If you've been following my blog or my reviews at all, you've probably picked up that I LOVE deckbuilders and that Goblivion (check out the review and playthrough) was one of my surprise favourite games of 2019, making its way to my number four solo game of the year. Well, when I heard that the wonderful Jean-François Gauthier was launching a new and improved deckbuilder on Kickstarter, it was a must-back for me! I've had the game for about a month now and it has gotten to the table a lot. That's one of my favourite thing about both of these games is their quick set up and play time. Rather than just making a new Goblivion with a few gameplay and component tweaks, Gauthier created a game that was a completely different type of deckbuilder.
Goblivion feels familiar as a castle defense game. Enemies come closer and closer to your castle and you need to train your troops to take them on. In Dinoblivion, the premise and execution is much different. You are a cave-person tribe attempting to survive in a prehistoric jungle (I don't know how accurate to history this is, but I'm suspending reality a bit because it's a board game). Dangers include dinosaurs, opposing tribes, cannibals, and piranhas. You start off with a deck of ten cards (nine standard and one variable chief card) and you use these to build up your tribe. You need to collect and manage various resources: food, dinosaur pets, and new babies. Food and babies allow you to "purchase" new cards: items and tribes-people, respectively.
The cards you purchase allow you to collect these resources as well as produce the attack power you need to take down the dinosaurs and, in solo mode, the enemies you'll encounter. Two player competitive mode has you competing against another tribe to be the must successful tribe (with the most points). In solo mode, the deck of purchase-able cards becomes the game timer and there are four enemies cards added to the deck that burn through the deck more quickly. You need to take down the seven dinosaurs before that deck runs out.
So, how do the two -oblivion games stack up? Let's take a look.
TOTAL PLAYS: 10 solo, 1 competitive
COMPONENTSThe art style is more to my taste here than in Goblivion. You still get a fun art style, but the ridiculous goblin panties don't make a comeback here (phew). The components are similar in quality. The tokens are used a little bit more in this one, but they feel sturdy and stand up to use. A huge company with a huge budget could probably make better components and thicker cards, but these are just fine and get the job done. 4/5
RULES
This game is more complex than its predecessor, but it is still not a convoluted game. With the added moving pieces and resources comes more rules, but most are intuitive. I did have a few issues, especially involving use of the cave (a place to store cards to use on later turns). I know a similar mechanic was used in Goblivion, but it turns out the rule is a little different here. Some digging was needed and searching of BGG to figure this out. Overall, no major issues. 4/5
This is where the two -oblivions really part ways. In Goblivion, you basically use your money/resources as health and use your attack power to train troops (purchase new cards) and defeat enemies (which also give you new cards). Acquiring cards and win conditions are much different here.
Rather than spending most of the game getting rid of the awful cards in your deck, now you're spending the game trying to add the good ones. You're also working really hard to get cards that provide synergy - do you have a card that lets you draw more cards by using up a dinosaur token? Well, you better have another card that lets you acquire more dinosaur tokens! Instead of a static trade row, there is a jungle deck. When the dinosaurs get angry (they hit rage whenever you exhaust your deck), they rampage and scare more people and items (cards) out of the jungle. These become the cards that you can purchase (buddies/babies = clans-people and food = items). In competitive play, you're not too worried about running through the deck too quickly and so you might also hunt by using your attack power to draw new cards and look for food symbols. This also adds new cards to the purchase piles. In solo play, you're much more concerned with conserving this deck and will likely not hunt at all.
Each card has multiple uses as well - they can be used to attack (top right corner score), mate (right/left side of the card), activate a special ability (bottom of the card), or a clans-person can be used to activate an item (exhaust the card sideways). This means that even if you end up with a weak card on your turn, you can use it to activate a powerful item. I am very impressed with the game that Gauthier has created here and the variability in card powers. However, even though I enjoy the solo game, the deck as a timer is not my favourite mechanism and pulls me out of the theme a little bit. 4/5
REPLAYABILITY
There is a lot of replayability here. There are a kajillion cards that you'll never be able to buy across several games and you'll definitely never have the same combination. Depending on what's available, there are different ways to win - do you go buddy heavy? Dino-pet heavy? Food heavy? How many totems do you get (totems are kind of like bases in Star Realms - they stay out in front of you, except they can't be destroyed!)? In my first three games, I went each of these different routes and they are all viable options for winning. This game seems a little bit easier than Goblivion, which takes away a little bit of the desire to play it again. I'm not sure if I'm playing a rule wrong or something, but I might need to house rule some things to increase the difficulty. 4/5
FUN
Jean-François understands that board games are supposed to be fun. The theme, artwork, and play style all add to the fun of his games. As in any deckbuilder, you feel more and more powerful as the game goes on. In fact, in this one, you feel just powerful enough to get through each round, wondering how you'll ever be able to take down that T-Rex. Then, everything clicks, and you take 'im down. There is a lot of really good stuff here. I wish the solo game provided a little more of a challenge and that a few of the rules were a little clearer, but I love this game. 8/10
TOTAL SCORE: 24/30
In a battle between the theme of dinosaurs and goblins, the fantasy theme wins out for me and so I prefer Goblivion to Dinoblivion, but just barely. The truth is, though, I don't have to choose! Both of these games have a spot on my shelf as very different solo deckbuilders. Nice work Jean-François! I cannot wait for what you have next!
If you want more information on my review system, check out the full description here.
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