Tales of BarBEARia - RFY / WFY
Today’s game is a joke. Literally. In a recent interview with the designer, I discovered that a late-night design session for Champions of Hara resulted in a series of unbearable puns that took a life of “bear” own. Now, that shouldn’t scare you away. Tales of BarBEARia by Greenbrier Games, might have begun from a series of insomnia driven banter, but what resulted is a sharp clawed game of probability and optimization. If you’re looking for a lightweight dice allocation and resource management game with elements of take-that and engine building, bear with me. If you’re a fan of bears though, you’ve found your sloth (a group of bears). -Yeah, that one was definitely forced.
Overview
Pick a clan, grab some dice and go to war. Well, sort of. Tales of BarBEARia is a 2-6 player competitive dice allocation game with simultaneous action selection and take that. Throughout the game you’ll be rolling dice and secretly placing them on a variety of locations on your personal board. Locations are divided amongst three categories: resource gathering, attack/defense and public objectives. You’ll need to carefully manage your resources to either automate certain actions, guarantee victory points, gain more dice or acquire cards with a variety of dice mitigation or take that effects. Whoever has the most points by the end of the 3rd season becomes the Top Bear!
Theme
The land of BarBEARia is both adorable and extremely hostile. Players are the leaders of proud clans of warrior bears constantly at odds with each other. They fight for supremacy, honor and the right to nap. Like its genesis, Tales of BarBEARia is a lighthearted and comical take on dice placement. The game is littered with beautiful and quirky artwork with a wonderful sense of humor. Bright vivid colors paint the story of these troublesome bearish warriors in a series of quests, battles and down-right shenanigans. Thematically your dice represent bands of bears you’ve managed to convince to help you on your conquest. In practice, you’re mostly placing dice and resolving actions. With that being said, the combination of its offbeat theme, humor and take that elements help players get in character. In summary, the charm, humor and atmosphere help create an environment of wacky antics and fun if you’re open to it.
Accessibility
The game takes minutes to set up and even less to explain. Tales of BarBEARia is an excellent introduction to worker placement and resource management in a tight time frame of 30-40 minutes. There's enough decision space to keep veteran gamers entertained while challenging newer ones to pay careful attention to the state of play without ever feeling overwhelmed. Players at any age can jump into a game and pick up the basics fairly quickly. Conversely, for those looking for more depth, the quest track and card decks will offer a host of ways to mitigate dice rolls and perform interesting combos.
Gameplay
Overall, the turn structure is generally straightforward:
Roll your dice
Place them secretly on different worker placement spots
Resolve quests and combat
Gain Resources
Profit???
What happens in between each of these steps is where the strategies lie. When rolling dice all results are shown publicly, this is important because it gives savvy players information of what their opponents might be planning. This light element of bluffing adds a lot of intrigue into what would have been a very straightforward moment. Now, locations benefit from higher or lower numbers. Resources, for example, will usually have a range of necessary values: honey requires 1-3, fate 1-5 and stone 4-6. Everything else though, well that's where things get interesting.
Consider resource acquisition the only solitaire action you’ll be doing in Tales of BarBEARia, every other decision will involve direct interaction with your fellow players. Firstly, every player will always be threatened by an attack by the players seated to their left and right. Conversely, you’ll also threaten them. At the top of your board you’ll have 3 locations on each side that you’ll use to either defend or attack with. Whoever has the highest values at the end of the battle will usually come out on top. For every combat you win, you’ll gain a point. Combat is one of the main ways of gaining victory points. However, if your opponent correctly anticipated your onslaught and overwhelmed you, you’ll lose a point instead. What’s most important here is that the defender will not lose anything, and players that get too greedy will. Yes, it’s a “take that” feature without any of the take that, which is ok in my book.
