Vindication

Happy New Year Everyone! To ring in the new year and conclude our 31 days of Yuletide gaming, Hector, Amanda and I played a game of Vindication. Vindication is a game I had my eye on for some time, but it is difficult and expensive to pickup outside of kickstarter. Luckily I got it at a great price as part of a different kickstarter for the same company and it arrived just before the end of the year, so here we are.

I have a lot of good things to say about this game, but I will start with something I have a serious complaint about, and that is the components. I’m sure some of you will look at the pictures and wonder if I had a little to much to drink for New Years day but allow me to explain. Vindication (at least the kickstarter version) has gorgeous production all around, but falls into the trap of overproduction in several areas. The worst of which is the cards, for some unfathomable reason they are “I” shaped. When I saw these I assumed they linked up with the player board or something but nope; just awkward to shuffle, unsleevable cards. The GameTrayz main insert is decent, if a bit fiddly, and the individual player trays are neat but completely unnecessary. Apart from this though, it’s a solid production all around, with good graphic design, excellent art and solid, chunky components.

I would describe Vincdication as a midweight euro cube pusher (very well) disguised as an adventure and exploration game. I really cannot think of a better euro style game which better immerses players in the theme. You begin the game as a “guilt ridden scumbag” washed up on the island shore and revived by your first companion of the game. The main mechanism of the game is increasing your attributes, which you will then use to purchase companions, artifacts and traits, as well as control locations, fight monsters and buy mounts. Players can upgrade basic attributes into heroic ones, as well as upgrading their potential into influence and influence into conviction and can eventually vindicate themselves. Nearly all of the actions mentioned above can score you points in some way.

There are also secret missions doled out at the start of the game, so you can never know for sure how many points a player actually has and in addition, there are bonus points given out for having the most “stuff” of any given attribute, be it proficiencies, companions, traits etc. The map is randomized and is revealed through exploration, and individual locations can be controlled by a player, allowing them to score if other players make use of it. There is a lot more going on, but this is the general gist of how the game is played.

So as I mentioned, I think Vindication is possibly the best melding of euro style mechanics with a solid theme, and it bears repeating. The basic gameplay really amounts to “get cubes, turn cubes into other cubes, buy cards with cubes”. And yet the game never really feels like just pushing cubes around. The cards are excellent and thematic and despite being a very mechanics heavy game, the theme is reflected in how all of the mechanics work. The companion cards are also very unique, and the game has randomized endgame conditions, more of which come out as the honor (VP) score rises. So this game has some serious legs, even before any of the expansions are involved.

Despite being a point salad with a lot of randomized starting conditions, the game is actually very simple and once started, flows extremely well. There is minimal direct player interaction, as you cannot simply pick a fight with another player, though there are various artifacts and traits one can use to take a few pot shots at them. The main way to stymie other players is to control the parts of the board they want to make use of, leaving the PVP to a minimum but a very important part of the game. Letting another player just run free with their strategy is a surefire path to defeat.

I’ve only played this 2 player, and surprisingly, the issues I expected to pop up with a smaller player count did not. I was worried a lot of the map would be left blank, but we had only one space unexplored at the endgame. In addition because there is not a lot of ways to attack a player other than outmaneuvering them, it did not turn into a take-that sort of snipe fest, which was also pleasant. I think with a larger player count there would be more focused strategy, as with 2 player we both just ended up doing a little bit of everything, but the game scales down very well regardless.

I Know it was actually released a couple years ago, and despite being one of the few games I will dock points from for over production raising the price, Vindication wins my award for “best game discovered in 2020”. I thoroughly recommend this game to nearly all players, with only 2 minor caveats. The first is to try and get it during one of Orange Nebula’s kickstarters, it’s offered there at a significant discount and the price for the base game is honestly, staggering without it. The second is that while this is not a super complex game, it’s solidly in the middle weight range, and I would not recommend it for people who’ve only played Monopoly and Catan. For everyone else, from eurogamers to amerithrashers, I think you will enjoy it thoroughly.

Note: I absolutely love this game and already it sits around the same place in my heart as Shadowrift. As Kage said, it never felt like you were just pushing cubes around and the action was very refreshing. I never felt like I was just waiting around though I did feel like I didn’t have a solid plan, and as Kage said, we did both change what we were going to do to try to get the most points several times. I do think in a higher game count, with the board being built faster, it might be easier/faster to come up with a solid “plan” for what you want to do to try to get the highest points and stick with it, but I also quite enjoyed getting to explore the map and do lots of things to gain points (which, shocker, a lot of my actions were to go to the library… a game that mirrors my heart).

The Teal Deer

Game: Vindication
Designer: Marc Neidlinger
Price: $150! for the base game, expansions vary from $25-$40
Players: 1-5
2 player Scaling: Extremely good
Playtime: 30ish minutes per player
Estimated Lifespan: Need to find space for it in my collection (Did I mention the box is huge? It is.)
Average Play Frequency: Bi-monthly
Complexity: 3.5
Components: 5
Bang for Buck: 3
Value for Time: 5
Fun Factor: 5
Overall: 5