Eternitium
Eternitium is a sci-fi themed deck-building game, designed by Thomas Carlier and Baptiste Perez and published by Haumea Games.
By Aaron T. Huss
Learn more about Eternitium here
Eternitium is a deck-building game like many other non-cooperative deck-building games; be the first to obtain the goal, sabotage your opponents, and rob the good cards when possible. The theme is one of time travel where players use sci-fi technology to surpass every era on your board to find the Eternitium gem. It’s a fun concept that is executed simple enough with cards that have some beautiful artwork. Once you get the concept, the gameplay is more of a race with quick wins than long term strategy (I’m looking at you, Dominion).
The actual mechanics of the game are straightforward, designed well, and well thought out. The rulebook, however, is incredibly lacking. It took three full read throughs to understand the mechanics, and then it clicked, but the rulebook rushes the rules and needs to be a lot more illustrative. It is written in the voice of someone who clearly understands the rules and assumes you can easily follow along, but that’s not helpful for someone who’s never seen the game before. The biggest gap is that the rules explain the gameplay first and the components last. Thus the need to read the rulebook three times. Additionally, the cards use original icons, that take a bit of getting used to, to define what each card does. Yes this allows for easy use across any language, but you might yourself referring to the rulebook often, at first, to use them correctly. After that, you’ll likely get used to it. This can make it easier to create small add-ons, but new icons will possibly be needed for full expansions. But, the sky’s the limit.
The gameplay definitely favors speed with order of play (in terms of playing the right cards in the right order to maximize your turn) being a dominating factor. With the right combinations, you can clear a lot of positive moves in a single turn. Then you’ll spend a lot of time waiting for other players. It’s not so much of a game where you need to respond to your opponents’ moves, although there are a few cards that do affect others. If you want to focus on speed, then maximizing your turn seems to win the day. I was unable to envision any long-term strategies, so my opinion is that there really isn’t any. If there are then I haven’t found them yet. But again, the goal of the game is to uncover the Eternitium gem first; not find a way to dominate your opponents and beat them into submission.
Despite having to slog through the rule book multiple times and not liking the flow of material, the game itself is fun and I can see the mechanics being reskinned for other themes.
