Dystopia awaits you and your leadership. It is up to you to decide how you want to make sacrifices here in the present world so that the future is better for you and everyone else. This is the challenge you face as a leader of workers trying to build an empire and strengthening alliances that you need.
Euphoria is a game for 2-6 players designed by Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone. It is published by Stonemaier Games. It plays in 60 mins for ages 13 and up.
Overview
Euphoria is a worker-placement game with dice taking the role of workers. You will use them to select actions but minimize their knowledge or else they might desert you. You have recruits that help as well in the process of trying to place your authority on the board. The winner is the first player to place 10 authority tokens.
Players begin with 2 recruit cards , a multiplier marker, 2 worker dice of their color and player tokens on the moral and knowledge chart.
Gameplay
On a players turn, you have two actions that you can take: 1-Place an available worker on the board or 2-Retrieve any/all workers.
1-Place one worker on your board:
You can place one on your board exactly, any which are under your control are available. When you have any workers sharing the same knowledge (number) at the beginning of your turn, you make place all of those workers on the same turn. When you have available workers they can go on one of 3 types of action spaces.
-Temporary Use: These spots will allow you to bump another worker from there to its owner. These workers are rolled when bumped back. Some of the action spaces have a cost as well when you use them.
-Multi-Use. There are a few that allow any number of workers to be placed into those spaces.
-One-Time Use. This a solid small square that you can place a worker, hand a cost ad you cannot be bumped from that space. When you place workers anywhere on the board, you first pay the cost then gain the benefit.
Player order will move around as players gain and retrieve new workers, so the play just continues around clockwise with each player taking a turn.
The Morale and Knowledge charts on the board make up a significant part of the game play that you need to follow for Euphoria. The Morale chart tracks your individual workers morale level and affects your hand size. This will fluctuate through the game affecting your hand size as it changes. The Knowledge chart tracks your workers total knowledge. This is their awareness of the world around them, and if it gets to a collective 16 or greater you will lose a worker as they realize the dystopia they are currently in. This will happen when you gather them up and roll them and add the Knowledge chart number to their total die rolls. This happens when you retrieve dice, make new workers, have dice bumped off or are in a completed construction site.
Locations
The game has a variety of locations that your workers can go to, each of which with unique aspects. These include:
Worker Activation Tank. This location will allow you to add a worker to your group and increase your morale or knowledge.
Commodity Areas. These locations give you opportunity to collect commodities and each type has the same amount in ratios. You add all the knowledge already there to what you are adding to it.
Allegiance Track. Here is where you will track the strength of each faction and progress allegiance points as you gain them. There are four tiers, each of which will add special abilities as you progress down the track.
Tunnels. Each faction is trying to tunnel from one location to another, attempting to gain access to other commodities on the board. Here they will collect resources and artifacts as well. Completing tunnels allows for new actions to become available.
Construction Sites. Here players will add workers to contribute to the construction of a market. Once enough spaces are occupied the Market tile is flipped. Players who contributed to the construction gain an authority token there, those that did not incur a penalty from the site.
Artifact Markets. These are pre-built at the start of the game and each will ask you to pay 3 artifact cards and that allows you to advance the corresponding allegiance and place an authority token on either the corresponding territory or constructed market tile.
Constructed Markets. Once a Market has been built you can exchange goods for land in the territory of that faction. All players have the option of using this, not just the builder of it.
Icarus. Here the trading works differently than the other areas. Icarite markets may not have authority tokens placed on them and are not trying to dig into other areas. Here you need to focus on the allegiance track to unlock hidden recruits.
The game ends when a player is the first to place all 10 of their authority tokens on the board. That player is the winner and gains full control of the dystopia! Ties are possible as well, and there are a number of tiebreakers in the game to decide the winner.
Impressions
Euphoria adds a unique twist to worker-placement by using dice placement for your workers. These workers gaining knowledge and eventually abandoning you is a different aspect than any other worker-placement games I have played in the past. I found the balance of building up but not building too fast to be fun, as you strained to keep your workers knowledgable but not too much so you didn’t lose them.
Players familiar with any type of worker-placement will find this one easy to understand and follow along with, the way the game flows is smooth once you get a few turns in. The minimal options of either placing a worker or removing them from the board keeps it entry-level easy to follow and understand when it comes to making game decisions.
The only part that may be difficult for newer players or those still trying to better understand worker-placement games will be the different types of action spaces and how they function for multi and temporary usage. I also expect that the iconography may be a little difficult for new players to follow at times as well. I would recommend it for players with some experience in the world of worker-placement already.
Overall this game is a great addition to my collection and one I expect to be exploring with other players as we venture out in the dystopia and try to discover who will be willing to sacrifice enough to build it better and be the leader of the dystopia in Euphoria!
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