Inside Up Games | Earth | Board Game | Ages 13+ | 1-5 Players | 45-90 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

From Gondor to the Grey Mountains, Middle-earth is vast, and there’s no telling where your adventures could take you. Rather than being a standalone skirmish with some Orcs or a single search for lost treasure, each game of The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth is one part of a greater campaign spanning many lands and peoples of Middle-earth. You start the usual way by getting your cards, composting the required amount and getting some soil. Then you can take an action of your choice. Gaia will also benefit from your actions. There’s also an option to increase the difficulty by using the row along the bottom of the board. Not that the difficulty needs to be increased as Gaia is tough, but once you’ve mastered the game it’s a nice alternative. Growing – Gaia gains growth per card you gain (and Gaia has spaces for trees to grow and I love that for her) Cards have designated costs (between 2-10) in workers. You have 12 workers to spend every round. Frugal choices could result in you drafting multiple cards. Of your 12, seven are individual, small workers. One is larger, representing five workers. Don’t overlook this. No change gets given for that large worker! The game starts with each player choosing an Island, a Climate and an Ecosystem card. The Island card dictates your starting soil, compost size and hand of card. The Climate card has a basic ability to help start your engine. The Ecosystem card is an end game scoring card.

Journeys in Middle-earth The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth

Pillars of the Earth is one of worker placement’s forefathers. It’s on the lighter cusp of being a midweight Euro, in today’s market. An alias for the mechanism is ‘action drafting’. Pillars delivers this with pure transparency. The strategical glee comes not with knowing where to place, but when.Once you’ve selected your hero and gathered your equipment, it’s time to head out into Middle-earth. I don't like anything here at all," said Frodo, "step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid." But it's not all about sightseeing - players will also face challenges and obstacles along the way. From navigating treacherous mountain passes to outrunning stampeding herds of animals, the Earth board game is full of thrilling challenges that will test your strategy and skill. Even if they survive the enemy onslaught, the heroes cannot rest. The more time passes, the larger the threat against them becomes and the threat bar at the top of the app screen slowly fills. As it does, more and more deadly threat events could be triggered, bringing greater challenges and pushing your quest even closer to failure. Form your Fellowship and set out on your own adventures in The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth, a fully-cooperative, app-supported board game set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic land of Middle-earth! As the dark forces gather, players band together to unravel mysteries, make courageous choices, and fight against the evil that threatens the land.

Pillars of the Earth | Board Game | BoardGameGeek The Pillars of the Earth | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

It’s always an interesting dynamic with each action as you don’t want to give Gaia too much either. When I was low on soil, I kept thinking ‘is there any other way for me to get soil without giving Gaia soil?’. And when your engine is good, you normally can.Rounds have three phases to them. First there’s a draft, where players hire cards for the round that provide building materials. Or, they can hire permanent characters to join their workforce. Next comes a worker placement phase. Spots are for the most part first-come, first-serve, but there’s a clever sting in the tail. Score points from the Fauna board: for the 4 cards and the bonus for the first to finish its 4x4 Tableau These really were minor things for me and didn’t take away from the very satisfying feeling of completing my island and fully growing lots of little trees. Since there are soooo many cards, there are lots of different combinations of flora and fauna to explore and the replayability is great. The components are fantastic too, the player boards look great, the card art is vibrant and attractive and I’m obsessed with the tree stumps and canopies (if you couldn’t tell). An all-around beautiful production. Earth is already an excellent game and the solo mode is a great addition to it all. There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it. But you do not stand alone."

BBC EARTH: Animals interactive boardgame

Grow: Place growth pieces or canopies on growth spot on cards in your tableau and/or draw cards to your hand. Each growth piece scores 1 point at the end of the game but the last piece you place when reaching the maximum growth of the card must be a canopy. A card with a canopy scores the growth score on the card instead of 1 point per piece. (Drawing cards cannot be undone) Score 1 point per growth piece on cards in your Tableau. If a card growth height is maxed (it has a canopy), score the points on the card instead The crux of a round in Pillars is getting materials to maximise output from your Craftsmen. You can’t hoard more than five resources at the end of a round. Your decisions now have a lasting impact on later rounds, none more so than your finances. Money, it would seem, truly is the root of all evil…Plant (green): Place cards from your hand in your tableau. You must pay the cost of the card with soil. Cards must form a 4x4 grid at the end of the game. When placing a card, it must touch existing cards from your tableau (diagonally or orthogonally). The active player plants 2 cards and the others plant 1 card. After, the active player draws 4 cards and keep 1 and the others draw 1 card. (Drawing cards cannot be undone so, for the active player, planting the second card cannot be undone. For the others, planting cannot be undone)

Earth - Inside Up Games

I absolutely loved playing Earth solo, for a game that already minimised down time, the solo mode makes it even better. You’re constantly getting new sprouts, canopies and plants and it’s great. The little trees you grow are just the best, and they score you points if they reach their maximum potential! Gaia is also a worthy opponent, you definitely need to think about your placements and fauna, or Gaia will definitely defeat you. There’s something beautiful about your finished island and Gaia’s one too. She gets trees too! And even when you lose (and it’s likely), it’s still so satisfying to see your soil powers, sprouts and flowers all working together. Whatever circumstances you find yourself in, your journeys begin in a small corner of Middle-earth with an invitation to venture across the lavishly illustrated, double-sided journey map tiles. Over the course of a round, players move through the world, revealing new tiles and gradually discovering more of Middle-earth. But exploring the world does much more than expand the map. It also fills the tiles with new points of interest to search, new people to encounter, and new threats to confront. Most importantly, though, your story will unfold as the app gives you new goals to pursue and mysteries to unravel. I love that one of the hottest games at the moment is about soil. And ecosystems. And watering plants. Earth is an engine and tableau building game all about flora, fauna, terrain and ecosystems. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised this kind of theme has resonated with so many people because there’s something relaxing about earth and soil and nature. One of the key parts of the game is that when anyone takes an action, everybody else benefits from it too. I love when downtime is reduced and there’s a constant influx of resources. Fortunately for solo gamers, Earth has a great single player mode too which I will be going into detail about. Entering Earth A hero like Aragorn, for example, is a born leader, helping the entire party prepare for any situation. The leader of the Dúnedain of the North and a descendant of Isildur himself, Aragorn is a Man destined for greatness. But his lineage cannot stop a foe’s blade, nor can it feed his people. To survive the trials ahead, every hero must muster all their strength and make effective use of all their abilities.

Epic Adventure

For certain adventures, such as a more tactical and combat-oriented assault, the action will take place on the battle map, rather than on the journey map. From an Orcish encampment to the ruined remains of a great hall, these smaller boards are filled with terrain to create any number of locations, inviting you into a tactical struggle with the minions of evil that stand in your path. Water: Place sprouts (cube) on sprout spots on cards in your tableau or gain soil. Each sprout scores 1 point at the end of the game. Earth is an engine building game played over rounds in which each player gets a turn creating their own island with its terrain and flora. The game ends at the end of the round in which a player completes their island of 16 cards in a 4x4 grid.