Emberleaf - Kickstarter Playthrough

[@willboy334]

We are in the era of anthropomorphic animals in almost every game release.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

They’re taking over! Haha

[@zoop3000]

Furry supremacy

[@VoidVerification]

...and 95% of them are expansions and versions of Everdell :D

[@ChubbyChoncc]

​@@VoidVerificationI'm glad they chose to look like Everdell. I love the game aesthetic but doesn't like the gameplay itself 🤣

[@daniellebackus819]

I love me some anthropomorphic animals!

[@JoeTheGons]

You two were very cute this video, almost as cute as the animal art. Very enjoyable teach and play- must have game for me. Thanks guys!

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Our pleasure!

[@Adonto01]

I love how much Monique loves the art in this game haha. For the record I love it too!

[@hotice88uk]

7:52 "Charge" is a weird choice of terminology for the red skills - it implies having to charge them up somehow before use, rather than there being a limited number of times the skill can be used.

[@christopherhealey8807]

Playtested this at Airecon 24 with the designer. Enjoyed it, Cosy engine builder with more area control and shorter than oversell. More approachable than Root. Some of the feel of Clank. I liked it and will back.

[@nikies1611]

As a previous backer of almost all Frank West projects (since Isle of Cats) I can say with certainty that this will be the smoothest and most fun campaign you've ever been a part of if you decide to back Emberleaf. I do agree that this game is on the pricier side BUT I also know the physical quality of the product (and gameplay) will be top notch and crafted with the utmost care. I have never been disappointed by any game the City of Games has released and I always feel like I get more than my money's worth in the end. If accessible games with complex (but easy to learn) strategies are your thing, give Emberleaf a try. I'd suggest backing it just to get the experience and also see how much time and effort Frank puts into the campaign. It's only Day 2 and we are currently all working on creating new characters for the game. It truly is a wonderful time. Even if you decide down the line the game isn't for you or is too expensive and cancel your pledge, just being able to join in the adventure is a ton of fun 😁

[@dave-the-cow]

1:27:40 after all that hard work, Monique forgot to take a trophy!

[@amethystwolf24572]

That changes a lot in the game, too. Naveen gets 5 points for that rehoming, and Monique would have scored that instead. It also ends the game earlier. Not sure it would have changed the outcome with Monique losing track of her promised favors, though. But it was something like a 9-10 point swing.

[@bensonliou]

Oh my Navine looks so serious in this gameplay hahaha 😂 I can feel both of you are more engaged! The game must be so fun :") I backed the game right away after this playthrough ❤

[@Animalcamosnake]

Great play through, the game looks really fun. At an hour and 25mins when Monique finished that clearing she forgot to get a trophy at the end of that turn right?

[@jeffhiatt1682]

very nice play through. i say that every time....though for pure enjoyment, the repeated surprise in Moniques voice during scoring made me LOL...(for real). I can see how with so many different scoring criteria to keep track of, missing a few would be pretty easy.

[@AeronwyD]

This game makes me want to break my promise to not spend more money on board games until Xmas!! It looks so adorable, fun, and surprisingly challenging.

[@jamesmorgan1967]

Do it! 😂

[@Lynxie1980]

Me too! After watching this playthrough I was so conflicted! But it is just so adorable, and it looks so fun to play. I actually watched this for a second time... This is the last boardgame, together with the march of ants. I will not buy any boardgames anymore for at least a year...

[@AeronwyD]

@@Lynxie1980 I just said no more until the end of 2024... so I just have to make it a few months. 🤣

[@briehouston3862]

I’m so upset I didn’t see this sooner. I totally missed backing this. I would love to play this. Nadine came back winning hard 😊

[@edoardom3677]

Curious game! I'm so into cute antro animals building their cities, and we got so many as of late it seems! Amazing explanation as usual, would love to also hear your thoughts about the games you play after playing them!

[@joshwalsh7297]

Pretty sure this is a paid playthough. I dont think they like to give false positive reviews so they do neutral playthroughs for kickstarters. Youll probably hear their opinions after the kickstarter is complete.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Thank you so much for your kind words and for checking out our video. Just like the above commenter mentioned, we don’t provide any opinionated language as ethically we feel it wouldn’t be right.

[@Cerekay]

This is a $40 game being sold for $67 + shipping and $150 with wooden pieces. It’s simply not complex enough, big enough, or anything enough to justify that price.

[@RawrBargle]

Yes its a game I would play 2 or 3 times then get bored of it. Looks way too simple and repetitive.

[@Mr_Casey12]

I feel the same way. I was planning on backing until I saw the price tag on it.

[@lorddal]

Remindes me of Viscount of the West kingdom, with the slide off mechnic, revealing symbols on your player board, building buildings. I just dont know if these games with so many similarities can both be in one collection?🤔

[@rcmr1990]

Hi! Maybe this was already mentioned, is this gameplay including the expansion? If so, how does the game plays WITHOUT the expansion? Thanks for the really nice video!

[@CityofGamesHQ]

Hi rcmr1990 - I can confirm this video only features the base game.

[@philomorph7]

Great video! How would you describe the level of AP in this game? I'm a little concerned about playing it with 4-5 people considering the level of analysis of the boards and other players in the back half. Does 2 hours seem a realistic play time for higher player counts?

[@andrewpaulson2715]

Great playthrough. I think that Monique may have missed getting a trophy when completing the bottom clearing? I may be wrong though.

[@terry7907]

Congratulations on your efforts. That was a long one.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Thanks!

