WBG Score: 8.5
Player Count: 1-5
Published by: Bellows Intent
Designed by: Chris Matthew
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. This review is for the Core version.
An Age Contrived comes from new designer Chris Mathew, who seems to have struck Kickstarter gold, after over 4,800 backers pledged close to half a million dollars for this game back in the beginning of 2023. Now the game is hitting people's tables, and there have been some mixed reviews. I will say for the record, right now, I like this game and will explain why in more detail below. But I will also cover the criticism people have for the game, so you can hear a balanced argument. But first, let's explain how this game works and get it to the table.
This will be a detailed teach of the set-up and how to play. If you would rather just know what we think, skip to the Is It Good? section below.
How To Set Up An Age Contrived
First place the main board down on the table. It's a beauty, so take a moment to take it all in!
Now shuffle the five Monument Randomiser Tokens and draw a number matching the player count. These Monuments will be used alongside the Beacon Monument during your game. The total number of Monuments played will always be equal to the number of players plus one. Next, locate the metal frame a for each Monument in use this game and place them into their positions from under the game board. Start with the middle Monument, lay the board flat, then do the sides one by one. The Dice Tower suggest this process is hard. Do it in the right order and it will not be hard at all.
Locate the various panels for each Monument you are using and place them in their assigned space on the board. they go in numerical order with one on the top and the square icons facing up. Place the Monument Patron Tokens into each Monuments bound energy area. This is the circular area behind each Monument. Now, get the Monument Benefit Tokens and remove all Tokens that show a player count greater than your number of players. This is shown in a notch icon on the top right of the token. Randomly deal one Monument Benefit Token face-up into the assigned space next to each stack of Monument sections in use this game.
Next, randomly deal one of the six Achievement Tokens face-up into each of the the blank Achievement Token spaces on the board. Return the rest to the box. Then remove all upgraded Transmuter Tiles that show a player count greater than your number of players, then shuffle the remaining Tiles by tier a single face-down deck on the bottom of the board, with tier three on the bottom and tier one on top. Reveal four tiles face-up to fill the Tile Pool.
Next, place the Upgraded Actions tokens faceup near the board in a 4x2 layout suitable for your player count or utilise the provided tray. Then, position the Conduit Tokens in three stacks near the board or in the tray. Remember to place the Conduit Token with two icons at the top of each stack to reward the first player to claim it with a superior token.
Now, distribute one quick-start card to each player randomly for character assignment. Alternatively, players can choose their card if they prefer, although random selection is recommended due to the asymmetry in player powers. Gather your character’s corresponding Transmutation Device, Character Board, character components, and a player aid. Players can select the side of their Transmutation Device, Character Board, and Transmuter Tiles to use, which does not impact gameplay.
Each player now needs to place their Character Miniature on the starting space of the closest region to their seat at the table that has a Monument in use this game. Now, take all the energy tokens of your colour. Note there are four types of icons. Place two Energy Tokens of each type into the energy reserve on the right hand side of the game board. You will be bale to get these using various powers during the game to increase your pool. Then, place your remaining Energy Tokens into the Exhausted Pool of your Character Board
Everyone now places their three Bridge Tokens onto their matching numbered spaces on their Character Board along with their Channel Marker, face up with two players and face down with every other player count. Each player must now place their five Action Tokens into their matching numbered spaces of their Transmutation Device You can use either side, just position them into the right slot. The two Transmuter Tiles numbered zero are placed to the left of your Transmutation Device. Now, each player must place Energy Tokens from their Exhausted Pool, matching the types and positions shown in their quick-start card. Place one Energy Token into the Tile Pool on the main board and this should leave four on your exhausted pool.
Next, randomly deal the neutral Bridge Tokens based on your player count face-up onto the broken path spaces connecting each player’s starting region to the central region on the main board. Finally, randomly choose who will be the start player, and give them the start player marker. You are now ready to play!
How To Play An Age Contrived
On your turn, players can either ADVANCE their channel (to develop and prepare for later turns) or take one or more ACTIONS. Play continues in turns like this until all of the Monuments have been made, at which point the game continues until all players have had equal turns, then the game ends immediately.
Advancing is done very simply by selecting one of your two inactive Transmuter Tiles and sliding it into the first position of your Device. This will push the others along, knocking the last one. The one that is knocked off is brought back to your inactive side. Any energy in the final tile that comes out is immediately exhausted. You will then fill up all spaces in the new tile that you just added with energy taken from your exhausted pool. You can pick any energy, so think about which action you may want to do. If your Channel Marker is charged, you can do this all twice. When you move the tiles along, check to see if any of the symbols on them match any symbols above in any gained Conduit Tokens. You start with none, so this won't happen for a while. But when it does, you can then carry out these actions, moving your character or energy one space along the tracks for each matched symbol. More on this later.
