Who cares about Tomorrow with Star Dust in your Eyes

jopm

Who knows why they did not kill us all –they killed so many when they conquered the planet. But here we are transported to this godforsaken planet and dumped in this so called city to fend for ourselves but to what purpose? But forget that question we live and we must survive - tomorrow may come or it may not all we have is now. We just refer to ourselves as The Remnants.
When the Yugai (as we have come to know them) dumped us here they left us with only the bare essentials for existence some food and shelter but even in the short time here things have changed or more accurately have organised on familiar lines. Our city has a slum quarter there is Midtown and then The Heights where the most let us say entrepreneurial souls live. We have our own trading currency ARCS(Alien Refugee Credits) and a thriving black market. In the absence of any form of Authority save the Yugai curfew patrols the gangs have grown in power. There are four major gangs vying for prestige and ultimately dominance - Rising Suns, The Blood, Azzuri and The Fenians. There are a no of ways to gain prestige but the main way is through building developments and controlling certain areas in the Heights. Other ways include gaining valuable goods on the black market and you might also get it from killing Yugai patrols and by eliminating members from other gangs. The Developments are at the heart of it though and have different area requirements for example you don’t see any Star Dust developments in the Heights – I will come back to that.

Lately the gang activity has ratcheted up with all four gangs seeking ultimate power and control. The Rising Suns began this escalation by hiring some additional gang members under the noses of the other gangs using a specialist recruiter. Amongst others they recruited a dealer and moved swiftly to build some developments in the Slums at a discount including a Star Dust facility. As the song goes “Who cares about tomorrow with Star Dust in your eyes”. The Fenians, true to their reputation started aggressively by attempting to muscle in on some Azzuri slum developments. The Azzuri were well able for them though and sent them packing. This failure by the Fenians to enhance their reputation caused them long term problems and even though they made additional forays into other territories their fighting myth had been exposed recruitment slumped and their chances for ultimate glory drifted away on the bitter wind. The Azzuri on the other hand seemed to suffer most at the hands of the Yugai patrols that appear randomly each evening. If you haven’t enough Arcs to bribe them you either kill them or be killed and if you have used your gang members on other tasks well you will reap what you sow. If you kill Yugai you may gain renown from the grateful residents or you may suffer if it stirs up whatever is the Yugai equivalent of a hornets’ nest. The only other gang to really challenge for supremacy was the Blood who built up a reasonable development portfolio including being the first to put a development in the Heights. This was the Fight Club and allowed them take 1 renown from the player of their choice each turn presumably on fixed fights. Developments spread throughout the city including ARC Counterfeiters and Back Alley games generating ARCS for more developments, gang member recruitment and black market activities although the Counterfeiters did blow back on many occasions. A no of weapons districts were also created in the Heights under the noses of the Yugai. Attempts were made by almost all the gangs to muscle in on other developments with varying degrees of success. Through all this the Rising Suns moved serenely on with their disciples building and expanding and even a late successful Blood attack was insufficient to prevent them rising in the end to become the most powerful gang in the city.

Yes but why did they bring us here - never mind just pass me the Star Dust.

City of Remnants is a 2-4 player (best with 4) deck building /area control game with direct conflict using dice and cards. It plays in around 2 -2.5 hours and is around 5 on a complexity scale of 10.it is in the style of Chaos in the Old World but with more randomness.
A negative is the game board design which in this reviewer’s opinion is one of the worst I have ever come across.

South Dublin BoardGamers can be found here: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/SouthDublinBoardgamers/

Paddy Samurai

it is in the style of Chaos in the Old World but with more randomness.

Hi Jopm,
Nice review.Which do you prefer Chaos or City?, I know some people like randomness.I have been thinking about getting Chaos.

jopm

Hi Paddy,

I am sure you have looked at the various reviews on BGG so I will only touch on some of the key differences between the games. One of them is that Chaos now plays 5 to Remnants 4. Having said that our Group has yet to find great favour with the Horned Rat expansion it still feels like a shoe-in. Maybe that is just us as they seem quite difficult to play.

Remnants is a lighter game and is considerably more random in comparison than Chaos but that is comparative. In absolute terms it is not very random except for the Yugai patrols that appear each turn.If you like bidding for scarce resources and deckbuilding then Remnants is stronger than Chaos.It also allows for a stronger story telling narrative.The factions in both games play asymmetrically but Chaos wins hands down in this regard. In my view Chaos is a much deeper game than Remnants strategically and as such is ultimately more rewarding. It can also be a much longer game although with experienced gamers game time can fall dramatically.

To answer your specific question I would say that we have really enjoyed our first few plays of Remnants. However it is very unlikely to displace Chaos which is probably one of the top 5 favorite games in the Group.

If you have any follow on questions please don't hesitate to ask

Regards

Jim