Aquire and trade gems to infuse onto your golems!
Century is a series of games that explores how civilizations evolve over the centuries. In the first game Spice Road, you are traveling the roads delivering a variety of spices across the land. If that theme isn’t your style, don’t worry, the designers created a more fantasy version: Golem Edition! If gathering spice isn’t up your alley, maybe mining and delivering pretty crystals is! Whoever earns the most golem points and has the most colorful gems at the end of the game wins!
We tend to have a larger group than four, so being able to play with five players is a great benefit. We also have a lot of entry-level gamers in our circle, so this is another great, quick-to-play, simple game to get to the table for a couple of rounds. Also, the stone golems are just adorable with their infused crystals. What’s not to like?!
Mechanics: Engine-building, Resource management
ART: 7/10
This has a bit of a cartoony style, but the colors are very vibrant, and the attention to detail is excellent. The golem point cards cost the same crystal amount and color shown on their bodies. The crystals you are trading on your route cards accurately show the crystals you will receive from a traveler and those you are trading from your satchel. It’s always the tiny things that I will remember.
STORYTELLING: 2/10
The art on the cards is about the only storytelling I get from this game. I have no idea how I go from obtaining crystals to infusing them onto golems. But they are cute, and that is fine. I like that I can see the act of trading crystals on the cards, and I like that the crystal colors required by golems give them an elemental form, such as fire or ice. Besides that, the game is so simple and short that I don’t have time to think about the story behind it.
COMPONENTS: 7/10
I love the large crystal gems. I have seen them in varying sizes across other games, but the colors are better than your standard RGB. The large cards are also great for readability, but they are not made out of the new synthetic material many companies produce these days. I already see the edges wearing from use.
The coins are metal which is a massive bonus; I always love upgrading my games to use metal coins. The container for the gems is divided into four compartments that form a nice octagon shape that fits nicely into the box. The insert also has a slot for the coins to fit, so everything has its place, which makes for a great setup and teardown experience.
COMPLEXITY: 4/10
This has a very low learning curve. You get crystals. Cards let you trade crystals into different colored crystals. You use those crystals to buy golems worth various amounts of points. If you buy one of the first two golems in the row, you can also earn bonus coins.
The challenge comes from building up your trading engine. If you can create a complete cycle of converting your crystals from yellow to other colors and you can rinse and repeat this strategy, then you can acquire golems with ease. However, the engine you build needs to be speedy enough to get to the higher-point golems before your opponents.
Players who have experience with this game or that can see patterns quickly will manage to do better than others. Still, it is challenging for a player to have no engine at all with the wide variety of trading cards provided. Everyone stands a chance, and the games are done so quickly that you might go for another round or two!
TRAVEL-FRIENDLY: 5/10
The box is already small and very thick, which can hold up during travel. Otherwise, I can see someone making a pouch for the coins and another one for the gems. Keeping the colors separated doesn’t feel necessary, so you could make one pouch to hold everything.
Even though the cards are large, this can easily fit in a backpack to bring along with you on your travels. If you read my Dragoon article about its canvas bag to fit the whole game, maybe getting a bag for this might be worth your while. I sew; why haven’t I thought of this sooner?!
UNIQUENESS: 3/10
Can I think of a game exactly like this? No. Does that make it unique? Also, no. How many games have you played where you are trying to get enough resources to buy that card, create that building, create that mech (talking about you, Scythe), and build that road? Resource management is a foundational mechanic in a lot of game design.
The engine-building component feels more streamlined than other deck builders out there. It is a nice twist to drop off resources down the line of cards to get the one you want. The rest of the game feels too simple to draw in more unique factors.
Every game is unique in its own way, otherwise, I wouldn’t be reviewing them. I give credit when a game exceeds my expectations of game design and where I genuinely see innovation at its finest.
Final Comments
I really enjoy this game as a filler game or something to bring along on a short trip where you have some downtime between adventures. Though I love strategy and more complex games, sometimes you just want to have fun and not have to over-exert your mind after a long work day.
I’ve said it three times now, but the golems are cute, and the crystals look nice, so it’s a pleasant experience to see them on the table. Compared to something like Brass, where I play strictly for the interesting, mindful engines you build, I just want to look at something pretty. And that is not a bad thing. Why do we buy art for our walls? We all should have a small place in our hearts for simple board games such as Century.
Mash Up Of: Splendor, Charterstone, 7 Wonders
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Publisher: Plan B Games
Game(s) Pictured: Century: Golem Edition
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