Last point about the Lords is that their power is impacted by which guild they are a part of. This is just a really fun thematic touch as you align yourself with certain guilds that are going to help you achieve your goals. There are Soldiers that are worth fewer Influence Points (what you want at the end of the game for victory) but allow you to negatively impact your opponents. Elsewhere, there are Politicians that help you sway and secure the use of future Lords. With there being 35 Lords, I’m sure some are unbalanced but if so, it hasn’t made a big difference in any of the matches I’ve played, and these cards stand out as a high point of the game for me.

Abyss Board Game - Etsy UK Abyss Board Game - Etsy UK

For me, I don’t think Conspiracy will replace Abyss but I can certainly see a place for both in my collection. They both have uses in different situations. Abyss is a more accessible game, it is easier to get to the table and simpler to explain. The interesting choices regarding drawing one, two or three Lord or Location cards are still present. I love this mechanism. Do you risk just drawing one card which might not be suitable for you or draw more, but potentially give your opponents more choice. Such a simple mechanism. Abyss stands up to multiple plays as the combinations of lords and locations seen during each game will be different, and the more you play, the more you can try out different strategies for gaining influence (e.g I prefer recruiting farmer lords who have no powers but high influence, and trying to combine them with locations to multiply up those points). The Location cards have some fun and interesting powers as well as additional end game scoring opportunities. They are nothing groundbreaking but they offer another means of scoring and a focus. One of the great things I like about Abyss is the interesting dynamic between the interactions of all the components. The main action you will be taking will be exploring for the ally cards. Eventually you will get enough of these allies to buy a Lord card, which is what you really want. The Lords in turn, will help you out for a while until you acquire enough keys to control a location. So that is almost an engine building (but not quite) aspect to the game. When you finally get a location, you will lose the special abilities of any Lords you used to capture it.

Request support from the council – As ally cards build up in the council, it can be an attractive option to take a pile to boost your hand of allies. Strangely, there is no disadvantage to doing this, no price to pay, it would have possibly felt more in theme if you had to ‘bribe’ the council with a few pearls to gain their favour. The small ally cards are pretty simple, coming in different values within each race, from one to five. These races/values are used to recruit lords. The lord cards are a little more involved; each is unique, with its own name, (fantastic) artwork, value, power and cost. Speaking of the Lords, I felt that there was really a nice variety in their abilities and I liked how they all fit into their own category. For example, the red Lords are all soldiers who have abilities that work against your opponents. The purple Lords are mages that help you work with the ally races, while the yellow Lords are farmers that are just worth extra influence points. They all felt different and useful in their own right. Players could focus on one type of Lord if they had a specific strategy they wanted to try out. This helps give the game a lot of replay value as each game seems to play out just a little differently. This is especially true do to the 20 different location tiles. You will most likely only see a fraction of those in any game. Keep collections to yourself or inspire other shoppers! Keep in mind that anyone can view public collections - they may also appear in recommendations and other places. Abyss is a game about undersea politics (yes, that's a thing) where two to four players compete to have the most influence, by affiliating allies, defeating monsters, lobbying the council, recruiting lords, and controlling locations. Components

Abyss Review | Board Game Quest Abyss Review | Board Game Quest

As soon as a player has three keys in their possession, either the keys shown on recruited lords, or keys gained from defeating monsters, they gain control over a location. Each location is represented by a hefty rectangular board, showing a scene from the ocean floor, and detailing how best to use it to score influence. Abyss- dip powder, dip powder for nails, nail dip powder, dip nail, dip powders, dip nail powder, nail dip, nail dips, dip nails, nails You can allow yourself to become corrupted to gain access to new powers and new locations, but you will pay the price for it at the end of the game. Even if you decide to remain pure, remember that your opponents will not hesitate to spend their Nebulis during their dealings… There is a limited amount of player interaction, mainly in the form of the lord powers, and whilst these include some ‘take-that’ moments, they are fairly light, and won’t ruin the game for players at the sharp end of this.Players gain influence points (victory points) in several ways, but the core path involves exploring the depths to defeat monsters (worth random influence points) and gain allies; allies are used to then recruit lords (worth varying amounts of influence), and lords are used to control locations (which have their own criteria for gaining influence). Plot the Court (optional): You may spend a pearl to add a Lord to the court (if there are open spots).