Tableau builders have never really buttered my parsnips but I make a point of watching your reviews because I am confident that the opinions expressed, good or bad, will be free of bias or favor and may reveal points I had not even considered.
I for one appreciate the "what we don't like" portion of your videos. Really helpful when a game is getting a lot of hype. Can't wait for your take on Forrest Shuffle.
This review feels like one of your old school reviews, which are my favorite. Straight forward review, not added swearing and innuendo for a cheap laugh. Your reviews like this are the ones that I hold up as the best, not just on your channel, but on UA-cam. It's obviously preference, but this type of your review is my favorite. Keep up the great work.
Well I did spot a moment where he really fought to say nothing. That smile when he was talking about putting that purple bit on top of your... Well, if that wasn't Innuendo.... But ok, not for a cheap laugh, but I laughed! =)
@@1Dreamking I said, "added innuendo." Everyone I've played Earth with has made a phallus reference because of the components. I think the way it was done in the video was great, acknowledge it, make the joke, and move on.
You can always house rule a 5 card river of cards to choose from. We did this with Guilds of London (very under-rated game) where you can choose from the river first and then the deck. In GoL b'c there are different ways to draw cards, we limited access to the river to only your end-of-turn draws. I don't know how it would work for Earth, having not played it. And yes, you should try GoL, great game once you get past the dizzy array of iconography. If you like Puerto Rico style games, you should find a copy of Exodus Fleet. Graphic design is, well, bad. But the game is, as you Limeys say, "Crackin'"
The game is no breakthrough in modern boardgaming but I like the fulfilling gameplay quite a bit and like to play a quick round in every now and than. The game got trashed in multiple German Gaming channels for no solid reason in my opinion.
@@revimfadli4666 Most of the time randomness, no real player interaction, lack of strategic decisions due to the point salary feeling. There might even be a little truth in all of that but to me it is still a fun and satisfying package.
Once you play the game more you realize the best strategy is not to dig for anything , you just use the best of what your given and work around it . Same thing in Ark Nova, you can't spend your resources looking for a good card you just use the ok one and make it work. Although if your opponent gets good cards right away you will most likely lose in Earth because it snowballs so fast.
was expecting you to rip this one to peaces and throw it in the compost! Its not a 10/10 like some lead you to believe but its a solid 8 and a bunch of fun at that.
It's a 10/10 for some. Board game tastes are subjective, to a large degree, at the level of game quality under discussion. You talk as if there is a "correct" rating for games. There is not.
Controversial opinion; tableau builders longer than an hour ultimately suffer due to randomness. When i play race for the galaxy i dont mind getting rough draws because i can just play another quick game. Games like Terraforming Mars fall over when you have rough draws for 2 and a half hours. Dunno, just can't fall in love with a game that takes hours that might not feel fair.
Earth is a little tighter than RFTG. Race has a clear winner quickly I would say. But I agree Earth has way too long of a playtime. Playing on GBA helps a ton. Race is the best in of category, hard to compare anything to it. Designing a tableau builder with a longer playtime is really tricky for game balance like you said . Hopefully one day someone finds the sweet spot of time / components and decisions .
Terraforming Mars, Wingspan, Everdell, Ark Nova, Earth, etc, etc. Tableau builders are a dime a dozen and none have really surpassed the purity and speed of Race for the Galaxy.
Simultaneous turns FTW! Have you player Raising Robots or TM: Ares Expedition? Shame that the interaction in RftG can be too hard for some to find, since playing it like a multiplayer solitaire can be a bit too easy and powerful, even though interaction can matter a lot
Great vid and fair review. Great point on the Arc Nova bit with 🌎 not having some cards displayed. I may have to house rule that on my next solo play to see how that goes. Also how many takes on knocking down the growth tree? 😅
You have to consider the output of the deck to be random. Yes, you could have waited to take your cards after your opponent and gotten a different draw, but this is very similar to getting different outcomes with dice depending on how you release them from your hand, or like getting a blue gum-ball from a gum-ball machine because the person before you got a yellow one. Different results based on random timing is still random. Or look at it this way, at the end of the turn somebody take the necessary cards for all the players, shuffle them again, then distribute the amount necessary to each clockwise. Is that more random? Is it more random if he doesn't do the shuffle? It doesn't make any sense, if the deck is random, the settle distribution of card for all cannot be anything else than random.
It’s not like dice rolling at all as the die roll is in now way pre determined until you actually roll it. Are you saying turn order doesn’t matter when distributing limited resources via die rolls? The fact that the deck is structured even after shuffling means that turn order matters.
