-form game where players fight bad guys, forage for resources, craft powerful items, befriend powerful beasts, and ultimately battle for the throne of Ascendia.

Each round begins with a Snowfall card being revealed. This will flip one of the hexes, removing any remaining tokens and revealing its frozen side. If all the hexes are frozen, the game is over, and all players lose. But I doubt that will happen much! Then, all players take turns carrying out two actions each. The ultimate goal is to attain enough Renown points to apply for the lordship of Ascendia and win the game. Players can do this as soon as they have one Renown point, but they will be looking for more to give themselves a proper chance. But how do you get those points?

Well, the three "F's," of course: fighting, foraging, and... finding all the other ways to get points, of course. There are a few. It feels deliciously 'sandboxy' in this way.

But back to what you can do on your turn. Across the land of Ascendia and the19 hexes, each player will have a miniature to move around and explore. For this prototype, I am using standees. Each time you move, you will reveal the top encounter card. This can have various effects, from bringing an adversary to the fight, a potential companion to your side, or many other potential events.

On each hex, during setup, you will place two tokens. Underneath each will be all sorts of prizes, foes, and upgrade opportunities for your character. On your turn, for an action, you can flip one over and gain the benefit, or deal with the now suddenly appeared adversary.

When on many spaces in this land, there are opportunities to forage. You will throw dice and gain one item as shown on the hex to which you are currently present, for each die roll above the shown minimum goal. The dice are quite interesting. They run one to five, but the five has a special bonus that lets you roll another die for every five rolled. The final face is a critical fail. You start the game with re-roll tokens, which you can use at any pint. And these can be refreshed in the frozen lands if you mediate for an action.

When you come across foes, you will need to vanquish them to keep the lands of Ascendia safe, and renown points flowing your way. Simply roll the dice according to your current fighting level, then have another player roll a red die for the enemy. Some enemies get a plus one or two or even more to their rolls. Some get a minus one. It is all clearly shown on the card. Draws are no good, but a victory will gain you more renown points and potentially some hide, a very valuable resource in this land.

Each player has their own player board where they can store their items, weapons, armor, clothing, all their renown and re-roll tokens, as well as a place for any companions they befriend, and a current tally of their fighting, charm, and forage levels. Everyone starts at the base level, but as you acquire items, you will quickly rise in these stats, meaning you can add dice or numbers to every roll. In the advanced game, you will block off the final column, but when you reach it, you will gain two additional renown points. You can see that each character has its own special ability too. In the advanced game, you can vary these up or even add more if you wish. There are also personal goals in the advanced mode which are another way to gain renown points.

When you head into the village, which is in the center of the hexes, or anywhere in the advanced game, you can now buy and sell your items, craft new items, upgrade existing items, buy renown points, or attempt to end the game by meeting the game's required level to become the new Lord of Ascendia. In the base game, they recommend this is a ten-point goal. You can increase this in advanced mode. There are four different modes in this prototype copy. When you want to go for the win, simply place as many renown as you want from your pool, most probably all of them, and then roll one white dice. If this was roll, when added to your renown equals or exceeds the required goal, then you have won the game. If you miss, you can re-roll the dice for two re-roll tokens, and if you still fail or cannot do that, you lose all renown used, and the game continues. A disaster if this ever happens!

Everything in the game is very clear. The icons all make perfect sense, and most of the game, after one quick read of the rules, will become intuitive. There may be one or two symbols on the explore tokens that you need to look at, but after a game or two, it will all become clear.

The games flow incredibly quickly too. Flip a Snowfall card. Each player takes two actions, repeat. Continue for 15-20 turns and the game will tend to end. If you run out of Snowfall, all players lose. So the game does have a timer, and this would be after 26 turns or so, (I think) so it will never outstay its welcome. In the game, you will be focusing on two main things: What path to victory do you want to try and take? And how well are your opponents currently doing?

Along the way, you will encounter all sorts of monsters, events, enemies, potential companions (although you can always slay them for valuable hide), and many other adventures. You can focus on foraging and selling the items you gain, or become a strong warrior and take out all the enemies of the land. It will all get you points and you need to decide which way works best for your character and chosen strategy.

But watch out, if another player races ahead and rushes to town, the game could end in the roll of a die! You need to be on high alert at all times, and try to keep pace or stay ahead if possible of the other players' gains.

This seems like the perfect game to introduce new players to modern board games. It teaches you multiple disciplines of the modern board game industry in a very simple, accessible, and enjoyable way. I would think I could teach this to a complete novice in around ten minutes. And a first game for two players would take around 45 minutes. I have been getting through two-player games in around 20 minutes on the base version, and 25 minutes in the advanced mode. That is delightful to me!

The game is on Gamefound now, and well worth a look if you are looking for a new family-weight game, with the option to modify the setup and difficulty. It offers some interesting characters, options, and varied gameplay. And it looks pretty cool set up on the table. People will be intrigued by the look and design, and find the freedom and exploration highly entertaining.