Tom's Top 50 - No. 48 - The Vale Of Eternity

The box cover for Vale of Eternity

What type of game is it?

VoE is a tableau-building, resource management game for 2-4 players, and it is all about finding and executing combos to score. It contains a deck of 70 unique cards, and the appeal of the game is identifying what will go well with what, and creating and running a powerful engine to pull away from the pack.

What do you do in the game?

Each round (the game is played over a max of 10 rounds) play cycles through 3 phases.

The first phase is a snake draft where players reserve cards of 5 different suits from a shared open market.

The second phase is where the bulk of the action happens. A player will decide whether to keep or sell the 2 cards they reserved in the market, then play or sell cards to/from their tableau, triggering any instant effects, all in pursuit of victory points and trying to be the first to reach 60 points.

Lastly, phase 3 sees all players resolving (in turn order) any end of round effects on their cards, and then a new round begins provided the end of the game hasn't been triggered.

What does it do well?

It's a game for players looking for combos, and it delivers those in spades. The game presents a series of tactical choices, constrained by a very tight economy, and players have to make the best of what is available to them in order to exploit scoring opportunities.

The constraints in the system drive the action ever onward so hoarding cards is not usually viable since coins are generally hard to come by, but when a player can pull off a multi-part turn, playing multiple cards, it can feel great.

Why not higher?

I got this game because for years my friends and I had spent hundreds of hours playing Fantasy Realms, getting our fantasy draft combo fix from there. After 300+ games of that it was time for something new, and this seemed to fit the bill.

And it does, kind of. It's a bit longer, meaning multiple games back-to-back is not usually viable. The game slows right down with a 4th player, and it is prone to analysis paralysis due to the high volume of open information.

We haven't mastered the game yet, and it will take dozens more plays to be familiar with the deck enough to speed up play, and it's hard to get that many plays in. We still bring it out regularly, but it's not likely to threaten FR any time soon.

What would I play instead?

The afore mentioned Fantasy Realms, along with Castle Combo, both fill this spot of combo building quick playing fun.

Where do I land on it?

7.5/10. Very good, but the awkward take that elements detract from it, as does the pace of play. Unlikely to climb much higher.