Earth Board Game Review - Tableau builder of the year?

[@maxtardif4959]

Wow what a nice review, so glad you guys enjoyed it that much, this is exactly the reason I designed this game. A fast, ultra strategic, no down time, lots of option, low limitation and replayable game with a simple set of rules, so I'm super glad you think alike that's awesome :)! I hope you'll still like it after more plays, it tends to get better the more you know some cards and the diverse strategies :) Next time if you play it again you may like the advance variant where each player are given 2 Island, Climate and Ecosystem cards (so 4 options total for each category) at the start of the game to start building your strategy right from the get go. Anyhow, thanks for this great review again you're making my day with it :)

[@AntLabGames]

Thank you for putting together such a great game! There are so few new games that make it in our top 10% that it’s refreshing to find one. Regarding the advanced version, I don’t think my brain can handle all of those goals just yet. Maybe after a few more plays!

[@maxtardif4959]

@@AntLabGames haha yeah it takes a couple of games to get used to it indeed! So glad that Earth made it in your top 10%, thanks for the great review again :)

[@Mortis2405]

Possible expansion for European Flora/Fauna? 🐄🐖🐑🐝🐸🦆🙏

[@phunkysai]

Now Kickstart a sequel called "Earth 2" with all scifi elements. 😛

[@maxtardif4959]

@@Mortis2405 There are already a lot of European plants and places in the game, so hey, I guess it's already included haha! There are more cards in Earth than in most games, tons of stuff already in the box :)

[@maxi.the.1st343]

My first backed up game - I am happy to get and all the great reviews - this included to the top!

[@josephpilkus1127]

Such a stunningly beautiful game! I remember talking to Conor at PAX Unplugged last year and he was very excited about publishing this title. I see that the designer is out here, as well. Beautiful job, Maxime! You should be exceptionally proud of your accomplishment! As always, Anthony & Frances, this is wonderfully produced review...Great job!

[@maxtardif4959]

Thanks for the great comment! That's awesome hope you will like the game :)

[@jasonv8516]

Hello, thank you for doing the review on Earth, really excited to get it now. I really enjoy your channel and the excellence reviews, you two are awesome.

[@AntLabGames]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed this format as we will be doing many more of these.

[@ianw0ng]

great to hear. thank u for the review. will look for it here.

[@vwilliams9365]

Thank you for the thorough coverage and review. I really enjoyed it. This game also got a Dice Tower seal with excellence in their review. I am very much looking forward to playing this one and have decided to pre-order it.

[@AntLabGames]

Awesome! Thanks!

[@tonybowers9490]

Thanks for sharing. I'm going to pre-order it. The Dice Tower likes Earth a lot as well. Their and your recommendation makes it an obvious Buy for me.

[@AntLabGames]

Awesome! You will love it!

[@scwargo]

Definitely on my wish list. Great review as usual!

[@zhivik]

I believe only reviewers get to play this game at the moment, as it is going to be released in retail on 22 April, which also happens to be Earth Day. Fulfilment of Kickstarter orders is about to start any time now, and most backers (like myself) will get the game by the end of March, and some in April. Thus, as much as I would love to comment, I don't have the game yet, and people not involved in the board game industry likely don't have access to it, either. Still, I am happy that you loved the game, which makes me glad I decided to back the project. It looks like hitting exactly the right spot in terms of complexity, play time and player satisfaction.

[@donandjillbarrett7244]

Great video! I backed this one as well. We also just watched the Whakaari special. It's interesting to see it show up in a game. Terrifying stuff!

[@AntLabGames]

Yeah that special was so sad.

[@edifanobbonafide]

Thank you for a mouth-watering review. Can't wait to receive my copy and play it with my wife.

[@carlagiannioudis621]

Love your playthroughs and reviews. I absolutely love the puzzle in Earth, Francis we have the same taste in games!

[@AntLabGames]

It’s a fantastic puzzle, thank you for watching!!

[@mrbastos]

super excited for this one. Looks great.

[@AntLabGames]

It is a great game!

[@jamesmorgan1967]

Beautifully produced video and the game looks great. I'm going to look into getting it.

[@AntLabGames]

Thank you!

[@ukaszc2620]

I love you guys, regards from Poland!

[@S.Kapriniotis]

If this game did not go to retail I would be really pissed! Now it is my next game to buy! Cheers for the lovely video as usual!

[@AntLabGames]

Thank you!

[@NazgulGamer1]

I'm excited to play this

[@ChromaTick360]

This game is fantastic and already a front runner for my game of the year for 2023. Can't wait to get my physical copy. Completely agree with Frances on the Ark Nova comparison. Ark Nova is a fine game but I feel no need to own it. Also, even though they both use photography on the cards, Earth's cards are beautiful and Ark Nova...not so much. :) I think you really nailed it though with your thoughts. It plays quick, there is never a slow moment, or a dud turn. You are constantly getting endorphin hits from the beginning to the end.

