The 4 Squares Review: Dwellings of Eldervale

[@lukelaurie]

This is a fantastic review for Dwellings of Eldervale! I really appreciate all the compliments, especially with regards to how everything works together. Thank you!

[@stevenbonham7136]

My wife and I have really enjoyed the game. Of course, as usual, I learn the game and play it solo...and my wife always wins. My main concern was how this would play 2 player, especially during 2020. And it is great! Thank you Luke for all your hard work.

[@lukelaurie]

@@stevenbonham7136 thank you! Stories and responses like this make it more than worth it!

[@RazBaz07]

I know in this game theme doesn’t matter, but I would reaaaaaally like a re-theme of this game in a Sci-Fi setting! 😛🤗

[@lukelaurie]

@@RazBaz07 me too

[@RazBaz07]

@@lukelaurie Is it that something that Is being looked in to? Is there a chance that we might get that? Cuz I would throw my KS-money all over that! 😅😂😂😋

[@wolvz7081]

I know they have been apart of DT for years and have been in front of the camera for a good while now but Roy and Mike are fantastic additions to the team for me. The 4 of you guys flow and talk seamlessly, without all interrupting each other but with a good amount of banter and fun. Real easy pleasure to watch.

[@pacoestevez8780]

And nobody was yawning and biting their nails, right?

[@chenchen_9999]

I like that Roy and Mike both start moving their hands together when Tom said Fight Monsters. It's hilarious.

[@Jason-ss9dy]

I really wish I did not pass on this one when it was in Kickstarter. Glad it is getting a lot of positive buzz.

[@pvaughan007]

We wish you had not passed also! ;)

[@lystic9392]

I hear some whisperings of some potential 2022 happenings. So I think we should keep an eye on it.

[@Roufus55]

Delisio is such a delight. I hope he does a solo review of this as well.

[@rb4551]

I played it solo and its still one of the best solo experience I had. I might not give it a 10 as solo but it would be like a solid 9 for me but im not typically a solo player.

[@michaeldilisio557]

That’s very kind. I will indeed be reviewing the solo game soon.

[@ryanbrown9102]

@@rb4551 what games had your 9/10 solo experience ratings..?

[@ryanbrown9102]

Just when I start trusted Mike, I couldn't find his rating for City Of Kings despite everything he said about it 😕

[@rb4551]

@@ryanbrown9102 Not sure I understand the question. If you mean what other games do I love solo, id say, SuperSkill pinball 4cade, Spirit island, robinson crusoe and set a watch but in all cases I tend to prefer multiplayer over solo. Thats a me thing though.

[@JayBee10]

I’ve gotten Dwellings of Eldervale to the table twice this past week, and it’s pretty much solidified its position as my favorite game of 2020, with Forgotten Waters in a close second. There’s just so much good stuff here. Worker placement? Check. Area control? Check. Customizable cards with figurative levers to pull? Check. Rolling dice to fight monsters and each other? Check. Exploiting powers that allow you to possess the monsters and send them on rampages across the world? Check check checkity check. Kudos to Breaking Games for an incredible Kickstarter campaign and for Peter Vaughan for helping bring this production to life and for teaching me the game at Dice Tower West this past February. I have a feeling this will be in my collection for many years to come.

[@pvaughan007]

You are most welcome J.B.! I love that we connected and found a game of the year for you!

[@rb4551]

This has quickly become my new #1 game and it will surely stay in my collection for as long as I can imagine. It has everything. Its a solid 10.10 for me and I cant recommend enough. I love it to bits like rahdo would say. I want to play it over and over and am not getting sick of it. My only 2 complaints are more nitpicks than anything : sound bases were unnecessary (but I love them lol) and the gametrayz damage the lids bad and forced me to shave the bumps in the trayz and glue the lids that were starting to peel really fast. just so good....its great solo, its great at 2, its great at 3, and eventually I hope to be able to play at 4...stupid covid... totally agree with Mike and really happy to see you guys all rated it pretty highly. totally deserved! Oh last note....Luke Laurie and Peter Vaughn have been super involved with the community and respond to all inquiries like no other creators I have seen before. Totally worth extra points there too!

[@tomasxfranco]

10.10, So it goes out of scale? haha

[@ryanbrown9102]

This concept of reviews is a win. Thanks again guys...

[@pvaughan007]

It's been a long time since I watched this one. As I gear up to launch the next Luke Laurie game, Andromeda's Edge - now with Maximus Laurie, it was fun to see this 4 square review again. I am very curious to see what you all will think of the new things that we are doing. Will it feel like those story moments? Will the engine building and tracks feel more or less interesting? Did we replace the magic with even better card play? Can we meet our last scores? Also writing this as Dice Tower funds another season (and every one of you four becoming a dragon) - so happy for DT chats. Anyway, thanks for you what you all do.

