In November 2021, the still young American games publisher did CrowD Games on Kickstarter attracted attention with his game City of the Great Machine. Over 2.000 supporters collected steampoint-style illustrated work over the course of the campaign. A short time later, the next successful title, Evolution: New World, was launched. At the beginning of 2023, a game called Fabled: The Spirit Lands was released directly CrowD Games store. The game impresses with its unusual design, with illustrations that are rarely seen in board games. CrowD Games kindly provided us with a review copy of their unique game. You can find out whether the game was able to convince us in terms of gameplay in the following review.
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The end of times is approaching. Soon the worlds of people and spirits will be reborn and the universe will be reshaped. For thousands of years, gods ruled over the two worlds, but now it is time for them to be forgotten. On the threshold of the rebirth of the universe, the gods organize a competition between the brotherhoods of men in order to hand over control of the entire universe to the most worthy of them. The knowledge of the entire universe is written in the most valuable of all books, the Books of the Sun. The brotherhood that can ultimately collect the most books in the sun has the most knowledge about the universe and both of its worlds and can call themselves rulers of them.
A fairytale game
Fabled: The Spirit Lands is a kind of area movement game for 1 - 4 people in which we send the wise men of our brotherhood through different landscapes (prairies, mountains and forests) of our world and have them collect various things in order to get the books of the to get sun. The game world through which our characters wander changes over and over again according to our wishes. When the wise men reach a legendary place, they activate its effect, which brings us closer to the coveted books of the sun.
Fabled relies on a fairytale-like gameplay. A game always has a prologue, a chapter and an epilogue. While the prologue and epilogue only represent the beginning (preparation) and the end (scoring) of an entire game, the chapters can be seen like rounds. Fabled also includes five different scenarios, each of which changes a game in certain ways. For example, in one scenario, the calculation of victory points is changed slightly at the end or so-called milestones are added that change the rules from a certain point in the game. Each of the five scenarios offers enough changes that no two scenarios are the same. Each scenario requires different approaches in order to be victorious.
Different scenarios – same basic principle
However, the basic principle does not change. Depending on the number of players and/or scenario, a game lasts 8 - 10 rounds and our goal is the coveted Books of the Sun. Starting with the prologue by placing the first landscapes, we move on to the chapters. These are equivalent to rounds and consist of an action phase, a movement phase and an oblivion phase.
In the action phase we have to decide on 1 of 4 actions: We can take 2 books of the prairie, carry out 1 - 2 transformations, take 1 step with one of our sages in the landscapes or place a new landscape in the Spirit Land. Books of the Prairie are the lowest form of books we can obtain. This is followed by Books of the Mountains, Books of the Forests and, last but not least, the coveted Books of the Sun. Let's run one transformation out, we can convert two books of the same type into a book of the next level. To place new landscapes, also costs us books of the same type, as well as books of the prairie per existing landscape of the type to be placed.
Basically, in the action phase we try to improve our starting position. Either in the form of the books or for a better position in the following movement phase. In the movement phase we announce a type of landscape in which all of our wise men who are in this type of landscape then move two spaces further. However, the wise ones of our opponents can also take a step. If a wise man reaches a fabled place, he stops his movement there and activates its effect. The effects give us various bonuses and are the main way to advance in the game. They usually give us more and/or higher level books, cheap conversion options for them, more freedom of movement, etc.
Following the movement phase, the forgetting phase occurs. In this case, landscapes that no longer contain any wise men are discarded from the playing field. If all players have gone through these three phases once, the chapter (or the round) ends and a new chapter begins.
Traveling with friends
When we move on to the next chapter, depending on the marker on the time board, we receive new allies, can improve those we have already acquired, or have to face new challenges in the form of events. The latter change the game until the next event is revealed and can have both positive and negative effects.
Allies, on the other hand, have a special ability that we can use at any time. If we decide to recruit a new ally, we draw two from the ally deck and choose one. The new ally's effect applies immediately, along with existing allies. If, on the other hand, we improve an ally, we select one of our friends and mark him with a trait token. This indicates that from now on we can use the improved version of his ability. For example, if an ability gives us 1 book when we perform a certain action, it will now give us 2 books in the future.
However, these small improvements usually make a big difference, as they give us better opportunities to customize our game and make it easier for us to achieve our goals. This means that the decision as to whether to take a new ally and thus a new ability or to improve an existing one is usually not that easy.
Can be played competitively, cooperatively and solo
In addition to the competitive game modes, Fabled: The Spirit Lands can also be played solo or cooperatively. Here we compete against the so-called spirits. At the beginning of their round, the spirits draw a target landscape and try to add it to the world. In return, like us, they pay books to be able to place the landscape. Then, as in the basic game, they move their sages in all target landscapes.
If you haven't managed to play a landscape beforehand, you get a trickery card, which is activated after the movement phase and gives the ghosts powerful bonuses.
As in the competitive version, the battle against the spirits is also about the books of the sun. Whichever team has more at the end of the game wins the game. You can also measure your success on a scale.
About Fabled: The Spirit Lands
| Number of players: 1 – 5 Age: from 14 years Playing time: 40 - 75 minutes Difficulty: expert game Long-term motivation: high Classification: Area Movement, Placement Game Author: Anatoly Okhapkin Illustrations: Alexandra Karenskaya, Maya Kurkhuli, Anna Laryushina, Nikolai Mitrukhin, Alexey Puzankov Publisher: CrowD Games Official Website: Link Year of publication: 2023 Language: German Cost: ~ 65 euros |
Conclusion
Fabled: The Spirit Lands spoke to me immediately because of its extraordinary illustrations. I was very interested in trying out the game when it came out at the beginning of the year. Now that I've been able to try it out several times, I'm completely thrilled with the game because it's not just exceptional in terms of illustrations. Fabled also impresses with its fresh ideas when it comes to the feel of the game.
The ever-changing world in which our sages wander and visit legendary places truly feels like a long search for the coveted Books of the Sun. We are only making slow progress and every oh-so-small step is warmly welcomed. But we are not alone: We have to pay attention to what advantages our opponents might have if we announce a landscape and all the wise men move within it.
But not everyone likes this slow progress. It can sometimes feel really tedious and like a lot of unnecessary work to get hold of the Sun's books, because books are in short supply. They are quite rare to obtain and a transformation to the next level of 2 to 1 is comparatively expensive. For example, let's say we want to transform up to a Book of the Sun: For 1 Book of the Sun we need 2 Books of the Forest - For 2 Books of the Forest we need 4 Books of the Mountains - For 4 Books of the Mountains we need 8 Books of the Prairie . Since you can only perform two transformations with a normal action, this process can take a long time. Since books are also considered resources for new landscapes, they are only that much more scarce and valuable. Not everyone in our tests liked this severe scarcity of resources.
But Fabled isn't a scorefest. Here every point has to be worked out hard, which in my opinion is the special appeal of the game. You always have to make sure that you don't give your opponents an advantage and put yourself in the best possible positions, because Fabled is a close, head-to-head race, the tension of which lasts until the end. If you distribute your wise men well, it is inevitable that our opponents will send our wise men on their journey and we will get bonuses on their turns.
I would definitely like to warmly recommend Fabled: The Spirit Lands. It dares to do a lot of new things and creates a gaming feeling that you have never experienced before. If you are interested in the game, you can purchase it on Amazon or various German online shops. In addition, CrowD-Games is currently working on the games in their Publisher's own online shop, also available for European countries.
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Fabled: The Spirit Lands - Board Game - English - Crowd Games * |
30,43 EUR |
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