[@maxtardif4959]

wow thanks for this nice comment, it's an honour that Earth is compared to such great games! Can't wait for you to get your physical copy, let me know what you think when you'll have played it couple of times :)

[@ChromaTick360]

@@maxtardif4959 Thanks for making such a great game. I've already played it 17 times on TTS. It's going to be so much better to have the physical copy.

[@maxtardif4959]

@@ChromaTick360 yeah especially TTS, the manipulations on the platform are quite hazardous compared to real life! It's good to try it out, but I believe it's much better live :)

[@Mortis2405]

Oo I like this one. My gf will do too. Huge thanks for the review 👍

[@aorakis5795]

Haha, i've got like 60 games, and already felt sick having too much of them ! :D Earth looks nice, just those meeple towers that are really... well... bad ! i'm pretty sure those are going to fall during our plays ! Would Dice to count how high it is would do it ? Cheers from belgium

[@amysardelli5921]

I'm so excited for this. How does it compare to wingspan?

[@AntLabGames]

This will replace Wingspan for us.

[@maxtardif4959]

@@AntLabGames wow this is awesome, Wingspan is such a good game, really glad you like Earth that much :)

[@phunkysai]

Were there any issues with knocking the growths over? It looks like something I’d accidentally knock over and then not know where they were in my tableau! 😂

[@AntLabGames]

Haha good point! This was not an issue - many of the flora are only two or three high (even just one) and you are so intimately aware of your board through the game, if they get scattered it wouldn’t be a big deal. My giant sequoia was maybe an exception 😂 Each card shows you how tall they can be max as well, which helps if this were to be an issue. They just aren’t tall enough to knock over and the trunks are designed in a way that they stack well (as opposed to stacking cubes, which would be a disaster).

[@mondogiochidatavolo8775]

do you measure sleeves?

[@sn3shk0]

❤️

[@johnrudolph9002]

From the sounds of the reviews it doesn't sound like this is a game for the casual player. Seems like it is designed for the hard core gamer.

[@consciencelibre4223]

Earth is better than ark nova for the solo puzzle challenge. Ark nova is better for two players does not have an automa in official version it was created in fan made. I would have preferred a real official automa included in the box of the game of Ark Nova I do not want to complicate me to print PNP for the variant solo against the automa arno. I prefer everything ready in the box.

[@AntLabGames]

Agreed, I never use fan made add ons or variants. Not that they are bad, it’s just a personal thing.

[@ilqrd.6608]

Looks very loose. I don’t like super tight games but the number of VPs this game throws your way is inflationary. The ways throw which you are getting VPs also don’t feel like they demand much from the player. Looks like it’s absolutely impossible to have a low score. I especially dislike the whole „put a card into your pile and each card is a VP“. That is almost insultingly simple and doesn’t feel rewarding at all.

[@maxtardif4959]

well, depends against whom you play I guess. I've played 3 games today in 1v1 against a strong player, I've lost with 135, 165 and 170 vp all three of those with many incomplete things I couldn't achieve because the other player kept the pressure on. You can specialize in a specific strategy, but it is not true that it's easy to achieve everything every game. Having an efficient engine in a specific category is actually quite rewarding and demand good planing. It's just that in Earth, instead of giving the active player +1 and the others 0 and -1, the game gives +3 and the others +2 and +1. The decisions are as impactful on the difference on end game score, but feel fun to all the players all game long instead of dragging some players down. Some games you might be able to compost a lot, but many games you can end up with 0 in the compost pile and struggle to put some cards there, it really depends on how you set up your engine and the decisions you took.

[@ilqrd.6608]

@@maxtardif4959 Interesting. Still, it looks like it would be impossible to score below 100 in this game. Except for maybe your very first game. Would have loved for things to be a bit tighter and VP inflation to be a bit curbed (e.g. only 1 VP per three cards composted). The game just showers you with points after every action it seems

[@maxtardif4959]

@@ilqrd.6608 It is not common to score under 100 vp indeed. The thing was, I wanted many different ways to victory in the game (red, blue, yellow, terrains, compost, growth, sprouts, vp on cards, ecosystem, fauna, cards in hand, soils, mushroom, habitats etc.) that can all be viable. In order to do so, I needed to put minimal increments in each of the categories. This meant cards that give 1 sprout, 1 growth, 1 compost, 1 soil or 1 card drawn. This meant that stronger cards needed to give more, which ends up giving a lot of benefits to the players. I thought of giving players only like 1 vp per 3 compost, but in the end it just change the number and makes final score calculation even harder to do then score 1 for each. To make the final scores easier to count, I would've had to take out some ways to victory, which was a trade off I thought was bad for the game. So one of the main problem resulting from this thought process is a final scores that gives a lot of points, but the benefits this brings to the game is far greater than its hassle. It's a necessary feature for the game to be that fast, deep while keeping all the strategic possibilities.

[@jonathanleach383]

have you guys played frostpunk yet???

[@AntLabGames]

Only on the PC

[@jonathanleach383]

@@AntLabGames any plans to do a review of that one anytime soon? I feel like it be right up your alley