[@DoctorGarro]

I’m disappointed I didn’t back the campaign :( That Legendary Version looks AWESOME. But money was tight and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. Hopefully we’ll eventually see a campaign for an expansion that let’s us get some of those goodies... Maybe? :P

[@meatballmeeple9347]

This is one of my favorite games I played 2020, the battle system is great. We battle more in Dwellings than in other confrontational area control games, and its always fun and never punishing anyone for it.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Disagree on “never punishing” but it’s certainly interactive.

[@meatballmeeple9347]

@@TheBrokenMeeple let me rephrase that, "never feels punishing" :)

[@mrdreadful5567]

But what is everyone's favorite giant monster base noise?! These are the burning questions!

[@ippoin87]

I remember when I first saw the campaign I thought "There is no way all these mechanisms work well together". But they do, and boy is it fun. I was so stoked when my pledge finally arrived and have been playing constantly and it's always an enjoyable experience. I did notice the warping of the faction tiles after a couple of uses but I reduced the pressure points on the game trayz slightly with a box cutter and it's not been a problem.

[@SideGameLLC]

Excellent Review! Mike, agreed! This is my favorite game of this year!

[@marfin4325]

Cool Trays. The component quality looks great.

[@theRabbitFly]

I was worried that it wouldn't live up to the price of entry. I couldnt help myself. Had to get the legendary edition. Only gotten it to the table 3 times so far, but it has been the best gaming experiences of the year every time.

[@pvaughan007]

@Zee - thanks for the comments about the great stew of mechanisms, cheers! To your point that there's nothing new though - different workers are is rarely done at all? retiring workers or transforming them is rare. slotting of tokens? Never been done before? Luke Laurie does innovate every game he makes. Energy Empire permuted standard workers with an energy source, and I think we pushed several things here beyond what a game has done! Thanks again for the comments all

[@pvaughan007]

This said, "At the end of the day, this is a superb game." Ok, we cool...

[@nishant_kumar]

@Peter - I think he really was playing the devil's advocate as is important in all reviews. BTW, this is by far my game of the year. I absolutely love the way you have interacted with backers and the community. The success of the game is not just in the excellent gameplay, excellent mechanisms, excellent production value, excellent scalability but also in the excellent people management and community building skills you've displayed. The way you handled the retail release timing was laudable and seeking feedback at every step is rare. Kudos and all the very best for all future endeavors. Any future game that you or Luke are involved in you have got an advocate for life. Congratulations again!

[@lukelaurie]

Some of the best innovations are those that go unnoticed. I think that’s a testament to our work here Peter. The smoothness and ease of learning make some of our innovations blend into the experience as a whole.

[@cthulwho8197]

Mike also said it wasn't innovative, would you like to discredit him as a reviewer too? 😁

[@pvaughan007]

Cthulwho? I apologize if you took my comment the wrong way. I was not trying to discredit Zee Garcia in the slightest with my comment. I happen to respect Zee Garcia greatly. I enjoy an honest look at every game and the Dice Tower guys are the best. Now Zee also said “meh” as he took on devil’s advocate so a healthy debate was needed. Obviously as the developer i agree with the 10. :) Lol cmon.

[@mattceloria9535]

Each year I buy my kids a boardgame for Christmas. The games get more fun as they get older! This year it's Dwellings of Eldervale Legendary Edition. Super excited to play this one with them. I tried a do-it-yourself fix with superglue on the cardboard boards and it helped with the bending of the cardboard, but unfortunately I defaced the boards somewhat. The faction board issue aside, this game was a JOY to unbox!

[@rb4551]

I used white pvc glue and just put some on each section that touched the plastic nubs and was starting to split, spread it with my finger, wiped my finger then pinched the cardboard hard a few seconds, made sure to wipe any glue that may have went on the cardboard faces and let it dry. It seems to have dried "harder" and more solid while removing most traces of splitting of the cardboard. I did however also shave the nubs inside each trayz using a utility knife to held diminish the wear and tear on the cardboard and the lids still fit super tight and dont come off without pulling.

[@kamb26]

My copy is coming next week! I’m so excited

[@AthexTube]

Excellent review as always!

[@jjcc8379]

Played with the dev at essen '19 night. Loved it, couldn't back it on KS unfortunately. Congrats on the review score!

