Ruined
We were so happy
Aeon’s End. War Eternal. Legacy. New Age. Outcasts. Over 170 plays. One of them made it to Game of the Year. It’s been a long journey – but it’s come to a grinding halt. I’m 10 plays into Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold, and I can’t be bothered anymore. I’m not going to finish this campaign. Sod them.
Can’t disclose any details about my frustration though, because, legacy you know, surprise – spoilers! It’s beyond me how I could spoil this game any further, but I don't want to unleash the fury of the internet on our website. Let's check what was known when the game was still on Kickstarter, to see what's within limits.
36 new market cards: Most of these were definitely fun. Which is no small feat, after so many boxes.
21 mages: Some of these were good fun to play as well. But with so many to choose from, you don't really get attached to a character during the campaign. You're probably going to switch them out. I mean, it's expensive to buy a reset pack so you'll want to discover as much of what's inside the box during your play. At least I was curious for what new options I'd get. But if you don't level up your mage, if you don't really feel it's "your" character, but just a throwaway asset for one-time use, a big plus of campaign games is lost.
13 nemeses: Yeah, not the best part of the game perhaps, but certainly alright. I gave up after a real frustrating one, but I won over half my plays, so the overall difficulty was fine. I mean, I really didn't want to replay this fight, but that was mainly because I had reached an existential crisis: what for?
36 page narrative booklets: You need to love choose your own adventure type games here. In between fights, you read a few not-too-compelling paragraphs, then get to a choice with no information to base your decision on. It's probably more to have a branching narrative for replayability than for anything else - either/or/and I suck as a role player.
7 sticker pages: Eh, yes. The narrative booklets and the sticker pages were a huge obstacle in enjoying Legacy of Graveholt. Without spoiling too much: the effect most stickers have will be short-termed because of how the campaign is structured. And because all administration in between games plus set up takes at least as long as a fight, this part should be a fulfilling experience on its own. But as the campaign progressed, I got less and less interested in reading the narrative, flipping back and forward, writing down decisions, opening envelopes, adding cards, picking upgrades to sticker, and sorting my stuff back in the box.
Because: what for? To do another fight, then go through all the upkeep again? Without any emotional involvement? - Yes, yes, frustration and despair are emotions, I know. Let's say they're not what I look for in a board game.
What started as the indisputably best deck building game ever, went downhill so far I don't think it can ever be excavated. What an utter waste of time. The incredible story has come to an end folks, Aeon’s End’s in ruins.
Wait. They actually made a joke at my expense! (And believe me, this was an expensive game). They had the nerve to tell me when I backed the turd.
Ha ha ha. It's so funny funny what you do, honey honey.
Not.
He made us proud He made us rich And how were we to know He's counterfeit
Now everything's ruined everything's ruined
Faith no More - Everything's Ruined
The game; it's ruined.
I have yet to start playing my copy. I also own everything except AE Legacy. I love the core gameplay, ie bash against the boss, and avoid all the rest around it. Even the expedition system is too much for me. I hope Legacy of Gravehold gives me some nice cards (market, nemesis and mages). There is a new KS (Aeon's End: Past and Future) and I might, for the first time, pass on it.
Yeah I agree. I own every AE content (except the first base game [but I own this in a digital version]) and yes the upkeep for Legacy of Gravehold was exhausting. To exhausting for my liking
Not a real Legacy Game fan (But LoG at least counts only as a semi Legacy game due to 80% of the content being compatible with the rest),
so I just wrote down the fire tokens and if someone got severed.
The good Part was: I started with the Azer side so I got one fight that was different than the Gravehold book. The rest has been just the usual read back and forth through the book to find the next encounter. Fight and get something new.
I don't really understand what a Legacy game is, but I'm sorry it sucked for ya in the end, JW. When I searched for Aeon's End on BGG there were a lot of Expansions. It seems it would cost a small fortune to get 'em all. 🤑
I'm not fond of Legacy in general, or AE Legacy in particular. So instead I use the Legacy material to provide more variation for my regular games.