Even though 2020 created almost unprecedented challenges for tabletop designers and publishers, a bevy of great games released in the last twelve months.

One of those is Dwellings of Eldervale from Luke Laurie and Breaking Games. It’s presented as an epic worker placement game in a fantasy world where elemental monsters and warring factions clash in a perpetual struggle for dominance. And, unlike some board games that promise big things, it delivers on the epic part (and the worker-placement part, though that would be a weird thing to say and not do). When would-be designers talk about their awesome game, they have in mind that combines all of these different mechanics and is grand on all scales, I feel like they’re talking about something like Dwellings of Eldervale. The nice thing is, Luke Laurie has made it a reality and Breaking Games, which definitely was not known for bigger tabletop experiences like this prior to the Kickstarter campaign, has emerged as a contender for publishers who make good on memorable big-box experiences.

Now, we’ve got another reason to pull out our wallets. Let’s look at what our money would buy if we sprang for the elemental storm of mechanical wonder, insert nirvana, and replay bliss.

Overview

Build the land of Eldervale. Select your faction. And try to create the most powerful elemental force of people in the world.

Dwellings of Eldervale is a Kickstarter brute that combines worker-placement, tableau-building, and area control for a lean, mean, competitive tabletop game. Players will decide on their turns to either place workers or bring them back to their ready area—and in doing so activate other action sequences that advance their agenda on the board. The cycle of unit placement and unit recovery is interrupted with battles, quests, and player interaction (sometimes with the added presence of scary elemental monsters).

Whoever has the most victory points at the end of the game is the conqueror of Eldervale!

Theme

Eldervale is a land of danger… and of opportunity. Monsters roam the realms, pushing out from their lairs and threatening any who dare to intrude in the elemental world. Other clans, comprised of workers, warriors, wizards, and powerful dragons, vie for supremacy. Each faction wants to claim this valuable territory for themselves, but the brewing trouble will ensnare any people who look to have a future in Eldervale. Between the monsters and the warring factions, someone must come out on top.

Dwellings of Eldervale relies on its elemental theme and narrative land of conflict to create a visual and mechanical marvel. While it’s not a story-driven experience (and flavor text is sadly a negligible aspect), it does accurately build on the atmospheric foundation to create a game that makes sense thematically. The factions really are going to war. The monsters are a very real threat. And it will be a challenge to overcome all of these separate obstacles and dwell in Eldervale.

Accessibility

If you’re looking at this monstrous box and you’re thinking, “There’s no way I want to get all that cardboard on my table and I don’t want to labor through what will surely be an encyclopedic rulebook,” then don’t leave me just yet.

Dwellings of Eldervale is one of the most approachable big-box games I’ve seen in a long time. The rulebook, while thicker than something you’d encounter in a small-box or medium-weight game, is clear and well-organized. It carries you through everything in the game quite comfortably. However, by separating the solo-mode Ghosts of Eldervale rules and the games FAQ into separate booklets, it doesn’t overwhelm you with every rule and question in the game. It gives you just what you need.

Now, you will be looking at one hour to two-and-a-half hours of gameplay (60 to 150 minutes). That’s not really going to change, so if the latter half of that range is too much, then maybe Dwellings is a little big for you.

But if time isn’t an issue then there’s a lot in the plus column for Dwellings with regards to accessibility. A lot of mechanics act in conjunction with each other, but the main thrust of a player turn is the same—place a unit or regroup. That central piece acts as the keystone for the whole architecture of the game. And younger players can easily be guided through the tabletop experience. Deeper strategy and more efficient play may be out of their reach for some time, but the core mechanics are accessible to a wide audience. Rolling dice for combat and worker-placement mechanics don’t have a lot of variables to manage all at the same time.

Gameplay

There is so much to talk about in a game like this. The best part is the very tight collaboration between the development team that makes all these seemingly disparate parts reinforce each other and make the entire game such a memorable experience.

Stepping away how the game fits together and moving toward how players will interact with it, though, we can examine what a turn in Dwellings of Eldervale looks like.

A player is always presented with two options: place a unit or regroup all units.

• Placing a unit involves selecting either a worker, a warrior, a wizard, or a dragon and then placing that unit on a realm hex tile.

  • Whether it’s unoccupied or occupied, players will always resolve the action of the tile first, either gaining a resource from an Elemental hex or performing an action on a Ruin hex.

  • Then, if an opponent’s unit is on that tile or a Monster is either present on the tile or adjacent, then a battle will be triggered, and players will resolve the combat.

• Regrouping all units is as straightforward as it sounds, with one exception.

  • All units that are on realm tiles will return to either to Ready Area or a tableau card (the starting one or an Adventure card acquired during the game).

  • Any unit on a tableau card will activate its ability and the player gains some benefit, whether it be resources or an additional action.

  • After all tableau cards are activated, the units go back to the Ready Area and all units that were in the Underworld also return to the Ready Area so that the player can start placing units on their next turn.

That’s it. Place a unit or regroup them. That cycle continues until the endgame has been triggered by either the last realm tile being placed or a player’s sixth dwelling being built.

