Eriantys is an abstract strategy game where you’ll work to increase your influence and power. This is a family weight strategy game a satisfying level of depth that plays out in a quick 30 minutes.
Eriantys board game review. Eriantys board game review.
How Do You Play Eriantys?
In Eriantys, you’ll play as wizards running one of four great schools, competing against each other to increase their fame. Your goal is to place all your towers on the board.
During the game, you’ll use a hand of cards to determine turn order each round. You’ll place students either in your school or on the board. If you have the most of a specific student color then you gain influence over that color on the board. Once placed, you’ll move the orange Mother Nature token a certain number of spaces, determined by the card you played, around the islands.
Whichever island you stop on is evaluated for influence. The player with the most influence over the students on that island erects one of their towers. Players can take control from an opponent with a tower already on an island space if influence on the island has shifted. Any adjacent islands controlled by the same player merge together, making a larger island.
At the end of a turn, a player selects one of the tiles with new students and adds them to their waiting area on their board for the next round.
The game ends when one of the following conditions are met:
- A player has placed all their towers
- Only three islands remain
- There are no more students left in the bag
What Do We Think of Eriantys?
I really enjoyed our experiences playing Eriantys as a family. This was an easy game to pick up that provided a lot more strategy and tactical planning than I initially thought it would.
Pretty much every element of the game’s mechanics I really enjoy.
Using cards to determine player order and also the amount of movement you can make around the island requires players to make some really tough decisions right from the get go. The early part seems like there isn’t much at stake yet, however, this is the time to think wisely about which cards you use because you don’t want to casually use up your 1 when you don’t need it and regret it towards the end when you do.
Placing students and deciding whether or not to put them in your dining hall to gain influence over the color or onto the map to gain control of an island and place a tower is really tough. You can see all of the information for the round before you and use it to your advantage. You know which order players are going and can see their current influence and make educated guesses about what they might do on their turns based on the options before them.
There’s a fun element of playing both your hand and mentally playing the hands of your opponents. It feels almost chess like.
Speaking of chess, let me touch on Eriantys’ theme…or lack there of.
Eriantys is themed around wizards and wizard schools but it is a highly abstract game. In fact, other than calling the wooden tokens students, I never once considered the theme at all. The production of the game is both good — everything is technically nice and well made, especially the inset boards — and weird — why are the islands cloud islands? Why is this happening in the sky? Why does the mother nature token look like a dog kong???
The theme of the game isn’t helping it at all. If you get if for the theme you’ll be disappointed. But on the flip side, the game is good and the box/theme does’t really represent what is happening inside. I think a more Azul style game where you go for beauty over any particularly obvious theme would have been better. As it stands, the strange attempt at this theme impacts the game’s ability to connect with players. It’s a fun game while playing, but once you’ve put it back on the shelf, you kind of forget about it as well.
Great for 2 and 3 players, and 4 if you like teams.
Eriantys scales and plays well for two and three player games, however, the game changes to a 2v2 teams game for four players. This isn’t inherently bad, it’s just not my favorite way to play personally. That said, if you have a younger player that wants to take a crack at the game having a teams mode might help make that more of a success. Personally I just prefer to play my own hand in my own way without worrying about what decisions my partner is going to make on their turn.
Summary
Eriantys is a fun, light to medium weight family strategy game. Eriantys is easy to learn and language independent, making it a cinch to pick up and a great option for younger players looking to try their hand at a more challenging game. While we think a more solid theme or embracement of the abstract nature would have allowed the game to connect with players more, the mechanics of Eriantys are enjoyable when in motion.
You might like Eriantys if you:
- Are looking for a quick game that plays under 45 minutes
- Enjoy tight area control with shifting power balances
- Prefer games where most all of the information is known and luck is minimal
- Are looking for a game that works well for 2 or 3 players
- Need a next step strategy game for a child 9-10+
You May not like Eriantys if you:
- Prefer games where the theme is more fully realized
- Want a 4 player game that is not 2v2
Bring home a copy of Eriantys for your family.
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Game Info:
Title: Eriantys
Players: 2-4
Designer: Leo Colovini
Artist: Alessandro Costa
Publisher: Cranio Creations
A special thank you to our friends at Asmodee for sending a copy of Eriantys for review. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own.
Eriantys board game review. Eriantys board game review.
