![]() ![]() ![]() We’re in the age of blockbuster board games, where value is measured in kilos and cubic metres, rather than hours, memorable turns and calls of “Let’s play that again.” Too many board games have ended up overinflated by Kickstarter success, bursting at the seams with needless stretch goals, trays of miniatures and a desperate argument that more stuff is better value. Often the idea of playing the next blockbuster or looking at the picture-perfect detail of its miniatures is enough to sink a hundred quid into the latest runaway crowdfunder.įrostpunk isn’t alone in this. Entire evenings spent memorising chunky board game rulebooks to help friends cut to the chase when we break out Twilight Imperium or Civilization over the weekend. I remember endless childhood hours spent reading video game manuals in cars. I question whether I’m still cut out for this. One errant elbow and multiple minutes of setup risk being undone in seconds. Frostpunk’s enormous footprint pushes my table space to its max cardboard dangles precariously off the edge like diving boards. My poor table is already heaving under the number of components laid out. It’s 18 pages before you actually start learning how to play. Population board, step five… of fourteen?! I flick ahead. I wonder how much more setup there is to go. It’s been at least an hour since I opened Frostpunk’s box. ![]() Watch on YouTube Some beginner-friendly board games to start with if you're new to the hobby I diligently sort through the decks, separating things out for the first scenario. Use these in certain scenarios, leave these out in others. Each with their own multi-step preparation. Then came instructions on placing map tiles around it. The generator - a towering monolith of grey plastic - was erected in the middle of a hexagonal frame that would become my city’s borders. We’re in the age of blockbuster board games, where value is measured in kilos and cubic metres.įirst, I need to put everything in its right place. I’m sure it’ll all seem straightforward once I know how to play. Quantifying resources, the vital heat provided by the generator at the heart of the city, its ebbing population - how many of my people would be healthy, sick or starving - the level of hope and contentment among society, weather, buildings, laws, social disputes, rounds, expeditions… Christ, there are quite a lot of bits in this box, aren’t there? Well, Frostpunk is a complex game on screen - replicating that properly in cardboard clearly takes a lot of moving parts. I glanced at the many boards that would soon hold my victory - or failure - in sway. We might live, but what life?įrostpunk: The Board Game will quickly eat up your table space. The gripping tension of balancing my citizens’ happiness with the ruthless fight to survive. I thought of the life-or-death decisions and moral dilemmas that would be at my fingertips in a few minutes. It’s presumably an aperitif to whet your appetite before you embark on the fairly mundane process of actually constructing your lonely city and its surroundings on the tabletop. Excited from the teases of what I’d be doing gleaned from tiles and tokens, I snuggled into a comfy spot on the sofa and cracked open the rulebook like the latest must-read novel.Ī bit of flavour text at the start of the book sets up Frostpunk’s brutally frozen world, the last scraps of humanity trying to eke out an existence in an unforgiving landscape of ice, metal and coal. Pieces extracted and arranged in neat piles, it was time to learn how to play. Watch on YouTube The trailer for Frostpunk: The Board Game ![]()
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