Review

All Roads get you to Rommé

Ethnos

Phantasic Fantasy EthNology

Back in the 70ties of the last century we didn’t have much, and therefore the weekends spent at our grandparents were usually dominated by playing Chess with Granddad or Rommé / Rummy with Grandma. This probably didn’t harm the boy, but his yearning for epic battles on a game board, involving martially geared-up and grim-faced Fantasy armies remained unfulfilled for years. Maybe Paolo Mori had similar experiences in his childhood; at least, the graphics of the game box and the age notation (ages 14+) for Ethnos seem to suggest that, because - when we open the box - we are not, as we would expect, jumped at by dozens of detailed plastic miniatures and a rule book of 50 pages, but we are discovering similarities to Rummy in the instructions.

The collecting and playing sets of cards, of the same color and/or the same symbols, in this case representing fantasy peoples or tribes, is amended by - an admittedly completely peaceful - spreading-out on a game board.

So, if I, for instance, collect red cards, I will later receive a marker in the red region; as an alternative, I could - to acquire another marker in this red region - collect cards depicting the same “tribes”, if at least one of them is red.

But, maybe, the term „collect“ does not really apply to the first of three rounds all in all: For my first marker in each of the six regions I only need one card in the region’s color. After that, however, a formula applies: „X >= Y + 1“ - for each additional marker in a region I need at least one card more (X) than I already have markers in that region (Y); thus, for my third marker in a region, I need to collect minimum three cards of the region’s color. It can, however, make sense to collect more cards than those that are strictly necessary to place another marker: On the one hand, more cards in a set score more points (similar to Ticket to Ride, game of the year 2004) and, on the other hand, I can maybe avoid the spreading out of one or the other of my opponents in  “my” region, as I am removing cards in suitable region colors.

Collecting several cards of the same color offers an additional advantage: Each “tribe” in a set of cards offers an individual advantage, provided he is designated to be the only leader or the top card when a card set is played. Therefore, when I have several red cards, I can select which of the various special abilities of “tribes” in it I want to activate. On the other hand, if I collect a set of cards of only one “tribe”, I can only use the special ability of this tribe, but I am more flexible in the selection of regions where I can and want to place my marker, because by collecting cards of one tribe I can play cards of several colors.

Taking cards is either happening randomly by taking cards from the general draw pile or selectively by taking cards from an open display! This display, however, is not replenished when a card has been taken from it. And, contrary to “Ticket to Ride” the dilemma of stopping to collect cards at the right moment is intensified here, as all cards in your hand that have not been used when a set has been played from your hand, must be discarded openly, but can be used by the other players for their selective collecting of cards - thus, the discarding of previously painstakingly acquired cards is hurting twice as much.

If possible, you should also try to memorize which colors or tribes your fellow players are collecting. When you have collected maximum ten cards in your hand, collecting stops and it is mandatory to play a set.

Besides timing, luck is a deciding factor when drawing or playing cards, especially in the third and last round, when it gets more and more difficult to place one of your markers on the board to secure your own majority or to overthrow other players’ majorities. However, the collecting of a color that you might not need anymore to place a marker can score very valuable points due to the bigger size of the card set. But do not hesitate too long to play a set from had, because from the middle of the round, the bottom half of the draw pile, that is, a possibly very sudden end of the round threatens, which renders all cards in your hand worthless.

The twelve “tribes” of the basic game, however, offer very harmonious and diversified possibilities and options: The Minotaurs, for instance - due to their strength you can place markers more easily in a region; or the Wingfolk, which allow you to disregard the color restrictions involved in placing markers; then there are the Elves, who - strictly in the spirit of closeness to nature and sustained yield - let you keep cards for your hand, when playing a set of cards; or the Wizards, who magic new fresh cards into your hand after you have played a set of cards; or the Skeletons, who all but work as jokers, but come with the disadvantage of not contributing points to the size of a set of card because they disintegrate to dust before the set is scored, and so on. A 13^th tribe, the Fairies., was available as a promo. They allow you to swap a set of cards with a set of the same size or a smaller set of another player that has been previously played. On the web, you can already find several fan-created suggestions for additional “tribes” and their special abilities, so I think it will not be long before an official expansion will be available.

Only six tribes are used in a game, and that causes varying approaches to the gameplay. Spreading on the board is always important, but some tribes allow you to collect important and relevant victory points using various other rewarding and lucrative options. Additional variance is offered as victory points from the six regions are always re-defined at the start of each game. So, therefore, should I fight my fellow players for the majority in a rather valuable region or do I prefer regions less ripe with victory points which will therefore be less contested?

In addition of the element of chance when drawing cards to refill your hand, the number of players in a game is a deciding factor for the influence I have on the game flow and if I have influence t at all. And it can happen, as in nearly every card game, that the desired cards keep refusing to appear when drawing, and that another luckier player keeps drawing the cards that he needs. This enables him not only to play a suitable set more quickly but will give him the advantage of having more points and a bigger selection from the open-faced cards later-on, after the unluckier player has finally managed to play a set to the table.

As game mechanics do not provide any kind of catching up or regaining ground mechanism - on the contrary, a player that has fallen behind can be additionally penalized by having to discard all his cards in hand at the end of the round - it can happen that the game gets out of balance in a way that is nearly impossible to correct. Granted, the player who has the currently lowest score is the one who begins the second and the third round, but this is of no use whatsoever the player in last place but one in points, if he is the last one in turn order.

All the same, you do not feel that you are being played too much here; Ethnos offers sufficient tactical options and interesting dilemmas for a satisfactory feel of the game, without being too prone to too much down-time and pondering. It can happen, however, that in the third and final round you might have problems assessing the situation on the board, where you could change a majority in a useful way or where it might be promising to profit from being second or third in a region. This is more due to the graphics of the board than to the cards, because the board could easily have been a bit more colorful. And, unfortunately, this board is only serving to place the various markers without other function, especially not a topological one. And even for the card graphics I would have deemed a comic-style design to be more appropriate than the rather bleak drawings that were used.

In a game for two or three players there are a few minor changes in the rules: The number of rounds is reduced from three to two and you use only five instead of six tribes in a game. Following the adaptation and modernization of Bingo with the game Augustus (nominated for Game of the Year 2013, Spiele Hit für Familien 2013), the designer has again done the trick with Ethnos to give a dusty abstract game classic a new modern and more tactical feeling, with a harmonious background story full of lair. Would Oma have liked that? It might have been worth a try, albeit maybe without the Skeletons, after all.

Harald Schatzl

Players: 2-6

Age: 14/10+

Time: 45+

Designer: 45+Paolo Mori

Artist: John Howe

Price: ca. 40 Euro

Publisher: CMON/Asmodee 2017

Web: www.asmodee.de

Genre: set collecting, majorities

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en es fr it pl ru

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Good, rather verbose rules

Funny flavor texts

Easily accessed, quickly played

Well-designed box inlay

Components rather run-off-the-mill

Game can get imbalanced

(c) Images: sirchudley, Beatrix Schilke, Bernhard Czermak

Compares to:

Zug um Zug

Phase 10 - Das Brettspiel

Other editions:

Asterion Press (it), CMON (en), Edge Entertainment (es, fr) Lavka (ru), Portal (pl),

My rating: 5

Harald Schatzl:

Ethnos is a not really complex, thrilling, tactical “peaceful” majorities game using card sets collecting as basis mechanism. It is also suitable for families, ages 10+, if the purposeful collecting of corresponding cards and keeping an eye on the board is not too challenging. It plays in an hour and no two games are the same; graphics seem bleak and somewhat unclear.

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 1

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 1

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0