[@thediceodyssey4690]

Everyone I’ve played this with and myself included have had a lot of fun playing this game so far. I’m glad to hear we’re not the only ones who feel this way about it. I also did have to file down the pressure points in the trays to keep them from damaging the boards too Mike. I was just saying to a friend the other day that I thought this could be a big contender for many game of the year lists.... could end up being my fav of the year....Great review guys.

[@dddmmm21]

How to use trayz: Dwellings of Eldervale and Eclipse 2nd Dawn How NOT to use trayz: Super Fantasy Brawl

[@AthexTube]

Completely Agree on this, games should take note on this

[@michaelglass3863]

This comment all day long. I'd also add In the Hall of the Mountain King as an example of a good Game Trayz solution. I'm playing Eclipse 2nd Dawn now and really enjoy the trayz. Super Fantasy Brawl's trayz are "ok", but it feels like it was an after thought and could have been designed so much better.

[@Aquateenmitch]

Hahaha love this comment! So freaking true!

[@michaelglass3863]

@Sean Dooley The game is great. The trayz were made generic to fit several different types of pieces, and so don't fit any of them well. Not enough room in the tray cavities to fit all tokens and/or sleeved cards. Too much height on the outside tray wall coming down, which causes a lot of wasted space on the bottom of the tray when stacking them. The game box is huge and about 70% of it is filled with air due to these trayz.

[@Aquateenmitch]

Super Fantasy Brawls serve no purpose beyond protecting the figures from each other. There was no overall design considerations whatsoever. Gametrayz inserts are supposed to be for increased functionality of the game and ease of setup/teardown. They should create less clutter in the box as well as fit together in a way that suggests someone with half a brain took considerations for the player/customer and their quality of life. The kickstarter deluxe box isn't Kallax friendly or friendly for most commonly used board game shelves. The box is 6 inches deeper than the industry standard of about 12 inches so it hangs off the shelf. Those gametrayz could've been in two or three modular inserts and solved all of these issues. They used gametrayz name as a selling point or a gimmick rather than utilizing them as a feature for increased value and practicality.

[@brotherhorus4316]

To add, this and Eclipse Second Dawn are easily my best games of the year, looking forward to playing Dune Imperium with the deluxe upgrade. Such a great year for games.

[@christianwehner5565]

Oh Zee... "All of this lore- a little bit" got love that making a bold statement and instantly retreating

[@kenrickcarlsonkeh191]

Can't wait to play this game!

[@chefkakarot]

So glad I late pledged the legendary edition, it is some of the best components of any game I own

[@Thorondgil]

So.... "The cones of Dunshire" actually exists! ... awesome 😊

[@lukelaurie]

Cones of Lukeshire my friends call it

[@Lugo428]

Damn. Didn't hear about this in Kickstarter. Guess I missed it. Oh well. Retail it is

[@shawnvaljean9260]

This was the first game that I have ever backed and i am so happy I did. It’s been so much fun so far. Warning to anyone playing for the first time. Take the scoring ratio seriously! I was over 30 points ahead of my brother on our first game before end game scoring and he still beat me. My only regret was not getting some of the add ons. If I could go back I would have gotten the printed wood tokens and the neoprene game mat.

[@chenchen_9999]

For the printed resources tokens, you can still order it from Meeple Source website.

[@pvaughan007]

Thanks for commenting Shawn! A first game backed is quite the honor! So glad you enjoy it. Stay tuned for add ons again some day!

[@carlking9088]

Brilliant, brilliant, just a brilliant game, my current favourite of the past year

[@jecabreradc]

Great Job Z playing Devils advocate. Thank you. 🎉

[@KristoVaher]

I really-really dislike the abstraction of the map and randomness. It's a game that seems great at first, but long term strategy in repeat plays becomes incredibly thin. And that's just after two plays.

[@lukelaurie]

I’m sorry Dwellings didn’t hit the right marks for you.

[@joshrumble7467]

Love the irony of those last two sentences. I've played over 10 times and still discovering new things.

[@dall1786]

Exactly. What exactly is this game about? It's a just a pile of mechanics with point salad worked into it. Sorry but if you strip away all the extra bling this is just a dry worker placement game.

[@DonGilstrap]

I've played it more than 20 times and couldn't disagree more. This game is a delight.

[@pvaughan007]

Dall1 lol. Dry worker placement. This is the answer to dry worker placement! Also, we have a water element, it’s definitely not dry at times... :p

[@petermobius]

Kind of feels like Blood Rage meets Gaia Project. Yummm

[@LeeKenshin7]

So glad I was able to late pledge my Legendary copy. I really enjoyed my two solo plays of it but wonder if it plays significantly different at multiplayer. In the solo games, it felt more like a puzzle and many times I took actions to limit the AI from placing dwellings rather than taking the actions I prefer. I'll reserve my judgement until I play multiplayer but this game is definitely is in the running for my game of the year.

