Doomlings: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Set Collection, Tableu Buildimg, Take That
Player Age: 10+ Player Count: 2 - 6 PlayersTime to Play: 20 - 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Justus Meyer, Andrew Meyer (I)Game Artist: Justus MeyerPublisher: Doomlings LLCYear Published: 2022BGG Weight: 1.69Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 10+
Game Designer: Justus Meyer, Andrew Meyer (I)
Introduction:
On a doomed distant planet the society will inevitably meet its end in a catastrophic event. For Doomlings, you are trying to adapt your alien species with new traits to better equip them for the slim chance of survival. The goal is to have gained the most points after the third catastrophe hits.
Game Anatomy:
Gene Pool:
The gene pool determines a player's hand size. Several elements throughout the game will cause you to manipulate your gene pool and will also cause you to ‘stabilise’. This will occur at the end of every turn, which is discarding or drawing traits so your hand will match the size of your gene pool.
Traits:
These traits are the main focus of Doomlings. The trait cards come in four colours (blue, red, green, purple) and colourless.
On the bottom left of each trait card is a trait value that will score you points at the end of the game. There are many different trait effects:
- Actions that occur when played.
- Abilities that allow the trait to be played out of turn.
- Effects that occur at the end of the game.
- Abilities that occur at world's end.
There are also dominant traits with a gold border that cannot be swapped, removed, discarded, or stolen once played. Only two dominant traits can be played per player per game.
Age Cards:
Every round, a new age stimulating the troubling times will come into effect. This will either be a one-off effect or a challenge that will last the whole round.
There will be three catastrophe cards shuffled into the age deck. Firstly, when a catastrophe is drawn, the first player's status will rotate to the next player on the left. After this, its event will be resolved and each player's gene pool will be affected (based on what the catastrophe states). Three catastrophes and the game is over, where a world-ending event will occur. To keep track of this, after every catastrophe, create a new age pile on the next round. The bottom world-ending effect will only occur when the third catastrophe is drawn and the game is over.
Setup:
- Shuffle the age cards together and create three separate piles consisting of three cards.
- Shuffle the catastrophe cards and deal one to each of the three piles.
- Shuffle each of these piles individually and combine them into one deck. Place the birth of life on the top of the deck face-down.
- Give each player a gene pool (set to five).
- Shuffle the traits and deal with each player's five traits.
- Place the remaining trait deck in the centre of the table.
- The first player is left of the dealer.
How to Play:
Age Phase:
The first player in each round will flip the top card of the age deck. Denoting which effects will occur immediately or for this round.
Players Turn:
On your turn, play a trait card and resolve any applicable effect, then stabilise by drawing or discarding to match your gene pool level.
End of Game and Scoring.
In the age phase that has the third catastrophe revealed, there will be no player turns. Instead, the game will end after this phase and the worlds-end effect will be resolved. Some traits will have special abilities to be activated now. When all of these elements occur, the points on all the traits will be scored. Remembering that some traits will have ways that their score is modified. The player with the highest score wins.
Final Thoughts:
- Great variability in the traits and age cards.
- Good combination of Tableu building and set collection.
- Interesting element of manipulating your hand size frequency throughout the game.
- A level of take-that interaction but not too severe as it is a light-hearted filler.
- A large amount of randomness.
Doomlings is a fun, light-hearted tableu builder with a good dose of randomness. This is a game I wouldn't normally gravitate towards much anymore, but Doomlings certainly oozes charm. One of the elements I enjoyed is how your hand size is an ever changing element throughout the game. This aspect is something you should manage throughout the game to reduce randomness. That way you can better control your deck, as the bigger your gene pool is the more you can run through to find the cards that suit your tableu. If you are charmed by the whimsical nature Doomlings presents and don't mind negative interactions or randomness, then I recommend Doomlings as a fun casual game with a whimsical atmosphere and plenty of chaos.
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