Demon Worker: Review

Demon Worker: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Worker Placement, Resource Manipulation, Hand Management
Player Age: 10+ 

Player Count: 3 - 4 Players

Time to Play: 45 Minutes 
Game Designer: Shogo Kurodat

Publisher: Japanime Games

Year Published: 2016

BGG Weight: 2.6

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

The throne of hell is empty and it is your desire to rise and take the place of the King demon. To do this you will need to hire demon workers, disperse both human and demon workers, and manage different resources such as weapons, human sacrifices, food and magical stones. This allows you to gain the most evil (victory) points and only then may you take the place of King.

Card Anatomy:

There are four types of cards; human, demon, work area, and planning.

Human Cards:

The human cards are the base workers and each player will begin with two. These workers have no special effects, one food cost to send off to work (dispatch cost), and two victory points available.

Demon Cards:

These are similar to human workers however they each have a unique summoning cost and a unique dispatch cost. Additionally, each of these cards will have victory points and an activate ability (differs between cards). For the demon workers whose ability relates to certain work areas, a rainbow represents that the ability can be used in any work area.

Work Area Cards:

Each work area has a symbol on the top left that will match the demon workers ability and  the work areas ability on the top right. There are multiple types of work areas; ones that give resources, ones that give resources and evil points but will require a cost, and special work areas (the war room and the the audience chamber). The War Room allows the player to draw two planning cards to keep one and discard the other. Additionally, the area is a resource exchange e.g. one magical stone could be exchanged for four food and such (see image below). The Audience Chamber allows the player to summon a demon worker from their hand by paying the summoning cost. only one demon may by summoned per worker sent to this area. The newly summoned worker will not be ready to work until the following round.

Planning Cards:

Each of these cards will give you a set amount of evil points at the end of the game if you can allocate all the resources on the planning card. These resources cannot be shared between planning cards.

Setup:

- Place the 11 work area cards in the middle of the table (leave out the trash dump and cemetery for a three-player game)
- Shuffle the planning deck and deal each player two planning cards (do not look yet!)
- Separate the resources into separate piles

- Each player chooses a colour and takes the player aid sheet, all worker tokens (a circular disc) for that colour, and two human workers
- Deal each player three human sacrifice, two weapons, and one magical stone resources
- Place the round tracker on the first round and place a disc of each player on the zero score of the board
- Deal six demon worker cards to each player
- Choose one planning card to keep and one to discard after the interview demon step, if you are not doing the below step you will still choose one planning card to keep and one to discard.
- Give the first player (whomever is the most evil) the first turn order marker and each player (starting and continuing left) the descending order markers.

Interview Demons:

For a more advanced variant, the players will draft the hand of six demon workers. This is achieved by all players choosing one worker simultaneously, then passing the hand of demon workers to the left until every player has chosen six demons.

How to Play:

Demon worker is a worker placement game with three phases over five rounds; supply, assignment, and cleanup.

Supply Phase:

The supply phase has each player gaining resources corresponding to those shown on their turn order token. This may be food, victory points or human sacrifices.

Assignment Phase:

During this phase, each player starting with the first will take turns assigning one worker to a work area until they choose to pass for the remainder of the round. To assign a worker, place the player disc that was kept on them to a work area of your choice. The resources now have to be paid to send that worker. The dispatch cost is found on the worker card to the bottom left (this could be any resource, free to send or victory points). Then there is a cost of an additional two food based on every other worker currently on that work area (except for the Trash Dump and the Audience Chamber where there are no additional costs). Once the resources are paid to send the worker, their ability activates first followed by any work area ability.

Cleanup Phase:

Once the assignment phase ends, each player will collect their discs and return them to each of their workers. The round token ascends by one and each player will pass their turn order token to the left.

End of Game Scoring:

After the fifth round has concluded, players will tally their points. There will be an additional five points awarded if they managed to summon five of their workers, and ten points if they summoned all
workers. Players then assign the resources they have to pay their workers’ dispatch cost once more to receive their corresponding evil points (some workers will have no cost and give their evilness out for free). Players can also assign resources and collect evil from planning cards which they have been preparing for the duration of the game, remember, no sharing resources between workers and/or planning cards. Add these points together with those already on the scoring board and the player with the highest points wins. Having thus proven that they are truely evil and were able to rise to the all-commanding throne.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Multiple paths to victory.
- Drafting in the interview phase adds much more synergy I'm the five rounds and planning.
- Quality component.
- Player aid helps explain every location and worker.
- Plenty of variability in the workers that will be used every round.

Cons:
- Five rounds feel very fast and it does not feel like there is enough time to succeed.
- Restrictive player counts.

'Demon Worker' starts off slow but always offers numerous chances for decision making ranging from the order of workers to summon, to what resources to focus on. By the time the fifth rounds appears, a mad rush has begun in trying to meet your planning cards, summon all workers or be able to feed each worker once more to gain the their evil points. At the start of the game, there is little to no competition for locations yet towards the end there are always workers on the area you covet most. This makes the cost fierce and some times unforgiving when you choose to go there. Numerous decisions are made throughout the game with high variability with the workers making this a go-to worker placement game which keeps you engaged throughout its entirety. This will be gaining a Golden Game Seal from me and be added to my collection for many more future plays.

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Japanime Games
Demon Worker on BGG
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