Stonemaier Games Euphoria Build a Better Dystopia Board Game

Product Information

There are enough spaces on the board for two players, even with a full complement of workers, to place them without really interfering with each other. There were very few times that either player felt compelled to risk raising knowledge by placing their worker alongside another in a specific resource. They could always go after a different resource given that so many were in such demand. When more players are involved, real estate becomes a much more prevalent issue and player strategies will have to evolve to handle the risks that come with placing workers alongside others. You also have 2 elite recruit cards at your disposal. One has pledged allegiance to you, but the other needs some convincing. You can reveal and use the reticent recruit by reaching certain milestones in the game…or by letting other players unwittingly reach those milestones for you.

However, one of the reasons we’ve moved away from custom art is that we want the control to feature a wide diversity of people in our games (especially when it makes sense for the theme, as it does in Euphoria). You’ll see that reflected in the final cards–there’s a great mix of men and women, different ethnicities, different ages, etc.

Ignorance Is Bliss Expansion

This is Jamey again. With Morten’s Automa story fully revealed, it’s time to share the full Automa rulebook! Because I wasn’t intimately involved in the design process, my focus was more on the components and presentation of Ignorance Is Bliss. Most of the expansion is cardboard (cards, tiles, mats, and the board), so I wanted to add something a little more dramatic without significantly increasing the cost. As you can see from the photos, the expansion components fit into the trays–there’s even room to spare in the bottom tray. We have heard from exactly 1 person that they struggled to get the new tray into their original Euphoria box. I’m not sure why, as the boxes are all the same size, but if this happens to you, trimming the bottom edge of the tray with scissors solves the problem. The commodities are food, water, electricity, and bliss (a kind of stimulant/drug). The areas that give you these are affected from the roll of the dice. The dice do not affect the remaining locations however and allow you to obtain resources like gold or stone. These resources allow you to build markets and as the game progresses more options become available to the players.

Take the Ethical Dilemma cards: it's a basic decision such as “Burn a Book/Read a Book.” Burning a book means you play a star immediately moving you 10% closer to victory. Read A Book allows you to draw two recruit cards and keep one. The recruits will possibly gain you a star later in the game and allow you to use their special powers once they become active. But, for the life of me, I can't bring myself to do the oppressive action. I'll take that chance, I'll bet on the recruit paying off later simply because that action “feels” right. Never mind that I'm actively exploiting workers to rise within a dystopia with tie breakers that include having low intelligence workers, I won't burn that book. Yea, so, I've bought into the theme.

Review Summary

If you’re looking for a game that takes well-trodden mechanisms in novel and intriguing directions, then you’ve found it in Euphoria. I’ll admit I like my Euros with a stink load of V.P. from a variety of sources and a generous dollop of secret scoring on top. But now and then something will surprise you by subverting your expectations. Euphoria did that for me and it’s all the better for it.

In 2-3-4 player games, the miner meeples start 3-2-1 spaces down the tunnel. This means that it’s easier to activate recruits of the earthbound factions, which alleviates the issue that it was easier to activate additional Icarite recruits. Tomorrow is the full rulebook reveal, but today I’d like to share the story behind one of the new setup rules (and an optional, related component). Importantly, though, you can only ever have at most 1 factionless recruit, and if you do, they are immediately active (because there’s no way to flip recruits if they don’t have a faction).In Euphoria workers are represented by dice, and their individual knowledge of the inner workings of the Euphorian dystopia is represented by the pips shown on each die. The more pips, the more effective a worker can be, but too many can drive up your group’s overall knowledge, prompting individuals to leave as they learn how the world really works. Oho! New to Stardew? Keep me posted on what you think. It can take time to earn things, but other avenues open up (mining, fishing, interacting with townsfolk) to keep you engaged as the in-game days... Trade-off decisions like that are core to our work on Automas, because we want them to mimic all interactions perfectly, but we also want Automas that don’t crush the fun under the workload of handling them and we want a low barrier to entry that allows most players to enjoy them. Euphoria is one of few games that manages to combine worker placement with a high dose of interactivity between players. Your every move is monitored by other players, and most of your actions can affect them in some way.

When I first opened the box, I was pleased with the quality and number of bits that you get with the game. The art is very easy on the eye and the theme is one that interested me. I was a little put off by the board and how daunting it looked but there are plenty of videos online that got me through the setup and a few turns. Shellhead, thank you for mentioning EEAaO. Watched it last night and it was an enjoyable and unexpected experience. Girlfriend and I talked about it quite a bit afterwards. Having a bit of lighter fun with people at the local club playing Forgotten Waters. The only disappointment is that because there's around 20 people playing different games in a pub's function room... If you’re playing the base game, focus on Icarian (sky) faction as much as possible. It’s objectively the best route to take, and you’ll see that for yourself once you’ve played a few games.There is more to the world than the surface of the earth. Deep underground lies the hidden city of Subterran, occupied by miners, mechanics, and revolutionaries. By keeping their workers in the dark, they’ve patched together a network of pipes and sewers, of steam and gears, of hidden passages and secret stairways. The Euphorians aren’t alone. Outside the city are those who experienced the apocalypse firsthand—they have the memories and scars to prove it. These Wastelanders have cobbled together a society of historians and farmers among the forgotten scrap yards of the past.