Ascension
2-4
13+
30
Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer is a fast-paced deckbuilding game that’s quick to learn, easy to setup, and packed with endless hours of replay value! Our goal with Ascension was to make a game that we would bring out again and again for our own game nights. With an all-star team working on design and development, including Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Champions Justin Gary, Rob Dougherty, and Brian Kibler, we spent the better part of a year making a game that will appeal to fans of the board games, trading card games, and non-gamers alike.
Digital Version:
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Ascension is a deckbuilding game. What does that mean? For those of you familiar with Dominion, this is a game using the same basic mechanic. For those of you new to the concept, here’s how it goes. You start the game with a deck. A small deck. On your turn, you acquire cards for your deck. Purchased cards typically go into your discard pile, which you shuffle when you get through your deck. This adds purchasing power for better cards and easier acquisition of point cards. You shuffle a lot. The concept started with Dominion, and has been popping up in other games like Thunderstone and Ascension. It’s a good mechanic, and it makes games that use it easy to teach since you begin the game with a premade deck of just a couple different kinds of cards.
Ascension works for 2-4 players. It has a board to organize the cards. There is a deck of characters and monsters to defeat or purchase, and some spiffy plastic crystals to track Honor (victory points). Six cards are laid out on the board, and these are either going to be characters which go in your deck (purchased with Runes), monsters to defeat (using Power) or constructs, which are cards that go through your deck that you may play into your play area and they stay in effect indefinitely. Most characters will provide Power and/or Runes. Runes are the currency you use to buy cards, and Power is what you
use to defeat enemies. You can buy as many characters or constructs and/or fight as many enemies as you have the Power and Runes for in your turn.
I like this game quite a bit. It is simple. Ascension is much less of an endeavor to set up than Dominion is. We own all the released sets for Dominion, and it really seems like a monumental undertaking to set up. Ascension, on the other hand, just requires you to grab a starting deck, lay out the board, shuffle the card supply and count out the Honor crystals. The simplicity of this makes it much more likely to hit the table if just my wife and I are playing. Additionally, the possibility of buying characters and fighting enemies in the same turn is nice, especially compared to Thunderstone’s clunky dungeon mechanic.
Ascension – Chronicle of the *slayer (“Ascension” for short) is a Deck Building game set in a mythical universe of monsters, mechanical constructs, nature bound humanoids, mystical wizards and worshipers of dark magic. Designed by a group of professional Magic: The Gathering players, Ascension does a fantastic job streamlining the deck building concept and distilling the genre down to a quick playing and fun romp with multiple strategies and combinations.
Ascension currently has 2 expansions with another to be released shortly. Each expansion can serve as a stand-alone game or be combined in a variety of ways to mix up the possibilities.
For those of you reading this who are already familiar with other deck-building games like Dominion, Thunderstone and Resident Evil – this review is basically done: try out Ascension – you will not be disappointed.
For the rest of you still reading – I thought I would take a bit of space describing what a deck-building game is and how it can help you be a better player in other games (especially collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering, WoW:TCG, Pokemon, etc.).
As the name suggests, a Deck-Building game focuses on each player gathering cards to put in their deck in order to achieve some goal – typically scoring some type of victory points. The cards which you ‘purchase’ during your turn will be mixed in with the cards you already have in your deck – and will have an effect when you draw and play them. In many of these games (including Ascension), the cards will serve as both victory points in the end-game, and also trigger actions during the game to either allow you to buy more cards, gain victory points or many other effects.
Each turn you will be adding cards to your deck – this is a double-edged sword, as the cards you ‘buy’ are generally valuable and you want to play them; however the more cards you have in your deck, the less chance a particular card will show up on a given turn. To counteract this, Ascension has cards which will allow you to remove cards from your deck – in effect streamlining it. Often times players will be faced with a conundrum as they weigh out the cost of ‘banishing’ a card since its effect is not that useful, with that card’s victory point value which will not be counted if the card is banished.
This simple concept is the heart of deck building techniques in almost all collectible card games currently in print – and often one of the most overlooked skills for new and intermediate players. Deck building and tuning in an important skill for being competitive, and Ascension teaches basic techniques without even trying.
