We finally sat down for a full on game of Relic. We adopted a house rule to allow leveling up with 4 points worth of trophies, rather than the 6 points as mentioned in the rules. This was an attempt to make the game move along a little quicker.
Even with the lower threshold for leveling the game took three hours.
Although a little long for play time the game went well. I managed to get a relic and make it into the inner tier as a level 8. I wound up vanquished and back in the outer tier at the hospital just one turn before Hillary won.
We played the get to the middle and win end game. I felt that would be the best way to try the game for its first official playing.
After playing the game all the way through I have a better appreciation for Power Cards. At first I often forgot that I had one or didn’t remember to use it. There were many times in the game were I wanted to move a specific number of space and a power card would have helped. I kept saving my power cards for something important or a combat and then forgetting I had them.
Player powers are another thing I need to keep track of better. We have been playing co-op games so much lately that I’m not looking to hinder other players anymore. That’s not really the point in Relic. You want to win and if you can set other people back with your abilities, so much the better.
We didn’t spend a lot of time in the rule book. Just the first few turns to make sure we resolved the threat cards in the correct order. I should print out a little reminder card to help that process.
Corruption activation also had us in the rule book a few times trying to work out if the card was active or not. That’s another mechanic I don’t have a good feel for yet. I started out worried about corruption and avoiding it like the plague, but I wonder if the risk of gaining too much is worth some of the benefits. Once you hit six corruption cards you’re done. You can start a new character to keep playing but the loss of a higher level character with gear would be a game-ender after the second hour.
The game does have a Monopoly roll and move mechanic. That’s something you can probably control more through wise use of power cards or some of the other movement-focused ally assets. With the first play we did not read our cards as carefully as we should have.
I liked it. I want to play it again. I am not put off by a three hour play time nor did I find the move or combat rolling too random. It gives the game an element of chance that makes for excitement.
I recommend it for anyone looking for a competitive Sci-Fi adventure game.
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