| Game Details | |
|---|---|
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| Name | Vast: The Crystal Caverns (2016) |
| Complexity | Medium Heavy [3.64] |
| BGG Rank | 899 [7.10] |
| Player Count (Recommended) | 1-5 (2-5) |
| Designer(s) | Patrick Leder and David Somerville |
| Artist(s) | Kyle Ferrin |
| Publisher(s) | Leder Games, 2Tomatoes Games, Mandala Jogos, MS Edizioni and Quality Beast |
| Mechanism(s) | Action Points, Dice Rolling, Grid Movement, Hand Management, Line of Sight, Modular Board, Pick-up and Deliver, Pieces as Map, Role Playing, Secret Unit Deployment, Take That, Tile Placement and Variable Player Powers |
Participants
- Katey – winner (cave)
- Sean
- 3P
- 4P
Rules missed
- Cave includes the number of crystals added to the number of treasure when determining the number of omen tokens to draw at the start of its turn.
- Goblin tribe suffers malaise whenever rage reaches 0 – all tribes lose 1 population.
- Goblin tribes discard assigned monster cards when scattered.
Photos
About the game
From Boardgamegeek:
“Vast takes you and your friends into the torch light of a classic cave-crawling adventure, built on the concept of total asymmetry. Gone are days of the merry band of travelers fighting off evil. In Vast, you will become part of a new legend… Any part you wish!
Play as the classic, daring Knight, the chaotic Goblin horde, the colossal, greedy Dragon, or even the Cave itself — powerful, brooding, and intent on crushing the living things that dare to disturb its gloomy depths. Each role has its own powers, pieces, and paths to victory…and there can be only one winner.
As the ultimate asymmetric board game, Vast: The Crystal Caverns provides a limitless adventure, playable again and again as you and your friends explore the four different roles in different combinations. Play one-on-one in a race to the death between the Knight and the Goblins, or add in the Dragon and the Cave for deeper and more epic experiences, different every time.”
Final Thoughts
Katey and I began this game with our kids, Avery & Emmett, but they lost interest as we slowly learned the nuances of the game, so we finished on our own. Because Vast is an asymmetrical game, it can take a bit of getting used to, and you might need multiple playthroughs to learn all of the characters (we played twice). But once you have it down, Vast is a pretty cool game. The balance seems well-tuned; in our second game (we each played two of the characters in the suggested 4-player setup) the cave won, but both the knight and dragon were arguably one turn from victory. We both liked the rock-paper-scissors element of play – the goblins are trying to kill the knight, the knight is trying to kill the dragon, the dragon eats goblins, and the cave is trying to collapse and kill everyone (we didn’t use the thief). Vast was lots of fun and Katey and I are looking forward to playing again, and checking out the various expansions available.