@@BoardGameBollocks imagine we both draw a card from a shuffled deck of 2 cards. One card say you get 100$ while the other says you get a slap in the face. To me it doesn't matter if it is you or me that draw the first card because the outcome cannot be predicted in advance. It is literally random like a Schrödinger's card. Establishing an order does nothing for me or you if we do not know the order of the cards.
@BatisteBieler The order of the cards is still predetermined. Drawing of the cards doesn’t determine who gets the slap if who draws first doesn’t change. Shrodingers cat reference doesn’t make sense as the card is or isn’t a slap and not both at the same time.
Dude i love this game so much and im so glad you didn't end up slamming it! I actually thought of another con: When we played, we got extremely confused with the iconography... they have SOME of the icons on the player board... but not all of them? And some aren't even in the rulebook either! Did you have this experience too at all? We ended up having to dm the earth people about specific cards and icons that weren't explained.
I reckon you could make a pretty good board game at this point. Get crackin! I'd love to be able to do it but where do you start. A4 sheets of paper and some colour crayons probably.
When Ark Nova was all the rage I was gifted a copy at my birthday but sadly I really hated how much you are dependant on luck of the draw because there's a f*ckton of cards that make planning near impossible while the game is also dragging on for faaaar too long. It seems that I can skip this game as well because of similar issues. May as well just go with Race for the galaxy since I have yet to catch up on this classic. Thanks for this review!
Would this game be in your top 100 games? Did not see it there, but you made that list some time ago. Would it joint that list if you made a new one to day?
I played this at board games club a few months back and it's been on my list ever since, i really enjoyed it. Having saod that, being on ky list means ill still be thinking about it in 2042 after buying a pile of glossy, licensed shitpile games that i regret. Never fucking fails.
I agree with pretty much everything said here. It’s perfectly alright, and I will keep it around, but the amount of icons, bonuses, discounts, goals, adjacency considerations etc etc are all just far too much for a game that is so random. I also *really* don’t like having to count up final scores that go into the multiple hundreds. Total ballache!
The deck is random. If everyone left the room and I was allowed to shuffle the deck, know one would (nor could know) if I had done it. This is like complaining about which hand someone used to roll dice. Yes, it does effect the outcome. I was playing Risk, right, and someone rolled the black dice before I rolled mine. They rolled two sixes. Never invited them back. If they had waited they would have rolled something different.
It’s not random as at some point the deck become predetermined. If you were constantly shuffling then yes it would be random. Random doesn’t mean not knowing. We’re not using dice so that’s an invalid analogy.
I bought it, played it 4 times trying to find joy in it. I failed to do so. It presently lives in one of 14 large storage containers with 200+ other ‘meh’ games I’ll never find a way to get rid of. Super. ❤😊
@@BoardGameBollocks But what about my long lived delusions of recouping 20% of my hard earned monies? Stop it with your obnoxious, realistic solutions. F*@kin’ some people, I tell ya…
Not sure if this would help with your third dislike, but there are so many cards in the game that we just give everyone their own deck. Really dig this one.
I played this again last night, and your do and don’t likes pretty much nail how I feel about the game. Getting a bit sick of nature as a theme at this point though
Clearly we need a board game where players compete in torching a rain forest, and you get victory points for standing up parking lots, pubs, and takeaway places!
This game is just really annoying to play in person. So many bits everywhere , so hard to see everything and the play time is insane. 2 player count maybe okay. But on BGA this game is great. Playing online fixes all the problems I have with this game. I have 2 plays in person and over 50 online. Although after this many games I do feel like I am done with this game and really not interested in playing it again. It does come down to luck A LOT once your playing with top rated players. (For reference I'm top 50 on GBA)
Great comment, solidifies my thoughts that I just wouldn't enjoy it. I used to be wowed by games with loads going on. Now it makes me think the design is clumsy, inelegant and simply filled with "stuff" to compensate for lack of streamlining
@@imnottellingyoumyname3050 To be clear the game design is good but playing online drops the game length by 60-70 percent. I have the same issue with Ark Nova. I much rather play it online but at least I still enjoy it in person. Ark Nova goes from rating of 7 to a 9 online. I'd rate Earth a 4 in person and a 7 online. I wouldn't put Earth in the same category as a game that tries to hide imbalance by adding more "stuff" to the game. But I do agreed , I much rather play a game with a quick rules teach that has a lot of strategic depth. Teaching someone to play Earth is a mission on its own, especially if they're new to tableau building games.
