Jeremy’s Gaming Gratons: ETERNAL PALACE
Board Game Gumbo is pleased to present another game night recap with Jeremy Dobler. This time, Jeremy gives us his first impression of a 2022 game designed by friend of the Gumbo, Steven Aramini (Circle the Wagons, Sprawlopolis, Animal Kingdoms, etc.) published by the team at Alley Cat Games. Here is Jeremy with his initial impressions after his first session:
Got in a play of Eternal Palace today.
It’s a fairly simple efficiency puzzle worker placement game using dice…kind of like Bitoku!
Though it’s set in China.
You’re going to be worker placing, completing tracks, and building increasingly more expensive buildings to gain painting layers to construct a mural of the countryside.
As soon as one person gets 8 of the 14 layers, the end is nigh and you finish the round, counting up VP from painting layers, features, imperial seals awarded for first to 8 layers, largest and highest consecutive layer numbers, and furthest along the Palace Track.
I think the most interesting part is that while you roll your dice to determine turn order, lowest sum value goes first, the dice are then placed behind your shield in groups, the sum of each of those groups is the value of the worker, with that being what number location you can visit on the board #1-12 plus a few locations regardless of value, but are either ‘lay eggs’ actions, or a track you can move up for smaller benefits.
Most locations near the bottom of the numerical spectrum have small tracks that require repeat visits to max out, and get the painting layer for, but the first person to do it, also gets a feature, which is worth an extra point at the end of the game.
The higher you go, the less repeat visits, but the more expensive the worker placement because you need more dice to hit those higher numbers.
A few locations even require you to revisit with different configurations of that number, like #7 wants 2-3 visits of 3&4, 1&6, and/or 2&5 to be able to obtain the layer for that location.
There’s also Advisor cards that give you either One-time Use gains, or a One-per-round ability you can tap them for to give you a few valuable resources for other actions leading to a bit of combo-wombo.
Overall I enjoyed the game, but felt it’s a little light for my tastes, luckily, there’s a handful of expansion modules that spice it up a bit that we will definitely try soon.
Jeremy is an omni-gamer from Lafayette, Louisiana, who games at home with his wife and young son, but also can be frequently hosting or visiting game nights with friends all over Acadiana. Jeremy loves games about nature, IP games involving turtles and batmen, and games appropriate to play with his young son, but expect lots of different games discussed here each time. All photos courtesy of Jeremy Dobler.