Ex Libris: Review
Information:
Player Age: 14+
Player Count: 1 - 4 Players
Year Published: 2025
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the Lets Play Games.
Introduction:
Ex Libris is a fantasy-filled adventure into the organisational world of a library. Players are sending out workers to gain and shelf new books into their tableu. Be careful with the book placement as there are strict scoring rules on alphabetical order, shelf stability, and favoured genres.
Game Anatomy:
Book Cards:
Each book card has a letter on the top left. Next to these are two numbers, the second of which will tell you how many cards of this letter appear in the deck, where the first number will determine the card’s sequential order. Each book card will depict 2-4 books, and these will have their genre icon above them at the top of the card.
Location Tiles:
Location Tiles will create unique ways for players to gain book cards, shelve books, and manipulating the game state. Each location tile will either have; a lightning bolt and green banner to denote that it is an immediate action,
or a clock symbol and red banner to show that it will resolve at the end of the round.
The worker locations on these tiles may contain a value on the worker spots which shows that it is limited to player count. Each location will have a number in the top left that determines the order of the red banner effects. The earliest location tile will also become a permanent location at the end of the round, with the rest being discarded.
Category Cards:
There is one card for each category. These are used to determine the banned category (players lose points for shelving this genre) and the prominent category (players gain points for having the most). Each player will also gain one of these cards as their category which they wish to fill their library with.
Special Assistant Cards:
When players are familiar with the game, one of their workers can be substituted for a special assistant worker. These assistants will either have an ongoing ability or a reaction ability that activates when a certain requirement is met.
Player Parts:
Each player will have three standard workers and a library tile. On this library tile, a worker can be placed to receive the immediate action of drawing a blind library card or placing a library card into their tableu (shelving).
Setup:
- Deal each player the following; their player board, three workers, 8 library cards.
- Find the Diviners Hut location and place it below the scoring reference, at the permanent locations.
- Give the first player token to the player who most recently acquired a book.
How to Play:
Predominantly, Ex Libris is a worker placement game that will be played over various rounds. The game ends when a player has shelved a certain number of books; 2/3/4 players shelving 18/16/14 cards, respectively. On a round there are four phases; preparation, placement, resolution, and clean up.
Preparation Phase:
During this phase new locations are drawn equal to the player count. These locations will be ordered sequentially by the number found in the top left. Some of these locations will need library cards placed beside them as shown on the top right of the location.
Placement Phase:
One at a time in this phase, players will take turns placing their workers. Any immediate location will be resolved when the worker is placed. Each players library tile also has a valid worker location used as a basic draw/shelve a card.
This is the phase where library cards are shelved. As they are shelved, they must be placed orthogonally adjacent to a previously placed card, and cannot exceed more than three rows. Remembering that at the end of the game players want their library to be in alphabetical, and sequential, order.
Resolution Phase:
Once everyone has placed all of their workers, the delayed effect locations will activate in numerical order. All books on locations will now be discarded and all workers will be returned to the players.
Clean Up Phase:
The lowest number amongst the temporary locations will be moved into the permanent locations. Every other temporary location (those drawn this round) will be discarded. Players will check if enough books have been shelved by any player to trigger the final round. If not, a new normal round will begin. After the final round occurs, scoring will commence.
Scoring:
Building a perfect library can be quite particular and requires a certain amount of attention to detail. At the end of the game, each book will score based on these conditions. To make scoring more beneficial for the player, before scoring, they can voluntarily flip any book card to remove it from being scored.
Alphabetical:
Before scoring, each book needs to be easily accessible. From top left to the bottom right, each book card will be checked to see if they are alphabetically and numerically descending. Each letter has a set order within that letter. Not all the cards of one letter need to have been collected but they do have to sit in order of smallest to largest number. Any book cards that fail to meet this will be flipped over and considered invalid before scoring.
Shelf Stability:
It is important that the libraries are stable and don't fall on any unsuspecting visitors. Flipped books will count towards your stability. This section will score based on the largest rectangle within the overall structure. Each book card in this rectangle will score one point.
Categories:
Categories, also referred to as genres, shown on the book cards will score in various ways. The banned category will loose the player one point per this symbol collected. Every player will have a category focus and will score two points per appearance of that category. Besides the banned category, variety is important so the lowest category will score three points per appearance. Lastly, the prominent category will score based on first, second and third place (15, 9 and 4 points, respectively).
Final Thoughts:
- Easy to start the library shelves but once the game commences there are a lot of challenges in laying out the right books and meeting the scoring conditions.
- Interesting mechanism of new locations existing for a round with certain locations becoming permanent.
- Special assistants give players more control and better methods to mitigate luck.
- Can feel very luck-based at times as there are many locations where players draw a certain number of cards and then shelf some from the amount drawn.
There are a lot of themes in board games but one I have never seen myself is a library-themed game. I greatly enjoyed Ex Libris due to this fun and unique theme. Mechanically, it combines a challenging point salad aspect with card placement, as players are building their tableau to place certain categories, while keeping the shelf in a rectangular shape, and maintaining alphabetical and numerical order from top left to bottom right. It is a fun challenge to maintain this order. The way the books are gained and played is through a worker placement system with a constant influx of new worker locations. As the rounds continue, more and more worker locations become permanent, thereby helping players strategise their preferred route throughout the game. At times, the locations may feel luck-based but this can be lessened with the use of special assistants. If you are already drawn to this theme, or simply enjoy gateway worker placement games or tableu builders, then I definitely recommend playing Ex Libris and it has earnt a Silver Seal of Approval.
Comments
Post a Comment