For me, Ascension is the best of the deck-building games to date. Combining ease of play, an interesting and highly variable starting game state and wonderful card art makes it a clear winner.
Ascension has some good qualities but mostly outweighed by some bad qualities, particularly randomness.
Compared to other deck builders the artwork is a little lacking. It looks like the art from the original Hobbit animation but when presented in a 3d format, it’s flat, the energy of the design is also flat and so it doesn’t feed into a theme or atmosphere.
It’s a deck builder, ok but the major problem with this deck builder is that it has two degrees of randomness; the deck and the common pool. In every other deck builder you can develop a strategy or a plan of how you want to build your deck. In Ascension, the game has the basic elements and card mechanics of dominion (plus a second purchasing power via military) but the available cards to go after are randomized. You can build a deck to go after specific cards, spend your turn taking a card you don’t really want or need, only to be replaced by a card you do and then the next player snipes it from you. So, strategy is marginalized to luck of the draw. There is the 3 common cards that allow you to always get honor, but when that is available to everyone, then the it’s really just a simple clock.
The nice thing about Ascension compared to some other deck builders is the VPs don’t clog up your deck. That is my main complaint with dominion, but I understand it also acts like catch-up mechanics to the other players.
Deck builders are fun because the decision making takes place during the game as opposed to constructed deck where decisions are made primarily pre-game in creating the deck and then you let luck-of-the draw take form for the most part. Ascension is like a blend of pre-game decision making, luck-of-the draw element, and a touch of a real deck-builder but it doesn’t function well. Your decision making is obfuscated when you’re acquiring cards; decide between the few cards available and then employ hope.
If you want more meaningful decision making and more control over a deck builder, pass on Ascension.
If you want a light combination of a CCG and a DBG, Ascension might be ok for you.
It amazes me how game designers come up with their ideas. I once heard someone say; they just drink a lot of beer, take a thesaurus, choose some random entries and hope for the best! I’m not sure exactly how they do it but I am very glad they do. And a prime example of this is Ascension: Chronicle of the *slayer.
So, what’s different about Ascension then? Why would we pick this over Nightfall or Thunderstone? Well each game is great but there are some great reasons for each choice. Now for Ascension here is a big reason, it has roots from the father of all deck building games, Magic the Gathering – it was designed by MTG Tour champions Rob Dougherty, Brian Kibler and Justin Gary (who also founded Gary Games). One thing that I found impressive was that even though this is Gary Games first release you can tell that it was well thought out and it was not rushed at all.
Overall Gameplay
So here is the difference between Ascension and most other deck building games. First and foremost is the simplified take on the genre. Ascension has a focus on three major areas – Runes (it’s the money baby!!!), Power (used to kick @*# and take names) and Honor (this is where the win is. Victory points!). The amount of Honor used to start the game is based on the amount of players. When the last honor is taken, the games end is initiated, and whoever started the game don’t get another turn everyone else gets one making everyone’s turns equal.
There’s no limitation as to what you can do here as long as you have the Runes or Power – unlike in Dominion with its one action / one buy mechanic. Like other deck-building games, you start with a weak pile of cards, but your buying options are quite a bit different. You always have the option of buying certain cards suck as Mystics (more Runes) or Heavy Infantry (more Power) cards, or whacking the Cultist for a single Honor point, but there’s also The Central Row. This is six cards that will cost more Runes or Power to acquire or defeat, but will bring greater rewards – getting rid of one of them will see its spot replenished immediately, so making the right decisions can really reap you some good stuff.
Monsters
Monsters, as mentioned, will at least get you some Honor, but could also allow you to banish a card (chucking it into the Void – this game’s discard pile – which means you can whittle out the less important cards from your deck) or you may even have a chance to affect another player. Heroes boost your power, making monsters much easier to dispatch, but there’s also another type of card to consider – the Construct.
Constructs
Constructs are an interesting concept. Where most deck-building games have you discard everything you touch in a turn, the Constructs you manage to get your hands on actually stay in play, often giving you hefty bonuses (especially if you manage to pull a selection together). If you’re native to Magic then you might see these as Artifacts or Enchantments. Other cards in the deck can see Constructs returned back to players’ hands or discard piles, so they won’t always be around – but when they are, you’ll certainly have an advantage.