@@BoardGameBollocks I don't typically play Board games online either but after playing Earth for the first time my decision was to never play it again or try it in quicker setting to see if I really like it or not.
@bryanep i figure you played without an isnsert? got the one they sold on KS and never had the same issues you have. i dont like it on bga because when you have 50+ cards in hand you cant just put the one you dont like face down and pre mark them for composting. also donno what on bga would make the game any faster, only the scoring is an issue. 2p in person 50min max and on bga i think its 45min max
Tableau builders have never really buttered my parsnips but I make a point of watching your reviews because I am confident that the opinions expressed, good or bad, will be free of bias or favor and may reveal points I had not even considered.
Facts. Whenever I'm on the fence about a game purchase I check this channel.
"like looking for a f**king peanut in a load of gorilla shit" LMAO I love this f**king guy
I love your reviews so much. I trust your judgment and I like how you structure your videos
Cheers mate
Love your videos mate, straight up and not full of crap. Well done! Keep on keeping on man
I for one appreciate the "what we don't like" portion of your videos. Really helpful when a game is getting a lot of hype. Can't wait for your take on Forrest Shuffle.
🤮
Turns out, I only had to wait 32 minutes. Won't see that from Dice Tower.
we can't stop playing forest shuffle
This review feels like one of your old school reviews, which are my favorite. Straight forward review, not added swearing and innuendo for a cheap laugh. Your reviews like this are the ones that I hold up as the best, not just on your channel, but on UA-cam. It's obviously preference, but this type of your review is my favorite. Keep up the great work.
I was having a good day
Well I did spot a moment where he really fought to say nothing. That smile when he was talking about putting that purple bit on top of your... Well, if that wasn't Innuendo.... But ok, not for a cheap laugh, but I laughed! =)
@1Dreamking purple canopy on your trunk…what are you trying to say?
@@1Dreamking I said, "added innuendo." Everyone I've played Earth with has made a phallus reference because of the components. I think the way it was done in the video was great, acknowledge it, make the joke, and move on.
@@BoardGameBollocks As little as possible with as many words I can so in the end I'm not sure what I have said or wanted to say. Mostly. =)
Have been waiting for this review with the game in the card.
Wasn’t sure what you meant by squeaky - thank god you had an example!
Squeeky fucking bum time 5:22 has been added to my list of inappropriate daily tasks.
You can always house rule a 5 card river of cards to choose from. We did this with Guilds of London (very under-rated game) where you can choose from the river first and then the deck. In GoL b'c there are different ways to draw cards, we limited access to the river to only your end-of-turn draws. I don't know how it would work for Earth, having not played it. And yes, you should try GoL, great game once you get past the dizzy array of iconography.
If you like Puerto Rico style games, you should find a copy of Exodus Fleet. Graphic design is, well, bad. But the game is, as you Limeys say, "Crackin'"
We don’t do house rules here mate
@@BoardGameBollocksthe house rule to ban all house rules
The game is no breakthrough in modern boardgaming but I like the fulfilling gameplay quite a bit and like to play a quick round in every now and than. The game got trashed in multiple German Gaming channels for no solid reason in my opinion.
What are the nonsolid reasons they're trashing it for?
@@revimfadli4666 Most of the time randomness, no real player interaction, lack of strategic decisions due to the point salary feeling. There might even be a little truth in all of that but to me it is still a fun and satisfying package.
Great video mate. I can't help myself though, your hate for Wingspan must surely remind you of this game 😂
Not that many birds in it mate
@@BoardGameBollocks Right yeah. Fuck birds.
Top vid. Probably stopped me from pulling the trigger on it. I'm with you on random card draws, fucking infuriating more often than not.
Once you play the game more you realize the best strategy is not to dig for anything , you just use the best of what your given and work around it . Same thing in Ark Nova, you can't spend your resources looking for a good card you just use the ok one and make it work. Although if your opponent gets good cards right away you will most likely lose in Earth because it snowballs so fast.
@bryanep You just end up with crap if you do that
@@bryanepsounds like another reason why the self-balancing Vinci/Century market rendered blind topdecking obsolete
was expecting you to rip this one to peaces and throw it in the compost! Its not a 10/10 like some lead you to believe but its a solid 8 and a bunch of fun at that.
It's a 10/10 for some. Board game tastes are subjective, to a large degree, at the level of game quality under discussion. You talk as if there is a "correct" rating for games. There is not.
