Unearth, by Brotherwise Games, is a new game of set collection that blends a multitude of tried-and-true board game mechanics into a final product that is both easy to understand and easy to play. In the story, players take on the role of Delver tribes hoping to unearth treasured ruins of a lost civilization. The game combines funny shaped dice, activatable card powers, and tile arrangement to give players multiple avenues for achieving victory. I really enjoyed playing the game, and felt like it does a great job utilizing each of these game mechanics. The artwork is beautifully done by artist Jesse Riggle. Gameplay flows easily. Most importantly, it was a whole mess of fun. I personally recommend adding it to your gaming table.
Rule Basics
In Unearth, the basic objectives that players compete for are Ruins cards -- Tarot sized cards of 5 specific colors that, at the end of the game, players count up to determine their victory points. Each turn, players pick a Ruins card from the center of the table to vie for, and select one of their dice to roll. The die each represent one of your tribe's Delvers -- you have a 4-sided die, three 6-sided die, and an 8-sided die. You roll the selected die and place it on the Ruins card you selected, hoping that you have the highest die roll when the Ruins card is 'Claimed'.
Ruins cards are 'Claimed' using a mechanic similar to Smash Up's 'score a base' mechanic. Each Ruins card has a number printed on it -- once the total sum of the die rolls (from all players) sitting on a Ruins card meets or exceeds the number, the Ruins card is 'Claimed'. The player with the highest single die face value showing gets the Ruins card, and adds it to their scoring collection. There is a tie breaking process of course, but the fun of the game comes from messing with each other's dice after they've rolled them. Activatable card powers let you do flow-disrupting activities like rolling two dice on a turn, or forcing other players to re-roll their dice. You usually only get a few of these card powers, so they're pretty significant when they're played.
The game has built into it a couple of consolation concepts for when players compete for Ruins cards but don't win them. Any player that rolled a die for a Ruins card but didn't win it gets one of the activatable power cards as a consolation, giving them an advantage they can use at a later time. What's more, if you simply roll poorly and get values of 3 or less on your die, you get to take little Stone tiles that you can assemble to make 'Wonders'. Some of these Wonders are unique and grant other die manipulation powers, others are just worth points at the end of the game. Either way, players who win Ruins cards and players who don't are kept at a competitive level throughout the game.
At the end of the game, players count up their Ruins, resolve how many of each color they have, how many full color sets, how many Wonders, etc, and the player with the highest point total wins. The game seems to favor collecting all of one color Ruins, but astute players can easily track what color each player is after and sabotage their interests. Thus the game resolves by a combo of Ruins colors and collected Wonders, making for some dynamic game play each time you unshelf the box.
Highlights
I had a great time playing this game -- I feel like Brotherwise Games really hit a homerun here. I felt like rolling dice to try to score the Ruins cards played better than how Smash Up does the same mechanic (where you instead select powerful card combinations to compete for base cards). It felt like one of the rare cases where using randomization to simplify the game allows players to focus on the fun instead of on pure competitiveness.
The consolation mechanisms in the game allowed for each player to work towards their own strategy, which made the game more fun and personal. Taking Stone tiles and completing Wonders gave players subtle powers that only they could utilize. Between these Wonders and the activatable power cards, the basic dice rolling system became much more dynamic as the game progressed.
The only real criticism I have for the game is the way the rules are presented to the uninitiated. There are a lot of different types of game mechanics at work here, so it takes a lot of text to lay it all out and explain how they fit together. They all flow really well together once you're actually playing, but it takes digesting the complete rulebook before you understand that. My concern is that most players lack the tenacity to stick it out and make it through the whole rulebook prior to play.
Rating: 5/5 - Play It Today!
Unearth gets a big enthusiastic thumbs up from me. I think everyone will find something to like in it. It channels a successful balance of mechanics-based competition and fun randomness. You get to play with polyhedral dice, cards, and tiles all in the same game. The set collection system is fun and easy to comprehend. Do yourself the favor of checking out a playthrough video on YouTube (this one is from Brotherwise Games directly, and features Geek and Sundry's Ivan Van Norman! @Hydra_Lord) to get a leg up on understanding how the mechanics blend. But otherwise, play this game today!
Find Unearth in our store today for $23.99.
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Until next time -- have more fun, would ya? It's good for you!
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