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7.1

Ecos: First Continent

Alderac Entertainment Group
2019
Ecos: First Continent
1106
BGG Overall Ranking
2-6 players
Best: 3
2.6 / 5
Complexity
45-75 min
Playing Time

About Ecos: First Continent

What if the formation of Earth had gone differently? In Ecos: First Continent, players are forces of nature molding the planet, but with competing visions of its grandeur. You have the chance...Read More

Ecos: First Continent Expansions

Ecos: New Horizon
Ecos: New Horizon
7.5

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Reviews

7.6
1arska

I like the idea how the cards are working by drawing the tokens from bag and how each effect inteacts with the game board. Might be too long for my taste and some of effects feels overpowered if you are lucky. Game is good, not perfect but still underrated.

8.5
2bit

A cracking game that is great entertainment to play regardless of how successful your efforts are.

Component quality is excellent (thick tiles, nice wooden bits and clever storage trays), the game play is smooth and fast and there's tons of variability each time we play. Who'd've thought what is essentially eurobingo would be this much fun!

It's mostly simultaneous play, with turn order only applied when several players call "eco" (i.e. qualify to activate some of their cards) on the same tile draw.

Player interaction is incidental - that is, competition between players is generally limited to inadvertently affecting other players as you manipulate the terrain and animals when you "eco".

The only irritation we had with the game was easily circumvented:

Each card you put into play has 1-4 activations and then is discarded. The number of activations available is shown by the number of leaves at the top edge. When a card is activated it is rotated to the right so that a new number of leaves is shown at the top, being one less than before. When you run out of leaves the card is discarded.

We didn't like having our cards rotated, as it often meant you'd be repeatedly reading your own cards sideways on or upside down. It also meant it was hard to immediately grasp the status of all your cards at a glance.

So we improvised:

On playing a card we put a number of hemispherical beads onto it as indicated by the starting number of leaves. Each time the card is activated we don't rotate it, we just remove a bead. When the last bead is removed, discard the card.

This is so much better. All your cards remain orientated the best way for legibility, and you can see at a glance what activations remain available across your whole tableau just by seeing the number of beads on the cards.

3
4characters

A clever design but the only way to play is with the initial draft, otherwise it's just bingo. There are some slightly interesting concepts with engine building and card combos, but they mostly fall flat for me since it's a prescribed thing, as opposed to an emergent strategy. Drawing from the bag can really slow the game down, especially as everyone studies their cards carefully and it's pretty frustrating to be subjected to the randomness, watching tile after tile being low-probability results while your one high-probability cube is lingering there... For tableau management map building games I'll stick with Pax Renaissance or Pax Pamir where the decisions are more meaningful and interactive.

4
a2b2c517

Not a bad game just sit and wait. More like a Bingo. No decision tree present and the game too long for what it is.

4
Abdul

Bingo with take-that elements. You can make plans but the right symbols may never come up for you to execute them, or by the time they do the board state has changed too much.

9
abernath

Bought it after play at Dice Tower West 2022. Gets better with every play. I recommend it. Play it with 4 players to build out the landscape.

8
abkcppm

Продавам/заменям за 60 лева. Играта е закупена с увредена кутия от Steve's Collectables, единият ъгъл е в лошо състояние, но компонентите са изцяло налични и в отлично състояние.

9
Adam Parker

AEG have hit it big first with Atelier and now Ecos, both forming my top 3 games of the 2019. Like Atelier, Ecos is not solitaire designed but does play solo hotseat remarkably well.

Superbly written and structured rules for a game with multiple concepts, their succinctness and clarity make for a learning experience of 10-minutes—in the best sense of what makes a game a classic.

Some table space is required to accommodate an ever-growing tiled map, card hands and layouts, and various pieces, but wait till you see the thickness of those land tiles, the uniqueness of the wooden hills and trees, and—a first for me—bespoke do-it-yourself trays that hold the game’s animal tokens and cubes.

Gameplay is pure Zen. Everything flows. Simply a wonderfully clever design with a cogent and meaningful theme. All it needs is a solo AI.

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