[@pvaughan007]

Ahh, if only not for this year forcing us all without groups. This was designed for multi-player first, my friend. We can't wait to hear how you like it even more!

[@theearlyresetband]

I still gotta get the game out and play it 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

The game is certainly a fun hit, on my shelf, but I would disagree on the combat part. If you are getting screwed in combat constantly, you will not do well so depending o how often you ar unfortunate on the dice luck or frequency of fights it can be devastating. You are actively doing less with your workers then other players are. The variant in the book is possibly a must use for that reason. I had one game where by no fault of mine I was getting attacked constantly. Needless to say it didn’t end well. And another game I literally couldn’t lose a combat and dominated the map. Also take care when putting the boards back in the trays as they will scuff easily. I’m on the 8 front too, still great.

[@FrancoisLandryCorbin]

Luke, just put super glue on the edges of your player boards and they will become harder than nails, and you'll be able to be rough with them while putting the board back on the player trays without any damage.

[@GregDurrett]

We haven't found the combat to be fatally determinative, but our sample size of games is relatively small thus far. Interestingly, my wife (who does not like direct conflict) quite enjoys the battles in this one. Could be that she always finds a way to do something devious with her Underworld units however :) Enjoyed your review Luke - very fair as always.

[@albertk3038]

Roy any other hybrid game recomendation? I only know scythe and love it. Thanks

[@rawkyle9385]

Tom recently did a top 10 hybrid games with Jeremy Howard on his podcast. Definitely check it out!

[@peterchristensen6748]

Champions of midgard is a pretty solid one. Especially with the expansions.

[@arnold2011]

I hope I can get this game in retail. How does it work solo and with only two players?

[@michaeldilisio557]

The setup that you see in the overview is for a 2-player game. Player count determines the number of tiles available throughout the game, along with the number of elements in play. The solo game simulates a 2-player game against an AI opponent known as the “Ghosts of Eldervale”. It uses a card based system to determine the AI actions. I plan to release a solo specific review in the future.

[@dansioui9819]

I knew I could count on you Mike! Looking forward to the solo video!

[@Jootie_de_Kop]

Great review! As great as the game!

[@transduser]

Well, I’m sold

[@LeviathanW98]

I got to play a copy. It is amazing.

[@frankhaselhorst9368]

Game trays and pack-up design is fantastic. Not a fan of 'upgraded' wood components, but, that's because my Token Trilogies (Stonemaier Games) tokens are ideal! Need some good gems is all. Leaving wood tokens in the baggies.

[@HeroOfTheWeb]

Tom has that giant Cthulhu from Death May Die :D

[@brotherhorus4316]

Great game and great review, I thought Zee was a bit stingy 😀

[@Calistake047]

This is one of those ultra gorgeous, massively overproduced games that instantly have me sighing because, let's face it, the price point will be absolutely insane.

[@wm1pyro604]

surprisingly it's on pre-order right now for just ~$68USD!

[@LEGnewTube]

Great intro!

[@petergross7235]

I was lucky to get a copy of this game post KS. The game does a great job of combining fun euro elements with the best adventuring aspects from a Ameri-thrash game. I like that the factions are separated out by powers and difficulty level. End game scoring is ok, but I agree with Zee that I wish the end game scoring was more dynamic. Overall just really enjoyed the game.

[@steveg8984]

Does anyone know if the Dice Combat & Worker Placement mechanic from this game is from another game? I have never seen it before.

[@NycLogics]

This game is awesome. Played it today.

[@adwilliams1987]

I smell a Scythe replacement on somebody's Top games of all time...

[@markalexandermaron5531]

I actually get a lot of scythe vibes from this game. Now we just need to mass produce this game and make it accessible to everybody

[@kyrrilcrepeele1353]

I backed the middle, deluxe tier of the game. The kickstarter campaign was good. The game is lots of fun, the variations in the factions seem quite minor. Making every worker type different would be insane work, but maybe the ones that do have a variable power, could have been slightly more powerful or different from the standard, but at this point i nitpick. Though ive only played it 3 times so far, with national measures restricting get togethers, i do look forward to playing it again. This game also seems to have potential for 1 expansion, featuring a few extra monsters, factions and adventure cards. Not 3 expansions though. Having too much choice is also often a problem, as the entire game would feel like randomness when every play has so little overlap with the previous one, that you cannot start to learn and remember distinct cards in elements or tactics with factions. That's where the improved variable power comes in for me, as i like when in this type of game with different factions, it really feels as if every faction has 2, 3, ... very distinct (and different from others) ways to play.