Play Time and Pretties
Games are quick – even a four player effort can be done in 45 minutes. The artwork is amazing, really showing the differences between the four in-game factions, while the cards and board are great quality – satisfyingly heavy and made to last (although you can get Ascension branded card sleeves if you so desire). Some of the flavour text is a bit cheesey, but hey these guys played MTG.(did you not read the flavour text on Grizzly Bears) Also, while it’s not a bad thing, you can tell that the whole game has been put together with expansion in mind, but what do you expect from a design team with such a huge love for MTG?
Summary
So now to the point of this review. Is this game worth getting, I know deck building games are not for everyone but if you’re a fan of these style of games then I say this is a must have. It hits the table every time our game group gets together because of the amount of time it takes to play. It’s a great game in my opinion, and with the ability to jump in no set up time and go. This is a must buy game. (If you’re a deck building fan)
Larry Fettinger and InD20 Group approve this review.
Ascension: Chronicle of the *slayer is a light deckbuilding game in a fantasy setting for 2-4 players. The game is similar to Dominion but with a heavier reliance on random card draws.
Gameplay Summary
The goal of the game is to possess the most victory points, called Honor, at the end of the game through best utilizing the two currencies of the game – Runes, for purchasing heroes and constructs, and Power, for defeating monsters. Heroes provide immediate bonuses when played, while constructs remain in play and offer constant bonuses or actions, though both provide Honor at the end of the game. Monsters provide instant Honor in the form of physical tokens, as well as typically providing a one-time bonus after their defeat. Runes can be spent or monsters defeated from either a fixed set of weaker cards or the 6-card center row, which changes immediately as cards are removed from it.
Each player begins with a deck of eight Apprentices, which supply Runes, and two Militia, which supply Power. Each player can make as many purchases or defeat as many monsters as their current hand will allow, and they may do so in any order. At the end of each turn, any unused Power and Runes are wasted, and all heroes or unplayed constructs (those not already in play) are discarded. A new hand is drawn, and the discard pile is shuffled and placed as the player’s draw pile when their prior draw pile has been exhausted. This continues until both all Honor tokens are distributed and all players have had an equal amount of turns.
Gameplay Features
• Deckbuilding
• Hand Management
Components and Theme
The game comes with 200 cards, 50 plastic Honor tokens and 1 game board. The game board is nice and functional, though entirely unnecessary. The Honor tokens are of good quality and make it easy for other players to quickly tally any other player’s Honor token total. The cards are of fair quality, but the black borders will show wear quickly upon repeated plays, so sleeves would be suggested for frequent players if appearance is a priority.
Although this may seem strange for a game with fantasy artwork on every card, this game’s theme seems very thin. The artwork is heavily stylized, especially when compared with other deckbuilders like Dominion, and, thusly, detracts from the theme, in my opinion. The spending of Runes or Power feels like purchasing cards in Dominion. Where the theme shows most is in the individual factions, which each have unique bonuses their cards provide. However, the low number of cards and random drawing of them results in a lack of synergism for the majority of these cards to such a degree that mixing and matching the effects is typically the best course-of-action.
Ease of Adoption
This game is easy to learn and teach, especially so for players familiar with Dominion, and even the most casual players should pick up the rhythm of the game after only a few turns. Mastery of the concepts, which generally comes from simply knowing the cards, will take a few plays and is achievable by players of any experience level.
There is no direct conflict and little player interaction other than the bonuses awarded when certain monsters are defeated. Since there are no reaction cards, players simply suffer the penalties of the bonuses from monsters defeated by others and are rarely permanently impacted by those consequences.
Setup and Play Times
Setup is very easy and can be done in less than 5 minutes, even for new players.
Gameplay typically takes 30-45 minutes, though new player games may take longer due to them being unacquainted with the text of the cards. Each turn is relatively short, and though the simplicity of the game generally prevents analysis paralysis (AP), the random nature of the center row can lead players with AP tendencies to grind the game to a halt.
