AEON’S END LEGACY (2019)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
1-4	45 mins	Jenny Iglesias Nick Little Kevin Riley	Indie Boards & Cards

Take a chunk of Deck Building, add a spoonful of legacy campaign, and you get AEONS END LEGACY.

Much like JAWS OF THE LION, this legacy entry into the Aeons End series does a great job of teaching you the core mechanics of the game, with new things added in steps during the early scenarios.

We really enjoy Deck Building, and after JAWS OF THE LION and MY CITY, my girlfriend was hungry for more campaign games. So she grabbed this.

Having never played an Aeons End game before it was handy getting taught as we went, and I really enjoyed that we were building our individual characters up. And with an added sprinkle of role play.

But the game doesn’t hold your hand forever. While you continue to learn new mechanics and ‘level up’, the bosses become challenging pretty quick.

There’s a definite need to deal damage to the boss and also its minions, and success comes to those who find this balance.

Something else I found clever and novel was the turn mechanic, where there is a draw pile with players and the boss shuffled together. Some rounds you’re desperate to get into the fight, while other turns could see you have four plays in a row.

When it comes to negatives, I have two main ones.

The price is a bit more than I would normally pay for a Deck Builder. Especially with a campaign that has less than 10 fights if you don’t lose (we only had to replay 2 battles).

At first I wasn’t bothered as it states that you can adapt the game afterwards to be replayable as if it was a standard Aeons End game. The cost would balance out with the longevity.

But upon trying to sort all this out, I found it to be quite the headscratcher. Which was my second issue.

It almost makes me want to grab the base game instead.

AEONS END LEGACY does a great job of teaching the game, builds up the mechanics, and the story is epic. Just not sure of the lifespan compared to other games in the series.