“Anachrony”
designed by David Turczi with Viktor Peter & Richard Amann, published by Mindclash Games
The Quick Summary: Anachrony puts you in the role of a faction that tries to control its planet. By placing workers on the appropriate tasks you will build your faction’s capital to gain victory points. Anachrony brings a nice twist to worker placement : time travel. You can, for free, gain resources you need right now from your future self. Later in the game, you will have to build a time machine, travel to the past and give your past self the resources you requested earlier in the game. If you don’t, you will create disturbances in the time continuum that will affect your final score. Being able to time travel, your future self also informed you that a meteorite will hit the planet so you need to plan accordingly to evacuate the world council to gain precious points. So many things to do, so little time…
The Awesome:
- Very strategic. You need to plan ahead to achieve your victory points.
- Time travel as a game mechanic. What more can be said?
The Good:
- Replayability is very high because many paths to victory exist.
- Can be played solo against a Chronobot. The challenge is pretty good and unpredictable.
- Miniature mechs can be bought instead of the cardboard ones in the basic game. Doesn’t change the game, but they are great looking!
- End game can happen at different moments. You don’t exactly know on which turn it will be over.
- Resources are not easy to gather. You will manage your faction carefully and it makes the game very interesting.
The Bad:
- Many tokens and parts. Takes a lot of real estate on the table.
- Setup and take down can be long.
The Ugly:
- Complexity level can be scary to many players…or fun, depending on where you stand.
Keep It or Leave It? Definitely keep it. I would keep this game even if my collection was made of only 10 games. If you enjoy worker placement and are ready to handle more advanced rules, this is a must.
Review by Sébastien
