Earth :: Kickstarter Preview
Earth (by Insideup Games) has you playing mother nature, developing your own island of self-sustaining growth and supply. This tableau builder is coming to Kickstarter Feb 15th and we were fortunate enough to get an early look at this gorgeous game.
In Earth you will be creating a tableau of 4×4 cards that will be a combination of plant and terrain cards for you to grow plants and trees for points. Playing these cards down will cost soil (the games currency) and have their own abilities that are triggered when actions of the same color are performed.
On your turn you will pick one of 4 actions. When you do so, you gain the ‘strong” action ability, while all other players simultaneously gain the “weak” action ability. Then all players simultaneously activate all cards in their tableau that have abilities matching the chosen action color. As you can see, there is no downtime in this game. Everyone is doing stuff on every turn, however the active player has a stronger turn (such as gain 6 soil instead of just 2).
The 4 actions to choose from can:
1) Pay to place a card AND draw new cards
2) Gain soil AND compost cards (discard unused cards for 1 point each)
3) Grow plants on your cards AND gain more soil
4) Draw new cards and expand trees on your cards
Players are also racing to reach public achievements (the earlier the better), trying to satisfy public end game scoring conditions (as well as private ones).
Players start with island and climate cards that provide starting resources and special abilities to guide your strategy.
With over 364 unique cards, there is a lot of variety in how you build your island. Aside from the plant cards, you will also have Terrain cards that give you some in-game scoring opportunities and event cards that give you a boost (often at the cost of points).
First person to complete their 4×4 tableau of cards triggers the end game (and gains a bonus 7 points). Add up points for your played cards, plants, trees, compost, public achievements, and public/personal end game scoring cards. Most points wins.
If you want a game that feels like Terraforming Mars, but quicker, this might be a game for you. Keep an eye out for Earth on kickstarter!
