Thames & Kosmos – Devir – Lacrimosa – Level: Advanced –Euro Board Game – 2-4 Players – Board Games for Adults & Kids, Ages 14+ - BGLACML

Product Information

In the end, I never found myself getting too excited about the turns. There are opportunities to build mini-combos, but I never found myself getting too high or feeling tension. The gameplay is fine and I would probably be up for a game of Lacrimosa in the future, but it’s not something I would play regularly. There are some interesting decisions, just not enough to get me excited. While there is some variable setup with different composers and different cards, I don’t think there is enough variety to justify too many repeat plays. This meaty game by Gerard Ascensi and Ferran Renalias supports up to four players and is best for teens and adults. Experienced groups can play a game of Lacrimosa in about 90 minutes. Setup Sorry for this, there are no bags in the box and there are, as you can see, a lot of parts. I meant to organize everything after my last game, but I didn’t get a chance.

Regrettably, this is not a game our kids were terribly interested in playing. This isn’t really a surprise to us, as the theme is a bit more adult, and it is on the complex side. I do think a game savvy 12-year-old can play this game mechanically without issue. But it takes a special kid to be interested in composers from the Classic period. Solo If you love efficiency euros, you’ll enjoy Lacrimosa. It’s not going to become your favorite game, but you’ll have a decent-to-good time. Even if you love efficiency euros, it’s not worth seeking out in my opinion. Let Lacrimosa come to you. The theme is a welcome change from farming and war, even if it makes absolutely no intuitive sense in terms of gameplay, but there’s so much more to learn here than the decision space rewards. Next let’s talk about Performing and Selling Music. These two actions are performed using this card, which shows the Queen of the Night on stage [ed. At this point, one of the players pretends to sing a few bars of opera], yes, exactly, and this parchment scroll. When you perform this action, you can choose whether you want to perform or sell whichever one of your pieces you want. Each piece of music has a cost for being performed or sold–the resource is called “Talent” but we’re calling them Mozart Busts because that’s what the image is and why is Mozart’s talent a resource that I am accruing to spend later? It doesn’t bear thinking about, it doesn’t retain any water. So you spend that resource and you get, if you perform the piece, the amount of money shown on the card. Then you rotate the card 90º to indicate that it has been performed this round.Both games feature beautiful production that emphasizes unique themes, but they are themes that have absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay experience. For Bitoku, about Japanese forest spirits, the theme simply disappears. Lacrimosa is unique amongst games I’ve played for the degree to which its theme actively works against understanding the game. I didn’t bother using the theme of Bitoku to teach new players because it was faster to explain everything mechanically. I avoid using the theme for Lacrimosa because attempting to incorporate it makes the game significantly less comprehensible. That’s really bad. Now let’s look at buying Music. These have their cost printed on the top of the card itself, and there’s a little additional cost printed on the board. You pay the cost, you get whatever number of victory points are printed in the upper right corner, and then you add that piece of music to your collection. There are four different kinds of music in this, they are represented by different pictures. Those will matter from time to time. For each section of the Requiem, count the composer markers. Whichever composer has more markers in that section scores the higher victory point value for each marker with their symbol. Note: those symbols are for a composer, not a player.

Commission an Opus: Gain an opus card to add to your display, paying the indicated cost and gaining victory points. A player can Perform an Opus to take a small amount of ducats (listed on the card). If their needs are greater, players may elect to sell a piece of music. This yields a higher amount of money, but they must then discard the Opus. Players start with the Nannerl minuet. It’s not worth much when performed or sold. Operas (such as Don Giovanni) are more expensive to commission (cost at top), but raise more money when they are performed or sold.

The second action is to tell tales of works you had commissioned from the genius. You can buy Opus cards from the market row at the top of the board, of which there are four types. Symphonies, Operas, and Chamber or Religious pieces. Then as a third action you can choose to either perform them for money or sell them for a mix of resources and victory points. A lot of the end-game scoring tiles will depend on your collection of these commissions so deciding whether to sell or keep can often be a difficult decision. Your fourth option is to journal. This simply means to upgrade your story cards from the market row. You pay the resources for the new card and then replace the bottom row card in your portfolio with this new one. Each period will release stronger and stronger cards but deciding what cards to replace will be tight as you will need to make sure you keep access to all possible actions for future turns. Sanctus After you pay the corresponding composer tile costs, you collect the reward on the tile and place it face down on your player board where you removed the Requiem marker you just placed. The rewards may be one-time, immediate benefits, or in some cases, ongoing special abilities. There are composer tiles that allow you to perform a particular action a second time, some that give you an extra story point during the Maintenance phase, and others that give you victory points whenever you gain, perform, or sell certain types of Opus cards.