It's a 7 for me but some aspects like the duration, multiuse cards makes it look like a 9 compared to many recent hits
@chuckm1961 you said it’s a 10/10 then at there’s no correct rating 🤷♂️
@@BoardGameBollocks tbf they said it's a 10/10 _for some_
@revimfadli4666 which is still saying it has a rating is it not?
A very good summary. The game has too many options, but it's good.
Controversial opinion; tableau builders longer than an hour ultimately suffer due to randomness. When i play race for the galaxy i dont mind getting rough draws because i can just play another quick game. Games like Terraforming Mars fall over when you have rough draws for 2 and a half hours. Dunno, just can't fall in love with a game that takes hours that might not feel fair.
Earth is a little tighter than RFTG. Race has a clear winner quickly I would say. But I agree Earth has way too long of a playtime. Playing on GBA helps a ton. Race is the best in of category, hard to compare anything to it. Designing a tableau builder with a longer playtime is really tricky for game balance like you said . Hopefully one day someone finds the sweet spot of time / components and decisions .
Earth doesnt take longer than 1h at 2p tho
This comment explains in part, why I don't like Terraforming Mars.
Terraforming Mars, Wingspan, Everdell, Ark Nova, Earth, etc, etc. Tableau builders are a dime a dozen and none have really surpassed the purity and speed of Race for the Galaxy.
Simultaneous turns FTW! Have you player Raising Robots or TM: Ares Expedition?
Shame that the interaction in RftG can be too hard for some to find, since playing it like a multiplayer solitaire can be a bit too easy and powerful, even though interaction can matter a lot
Great vid and fair review. Great point on the Arc Nova bit with 🌎 not having some cards displayed. I may have to house rule that on my next solo play to see how that goes. Also how many takes on knocking down the growth tree? 😅
3…honest
@@BoardGameBollocks 3rd times the charm🤣🤣🤣
You have to consider the output of the deck to be random. Yes, you could have waited to take your cards after your opponent and gotten a different draw, but this is very similar to getting different outcomes with dice depending on how you release them from your hand, or like getting a blue gum-ball from a gum-ball machine because the person before you got a yellow one. Different results based on random timing is still random.
Or look at it this way, at the end of the turn somebody take the necessary cards for all the players, shuffle them again, then distribute the amount necessary to each clockwise. Is that more random? Is it more random if he doesn't do the shuffle?
It doesn't make any sense, if the deck is random, the settle distribution of card for all cannot be anything else than random.
It’s not like dice rolling at all as the die roll is in now way pre determined until you actually roll it. Are you saying turn order doesn’t matter when distributing limited resources via die rolls?
The fact that the deck is structured even after shuffling means that turn order matters.
@@BoardGameBollocks imagine we both draw a card from a shuffled deck of 2 cards. One card say you get 100$ while the other says you get a slap in the face. To me it doesn't matter if it is you or me that draw the first card because the outcome cannot be predicted in advance. It is literally random like a Schrödinger's card.
Establishing an order does nothing for me or you if we do not know the order of the cards.
@BatisteBieler The order of the cards is still predetermined. Drawing of the cards doesn’t determine who gets the slap if who draws first doesn’t change.
Shrodingers cat reference doesn’t make sense as the card is or isn’t a slap and not both at the same time.
Dude i love this game so much and im so glad you didn't end up slamming it! I actually thought of another con:
When we played, we got extremely confused with the iconography... they have SOME of the icons on the player board... but not all of them? And some aren't even in the rulebook either! Did you have this experience too at all? We ended up having to dm the earth people about specific cards and icons that weren't explained.
Didn’t have this experience. There’s a card index online that lists all the cards and what they do.
insideupgames.com/earth-rules-faq-and-card-index/
I reckon you could make a pretty good board game at this point. Get crackin!
I'd love to be able to do it but where do you start. A4 sheets of paper and some colour crayons probably.
I’ve made a few games. There was one was called “Tweakers” about meth dealing in a council estate.
When Ark Nova was all the rage I was gifted a copy at my birthday but sadly I really hated how much you are dependant on luck of the draw because there's a f*ckton of cards that make planning near impossible while the game is also dragging on for faaaar too long. It seems that I can skip this game as well because of similar issues. May as well just go with Race for the galaxy since I have yet to catch up on this classic. Thanks for this review!
ALO
One word sets the scene.
Would this game be in your top 100 games? Did not see it there, but you made that list some time ago. Would it joint that list if you made a new one to day?
Yea it would . My wife got me this for Christmas and I record the top 100 early December so it didn’t feature.
@@BoardGameBollocks cool, thank you for the reply!
