Dinos, Humans, & Buildings - Uchronia Review

King of Tokyo has been one of our favorite games of late. So, when I heard that the publisher was releasing a game that had dinosaurs and people working together, I couldn't help but be intrigued. A hidden city deep in the jungles where dinosaurs and people live and work together to build great buildings in the city of Uchronia. It sounded like an exciting theme that is unique in it's back story. So, had Iello Games come up with another winner? Do the dinosaurs do a good job of following up King of Tokyo, or does this one fail to deliver the same punch? (To be fair, King of Tokyo was one of the best games of 2011, so being on level ground with it will be a difficult task.)

Uchronia is a 2-5 player, card-management, and variable-phase game. The game has a very strong Euro-game feel, and was designed by Carl Chudyk (Glory to Rome). In Uchronia, each player is the leader of a noble house in the city of Uchronia. Each person is vying for power and prestige as they attempt to influence the city. The nobleman who earns the most points wins, and the game ends once one player reaches a set score (based on the number of players). Players earn points by building buildings and controlling monopolies. Players can also earn points based on the special abilities that are given with different buildings.

Game Play
The game play for Uchronia is simple, but it can be difficult to grasp all the terminology. It may take a play or two before all of it begins to make sense. Each player is given a player board that contains quick reference guides as well as areas to place cards and buildings. At the beginning of the game, each player is given a hand of six cards. There is set of five buildings that are available to be built in the center. Each player then places one of their six cards in what is called the forum. This is a common area in the middle of the table that players will be able to pool from. After setup is complete, a player can do one of two things on their turn Command or Plot. If a player selects Command, they will select a card from their hand and play it into their domain (this is an area on the player board, and it shows what the player did on their last turn. This card is then added to the Forum at the beginning of the player's next turn).

Pending on the card that was played, a player can do one of several actions. The actions available are Production, Exploration, Trade, Construction, and Draconians. Each of these actions allow players to do different things. Production allows for a player to select any card from the Forum and place it in their Stock (The stock is the area below the player board, this is a pool of cards that the player will use to build buildings, and complete Activities). Exploration allows for a player to select any card from their hand and place it in their Stock. Draconians is a "Go Fish" action, and players ask the other players for one of the types of cards in their hand. These are then given to the player and added to their Stock. Trade gives you the opportunity to move a card from your Stock to Activities (Activities is the area above the player board, these give you additional actions. Players can also earn Monopolies if they have the most of any one type of card. These give victory points and additional special abilities). Finally, Construction is exactly what it says, you can begin construction on a new or existing building. The second option that players have is to Plot. this gives you the opportunity to draw more cards, and take the action that one of the other players has on their Domain. Play continues in this fashion until one player reaches the point total. The round then goes until the player with the Last Turn card has a turn, then the game ends with the point leader being victorious.

Review
Components
The price for Uchronia is right on at about $30 MSRP. You get 5 player boards, a deck of 180 Euro-sized cards, and a deck of 80 city cards (about Power Grid sized). For the length of the game and the components that come with the game are a good value. The artwork for Uchronia is good. Most of the artwork is overhead shots that show the buildings from a sky view.  I believe this is to give the idea that you are viewing the buildings from the back of a pterodactyl. This is a cool concept that attempts to evoke the theme. Finally, the cards and board are not the best quality. The cards and board have a glossy finish and the stock isn't as strong as most games. This isn't a huge problem since there isn't a large amount of shuffling that takes place. Because of this, the publisher may have decided to go with an inexpensive stock to keep cost down.

Game Play
This is a Eurogame every way you look at it. The theme, although interesting, is weak and doesn't come through in the game play. This is typical of Eurogames, but with such a cool theme, I wish it had been brought out more. As for the game play, it does what it sets out to do. You have to try to manage the cards in your hand in order to maximize your points. There are couple different strategies as you can attempt to build the most buildings or opt for getting monopolies and getting points by maximizing your activities. The game starts slow but builds, especially once you get a fair number of buildings in play. As each building gives you another special ability, you begin to have a lot to keep track of. On top of that, you get additional bonuses and abilities for each monopoly and activity that you have. This can be quite a bit to keep track of, especially late in the game. For us, this strategic optimization of points with little theme just did not work. We felt that the game lacked excitement, and neither one of us could get into the game. Even though we didn't like Uchronia, if you like Euros, if you like cards, and you like trying to maximize your points before your opponent does, you will probably like Uchronia. If you are looking for the next great dinosaur game with tons of player interaction, you won't find it here.

How is it with Two?
Since this game has little interaction between players, the game does scale well. The variable point values also keep the time frame intact if you are playing with 2 or 5. The game moves quickly with two, and fast turns makes for little down time. This game works well with two, and good be a good fit for someone looking for a Euro-style card based game that plays quickly.

Final Thoughts
Although Uchronia didn't work for us, there is a good game here for the right people. This one is not for everyone, but no game is. The audience for this one is smaller than most games, and I don't think that it will have the wide appeal that King of Tokyo brought to the gaming world. Although Uchronia doesn't have this mass appeal, I do hope that those who this game does appeal to are able to find it, and enjoy it.