Seasons

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Price: $33.08 $32.80   

Product Feature

• Features: Superior artwork, Tons of different strategies of game play, 3 different difficulty levels in one game
• Manage your energy between seasons and adapt your game play
• Mix cards to create unique combinations to give you more chances to win
• For 2 to 4 players
• 60 minutes of playtime

Product Description

Assuming the role of one of the greatest sorcerers of the time, you will be participating in the legendary tournament of the 12 Seasons. Your goal is to raise the most victory points by gathering energy, summoning familiars and magic items. If you amass enough crystals and symbols of prestige, you will become the kingdom's most illustrious mage. Optimize the cards through skilful combinations, using the seasons wisely to access the energies of crystals and become the the new Archmage of the kingdom of Xidit. In a first phase, select 9 power cards at the same time as your opponents. Do the right choices, because they will determine the rest of the game. Acclimatize to the season to make the most of the actions proposed by each roll of the dice. Collect energies, invoke magical and familiar objects, and collect enough crystals, symbols of prestige. The time is now magician.

Seasons Review

Seasons is an exciting, tense, card-based game that imagines players as wizards battling each other for three years, using elements of nature and magic artifacts in their fight. The player's tools are large, custom dice and beautifully illustrated cards that work in synchrony to create chains of powers and abilities that build throughout the game. Seasons combines play mechanics found in some of the best games of the last decade, including 7 Wonders, Magic: The Gathering, Dominion, and King of Tokyo.

***LOOK & COMPONENTS***

The art and graphic design of Seasons blends Art Nouveau and old Yes album covers by Roger Dean. In short, it's spectacular.

The dice, each about an inch square, are engraved with symbols that correspond to elemental energy in colors that match the seasons:

Blue = water/winter
Green = earth/spring
Yellow = fire/summer
Red = air/autumn

The dice contain the following symbols in different configurations:

* Energy symbols
* Numbers corresponding to crystals, the game's victory points
* A ring that allows for converting energy into crystals
* A star for increasing the number of cards a player can summon to the tableau
* 1-3 dots, which signal how many months to advance the month/season counter on the game board
* A rectangle, which allows a player to draw a card from the draw pile

The round game board is more of a player help, with an area in the center to mark the three years over which the wizards battle, and an outer ring in the four seasons colors, with numeric gradations 1-12 for the months. Between the year marks and month/seasons ring is a conversion table graphic for transmuting energy into crystals.

The game board packs needed info into an unobtrusive size and serves the role well. Nicely designed.

The score card, on the other hand, is something of a mess. Score markers are typical Eurogame wooden cubes that correspond to player colors, marking 1-99, plus markers for increments of 100. Though the card starts out with rows of numbers in increments of 10, this pattern diverges at the top, which foils a simple 10-point move by sliding up a row. In a game with such attention to design, this seems a misstep.

Plus, it is all too easy to jar the scorecard and knock the cubes around, especially if they are stacked because of tied scores. Given how often players will adjust scores--a nonstop process in the game that consumes more time than it should--a better scorecard is needed. Something along the line of the dial-based scorecards in King of Tokyo might make more sense.

The scorecard tracks crystal points during play. At game's end, prestige points from cards and bonus play use are included in the tally.

Player cards have numbers across the top to show the number of cards that can be in the player's summon tableau. Below that is a 0, -5, -12, -20 prestige point penalty mark and a list of bonus actions a player can take: exchange two energy types, increase the number of cards summonable to the tableau, transmute (exchange) energy for crystals. Taking a bonus incurs an increasing penalty each time, tallied at game's end.

The game's 100 power cards drive it. Each cards exists twice in the deck. Two forms exist: magic items and familiars. Resembling Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh cards, but with the unmistakable Seasons artwork, the cards contain the title of the card at top, along with any final tally prestige points (in purple for magic items or orange for familiars). Below the artwork, the cost of the card is shown. Cost is usually in crystals (sacrificing VP) or energy, with the needed elemental energy types depicted in icons. Some costs scale up with the number of players.

The card text reveals how the card functions. Some cards have multiple functions, some stack, but others may force a player to choose a use. These functions are the heart of the card--and the game.

In the lower left corner of the card is its effect timing. A squat arrow means it takes effect once. An arrow in a circle means a continuing effect. A cog allows players to "tap" the card and use it. Cog cards exact some price to play each time, usually in energy.

Lastly, cards include a number at the bottom in tiny text. This allows players to find them in the rulebook for rules clarifications.