I played this at board games club a few months back and it's been on my list ever since, i really enjoyed it. Having saod that, being on ky list means ill still be thinking about it in 2042 after buying a pile of glossy, licensed shitpile games that i regret. Never fucking fails.
I agree with pretty much everything said here. It’s perfectly alright, and I will keep it around, but the amount of icons, bonuses, discounts, goals, adjacency considerations etc etc are all just far too much for a game that is so random. I also *really* don’t like having to count up final scores that go into the multiple hundreds. Total ballache!
This comment made me decide not to get this game. Thanks.
Sound like fun
The deck is random. If everyone left the room and I was allowed to shuffle the deck, know one would (nor could know) if I had done it.
This is like complaining about which hand someone used to roll dice. Yes, it does effect the outcome.
I was playing Risk, right, and someone rolled the black dice before I rolled mine. They rolled two sixes. Never invited them back. If they had waited they would have rolled something different.
It’s not random as at some point the deck become predetermined. If you were constantly shuffling then yes it would be random. Random doesn’t mean not knowing.
We’re not using dice so that’s an invalid analogy.
Doesn’t the great Redwood have a pink canopy?
😮
Best tableau builder to introduce people to the game - best one to play with 6 people (prob not wingspan)?
I couldn't imagine playing a 6 hour game of Earth lol
7 wonders
RAINBOWSSSS!!!
I bought it, played it 4 times trying to find joy in it. I failed to do so.
It presently lives in one of 14 large storage containers with 200+ other ‘meh’ games I’ll never find a way to get rid of.
Super. ❤😊
Charity shop
@@BoardGameBollocks But what about my long lived delusions of recouping 20% of my hard earned monies?
Stop it with your obnoxious, realistic solutions.
F*@kin’ some people, I tell ya…
good - bolox
Not sure if this would help with your third dislike, but there are so many cards in the game that we just give everyone their own deck. Really dig this one.
We split the deck into 4 and everyone draws from which ever the want so no it doesn’t help.
@@BoardGameBollocks fair.
I played this again last night, and your do and don’t likes pretty much nail how I feel about the game. Getting a bit sick of nature as a theme at this point though
I’m getting a bit sick of nature tbh…need more concrete.
Clearly we need a board game where players compete in torching a rain forest, and you get victory points for standing up parking lots, pubs, and takeaway places!
@corgibuttz2550 Make a few species extinct in the process
They have removed my comment about setting fire to nature - humourless twats
That’s two replies they’ve deleted of mine now. Can’t be making jokes about the environment - what was I thinking?!
This game is just really annoying to play in person. So many bits everywhere , so hard to see everything and the play time is insane. 2 player count maybe okay. But on BGA this game is great. Playing online fixes all the problems I have with this game. I have 2 plays in person and over 50 online. Although after this many games I do feel like I am done with this game and really not interested in playing it again. It does come down to luck A LOT once your playing with top rated players. (For reference I'm top 50 on GBA)
Great comment, solidifies my thoughts that I just wouldn't enjoy it. I used to be wowed by games with loads going on. Now it makes me think the design is clumsy, inelegant and simply filled with "stuff" to compensate for lack of streamlining
@@imnottellingyoumyname3050 To be clear the game design is good but playing online drops the game length by 60-70 percent. I have the same issue with Ark Nova. I much rather play it online but at least I still enjoy it in person. Ark Nova goes from rating of 7 to a 9 online. I'd rate Earth a 4 in person and a 7 online. I wouldn't put Earth in the same category as a game that tries to hide imbalance by adding more "stuff" to the game. But I do agreed , I much rather play a game with a quick rules teach that has a lot of strategic depth. Teaching someone to play Earth is a mission on its own, especially if they're new to tableau building games.
I don’t play video games mate
@@BoardGameBollocks I don't typically play Board games online either but after playing Earth for the first time my decision was to never play it again or try it in quicker setting to see if I really like it or not.
@bryanep i figure you played without an isnsert? got the one they sold on KS and never had the same issues you have. i dont like it on bga because when you have 50+ cards in hand you cant just put the one you dont like face down and pre mark them for composting. also donno what on bga would make the game any faster, only the scoring is an issue. 2p in person 50min max and on bga i think its 45min max
This game didn't work for me. Recently gifted it
Didn’t really enjoy this game. Too much noise and never felt like I had a clear idea of what I should do next.
i had a roman themed trick taking game by this company and they overcomplicated the rulebook
I hate it when the box art has beautiful art and the cards are just photos. Boo.