The main thing you will do in the game though, is use the energy in your device to take actions. There are five actions in the game as shown on the bottom icons on each of the five rows. You can upgrade these through building monuments and buying new upgrades. When you use your turn to take actions, select and exhaust one energy from the bottom row from the area you chose to take an action. Add this to your exhausted area. Then take the Action. You can repeat this for as many energy tokens as you wish to exhaust from the bottom row.
Any energy located in the bottom row at position five can be exhausted to perform any one action. The other four work as such:
The second action space lets you buy and upgrade the Transmuter Tiles from the main board. The first one costs one energy, the second and third cost two, and the final costs three energy. You can only spend energy previously placed into the energy tile pool on the main board. Later upgrades will let you reduce these costs. The tile you buy immediately replaces one of your existing tiles. You can never have more than seven. The replaced tile is out of the game. All other tiles then slide down and a new one is added to the row. Upgraded tiles have more spaces for more energy, and additional icons to improve your Advance action.
The fourth space lets you move your figure on the board two spaces or move on the Monument or Pillar tracks. These final two are on your player board, and the first time you do this, take any energy token from your exhausted area and add it sideways into the first position on the track. When you get to the top of either track, you can carry out the benefit. This is to either bind (add) an energy token to a Monument's bind area on the main board or onto one of the Pillar spaces on the main board. In a two or three-player game, there is only one space for each monument, so act fast. Moving your character on the board is mainly to get into new areas and cross bridges. Doing so gains you the benefit of the bridge. More on that later.
Finally, the first and third action space work in the same way. You can exhaust energy here to then move energy from the corresponding upper rows and place them onto the board. Space one lets you move energy from space four and five. And action space three lets you move tokens from energy space two and three. Pictured above is an upgraded action tile in space three for you to see how you can advance this. Hopefully, it is clear what this means. You can add any one upper energy to the board. You will also notice a symbol in the first space that lets you refresh your Chanel Marker, meaning you can Advance twice again on your next Advance turn.
Moving energy to the board is the main thing you will do in the game. There are three places to move energy too.
First, you can add tiles to the Tile pool to help you buy upgraded Transmuter tiles in later turns.
Second, you can add them to the left-hand Achievements row to any achievements you may have completed by then for end game points. These change each game but are mainly about getting energy onto the board, upgrading your Transmuter tiles, and developing your powers. You can either gain five points or two points for each type of Energy token you have on the board in the Monument spaces that match the energy use here on the Achievement row. The above two show how you can gain points if you have bound energy to at least three Monuments, and below; if you have acquired at least three Conduit tokens.
Finally, you can add them to the monuments, and this is the main action in the game.
When you add energy to the monuments, you must match one of the face-up spaces in one of the face-up monuments, based on the type of energy required there. When you fill the final space on a Monument, place the final piece on its side to remind you that you were the player to add the final energy. Then, when your turn is over, you will build that completed piece of the monument. Each Monument has four or five parts. When the final part of the final Monument is built, the game is over that round.
When you build the Monument, remove all energy from it, one at a time. Each player who contributed energy can take one of two actions. Either gain one or two (for the first piece of each Monument) energy from the Energy reserves on the right side of the board, or take that Monument's Benefit Token. These are different each game, but are essentially how you will upgrade your actions, gain the Conduit tokens to improve your Advance turn, and build bridges. There are also other benefits that repeat other actions already covered.
Each player can gain just one of these two benefits, no matter how much energy they have there. Now, each energy token becomes active. The Rose energy is exhausted but lets you move your character one space on the Monument of Pillar track. The Magnet energy lets you load it back into any empty space on your Transmuter tile board. The Compass energy lets you place it on the board into one of the three available spaces (Tile Pool, Achievement row, or Monument section). Any wild energy can be placed anywhere on the Monument, but now it just simply becomes exhausted. But when you build your first bridge, a Wild energy power will become unlocked. Watch out for other play through that got this rule wrong!
The final token, placed on the side, does not activate like this, rather it moves onto the board next to the built Monument, into the Monument's bound energy area, ready for big end game points. Everyone gains a benefit from contributing towards a Monument being built, but the completing player gets the biggest reward.
At the end of the game, players will be rewarded with points for any of the four types of energy they have fully gained from the energy stores on the board, for each energy bound to a Monument on the board or bound to the Pillar spaces, and for any Tier three bridge that has been built, and all achievements you have bound energy to. Finally, any energy left in the Tile pool will gain one additional point as well.
Is It Fun? An Age Contrived Board Game Review
Building up your engine through combo turns is a real delight. In your first game, you may not be able to do this quite so much. It does take a game or two to learn the strategy and really learn how to play this game well. This learning curve is not too steep though, but you do need to give it a few games. But it is also genuinely satisfying as you see your turns develop into combo-tastic beauties, and your scores improve rapidly. Game one will still be fun, you just may not build up your combos quite so well and get a great score
This was a big criticism that The Dice Tower review focused on. Which did not sit well with me. They suggested the Action turns took too long (due to these combo-tastic turns) and that the Advance turns were dull. The Advance turns certainly are not as fun, but are just a necessary part of the panning process, and are quick and the game runs on when you do it. The Action turns can combo into longer more powerful turns, but this does not happen each time, it takes a few turns to power them up as when you have a bigger turn you use your energy up, so you then need to build back up. The Dice Tower are right to say it can lead to longer wait times between turns, but these longer turns are not frequent, and when they happen, they involve other players as well. So, you need to be paying attention.