[@jamesmorgan1967]

"Poppy is my foe!" Naveen, 2024

[@mike9139]

YOU ARE BOTH AWESOME! ❤❤❤

[@BeforeYouPlay]

😍

[@starbuster0121]

Monique???? All those broken promises 🤣🤣🤣. No politics for you 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Navine great job.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Hahaha

[@ekurisona663]

I'm a little bit confused - why do cards slide even if they don't have a slide action on them

[@Renegade_KT]

So that they can come out of your board and allow you to play them again. It's the same as playing a card with no instant bonus.

[@ekurisona663]

does anybody know if the colors on the board are going to change - the clearings look like desert or wheat instead of the color of a Forest clearing

[@KevinHoekman]

It's dirt

[@ekurisona663]

@@KevinHoekman 🤣

[@cgrice1971]

This game is crazy expensive for what you get. Hard pass

[@draheim90]

Yep, $100 US before shipping to essentially get a decent production/the full game, priced me out of being interested unfortunately. Ran into the same issue when I was considering getting Isle of Cats + Kittens & Beasts.

[@amethystwolf24572]

Is it? About $67 USD, which is pretty average for most medium-weight games these days. Not cheap, but not at all "crazy expensive". Also, there's a large board, and a ton of wooden pieces. Its also like 1.5 hours or more for 2 players, so you get a lot of playtime, too.

[@cgrice1971]

It’s 61 gbp which is currently $80 USD. And that’s just the retail edition to the US

[@draheim90]

@@amethystwolf24572 $69 for the edition without the mini-expansions/modules and extra decks (that seem important for replayability) and also without wooden resource tokens. There's a reason very few people are backing the $69 one.

[@andrewfairley1056]

Yeah, it’s very expensive. Given that there’s still VAT and shipping to pay on top of the pledge, the retail version alone would be around £71.40 to the UK. Funnily enough that’s just a little lower than their claim of an RRP of £72.50 (and you will get the bonus hero promo back which does add on about a tenner in value), but realistically this isn’t going to be £72.50 at retail. It’ll most likely initially hit retail at £45-50 online (probably £60 at a brick and mortar retailer). So even with the bonus promo pack you’d still end up paying about £10-15 more than just waiting for retail and buying the promo separately online or at a con or something. Then the KS edition, which is basically the “full” game, is coming in at around £102 delivered. And honestly I just don’t see the value - again I can see an OLGS selling the KS pledge for around the £75 mark, which is a far more realistic value. I think we are seeing a trend at the moment for KSes to be charging a lot more at pledge - used to be the case that backing the KS either got you the game cheaper, or got more game for the same cost. But now it seems you pay more for the privilege of backing only to see it in the stores cheaper than what you paid, and that’s becoming the norm rather than the exception. I think the pace of the campaign’s funding it pretty indicative of the the lack of value proposition. Over 24 hours in and only just over 1000 pledges - will most likely end somewhere around 2-3k total pledges. I bet if they knocked £20 off the cost of each pledge tier they could be at 3k+ backers already. Ah well; one to wait for it to be cheaper at retail I think!

[@cr-pol]

A 2 hour kickstarter playthrough? That is one heck of a commitment for a project that hasn't reached its timeline or its goal.

[@allison_wanders]

What do you mean it hasn't reached "it's timeline"? The game launched less than an hour ago on KS and City of Games has a great reputation running campaigns and fulfilling their games as far as I know.

[@BeforeYouPlay]

Yes we were fully committed to teaching and demonstrating the gameplay so that people can make a fully informed decision about the game.

[@Wylie288]

Frank has launched like 6/6 games. Most early. I think the level of commitment is appropriate.

[@cr-pol]

@@allison_wanders What don't you understand? A 2 hour playthrough means that they spent half-a-day (maybe more) on the video. A short video wouldn't have gotten my eye brows raised but a video like this for a project that wasn't close to closure? Wow. So I commented and I tweeted a link to the video.

[@KevinHoekman]

Def not Monique's game

[@ekurisona663]

Why is the base game $65? This looks like a game that would have been $30 5 years ago : ( What's happening to our hobby...

[@KevinHoekman]

Greed

[@maddoctorx-zj1ee]

​£47 would have been £38 five years ago. Manufacturing and labor costs have increased in China. Agree that I’m not sure I’d get £47/$65 worth of fun out of this, even if it does look interesting.

[@RawrBargle]

Great video, helped me see that this game is too boring in what you can do. Frank West is a celeb in our house but this aint it.

[@Lynxie1980]

Boring? I watched this playthrough 2 times now and I really enjoy the gameplay a lot. How the card placing and sliding works seem really fun to do. But I am more of light boardgame player who plays 99% of the time solo. I backed this and it probably is one of the more complex games I own. Well I do own Robinson crusoe... which I only tried once and it is a game I want to like, but it just is too difficult for me to enjoy it.

[@RawrBargle]

@@Lynxie1980 Yes it looks like it would get boring in a few plays. If you like simple games, then great. But it looks too light for me

[@nanettewinstonarmstrong9294]

⚪️🤍🤚🩷 Hi BYP , Thank You. This is reminding of a Swedish ( or Scandinavian ) Boardgame that I saw in an Abba music video from the 1970s. The four of the Band Members sitting a Table with this Boardgame , that had The Four Seasons Illustrated on the Board , I rememberd a Yellow Orange Leaf as one of the images. Do you ALL know what the name of the Boardgame is ? The music video might be of , The Winner Takes It ALLLL ?? Btw the song was written in a middle of Their Divorce there , between the band members too ?? Idk. I decided to Not listen to Abba anymore now though : ( 🤍🩷⚪️ Peace

[@leadhead69]

If this were $30-$40, sure, but the max pledge is over $150 (Nemesis, TI4, etc) and the cheapest is $70 (Blood Rage, Brass, etc). It's hard for me to justify that price for a game that doesn't seem to have a lot of staying power.

[@KevinHoekman]

It's niche for sure.