Games Anachrony - Follower Box

This a really really good game. It’s a post-apocalyptic game. It involves time travel, mechs, resource management and worker placement.One of the coolest mechanics in any game I’ve ever played is in this one. You can “borrow” resources from your future self. And then you go back and pay them back. It sound a crazy but it works great.The rulebook is very well done but this game is on the more difficult side to learn. It’s definitely not for beginners. But once you get the rules and gameplay down, it goes quick enough.This is one game that will be in my collection for a long time.

I bought this as a gift and have since played it several times with the recipient. It is a well themed many component game which clearly has multiple different ways of winning. The variety of cards and tokens makes it near impossible to play the same game twice, but it is balanced enough that you can learn each factions strengths and weaknesses fairly quickly (1-3 games depending on speed of comprehension).

A lot going on and can seem a little intimidating but after a couple of playthroughs everything begins to click in a good way and doesn't feel like most worker placements which is a relief. The solo AI opponent is well implemented.

Complicated game. I am quite a fan of intricate games with depth. However, after 2.5 hours of wading through the instructions i punted. We got this as a gift but i fear it will remain on the shelf for a while. Need a long snow day or two i think.My sense is that the rules could do with streamlining / better writing and perhaps an accompanying video or two would be useful.

Awesome components. Great ideas. This one just needed more testing. Player powers are imbalanced and some strategies work twice as well as others, so it needs House rules. This was my great disappointment from 2017. I think a rule book rewrite could fix it tough.

Anachrony is Sycthe done RIGHT!In Anachrony you play a pseudo religious/political faction in a near dystopian future desperately trying to save humanity form destruction! You see, in the world of Anachrony, humanity has crumbled in a post-apocalyptic future, and is now divided into four five 'factions' of which the players represent 4 of them. The 5th is the 'capitol' city of what is left of earth's culture. The four player factions (Domination, Harmony, Progress and Salvation) are pseudo religious/scientific cults that thinks of itself as the best salvation for mankind's future! Into this mix is added time travel! Yes, mankind invented time travel and learned that a comet will destroy the capitol city, and perhaps earth itself! Therefore, each faction has dedicated itself to saving (and eventually remaking) humanity in it's own image!To do this, Anachrony used a tried and tested worker/placement system with resource gathering and management. Each faction (if you play the advanced game) has it's own asymetrical engine-building possibilities that represent it's method it feels will save humanity! The choices available are HUGE, as is the game! There are four types of works (administrators, engineers, scientists and geniuses), and each one works slightly differently. The worker spaces on the board react differently depending on which of the three workers you place there! Some worker types will give you a bonus, others are restricted from activating certain spaces! This makes for insanely deep decisions and options. Even better, the workers use MECHS to do their bidding! Yes, this game has GIANT ROBOTS....sorta' (see below).On top of giant robots, Anachrony has even more cool twists, and even a few MIND BLOWING tweeks to your typical worker placement game. The neatest is.....TIME TRAVEL! Yes, Anachrony actually has a time travel mechanism.....that actually WORKS! First off, the game uses a "time stream" mechanic as a turn marker/timer, but it doesn't stop there. You see, in this game you can travel back and forth through time and 'borrow' resources from your future self, and use them in the current time frame/game turn! I know it sounds weird, but it actually works and is a GREAT twist! Of course there are risks to using time travel. The biggest is that as the time stream moves forward, you must pay back to resources you borrowed or face "time anomalies" that can really mess up your plans! Again, it sound weird, but it really, really works!The main point of the game is to create a resource/vp engine for the end phase of the game. Anachrony end triggers when the comet appears and is about to strike earth! The game then becomes a race as the players then have only a few rounds to evacuate their followers before Earth is obliterated! This is a great end-game trigger as the tension raps up to insane levels as you 'test' your game engine and hope it works as Armageddon approaches! It really works!The game's production is fantastic, especially if you get the miniatures upgrade pack! Yes, the upgrade pack contains awesome mech miniatures for each faction and for each worker! Otherwise, your stuck with cardboard counters that represent the robots. If you get the miniatures, the game will look fantastic on the table and will draw a crowd! About the only flaw I can see with the game is that it has a ZILLION icons and can be super hard to teach!The game even comes with two BONUS expansions that are really great:1) The Doomsday Module: This expansion allows for the factions (using time travel) to either make the comet hit earth earlier in the game, or NEVER strike the planet! This sounds game/theme breaking, but it isn't! It a GREAT twist and adds some non-direct PvP into Anachrony's already deep strategy! I will always play with this, but only with 4 experienced players!2)The Chrono-Bot: This adds an excellent solo mode for this intense game, and it's great!I usually don't like super heavy Euros, but Anachrony is an exception to the rule. To me, this is the game Sycthe should've been. That game is tremendously over-rated and was a huge let down. It has everything Sycthe has, only it has a theme that actually works and the (optional) use of minis doesn't feel like a tacked on marketing gimmick!If you like GOOD heavy Euros AND you love minis, then get this game! You won't be disappointed!

There is a lot going on here. Almost too much, but not quite. The best thing about Anachrony is the two-tiered worker placement between the personal board and the common board. Essentially you can perform several actions on your home planet as soon as your workers are refreshed, but to send them off-planet to the common board for necessary recruitment and resources, you have to power up an exosuit and have the right kind of worker available, which precludes them from doing whatever you might need them doing on your personal board. It's great.I also like that you can borrow workers and resources from the future, paying them back before the present catches up, and you're penalized for creating a paradox. It works better thematically than mechanically, as some players in my group found it a bit clunky, and either avoided doing it, or just took the penalty. The solitaire variant is essentially like playing against a bot, which I personally don't prefer but a lot of people will likely enjoy.I'm no stranger to complex or heavy games, so it bothers me that the game feels like it goes on a round or two too long, at least with 4 players, for a game that is essentially multiplayer solitaire. That said, it's a grand implementation of its theme, and as I'm not a fan of 4X or negotiation in space, games like Anachrony and Android will always have a home on my shelf.