For example, when someone completes a Monument, this will involve all players who contributed to it, each player being able to then activate their energy there. When someone buys a new tile, you can add more Energy to the Tile pool if you had any there. And you will want to be paying attention when people add tiles to the Achievement track or bind energy anywhere else on the board, as it will affect what you can do on your later turns. There are only so many spaces for this.
The game offers a plethora of options each turn and in your overall strategy. There are multiple viable paths to victory. The variety ensures that every choice you make feels significant and impactful, but also unique and truly a choice. There is never an obvious and clear path. It's up to you what you aim for. I don't see a way you can ever do it all. In part, this is down to you, obviously. But you do need to pay attention to what other players are aiming for and counter that. You cannot let other players dominate specific scoring areas. Watching other players strategies is important, and forming your own strategies to counter is key. I enjoy this sort of interaction in games. It forces me to adapt my strategy during each game rather than following a set process.
Visually, the game is a treat. Constructing monuments is both fun and rewarding, with each structure adding to the game's aesthetic appeal. And let's face it. It's just cool to do. They clip on magnetically to the board and it just works so perfectly. When built, they look great and add an impressive dimension.
The game's pace is intriguing. If multiple players focus solely on monument building, or at least as a major part of their strategy, this can lead to a very quick game with lower scores. If one player opts for this strategy, others may feel pressured to follow suit to avoid missing out on completed monument bonuses, and the end game scoring this brings. However, balancing your focus across all areas of the game will likely yield better results.
There leads to a fascinating balance between game pace, strategy, and overall performance. Mastering the art of multitasking in this game is challenging yet crucial. For instance, the pillars of civilisation initially offer a modest four points for the first one built, which might seem insignificant. But if you manage to complete all six, a whopping 39 points can be yours. As with monuments, it's important to prevent any one player from monopolising this scoring area. For context, in a two-player game, the maximum points from monuments are 36, but linking the energy bound this way to your achievements is essential. Achievements can significantly boost your score, especially if you’re the first to reach them and can capitalise on the bonus points for bound energy types on the board. You can score two points for each bound energy on the board of any one type this way.
Another criticism from The Dice Tower was how the game felt a little devoid of theme, and how what you did did not link with the overall feel and story of the game. And how the board was detached from the game and moving your character felt devoid of purpose. I suppose feeling for you will depend upon your own desire to immerse yourself in the lore, which is rich and deep; and how much you want to play a resource management efficiency euro game versus a more thematic character-driven Ameritrash. The game can be both. What you do with you energy effects what you can do on the board. The two are interlinked. And where your character moves affects what bridge powers you can activate, and which monument track you can bind energy too. Where you are and what you do affects your abilities.
The most surprising criticism from The Dice Tower for me was when they said the game makes you get "bogged down in minute details" that they "don't care about," such as where they place their specific energy on their Transmuter board. Where you place energy affects what actions you can do on later turns, and which energy you place affects which energy you will place on the board, potentially activate later, and score with the achievements. This is fairly basic future planning seen in a lot of games. I like the process of thinking through future turns in this game. "I want to score this energy in this achievement, and I want to take this action from activating this energy on that monument, so I will place this energy here, these here, and then these ones here." I like this sort of thinking. This is a very odd criticism that I wonder if it comes more from the unscripted "riff" style of review they do, that can create off-the-cuff points like this that are perhaps not actually thought out, or even genuinely believed? It would be fair to say that planning ahead turns like this is not something that some individuals would enjoy, but to say they are minute details they don't care about simply makes no sense in this reviewer's considered and humble opinion.
And then they had an issue with the "un-fun" and "boring" rule about keeping your character facing and moving in the same direction. My understanding of this was so that your character cannot simply walk on, off and back onto a bridge, over and over. Like any track in any game, you move up and towards the next benefit. Not up and down, off and on the tracks you like. Hence, keep moving forward in the direction of your character. There are other issues they mentioned such as the Monument building (which is the entire point of the game!) stopping the game flow; that I could also debate here, but I think I will leave it at that. Maybe they were having a bad day.
Overall, the interplay between strategy, game pace, and multitasking makes for an engaging and intellectually stimulating experience. I love getting better at this game. I love trying new strategies in this game. And right now, I cannot stop thinking about previous games of this, future potential games, and ways I may try and play next. I think I may be falling hard for this game. Watch the Dice Tower review for contrasting views and make up your own mind. But for me, this is up there as one of my top ten games of 2024.