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Overview
The Aeon’s End series are cooperative deck building card game, where 1-4 players take on the mantle of breach mages - powerful magic users trained in the mystic arts - to face down a threat from an invading horror (called a Nemesis) and defend Gravehold, the last bastion of humanity. Aeon’s End Outcasts is the 5th standalone set in the realms of Aeon’s End. Whether you’re a seasoned expert or a fresh faced recruit, this set is all you need to get playing.
The Game Itself
Starting with a simple hand of cards, players build their decks between gems for economy, spells for damage, and relics for all other effects - though there is some overlap. Players build their decks to battle nemeses - enemies they’re trying to defeat, who’re trying to defeat them and/ or the main settlement of Gravehold.
Strategic deck building is the name of the game here, with a limited shared market which is generated in setup and does not vary. The market is generated from a wider pool, meaning that each game feels very unique due to the combination of cards in the market. However, unlike other deck builders you might have played, you don’t shuffle your discard to regenerate your deck. Instead you just turn your discard pile over and it becomes your new deck. This slightly reduces randomness and makes card order in discard more strategic. The overall reduction in randomness means the game’s designers are able to calibrate balance more tightly, meaning the game feels more consistently challenging throughout.
Another thing Aeon’s End does differently is turn order - instead of rotating around a table, or some other means, turn order is determined by drawing a card randomly from turn order deck. This is unique, keeps players on their toes, and forces you to constantly reassess your strategy as a team as different turns come in. However, this can sometimes lead to big swings in play. With challenge being so tightly calibrated, it’s not uncommon for the nemesis to have two turns in a row, which can significantly worsen the situation. Sometimes they may even get 3 turns in a row which can be catastrophic, and it’s possible - though unlikely - for them to even get 4 turns in a row, which generally ends the game. Either immediately, or by players being so weakened they can’t recover.
How Does It Compare To Other Aeon’s End Standalone Sets?
As the 5th in the series, many parts of the game have developed since the original set was released. The original set was designed so that every fight was a one-off, with individual games not influencing other games you would play after. Later came a legacy version, with every game part of a larger, multi-game campaign - every game you played/ boss you fought would influence every subsequent. To find a middle ground, in the Aeon’s End The New Age standalone set, the team developed what they call Expedition Mode - as a sort of middle ground between these two. They’ve carried this on here. Expedition Mode lets players take part in a 4-game mini campaign - randomly generated, to increase playability. After winning games, players unlock treasures to keep in future games which yield strong advantages. In turn, nemeses gain upgrades too making them stronger than they ordinarily would be. Generally the tema have done a good job at balancing these, meaning that not only can players enjoy each individual game as a standalone thing, but it lets you chain the nemeses together in a way that earlier sets didn’t - giving you more bang for your buck, as it were. A series of sealed envelopes will guide you through the campaign. Although in theory you can reset the envelopes, you probably wouldn’t need to - but that’s fine. The randomness and specificity of play afforded by other elements in the game means that it still feels fresh and challenging on a replay.
The narrative in the legacy set is a step above the narrative in this set, so if you want a richer experience then the legacy is the one to choose, but it’s still perfectly good and supports the game itself - which is the real thing most of us are here for - but it does feel a bit like a justification for the mechanics. Like it was a bit of an afterthought. One feature of the 4-game mini campaign is either a benefit or a detriment, depending on how you see it. The legacy version of the game took a long time to complete, with so many individual games that needed to be played. This 4-game version can be played through in a day, or if you’re efficient players who know what you’re doing and are quick then it can be half a day. This is great if you want to spend that much time in one go at it, or if you don’t mind waiting between sessions, but it can leave you without a sense of completion to play some games and then have to wait until the next game night to finish off.
A second new mode introduced in this set is Outcast Mode. Here, instead of Gravehold, players are using an alternate dial to track life - a breach mage ally who you’re helping. Gravehold is purely passive in other sets - the life ticks down and you either win before it hits zero, or lose when it does - whereas this Mode the ally can influence the game, taking roles in fighting against the nemesis. I won’t go into it for the sake of spoilers, but it’s a creative new take on their mechanics and a fun feature - though with a downside that I’ll mention later. As is always the case with Aeons end games, this set has interesting and very well thought out mechanics - not just this new mode, but all facets of the game in general. As is always the case, mages are unique with interesting mechanics - but somehow these feel more unique relative to each other compared to earlier sets in the game. I can’t explain without some spoilers, but searching online will reveal their abilities & cards, and if you’ve played before then you can connect the dots.
The downside mentioned earlier? One of the allies you can play alongside is pretty powerful. You can charge them, and when full their ability is kind of overpowered compared to what else you can do with that much resource input. Adding to this, many of the cards in this set work around boosting charges. It makes perfect sense with a new game mode involving an ally to work with, but considering the power of one ally’s ability it seems really logical you’d want to use it. This is a highly balanced game about strategy optimisation and careful balancing of economies - having a path as strong as this ally affords means that not using it feels suboptimal, the opposite of how this game should be played. It therefore means that if you play with the ally you feel compelled to use their ability, otherwise you feel like you’re actively making a bad choice. It means that in games you play with this specific ally, the games kind of turn into the same thing - building up player economies well enough to then all focus on this ally. To change things up, it's best not to use them, which feels a bit disappointing. That’s a small downside to what is otherwise a great game. The only other thing really worth mentioning is how it fits into players who’ve played Aeon’s End before. These nemeses are more unique than others that have come before - partially because there have been so many mechanics explored! Their special abilities are more meta than previous nemeses, and therefore are about exploring some mechanics in careful detail. As a result, experienced Aeon’s End players will enjoy fresh takes on the mechanics, as the expansions always deliver, but for those who’ve never played before it’s probably not optimally suited for them - despite the fact that, in theory, it’s a standalone game.
Final thoughts
The team behind Aeon’s End never fails to impress with what they deliver. Creative mechanics, fresh experiences - if you’re a new player, it’s probably best to start with a more simplified standalone set for the sake of learning the game. If you’re a returning player, get onboard and see some awesome creative takes on mechanics!
