EVE: Conquests

[whitefire]

Well..... this is a mixed review but with a broadly positive message about this game. There are certainly good things, bad things and simply annoying things....

The game is for 2 - 4 players.

A short game will last around 2 hours once you know the rules.

Firstly - components. Good quality card stock used for counters, very nice unit counters (almost like good poker chips), great board and very cool card artwork. The rule book is put together using cheap paper, and is not particularly well bound  - and with the amount of thumbing it is going to need to understand the rules this is not a wise move. There is good continuity through the use of symbols for each of the 4 empires which clearly indicate the relevant turn tokens (called "seals" for some inexplicable reason).

Secondly - the rules. Once you know the rules, they are quite straight forward. THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH THE RULES IS THAT THE RULE BOOK IS NOT VERY WELL LAID OUT AND DOES NOT ENABLE YOU TO WORK THINGS OUT BEFORE TRYING TO PLAY. A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE INDEED. That said, once you have got a grasp of the various mechanics of the game, it quickly becomes very straight forward. The key mechanics are the Time Wheel (calendar), Schedules (you get 3 different types of turn - logistics, production and development), the Star Map (showing where each region is and how they interconnect) and Project Cards.

Game play - having only played two full games, and one partial game, I have started to think this is actually a very good game. With four players, there are certainly some hidden depths to this game. Obviously there is an element of luck, as there would be when there are cards and dice involved in a game, but there is also a fair bit of strategy. So far I have only played some relatively short games - aiming for up to 15 victory points as the victory critera - which cut short some of the longer strategy gamers (being kind to one or two!). When some of the more advanced orharder victory criteria are used the game will have some very nteresting dynamics indeed.

You start off by building your initial empire position. The game has up to four empires (Caldari, Gellente, Amarr and Mimitar) which are drawn from the online version of the game apparently (I don't know anything about that version), and there are variant rules for 2 and 3 player versions. You get to place your HQ and up to 8 units on different star systems (of which there are 63). some stars are connected with two or three others, some are connected to 6 or 7 others. You need to build a linked empire, or you can plant agents in someone else's territory.  Once that is done, you then build outposts (either a Logistics base, Production facility or Development base) - a simple affair of having occupied (or planted an agent on) each connected star system adjacent to the one on which the base is built. These outposts then generate you resources of a particular type.

You then use the relevant resources to "schedule" when you wish to deliver on each of the three turn typs (for example if you invest one Logistics resource in your Logistics schedule then you will be able to schedule your next Logistics turn in 5 months time rather than 6 months (I can't remember the figure off the top of my head - just an approximation). Getting the hang of scheduling and managing the order and flow of turns is critical to success in the game.

Combat - when it comes, and it will relatively quickly, - is a simple affair with a 3 dice mechanic (tactical advantage dice, weapons fire and shields) and has satisfyingly conclusive results in a chess like way.

Overall - and very much still from a novices point of view - EVE : Conquests deserves a reasonable run and looks like providing a lot of gaming gooodness for some time to come.

[EvilGinger]

Having taken part in on the latest of the games Whitefire describes I was rather tempted to post a review when I got back from playing it at the shop today. However I decided it would be polite to let him have the first post on the subject.

I have been itching to play EVE since I unpacked it and this itch became more acute when I got to have a  look at the demo copy, its an empire building game in space and its by white wolf and I am a considerable fan of both. Though some study of the rules put me off since they are not particularly self explanatory and the game became on of those I would play with some one who had already digested them. 

The game is simple to play once you understand the rules and there implications it is however a game which it is very easy to screw yourself over by your choice of start position and in the short game we played it was not always possible to catch up though I managed it to a greater extent than some. It also helped if you had played before as it was easy to work out quite what you had done wrong so as not to do it again next game.

Turns are done quickly and once you get used to looking at the symbols on the markers (seals) on the calender rather than there colour, all logistics are orange all production brown and development blue , and recognise the way turn order is determined in each month relatively easy to work out what is going on. Scheduling is critical and gets more complicated as the game proceeds since the turn types must often fall in a particular order to achieve your aim. for example to invade you have to produce units (Production) move them to a point from which they can attack (logistics) and then attack (a second Logistics turn) It is also VITAL that some one keeps track of the movement of the calender pointer as lose track of this and the game mechanic breaks down.  Combat is well done and whilst the outcome favours the more numerous it is by No means imposable for the numerically weaker side to win. I also like the way project cards work even if I did not get the chance to use them this time.

There was in the game I played at least an strong element of luck which favoured the eventual winner as the objective worlds kept turning up in his empire or adjacent to it. However as this is determined by the turn of a card in a longer game I feel this will even out. 

I lost getting no victory points in the end  but like Agricola, I KNOW WHAT I DID WRONG & I WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME AGAIN.



 ginger

[EvilGinger]

Having played the game twice more since writing my last comment I find that it grows on me the basics are easy to master but like all good games it has depth beyond that, in EVE's case from several directions firstly there is an element of luck of the draw of the card on the political landscape to contend with but that can be dealt with principally by making sure your empire is extensive enough that you have your fair share of scoring worlds turn up with in it. Then there is the element of luck in the dice rolls for combat, but combat need not be a major element of the game and if it is proper use of numbers agents and appropriate project cards can alleviate this.

the games major depth is in the project cards which have a major influence on the action of the game. So far I have not seen all of them but they can limit an opponents ability to expand aid you in combat, boost your victory point tally for claiming the right pair of objective worlds in a number of ways amongst other things not to mention be discarded on a one for one basis to give you more logistics actions. Many of these ability's require allocation of resources to maintain them making some hard decisions on allocation and raise the possibility of losing them should an attack cripple your ability to support them.

If the game has a weakness then its not spacey enough for such a blatantly space themed game.

In closing this is defiantly one to try at raiders and I shall be there hogging the shop demo copy happy to initiate you into the wonders of the game

 Ginger