Faraway: Review

Faraway: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Engine Building, Push Your Luck, Set Collection, Open Drafting, Simultaneous Play

Age: 10+

Player Count: 2 - 6 Players 

Time to Play: 15 - 30 Minutes 
Game Designer: Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat

Game Artist: Maxime Morin

Publisher: Pandasaurus Games

Year Published: 2024

BGG Weight: 1.94

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

Introduction:

Through the use of only eight cards you will explore an entire faraway continent; meeting denizens who will reward you if you can successfully fulfill their requirements. The trick, however, is that the requirements and points that are awarded is only based on the resources of the cards revealed before. When scoring you reveal your region cards from right to left, starting with the last card played so it’s tricky to plan for but rewarding when it pays off.

Game Anatomy:

Regions:

Each region will have several characteristics but not every region will contain all of those listed:

A) A value on the top left, as well as a day or night symbol associated with it.

B) One out of four possible area colours.

C) Some regions have clues or one of the three wonders that assist in unlocking scoring opportunities. These may also be scored at the end of the game based on the cards you play.

D) Most of the regions have points that will be awarded at the end of the game. For example, one point for every yellow card or two points for every card with a clue symbol.

E) Some of these scoring possibilities also have prerequisites shown above that need to be met at the point of card reveal. These prerequisites will always require certain wonder symbols.

Sanctuary:

Sanctuaries are like regions where some have scoring opportunities, wonders or clues, and even colours and night symbols. The good thing about sanctuaries is that once gained they stay revealed for the entirety of scoring and help with any of the regions being revealed.

Clues:

The clue symbol, like all symbols in Faraway, is scored when a card has it as a scoring element. The other crucial part of clues is that they give the player better sanctuary possibilities. When a sanctuary is gained, the player will draw equal to their amount of clue symbols plus one. The player will then be able to play one sanctuary card before discarding the other options.

Setup:

- Shuffle the region cards and sanctuary deck separately.

- Reveal cards to the centre from the region deck equal to the number of players plus one.

- Deal each player three region cards to create an opening hand and begin the game.

- Once players are familiar, deal five region cards to each player and each will discard two.

How to Play:

There are eight rounds in a game where players will play their cards simultaneously. Each round is made up of exploring a region, finding sanctuaries and the end of the exploration. Then there is the final scoring.

Exploring a Region:

All players simultaneously choose a region card from their hand and play the card to the right of the last played region.

Finding Sanctuaries:

Every time a player plays a higher-valued region than their previously played one they gain the right to find sanctuary. When finding sanctuaries draw sanctuary cards equal to the amount of clue symbols plus one in your played cards.

End of Exploration:

At the start of this phase the player with the lowest region value will choose one of the displayed region cards to add to their hand. This continues with each value until the player with the highest region value has the last draft. If you gained sanctuary cards from the last phase you will now be able to play one into your tableu, discarding the other sanctuary cards not chosen. Lastly, the drafting selection will be reset by revealing region cards equal to the player count plus one. 

Scoring:

After the eighth round, each player will flip their region cards face-down. Starting with the last played region card each player will flip them over one card at a time. They only score and unlock prerequisites using the already revealed region cards and always revealed sanctuary cards.

Final Thoughts:

- Interesting concept of a push-your-luck game that feels like a reverse engine builder.

- Great art

- Fast gameplay.

- Interesting value system. Higher cards allow you to play a sanctuary card whereas low value gets you the first draft.

- Recommend playing with the advanced setup.

Faraway is a great push-your-luck game that I was compelled to play in succession. For some reason, each successive play led to my score getting worse as I pushed my luck a bit too much. When you start the game you are trying to plan with region cards with large prerequisites that can be met, while at the same time making sure you get the most out of their scoring. That's not as easy as it sounds as there are two important focuses you have to keep in mind. Firstly, you have to consider the value of the card. Do you want to gain and play a sanctuary using a larger valued region than the last card; or do you want to gain the first draft by playing the lowest valued region? The other challenging focus is making sure you have the correct symbols for scoring and meeting the prerequisites by playing the cards effectively and pushing your luck, aiming for the right results. Faraway is both quick and challenging which is a great combination. It will be staying in my collection for a long while and has earned a Silver Seal of Approval.

Click...feed the addiction: 

Pandasaurus Games

Faraway on BGG

Expand Your Game Facebook page

Expand Your Game Instagram