Questing will work differently, pitting players against each other in a contest for supremacy. Every season will have a set number of cards each with different requirements. The player that bests meet the criteria (eg. highest value, lowest value) will place a flag on the card. Flags are markers to indicate who has control where. Whoever has the most flags on a card by the end of the season wins its benefit. Moreover, questing is worthwhile because you’re rewarded one free resource for every flag you place. The combination of potential reward and immediate incentive makes this a highly coveted area.
Arguably, one of the most fascinating aspects of the BarBEARia system is how it manages its dice. Initially you start off with 3 dice, but throughout the game you’ll be able to add more dice into your pool. Adding more dice usually means better chances and more flexibility, but the stacking mechanic takes that even further. When players roll equal value dice, they’re able to stack them unto a single location. This opens up a lot of interesting situations, especially within combat and quest locations. Your opponent might have rolled a 6, but you rolled 2 4’s; will you attack him back or split the dice to other locations? That choice is compelling and gives what is otherwise a simple game a lot more meat to its bones.
On another note, dice aren’t the only thing to keep in mind. In order to win you’ll need plenty of resources and cards to help you become the biggest clan in the realm. But dedicating dice every turn to gain resources isn’t the most efficient option. That's where specialists come in. During the last phase of a turn, players will have the opportunity to make a single purchase from the market. The market contains a lot of worthwhile options, but one of its main attractions are the specialists.
Specialists are permanent units that will gather resources every single turn, regardless of where you placed your die; essentially automating your resource engine. They are the most expensive piece you can purchase from the market, but pay for themselves almost immediately.
Next you have the 3 new decks of cards: Empower, Mercenary and Fate. Each set of cards focuses on different game changing effects that can either give you a temporary bonus or affect other players. The Empower Deck focuses on bolstering your units. The Mercenary Deck will allow you to bring a temporary dice into your pool and affect your opponents in some way. Finally, the fate dice will let you change the results of your dice by either rerolling or changing it to any number. The cards add a lot of control to the standard BarBEARia formula that’s highly welcome.
Modes of Play
Tales of BarBEARia is a competitive game for 2-6 players to see who can acquire the most points before winter comes. As a quick note, although entertaining at 2, it benefits from higher player counts across the board. The more players at the table, the more raucous and chaotic a round will become. In a game like this, that's exactly what you want. But if fighting your friends isn’t enough, the Candy Horde expansion adds a slight co-op element to the standard in-your-face nature of the game.
Speaking of being up close and personal, there’s a lot of interactivity here. Decisions aren’t made in a vacuum as you’ll be able to see what your opponents rolled. Having the chance to adapt and plan out your turn is exactly what gives the game an advantage over its lightweight competitors. However, you’ll still be butting heads with your friends at all times, it's unlikely you’ll be able to correctly anticipate every move, but that mystery is part of the fun. Lastly, take that cards will create a much more adversarial environment between players. These effects range from stealing a resource to changing a die’s value. Keep in mind though that these cards aren’t prevalent since they require plenty of resources to acquire, which makes it a difficult decision for a lot of players. Nonetheless, the “stabby” nature of the game will always be there in one way or another.
Innovation
This is a lightweight dice-placement game, plain and simple. If you’re looking for a design that stretches the boundaries of pre-established genres and puts them on their head...Tales of BarBEARia is not it. But, what it does especially well is that it dissipates the intimidation a lot of new players feel when approaching a new genre. Its unique take on humor creates an environment that's welcoming and inviting. The puntastic focus gives the entire experience a sense of levity and silliness that masks its complexity.
It’s worth mentioning that if you’re a fan of the original BarBEARian Battlegrounds, there’s a lot to like in this latest iteration. While the original is more focused on player to player combat, Tales does a great job at including new venues to gain points and mitigate bad dice rolls. Ultimately, both games feel different, and it’ll come down to what you prefer or find the most fun.
Pricing
Currently selling at $40 USD on Kickstarter, the expected retail price is anticipated to be around $48 USD. Tales of BarBEARia is definitely on the pricier side of games of its weight. If you’re interested in supporting the publisher and getting a free expansion along the way, getting a copy now might be your best option.