[@thenerdgirl1]

Maybe I just had a bad teach (it definitely wasn't a great teach) but I didn't enjoy my play of it at all. It felt like a whole lot of fuss for nothing. And I didn't love the production. It was inconsistent in a way that bothered me. I'm learning Cryo right now and seeing a lot of the same features/mechanisms and wondering why this panel rated Eldervale so much higher than Cryo. Maybe if the cryo pods had made noise. 😏

[@MerrillWhiteKalEl]

So where is it in the top 100?

[@jackskellingtonsora]

Now I know how Leslie felt when Ben was trying to explain Cones of Dunshire.

[@ElGrandoCaymano]

First 10 out of 10 a DT reviewer has ever given a game? I recall Sam saying his top score was a 9.

[@thedicetower]

That's just Sam. I've given out at least 20 "10"s. Cosmic Encounter, Le Havre, and more!

man the problem is where can i find this game...

[@Fluffusmaximus]

Not sure if I am the first person to say this, but is Tom having trouble keeping his eyes open?

[@jackskellingtonsora]

This definitely feels like a typical Kickstarter disaster. When Mike started talking about how there was combat in this worker placement game, I laughed.

[@johnfustikisful]

Tom looks like needs some sleep after 22 min.

[@agoodrich77]

I thought I saw discreetly him hit a vape right about then...

[@martinpersson1412]

This one fell flat for me. The asymmetric powers of each faction are pretty boring and the cards seem to vary a lot in usefulness. Also sound bases has got to be the biggest gimmick I have seen in any kickstarter.

[@ormhaxan]

I'd remove the hidden scoring objectives but otherwise it's a very nice hybrid.

[@lukelaurie]

You’d remove the Prophecies? Why?

[@clonitza]

If you strip it of its fluff, it's a pretty basic game.

[@ZakiJeppe]

I might be the only person in the world who doesn't like this. Combat was so random. Like I have 6 dice and you have 1. I roll no 6's and you roll one 6. You win. Such a bad combat mechanism.

[@angelsantizo9812]

The difference between winning conflicts or loosing them is game winning. So it definitly is punishing :/ and all is based on die rolls so its kinda arbitrary Mike :/

[@shataraterevar]

I really don't like that the review doesn't show a standard edition. It looks WAY worse, the pictures I saw of the standard edition make the game look bland at most... and also it's actually hard to find how the standard edition looks, nobody advertises it, the game official internet pages omits it both on the developer site and kickstarter site, which is deceiving.

[@pvaughan007]

The standard edition - get this - includes GAMETRAYZ. 8 sets of player pieces (27 per color) Also, 16 factions! really, all of this great game. The difference is that you have some cardboard placeholders where the minis monster trays would be, and you don't have the deluxe coins/wood bits. You still have all the monsters in the deluxe set. You get quite the game of the year. I think it may be the first standard edition to do game trayz, let alone 13 of them.

[@Satans_Delight]

Had to be the 666th like

[@tralkidfury1203]

While i do agree that the production value is through the roof, I am very disappointed with the actual game. It has all the looks and show of a big epic game and i really want to like it but when you start playing there is just not enough game there. It takes less then an hour (3 players) and you only really have 2 things to do, buying cards or building dwellings. Everything else is just seasoning. With a game looking like this i really expected more depth and content....

[@JumpOnYourHead]

Please stop showing deluxe, deluxe versions of games in your reviews. What is the point if people can't get those versions from retail? I look at your reviews to see if I should buy a game, but seeing a pimped version of the game is misleading.

[@JumpOnYourHead]

Also, just mentioning in the video that this is a deluxe version with add-ons is not enough since it can easily be missed. Perhaps you should have label at the bottom saying this is not a retail version.

[@JumpOnYourHead]

And thirdly (since I am on a roll here): If the game is a kickstarter (or similar), I really think you need to declare if you backed it or not, since "backer bias" IS a real thing and we as consumers need to know, similar to the "paid preview" label. I do not doubt your intention to be objective and fair, but we are all only humans. I think it is only fair that you would be up front with these things.

[@Dan_Lynch]

The most overpriced mediocre game I have played in a long time. It ended in a points fizzle and I can't remember anything interesting happening in the 2.5 hour playtime. Also, the toilet flush noises are a great example of how NOT good the components are.

[@missiemel01]

In my opinion the game looks ugly. Especially the colours, the minis and the cheap plastic trays . The Game just sounds meeh. Glad I passed on this.