WBG Score: 8.5
Player Count: 2-6
You’ll like this if you like: Sagrada, 7 Wonders Duel, Ra
Published by: Catch Up Games
Designed by: Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat
This is the reviewer's copy. See our review policy here
My track record of scores for Faraway reads like someone filtered a web shop's prices from low to high and my scores are on page one... of twenty! Thankfully my score for this game fares a lot better than my own in game attempts which tend to be… Faraway... from anyone else’s.
How to get Faraway
Mechanically, games of Faraway are pretty easy. Games will be played over eight rounds and at the start of each round players will simultaneously pick one of the three region cards in their hand to play and place it face down in front of them. Players then reveal and add their cards to their row. Since you'll eventually be playing eight cards in total you may want to make two rows of four, especially if you're fighting for table space. Each card has a number in the top left corner of the card. Any players who played a higher number than their previous card will get to take one sanctuary card from the deck plus one for every map token showing in their row and any previously gained sanctuary cards. Pick one and discard the rest. The player who played the lowest card that round will be the first to pick a new region card from the market. Go until all players have a new card and then clear and refill the market and move to the next round.
After eight rounds players flip all their cards face down where they are and flip back over your last card and score it. Once you’ve scored it, do the same with the next card going backwards until you’ve revealed and scored all of your cards then do the same with any sanctuary cards. So, how do you score? Each card will have on it a number in the corner, a pretty picture and a colour on the bottom half and (for the most part) a scoring condition. When you reveal a card you score it’s condition based on cards you’ve already revealed (thus can see) including sanctuary cards. So when you score the first card you won’t have many things, if any at all, revealed to score it against. Before the scoring conditions can be triggered on some cards you'll need to meet a prerequisite of revealed symbols. These can be gained from some cards having them on the top right and from some sanctuary cards. But again, you’ll only count the icons you can see for the prerequisites. Some sanctuary cards will have a scoring condition on them as well so don’t forget to score those. After all cards have been revealed, total up the scores and the player with the most points wins!
If you’re gonna go Faraway make sure you're back on time for tea.
I’ve played many games over the years that I’ve learned, played, had only the vaguest clue of what I was doing, with no real sense of strategy, but still, at the end of the game, I wanted to play it again. That’s usually because somewhere towards the end it all clicks into place like Sherlock finally putting the pieces together to solve a case, or you finally remembering where you left your tie (which always turns out to be exactly where your other half said it was) Faraway for me joins that prestigious pantheon of games. Because while it’s not a particularly hard game to learn the basic mechanisms of, getting your head around that little nuance of scoring backwards takes at least one game. I’ll almost guarantee that you'll teach the game and people will say they understand (even though those middle distance stares betray them) but it’s genuinely not until they start to score that you’ll hear “oooooooh, now I get it” as the penny finally drops. That first sentence is usually followed up with a “I’ve made a terrible mistake”. Which I usually equate to an in-game error rather than them questioning certain life choices. In a big game it’d be easy to find this sort of thing frustrating. A lot of people don’t like it when things don’t fall into place quick enough for them to still be competitive during that game. I find this less of a problem with games as quick as Faraway though because it’s easy enough to reset and play again. I will say, as someone who loses many games of this, that capitalising on other peoples “first game confusion” provides a much needed confidence boost…..even if it is short lived.
You’re gonna go far kid
So what happens when that first game limbo has passed and you're ready to set off on your travels once again, armed with a full working knowledge of how this journey works? What you get is a puzzle that’s a lot of brain burn for such a little box. “But it looked so cute from the artwork” you said when you pulled it from the shelf thinking you were going to have a quick light game before you got onto the big game of the evening. Don’t expect Faraway to ease you in gently, this will throw you in at the deep end right from the off, which is understandable given that you’ll only be playing eight cards. You’ll soon find yourself looking intensely at your own cards and the available cards to try and plot out your game and I think that to do well in Faraway you need to start formulating a vague plan from the start.
Everything about Faraway is there to give you tough choices over which card to play every turn. Playing a low number is great because you could get the first pick of cards from the display……but then, those sanctuary cards are pretty much essential, especially if you want to score the bigger cards and/or give yourself more scoring options. That’s all before you even take into consideration how the cards will score in correlation to each other. It’s constantly keeping you thinking and planning, so much so that I don’t think I’ve ever found time to even contemplate what my opponents are up to and what cards they may be eyeing up. Not that I’m planning on trying to scupper anyone else’s plans. In fact, because your planning so carefully I can’t even see where any hate drafting would be useful, well not unless the cards really aren’t going your way.
As much strategy as there is in how you choose to play your cards, there is a good amount of luck which may or may not put some people off. It’s all well and good putting a big card that requires lots of prerequisites in play right at the start, but if you can’t get your hands on those icons, either through them not coming out, or you just not being able to nab them in time, then I could see how that can get frustrating. The map symbols are there to help with that. The more you have when you draw sanctuary cards, then the more cards you can draw. It’s a great way of potentially getting what you need. But again you need to have the map symbols and this again could be down to luck if you get them. How much this bothers you, if at all, will depend on how much this game hits for you. I think that given it’s a relatively quick game, even if it does annoy you, it won’t be for long, and being as the game is so short it may even be something you can forgive and still enjoy the game.
Faraway is a big puzzle in a small box and if you want something that’s going to give you that big game brain burn but without the hassle of long set up and play times, then this is definitely worth keeping close to you... you know, rather than… Faraway.
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