Earth - Board Game Review - Relentless Flora & Fungi

Earth - Board Game Review - Relentless Flora & Fungi

Earth, the soil that supports and sustains our beautiful planet, Earth. Over thousands of years of evolution and adaptation the flora and fauna of this unique planet have grown and developed into amazing life forms, creating symbiotic ecosystems and habitats.

It’s time to jump into these rich environments and create some amazing natural synergies that replicate and extrapolate on Earth’s amazing versatility and plethora of natural resources. Create a self-supporting engine of growth, expansion and supply where even your unused plants become compost for future growth.

Earth is an open world engine builder for 1 to 5 players with simple rules but tons of strategic possibilities. With its encyclopedic nature and the enormous number of unique cards and combinations, every single game will allow you to discover new synergies and connections, just as our vast and fascinating world allows us to do!

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KIENDA SPONSOR REFERRAL LINK

If you register an account on their website using my referral link and/or code you can get 5% discount on your first order over £60. And for every referral link used, the channel has greater access to further review copies for more content on the channel!

Referral Code:

02610323

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Related Content

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Who Am I?

One single batchelor from the UK talking about his passion for board games and the people who play them! I support small content creators, board game cafes and go against the status quo when it comes to the board game industry. I give my honest opinions without bias towards any publishers or designers and will not hold back if I don't like a game.

The Broken Meeple is a variety channel that hosts all kinds of board game content from reviews to Top 10 lists to playthroughs to live stream collaborations with special guests (predominantly small channels who deserve more exposure).

I look forward to engaging with you, the community on my live streams or in the comments on my videos!

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction and KIENDA Promo
01:07 - Background
02:25 - Basic Overview
04:07 - Other Similar Games
07:02 - Pros (Aesthetics, Respect Photography!)
09:04 - Pros (Rules Are Simple Without Being Text Heavy)
10:50 - Pros (A Ton of Variety)
12:17 - Pros (So Little Downtime When All Running Smooth)
14:07 - Cons (Not For Those Who Can't Process Abilities Fast)
16:30 - Cons (Almost Zero Multiplayer Interaction)
20:10 - Cons (A Decent Level of Luck Which Hurts Objectives)
23:00 - The Solo Mode (The True Way To Play Earth?)
26:10 - Summary, Verdict & Player Scaling
29:16 - Please Share and Support The Show

#brokenmeeple #earth #insideupgames #boardgames #boardgame #lukehector #supportsmallcreators #tabletop #tabletopgames #bgg #boardgamer #boardgamereview

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Useful Links

Full credit to BoardGameGeek and its members for any images used that aren't my own or part of the publisher press kit.

[maxtardif]

Thanks for the great review and taking the time to play Earth, really glad you enjoyed it that much :)

[hairygnome]

I was going to say the box art for earth is the best looking thing around and then I see our fave reviewer has a suave new look with glasses and a fresh new hair cut. Looking good buddy!

[guandjs]

Great review! I love card driven games (including Terraforming Mars Ares) and I agree with your rating and insights here. If one gets flooded with cards with some actions that you have to then discard/compost, it can lead to AP but then people usually move usually to other actions where you are not so focused. Overall, it is great fun if you enjoy these kinds of games!

[codym]

The zero interaction stops me from jumping on. I like cool combo puzzles and interesting decisions, but I want to interact with other people around the table in the game.

You have a top ten games with non-combat player interaction? I enjoy Carcassonne, Castles of Burgundy, and The Quest for El Dorado because the other person matters.

[tomhubbard]

18:40 You made a good point about the milestones, but I think it's worth pointing out another difference with TM. The benefits here do more for the second and third runners than the Martian Milestones that just get pinched once, or the Awards that are pursued throughout the game after getting funded, and only help two. Neither is quite what's happening here. You can pursue a goal, miss first and still get some benefit.

[dilatedbeholder]

The thing I keep hearing about this is that there is almost zero player interaction, but I guess the same could be said about Ark Nova and many a Euro game 🤷‍♂️

[quesoblanco]

I appreciated the different points you made in your review. I got hyped from the Dice Tower vid, but after watching this one, Earth is probably the type of game I would enjoy solo but might be too fast paced for me to enjoy with a group.

[wybird]

Spot-on review. I've only played this solo but totally see this as MP solo. I can see that one may be able to be strategic and pick cards with abilities that trigger on other people's turns for more freebies, but the luck of the draw will probably dictate what you play more than anything else.

[TheBrokenMeeple]

1 dislike huh? Come on then boy, what don't like you? Bring it on!! <raises boxing fists>

[Puzzu]

Thanks for the review! Very helpful to know this is very multiplayer solitaire, I don’t like games where I can’t even see if everyone is playing correctly.

[CK-misd]

I like Forest Shuffle better because Forest Shuffle plays quicker than Earth and both games are point salad. In addition, Forest Shuffle has more interactions than Earth.

[evannadeau]

I own Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition, Ark Nova, and Wingspan. I mostly play solo. Is this worth getting? I love all those other games and this looks right up my alley but could be too similar maybe?

Edit: oops sorry commented too soon!! My bad

[elainetyger]

Thank you for this review. I pre-ordered Earth through The Game Steward in the US. They expect to receive their boxes this month and then start shipping. It looks like Ares in that it will be easy to carry but still take up a lot of space on the table. Perhaps I will have a planet theme meetup one night and do both, though based on your review, Ares should come first and have this one be the main event.

[thomassawicki]

Great review, mirrors a lot of my own feelings! You also really explained the at times frantic feeling of this game, you truly dont get a breather. Ive noticed the extremely fast pace seems to stop normally AP prone people from APing much.

[revimfadli]

But I _can_ give this game less grief for its randomness, because the useless cards here at least can always be composted :p Don't have to rely on drawing certain cards which would allow tucking, selling etc

[iansutton]

No problem with photography if it doesn't look like disjointed cut & paste. A consistent style can work.

[jamescartwright]

Excellent review Luke, looking very studious with glasses on there 🙂 I think I have enough games with similar mechanisms to this one and although it's very pretty, I think I'll not be getting it.

[BoroMirraCz]

Funnily enough, this review showed me that Earth is a really overhyped game... but it did also really sell it to me. Based on reactions from Dice Tower, I'd think this game is a miracle, a wonder... but it is not. It is a great game, that is actually quite simple and not even that innovative. It's more of a remix of Wingspan, TM Ares with the theme of Ark Nova. But apparently it works. But what sells this game to me is the comboing of various cards, based on how they trigger after each other. I love that mechanic, I love building complex engines.

Another point where I really disagree with DT is that Earth doesn't really replace TM (the big one). Ares? Sure. Original TM? Nope. Just the fact that original TM wasn't even mentioned in this review in comparison to Earth shows how different the games are. Even the engine getting build in TM is really different.

[Tabletop_AshleyRose]

OH YEAHH!! That's awesome. I can't wait to get this one to the table, hopefully this weekend. I also decided to be totally unnecessary and get the tableau neoprene player mats. Thanks, Luke!!

[Castle-Games]

The solo in this game seems much better than the one in Ares Expedition. Another reason this will replace that game on my shelf. Thanks for the review Luke!