Crown of Emara Review - with Tom Vasel

[@shanelaporte]

Dennis Lohausen is my favotire game artist, and he's good at doing those top-down-view boards, like in the ones he did for My Village and Rajas of the Ganges.

[@thephantomhennes]

He did Rajas too? Cool. I love the look of that board.

[@joshbain8032]

I was the opposite when it came to the cover. I love that cover. Art is spot on imo.

[@catherinetaylor2014]

I’m getting this for Christmas. Really looking forward to playing it

[@Psychomaniak0208]

The manual says that the rest of the A cards return to the box. So when a A card is purchased it gets replaced with a B card from the beginning of the game

[@dddmmm21]

Interesting you haven't emphasized what I found the most interesting thing of the game... The dual scoring track. I won't call it innovative but I found that great. You build an engine that is good at one scoring and then by the end you realize you are overshooting on that track and needs to find ways to improve your other scoring track otherwise any additional point wont give you any advantage... I found that struggle very entertaining.

[@pmduguay]

This game is very gooood! I was quiet surprised by it. The replay factor seems good too!

[@cardflopper3307]

This looks great. Seems like the difficulty of decisions is in a good middle range; my kind of game!

[@chrismusix5669]

I really like the birds on the box top :)

[@Althemancayer]

Crown of Emara is an underrated game in my opinion, great design.

[@wishmeheaven]

Not just another "(un)Feldish" point salad..?

[@matternst5310]

I really like this game. Its light'ish but I still get overwhelmed with options and decisions. Feels good!

[@Sushmeit]

I can bet that a better name and cover would make this an 'Excellent'

[@scyldscefing3913]

Of all the games coming out of or around Essen, this is the one that had me most intrigued.

[@jareduxr]

Cool. Now we just have to wait 7 months for it to arrive...

[@RedEyedGhost1]

Has it been picked up by a US distributor?

[@jareduxr]

RedEyedGhost No official word yet on who but, based off of Pegasus Spiel statement to me and Coolstuff Inc’s preorder date of Q3 2019, it seems like there is a deal in the works. A very slow one.

[@jameskrolak]

Nice vest and tie, Tom!

[@SocratesRR90]

Merchants of the Dark road has some elements of this.

[@squared82]

I played this at Pax. If they would have done a more interesting theme than medieval Europe there’d be a ton more buzz about it.

[@martinlarouche4418]

Agreed. I still await a worker placement game where the theme is something else than medieval farming, medieval castle/cathedral/[insert random construction here] building or medieval village management. Sure, Stone age technically isn't "medieval"... but really it could've been as there is little difference there in the feel of the games. Russian Railroad... never felt any theme coming out of that one. Tzolkin was a bit of fresh air in that regard. But where are the modern or scifi worker placement games? Why can't i put a worker to get molecules as resources in a chemistry game? Why can't i use an action to gather uranium to build my spaceship module? Why can't i spend crystals to gather photon particles? Nope... in this totally new game, i'll gather wheat and bricks... again... to build a cottage... again. I'm at the stage where i don't even look at those games anymore. It just feels like Uwe Rosenberg has saturated that market by himself.

[@aperturius]

@@martinlarouche4418 Manhattan Project?

[@magnuspercan5357]

Martin Larouche The Gallerist and Kanban are two excellent euros with themes that are different

[@GusG_]

@@martinlarouche4418 Kanban, Trickerion, The Gallerist, Anachrony, for example.

[@Cerealkiller98ify]

Jordan Shoenberger Cytosis is a really good science worker placement!

[@RaduStanculescu]

I bought Scorpius Freighter recently and didn't get to play it yet. It also has several rondels, and (to me) a better theme. After seeing this review I'm not really interested in trying Crown of Emara at all.

[@cassandracastro2759]

I like it, gives me an Asari vibe.

[@jameswoodard4304]

I'm not a huge fan of eurogames, but the complexity level of this one is just within the weight range I am willing to go with, especially for how much game they seem to have packed into a relatively small number of mechanics. Folks are complaining about the generic-ness of the looks and theme, but I appreciate that they aren't trying to artificially force some specific theme onto an obviously themeless game the way so many euros do. If the theme doesn't really matter, then the developer shouldn't act as if it does. I get tired of seeing boardgames ostensibly based on some intriguing city, civilization, person, or event, only to descover that it's just another themeless euro cashing in on a "theme" it has no intention of actually utilizing. I'm a historian. I think theming a game based on the life of some figure, historic location, or event is a great idea, as long as the developers are actually intending to utilize the theme. Otherwise, it's just false advertising as far as I'm concerned. If you rely on a pretty box and an interesting theme to get you interested in a eurogame, you're doing it wrong. Other games? Yes, that works. Euros? No. The theme might as well be Cardboard Box Factory with the game packed in a blank brown box, and you wouldn't have any idea as to whether you should or should not be interested in it.

[@TeChNoWC7]

Why is a generic theme often considered synonymous with no theme?

[@thephantomhennes]

For how much he liked it, I thought it would have been “excellent!” Probably a 7.5, haha.

[@ski6913]

That cover (and title) almost made me skip this video entirely...so glad I watched it anyway, because it looks awesome! I fear that the unbelievably generic cover art, name, and theme are going to keep people away who might otherwise like it.

[@realyua]

Awesome game!

[@bensgoogle]

Say People Points again! Say. People. Points. Again!

[@wetwillyccma]

Sorry Tom, but your explanation of the game left me not understanding how it plays. I am confused. You ran over things so fast and not in order of how it plays. I am not interested in it. Looks pretty.

[@edmundbloxam2714]

Microphone's too loud again. Broken record, I know. Just advice.

[@SuperPilotMike]

Sounds fine to me

[@nomascontrol]

Yeah sounds perfectly fine to me

[@nathanielchambers8974]

I can hear mild distortion occasionally (maybe), but in regards to average youtube quality, I'd say it's fine enough. But yea, it's a little hot. Just always talk in a really loud voice bordering on yelling when you test levels, then make sure it isn't peaking. If you did that, you're good.