The game bursts out of its big box, but the rules and pace move nimbly like a smaller board game. Where the strategy enters the conversation is when players have to decide what faction to use, where to place units, when to engage with a monster, how aggressive to slow down the advances of other players, what Magic cards to keep and which ones to discard, and what elemental powers to invest in. That sounds like a lot, but it becomes second nature after one or two plays of the game.

Where Dwellings of Eldervale is different, or better, is in how some of these mechanics interact with and contribute to the overall strategies that players implement during a game. Combat, for example, is not punishing in the way that many heavier strategy games favor. In Twilight Imperium or Forbidden Stars, a player’s good fortune can painfully and irreversibly change depending on the result of one fight. In this iteration of big-box brawls, though, the losing player is rewarded for their involvement in the fight—every unit sent to the Underworld is granted the boon of a sword (a valuable resource for future battles). And some quests even bestow victory points upon the player who lost. And those units are not permanently lost. They just dwell in the Underworld until the next regrouping. That doesn’t punish players for joining the fray. It simply delays their plans or forces them to adjust their strategy.

And with the transition from placing units to combat, it’s time to discuss what other mechanics feature in this adventure:

• Tableau engine-building

• Variable player powers

• Area control

• Dice-rolling combat

• Resource management

• Modular board setup

• Competitive, cooperative, and solo game modes

All of these play some part in the Dwellings of Eldervale experience. The tableau-building and the area control combine together with the elemental power track to give players multiple ways to score and compete. The variable player powers grant satisfying and influential abilities for each faction that increases replay value and enhances the strategies that players can devise. Resource management and dice-rolling combat balance the game nicely between careful planning and moments of exciting luck or unexpected twists. Small units taking down big foes can be very enjoyable in Eldervale. The modular board and the gameplay variants impact replayability in a positive way.

Endgame scoring, then, is when players will be able to witness their growth in the game, as they start to fine-tune the way in which their strategy lines up with the variables that affect victory point accumulation. Finding the right blend of elemental power and land grabs, as well as the mix of Adventure and Magic cards that make up your tableau and personal hand, is another important factor for players to consider.

Modes of Play

One to five players will compete with each other (or the Ghosts of Eldervale, if you’re running it solo), seeking to become the most powerful and widespread of the elemental factions who inhabit the land. Most games that offer a diverse player count can feel too stretched at the top of the range and too limited at the bottom. Dwellings feels exciting at all player counts due to variable setup that gives so many options for fresh gameplay while also tailoring the experience to whatever number of players are present.

The game is going to change dramatically—in a good way, though—depending on the tastes of the players. Sixteen factions are present, each with unique powers spread across their four units. These factions are associated with one of the eight elemental powers, only some of which will appear on the hex-tile map. A combination of Elemental Realm hex tiles and Ruin hexes create the map, resulting in a different board every game.

And then mercenaries, monsters, Magic cards, and several game variants offer more permutations and manipulations to the core rules. The competitive game can become a 2v2 team-based experience. Or you can adjust how people draft Magic cards. Or you can add-on extra Ruin tiles that offer mini expansions to the regular gameplay.

It’s a lot going on and, if you want, no two Eldervale games will be the same.

Innovation

If you strip away all the supplemental mechanics and shift your attention away from the Kickstarter production value, Dwellings of Eldervale is a worker-placement game. The interplay between units on the realm tiles, the Underworld, and the act of regrouping lends an exciting air of possibility and strategy. It’s not just figuring out where to place a worker. It’s a precarious balance of avoiding combat with particular units, saving certain workers for dwellings, and having the right numbers to activate your tableau cards in an efficient and productive manner.

And Game Trayz can take a bow because the custom inserts in this game really raise the bar for what organizers can add to a game. The setup and breakdown is simple, as is typical with well-designed organizers, but these trays also act as physical spaces for factions and components in game. Little notches in the plastic denote the cost of workers. Raised words and numbers remind players of max resource values. And with so much of the game staying in these trays while playing, it makes it so simple to finish it and pack it up or to leave it out for the next game.

Dwellings of Eldervale successfully fuses game design, component storage, and packaging together in a way that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Pricing

For the lucky backers who joined the campaign on Kickstarter, Dwellings of Eldervale was priced at $69, $99, and $139 for the Standard, Deluxe, and Legendary Editions of the game. For now, those prices are out of reach. The current cost on the Breaking Games website has risen to $99, $149, and $199 for the same three editions if you can even get a copy from the limited supply—January 2021 might be the nearest opportunity to get this game at retail.

That’s definitely a steep entry point for many gamers who aren’t frequent fliers on the Kickstarter scene. But the biggest difference between these editions is the upgrade in component quality, including miniatures—with the Legendary edition, you will get nine more elemental monsters and the Bifrost Bridge hex tile. So, if you’re looking for the complete Dwellings board game experience, you can still get that with the Standard edition.

If another printing from Breaking Games doesn’t arrive anytime soon, you may be able to find a more affordable grab from within the board game community or at your friendly local game store.

Dwellings of Eldervale is…