Anachrony: Fractures of Time Rundown

[@KujoPainting]

I really like the aesthetics of this one. The artwork is beautiful throughout, from the box to the board and even the components. A lot of games seem to go all out on the box design then totally drop the ball when it comes to everything else. This is top tier.

[@arashgrgsson3841]

one of the best expansions in history of bg

[@XShrike0]

19:43 I take it you usually play two-players as I normally play four and that has always been the way the game ends.

[@Panda8ngel]

18:22 - 18:29 Question: how does it allow you to score more points? I checked the rule book and when you get paradoxes or anomalies, you dont get to move your time travel marker. You get a warp tile back but it does not say you can move your time travel marker.

[@rahdo]

you're right, i worded that poorly. basically i meant to say that the processes around warping create extra opportunities and points, while the process around blinks don't, but both glitches and anomalies feature comparable random potential dice factors. to compare the two,: 1) open a warp and get much needed supplies 2) as a side effect, dice might hamper you, and you can spend time fixing it 3) you can close warp later and get bonus points vs 1) use a blink and get much needed actions 2) as a side effect, dice might hamper you, and you can spend time fixing it so for blinks, there's no third step. the randomness factor of dice screwage is only offset by the bonus of step 1, while the random factor of dice related to warps is offset by the bonuses of steps 1 and 3. which makes the randomness easier to accept for warps than blinks, imo. otoh, you can take proactive steps to minimize the randomness of blinks (kind of a "step 0" using the comparison above), but still, you can't control the dice, and if luck goes against you, you're still missing an equivalent of that 'step 3' bonus that warps give. so for me, i prefer the 'step 3' of warps to the 'step 0' of blinks. again, i could have said this better in the video, you're right! my only excuse is that i filmed this, vampire: heritage and on mars all within a 20 hour period, so maybe i was a bit more scatterbrained than normal trying to keep all of this juggling in my brain at once :)

[@Panda8ngel]

@@rahdo thank you for the clarification! No worries, I was just wondering if I played it wrong 🤣 I love your videos. They are very helpful but my bank account doesn't like them. 🤣

[@ako_ay_bisaya]

@@rahdo the similarity is that you roll dice to potentially get penalized. However, the main difference between time travel and blink is what you get out of it. Time travel at most can gain you 2 benefits per era (resources/exosuit/workers), Blinking let's you get to perform another action and the possibility of a 3rd with the returned worker. It's a good way to balance the pros and cons for both time travel aspects of the game. The previous starts your engine up with the possibility to score points by cleaning out warp tiles and the latter let's you advance your faction at an exponential level with no scoring opportunities. With the new superproject you showed, seems like there is some way to score by focusing on the blink mechanism.

[@rahdo]

@@Panda8ngel oh you should always assume it's me who's made the mistake! :)

[@rahdo]

yup, i didn't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with the balance of how the expansion is designed. blinks are arguably more powerful than warps, so they give one *big* bonus instead of 1 small bonus + an additional potential small bonus. that's totally cool. it's really just a psychological response thing: when the dice screw me and the odds were that they shouldn't (which can always happen with dice), in the case of warps it's nice to take solace in the fact that "now i've got to clean something up later, but at least i can also do some positive stuff later as well". in the case of blinks, it's all "now i've got to clean something up later... harrumph!" :)

[@twinbrogames5607]

I like how he does not actually rate the game, but tells us in other words who is suited to play it based on the core mechanics. And calling it an amazing game still ranks it pretty high so i will go for it :)

[@darkwing_don2391]

Quick question. Does this make the main time travel mechanism worth less throughout the course of a game in terms of points? As you have fewer eras, you'll have fewer opportunities to go back in time, pay yourself back, and earn points that way.

[@rahdo]

well that's offset by the fact that you do a warp right at the beginning, before the game starts :)

[@adamgrey82]

You called this a "stand-alone expansion" at 0:07 but it looks like it requires the base game to play

[@rahdo]

yup, that's poorly worded on my part. what i meant was that the game has already had 2 expansions, but they came in the original box, and this is the first expansion that's sold separately

[@rahdo]

it's a good point though. i'm gonna try to snip that 'stand alone' out of the video, thanks for the heads up! :)

[@XShrike0]

I assume the fifth faction doesn't mean a fifth player. I am assuming no because the main board fills up as it is, a fifth player would be silly.

[@rahdo]

correct, i should have pointed that out... still 4p max. i read that the developers did work on trying to make the game 5p compliant, but in the end, they weren't happy with the results and kept it to 4. good on them for showing restraint! :)

[@XShrike0]

@@rahdo no biggy. I had this playing in the background and wasn't sure if I missed something.

[@MeepleMentor]

Since there's a new faction, does that also increase the possible player count to five?

[@rahdo]

nope, fraid not :(

[@lilkitsune]

According to the designer they tried to make adjustments but 5 players just doesn't work. (I assume that it results in either too many mech on the board or too many open spaces.)

[@Olvenskol]

So, no added complexity then :p

[@williamcallison2009]

haha - my mind breaks in the future