***GAMEPLAY***

Seasons offers three levels of play based on which cards are used. The advanced game uses the entire deck of 100 cards. The basic and intermediate games restrict cards.

Each player receives nine cards. Like the game 7 Wonders, players pass their hands around until all have drafted a deck. The deck is then split into three cards per three years, with years two and three marked with corresponding marker chits. This splitting requires planning, because effects from cards played earlier will stack as time passes. Some cards have repeated effects that would benefit from early play. Others are end game cards.

The greatest truth about this game: Players MUST know how the cards work. Must. Definitely a game that demands repeat plays.

The second great truth about this game: New players will do almost everything wrong in that first game. Plus, they will be brutalized in the process. Count on it. Especially if they're the sole newbie playing against--*ahem*--seasoned players.

The dice are set around the game board to match the season color. The number of dice used is the number of players plus one. The game starts with the lead player rolling the dice for winter. That player selects which die to keep after the roll, and each subsequent player does the same. The unselected die's dots determine how many months the month counter will advance, slowing or hurrying the game, so strategy is involved not only in what a player takes, but what is left behind.

Each player in turn then resolves the symbols on the die selected.

Players roll the same color season of die unless the month counter crosses into a new season, which means rolling the next color.

Each season/color of dice favors an element (noted above) and disfavors another (the opposing season on the game board). Good players will factor this into their initial card distribution. For instance, autumn is last, so any cards that rely heavily on air energy are going to be harder to summon unless the player works contrary to the season and manages to get that energy, such as taking a bonus play of converting energy 2:2.

When the month marker passes into the second winter, each player's second set of cards is added to the hand. Cards from the previous year remain in-hand.

Dispensing of hand cards is critical, since each unplayed card at game's end is -5 prestige points.

A player can perform as many actions on a turn as the die, played power cards, energy, and crystals permit. In addition, some cards allow a player actions on another player's turn.

Keeping track of all the card interactions is the major downside of the game, since with four players in an advanced game the sheer number of things happening at once can get out of control. Newer players will have their heads spinning, and ensuring all the cards get their chances to act and score correctly can be nightmarish. Seasons has the potential to be one of those games where the score may end up more of a guess than a reality.

Once the 12th month of the third year passes, the game is over. All prestige points (both positive and negative) from cards and bonus use are added to the crystal tally. Highest number wins.

***THOUGHTS ON PLAY***

The rules of Seasons are simple. The game can be explained in less than 10 minutes--and possibly five with hardcore gamers who understand the basic mechanics underlying the game. It's one reason why the suggested player age is a low 10.

However, because the cards contain so many actions that chain actions, despite its simple rules, Seasons can be an in-play management nightmare. Analysis paralysis is assured, even among players who normally don't suffer that affliction. So much is happening in the player's hand, the other player's tableaus, and with forecasting moves and seasons, the input is almost overwhelming, especially for people who have not played the game at least a half dozen times.

As noted, knowing the cards is ESSENTIAL. Until a player does, winning because of a well-designed plan is almost out of the question.

One problem here, as with many games that feature cards with functions, players need to understand what their opposing players' card tableaus do. Sadly, that's extremely hard to do in Seasons if the cards are not well-known, because it is not easy to read other players' cards. Fewer players might make this easier, but spreading out for more players positions players farther away. No remedy seems easy. Even then, managing your own tableau is hard enough. Trying to grasp another player's and how it will affect yours will hurt your brain.

Veterans of the game will whittle down playing time, but a four-player game may last three hours, as players may spend a lot of time considering how cards interact.

For that reason, and for the added chaos of a fourth player, I suggest that Seasons plays best with two to three.

Seasons is not for the faint of heart, either. This can be a high-screwage game. Many detrimental cards exist, which means that a player's best laid plans can be ruined with a single card. In the case of a session I played, I got hit with an opponent's card that forced me to discard one of the two power cards I had built my entire strategy around. This happened in the first year, and I was energy poor for the rest of the game, which killed any chance I had to win. A better player may have overcome this, but perhaps not. Those who can't handle getting brutalized with a devastating opponent play, this is not your game.

In other words, Seasons' lovely exterior hides a harridan's heart.

***CONCLUSION***

Asmodee has a hit on its hands. People talked about the look of the game long before its release, and with the exception of the clunky scorecard, everything comes together beautifully. Because the game's pedigree contains elements of several top games swirling inside it, Seasons could be the game of 2012 so far.

With brain-burning tactics and strategy, beautiful components, hybrid Eurogame/Ameritrash gameplay, and unlimited replayability, Seasons is a winner in every regard and a fine addition to any gaming collection.

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