The New Era - Card Drafting Game

The New Era can be used as an expansion set for 51st state board/card game or be played as a stand alone game. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic setting known as Neuroshima.

There are five faction in the game with one being new - the hegemony. They have one 'wild' 1 distance arrow token each turn which is pretty good actually. The remaining 4 factions are - New York, Merchants' Guild, Mutants' Union and Appalachian Federation and are not changed from 51st state. The game ends when one player or more players get 33 or more victory points. Victory points can be earned in several ways - special actions on location cards and by rebuilding/reconstructing locations. Each location in play also counts as one point.

At the beginning of the game each player gets a home base card according to their faction (which is chosen randomly) which produces 3 workers and one resource (depending on the faction).

After that cards are drafted from a pile of cards that consists mainly of locations. This is called lookout phase. After that comes a Production phase in which each player receives resources and workers.

The most important part is the Actions phase in which a player can do several actions.

He can either conquer a card and get a one-time use of the icons in the red area in the next production phase or cooperate with a card and take the icons in the blue area each turn during the production phase or incorporate a card. Incorporating a card means that the player adds it to the player area and can use the center ability.

You can also interact with opponents' cards. You can either cooperate with a location or attack it. To cooperate with a card you need to produce a blue arrow token of a corresponding value. (found in upper-right corner of the location card). If this is successful you will place your marker there and each turn receive what is printed in the blue part of the card. Attacking a card is similar but you need a red arrow token. When attack is successful you will destroy the location (turning it face down) and you will receive what is in the red part of the card (the other player receives what is in the blue part).

Cards turned face down can be reconstructed (by spending a building material). When this happens that player receives 1 victory point and can place any location card from his or her hand there.

There are other actions that can be taken (like sending two workers for a single resource, sending a worker to a location so you can perform some action there, discard two cards to draw a card etc)

In the actions phase players take actions one by one. A player can either take an action or pass. When a player passes other players cannot interact with them. When all players pass they count their points. After cleanup phase a new turn can start following the same turn structure.

The game is rather unique and is quite complex. I think that the game also needs a better balance. You can easily get screwed and be unable to play a turn or two. It is true that in the last two turns you can still get many points and even win but still having locations that cost 2 or 3 and not be able to build them is very bad. When you manage to build some of them you can rebuild them and get points from that.

There are several strategies that can work and there are locations that are too good to stay on the table. When you are unable to destroy them, it can become very bad for you.

I like the mechanics of the game but sometimes the cards just can't be played and that makes me crazy. From time to time during the drafting you are unable to pick a card you want - what I mean with this, is that all possibly picks are dead cards for you. This means the game could probably be a little bit more balanced. It is an awesome game though.

Rating: 3/5