Euphoria Review

Euphoria Review

So I figured for my first review, why not review a game I feel comfortable with. My favorite game.

Euphoria Box

 

Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia

Designers: Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone

Player Count: 2-6 Players

Play Time: ~60 minutes

 

Euphoria is a worker placement game published by Stonemaier Games. In it, you are a low level workforce manager in a Dystopic society. You control a small workforce (your dice) whom you send out to gather commodities, convert them into resources, build marketplaces, and ultimately, try to have the most control over the city. During these processes, you need to keep your workforce dumb (keeping dice totals low) and happy (feed them or give them drugs…); staples of any good dystopic work force. As you complete tasks, you place influence markers (wooden stars) on different areas of the board and the first person to place all ten stars is the winner. You also get some variable player powers to start the game and more that can be unlocked as the game progresses.

Things I Like:

  • No rounds. On your turn you have essentially 2 options. You can either put a die (or dice, but we’ll cover that in a minute) on the board, or you can take dice off. That’s it. When you place a die on the board, you do the action and that is your turn. This isn’t a worker placement game where everyone places all their workers on the board and then you all take them off at the same time.
  • Variable markets. One of the places you can put a die on is a construction space to build a market. There are 18 markets in the box, but only 6 make it into each game. This increases the variability from game to game. Additionally, if you aren’t able to take part in the building of the market, you don’t get to put a star there, and you get hit with a negative effect. This makes for fun quick races in the middle of every game as each construction site only has enough spaces for some of the players.
  • The Art. This is one of my favorite art styles in general. It’s bright and very colorful, and has awesome Art Deco styling.
  • Bits and Bits and Bits. This is a personal one and some people may not care at all. The game comes with 4 commodities, 3 resources, knowledge trackers and morale trackers for each character AND wooden stars. Everything is uniquely shaped and I love to play with all the bits.Euphoria Bits

Things I don’t like:

  • Lucky rolling. I love the dice rolling mechanic in this game. You use it to determine your workforce knowledge and what commodities you get. That being said, one of the mechanics is that if you have 2 die with the same number showing, you can place them both in 1 turn. This is rarely a problem with the game, but I have played in a few games where 1 person rolls doubles a few turns in a row early in the game, and they are the out in front player, and eventual winner. It doesn’t happen often, but it can decrease the experience.
  • The board. Hold on a minute and bear with me. I know I said but a moment ago that I loved the art, and I do, but it can really cause problems when teaching this game. There is so much going on, and the board is so bright and colorful, that it can be incredibly overwhelming for people who haven’t played before.

Euphoria Board

Overall, I love this game. It’s bright, beautiful, and most importantly, fun to play. The things I don’t like verge on knit picking because of how much I like it. Every time I play seems to go differently as well. Different aspects of the game may get advanced quicker in one game, and be completely forgotten the next. I can’t recommend this one enough.

GLG Rating: 9/10

 

2 thoughts on “Euphoria Review

  1. Your “favorite game” gets a 9 out of 10? Will you never be satisfied?!

    Kidding aside, this was a good, concise review!

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