Earth - Playthrough & Review

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This is "Earth," a board game designed by Maxime Tardif & published by Inside Up Games in 2023. This video includes a rules overview.

JUMP:
00:00 - Start/Teach
13:20 - Playthrough Start
01:15:32 - End Game Scoring
01:20:53 - Review

*This is not a sponsored video*

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[BeforeYouPlay]

Let us know what you think about Earth (The Board Game).

[maxtardif]

Thanks for the review and taking the time to play it, well appreciated! Glad you've enjoyed it and I do hope that it will be widely popular as you mentioned! Only time will tell.

Regarding creating a market for cards, it's a good idea, I tried while play testing and it didn't really work at all for several reasons, but mainly because it slowed down the game to much. 1) It was hard to determine the drawing order on the market since it's simultaneous play. 2) Every time a card is turned, everybody wants to read it, which slows the game. 3) It creates AP every time people draw cards, trying to decide which one they should draw. 4) It was more fiddly to handle since you draw so many cards, you always spend time replenishing the market.

The solution to replace this market is by making players draw tons of cards and they can read and choose from the vast number of card they have in their hand compared to other games. The more you draw, the more you reduce the randomness impact.

For the player interaction and the replay factor, I would add that a considerable part of those come from the Fauna objective and not just the main actions. The races for Fauna objectives is really important to win and keeping track of where others are is quite important to score more. At the same time, Fauna give the direction to the game and are the main reason every game you will try to target different things, thus giving the replay value. Do I grow tall trees, a lot of small ones, accumulates resources, put a lot of sprouts, keep cards in hand, compost a lot, create lines, focus on bushes, try to optimize sunny habitats, etc.

Edit: I do want to mention though that if you don't like to much solitaire games, games with a lot of stuff going on, big puzzle or games with many things onto which to focus, Earth is not the game for you. You guys did a good point highlighting that, thanks for it it is a really good advice for people who are trying to decide weather Earth is a good game for them or not :) Great analysis!

Anyhow, thanks for the great review and the thoughtful analysis, it's well appreciated :)

[Hiterai]

57:22: If I am not mistaken Naveen is counting one card twice. the actual way to get the 7 diagonal card line (involving the top left card) would involve one card in the 2nd colomn 4th row, making a line via the following cards: (1:1 = top left, 4:4 = bottom right.) 1:1, 2:2, 1:3, 2:4, 3:3, 4:2, 3:1

Very nice Playthrough though. :D

[scottie]

It seems like a mash up of wingspan and race for the galaxy but with less interaction between players. I have played a lot of multiplayer solitaire euro games over the last few years and I find my interest in this kind of games has significantly deteriorated. I think this game doesn't seem interesting or different enough in order for me to get hyped about it. Thanks a lot for the video, great work!

[PrincessPoohs]

You may correct this later on the video, but I wanted to mention before I forget that your starting Island does indeed count toward Panther Chameleon! It does in fact have two abilities- the side with all of your starting resources is just a black ability, the kind that resolve immediately and only once. I actually looked this up to verify and the designer confirmed it on BGG! ❤

[andymcguire]

I've played this game soooo many times since it was released on TTS, then on BGA, and now my physical copy. I have yet to get bored of it!

[reed]

Subbed for an honest review and not just buying into the hype. Great comparisons drawn to existing games as well.

[CloudBuilderMetba]

I am definitely the target audience for this one, as I love searching for and cobbling together those combos together. So I’ll likely love this. However, I really appreciate your review. You guys are quite good at explaining what you do/don’t like and identifying what others may/not like. I really like your content, so thanks for all the hard work.

[gadgetgeekgirl]

Really good to see a deep review that's more measured and thoughtful about this game. I love a game with a big stack of cards - Wingspan and Ark Nova are two of my favourites, and I had been confused by comparisons with Ark Nova as it seems so much more like Wingspan so it's good to see that confirmed. I'm really looking forward to my kickstarter arriving (any day now!).

[BrandentLam]

One thing I wanted to add that really makes this game have its own niche is if you’re trying to find a satisfying engine builder that plays quickly even at higher player counts.

(It also plays well at 5, which is often times great for those awkward player counts)

With the simultaneous actions, the game can run relatively fast compared to its “common comparison boardgames”

The rules are also super light.

Makes a great gateway for people to get into engine builder tableaus. AND a great game to have if your groups goal is wanting to pump as many games in a meet up session as possible (especially if multiple meet ups you’ve only played a single longer game like ark nova)

Also proud of this game being CANADIAN MADE 🇨🇦!! Woo!!

[andrewfairley]

At the end of the game it was still worth drawing the cards - whilst cards in hand aren’t worth anything innately, if you draw an event card, you can immediately play it if worth it. Wouldn’t be likely to be many net points but could end up gaining you a few!

[CanHammer]

so people are comparing this to ark nova, but other than the fact there are animal photos, it doesnt seem that similar to ark nova at all. It seems much more similar to wingspan in terms of tableau building, engine building, sequential activation, end game conditions, etc, maybe with a bit of terraforming mars mixed in.

[jaybee]

As far as release, I think it releases to retail on 4/22. And by the way, this game has a fantastic price point of $50, compared to Wingspan at $65 and Ark Nova at $75. That is a lot of game for $50.

[pintarfacil]

Naveen is always explaining and informing on his goal advances...Monique is like a ninja 😂

[jaybee]

I played this "hot game" recently at Dice Tower West. I really enjoyed it. While the follow mechanic adds some chaos, I appreciate how you're always involved and I found that I forgot whose actual turn it was. While you are racing and trying the score the most points, at the end, I find myself marvelling at the environment that I had built. I had built a Jamaican mushroom paradise, which is weird because they are notorious for other "flora".

Great work, once again, everyone.

[DevilboyScooby]

Artwork looks beautiful. Dammit, another one for my ever-growing wishlist 😂
Although, how come the box isn't round? *hears X-Files theme*

[baileydelgado]

You guys are my favorite YouTubers to watch for how to plays and reviews. I played the game for the first time last night and had wished you guys had a video, so happy you guys do now. I find the rule book to be not so great but it’s a fun game and ours was great quality.

[AttilaUdvari]

1:06:20 - The card itself counts in the row and column, so Naveen gets 1 sprout for the mushroom and 2 for the herb. And he can put the sprout on another plant, not just the one with the ability.
1:10:05 - The island card is also a double abilities, so here Naveen already had 6 cards and completed the objective earlier, as Monique.

[kjellkanin]

Card dependent games like Ark Nova, Terraforming Mars and Wingspan are actually my favorite type of game, so this might just be right up my alley, but so far I'm not super drawn to getting it.

[NightangelLetsPlay]

I played Earth at 3 and 5 players, and it's really more of a race to the end. It's more difficult to fill all 16 spots at higher player counts. Also, I think Wingspan is very unsatisfying with the engine building, where as Earth has a larger engine and is very satisfying that everything triggers and you get a lot of everything.