Decide the destiny of Faeriell.
I love Tabula Games. Both Mysthea and Icaion, their older games, are extremely engaging, interesting and original, and this new ones Sons of Faeriell continues the trend. It amazes me they’re all not better well known.
However, unless you’re a die-hard Eurogamer (which I certainly am not), you may be initially daunted by their rulebooks, which feature pages of card descriptions and icon references, long and complex turn sequences, and unfamiliar, original sci-fantasy tropes. The great thing is, after one turn of the game everything starts fitting into place and the game starts flowing comfortably. You’ll be presented with a wealth of choices, and the pieces of the jigsaw that intially felt like they were scattered on the tabletop begin elegantly fitting together.
Sons of Faeriell is the latest from this under-appreciated Italian publisher. Kickstarted last year, they were kind enough to send me a copy, and I’ll be getting a full review out to you as soon as I’ve enjoyed some more plays.
In this lovely looking game, you control a tribe of ‘weybits’, largely benevolent creatures who dwell in Faeriell in harmony with the great animal Guardians who watch over the land. But the threat of Corruption hangs over this idyllic landscape. By sending your heroes out on quests, who will face the menaces of Corruption. Of course, there is always a danger you could become corrupted yourself …
Sons of Faeriell offers you countless ways to counter this threat to the land, and the most important is to send out your heroes. In a lovely touch, the charming miniatures can don different coloured masks to represent which hero type you choose for them. They can level up, ‘attune’ with the Great Guardians, and solve menaces threatening these spirits of the land. You pay for all these actions, and more, with essence cards of different colours. You can build settlements and spiritual totems to expand your reach on the board and help defeat corruption. A harvest each turn brings in resources, and heroes can quest for more. The Guardians themselves can also move about their assigned areas of influence, affecting the range of your actions.
I’ll cover all this in my review, but as you can see your paths to victory are myriad. And there are many ways to achieve that victory, as a it comes from attaining five of a long list of different achievements. On top of that, there’s a fun traitor mechanic which may kick in if a player’s hero falls completely to corruption and becomes the ‘corruption sower’, whose goal is to increase the corruption level to its maximum before anyone wins.
Despite the perceived complexity, this is all charming, engaging and fun, and while Eurogames are no usually my cup of tea, this blend of theme and endless interesting choices is something I really enjoy. I highly recommend checking out Sons of Faeriell and the previous games by Tabula Games, and they have a new one just Kickstarted that you can late pledge on, called Ryozen.
Though their rulebooks are very good, one thing all of their games benefit from is a good rules summary and icon reference sheet! So here’s mine for Sons of Faeriell – enjoy.