Luck Factor
Since every card in the center row is undeniably better than anything in the starting deck or the fixed piles, the random draw of the cards is a major determining factor in victory, especially so with higher player counts where cards change out several times between each player’s turn. A monster-heavy center row can force players into purchasing Power-granting cards en masse, but that row may be emptied of monsters by the time a given player can actually draw those purchased cards. The game’s strategy lies primarily in what to purchase or defeat and when to do so – whether for your own immediate benefit or to block an opponent – as well as ordering those actions for optimal effect.
Fun Factor
The speed of play and light nature of the game make this a fun filler game perfect for biding time between games, though its lightness and randomness does not make it a good main event.
Replay Value
Although this game is highly randomized, the extremely low number of cards in the base set results in variety problems. Whereas the Dominion base set has 500 cards, 252 of which can make up the randomized starting tableau, Ascension has only 200, of which only 100, many of which are not unique, make up the center row. This, as well as the simplicity of the gameplay, leads to the aforementioned variety problems after repeated plays.
Although not part of the scope of this review, there are two expansions available that add a number of new cards and a few new mechanics, as well as several available promos, which add significantly more variety.
Suggested Audience
This game is good for most gamers who want a light filler game or who enjoy deckbuilding games, and it seems to appeal to many CCG gamers, as well. I would not suggest this game for those gamers who prefer heavier fare with less reliance on luck.
Conclusion
Overall, I find Ascension fun, and it, combined with the other expansions, has recently become the most played game amongst my playgroups due to its quick play time and light feel. I do admit to liking Dominion quite a bit more, but Ascension has a well-established place in my playgroups and could have the same in yours, as well, if you do not go into it expecting a Dominion slayer.
Ascension has quickly become one of my favorite deck building games. It is superficially like many other games in the same genre, so many people will be familiar with the basics. You have two types of resources, combat and runes. Combat is used to defeat monsters and gain victory point tokens and beneficial game effects. Runes are used to acquire heroes and constructs that go into your deck. Hero and construct cards have printed victory point values. Hero cards have one time effects when played, while construct remain in play and give their controller a constant benefit. All cards bought with runes go into the players discard pile and are shuffled into a new deck when their existing deck runs out of cards. Once all the victory tokens are gone from the board all players tally their total points from tokens and cards in their deck. The player with the highest total wins.
There are three cards that are always in play. Two of these are heroes that add combat and runes to your deck– the Mystic and Heavy Infantry. The third is a simple monster that can be defeated repeatedly for one victory point token– the Cultist. In addition to these there are six random cards from a larger deck laid out on the game board’s center row for players to pick from. As monsters are defeated and heroes/construct are acquired the empty slots are immediately refilled from the main deck, changing the available card pool every turn. This means play tactics shift each turn depending on what cards are available, unlike games with a static pool like Dominion or Eminent Domain.
The game’s theme centers around an evil * who must be defeated. The most powerful cards in the main deck represent his most powerful agents and your most powerful allies. There are four factions at play among the heroes/constructs. The Lifebound faction centers on gaining victory point tokens without defeating monsters while chaining better effects from playing multiple Lifebound cards on your turn. Mechana cards focus heavily on constructs which help pay for more constructs at reduced costs. Void cards focus on combat and thinning the players deck by allowing the player to remove their lower value cards from the game. Enlightened cards provide the best card draw in the game while adding some cards that auto-defeat monsters without having any combat stats themselves.
The core game is set up for up to four players and it functions best when played with three or four. Two players get somewhat tedious as there isn’t nearly as much card turn over in the center row. Each player gets ten very simple cards to start with. The first expansion adds two more of these starter decks allowing up to six players. Games of that size tend to drag as players wait for extended periods of tiem for their turn to come around. There is very little player interaction except for a handful of monsters that punish enemy players when defeated. The only other active way to mess up enemy plans is to purchase the cards that would benefit them most before their turn allows them to do so. This can of course be risky because those cards may not benefit you as well, and a varied approach to deck building often means that there are at least one or two good options on the table for everyone each turn.
The variety of card types and ever changing pool of available cards makes Ascension: Chronicles of the *slayer a very fun game with lots of replay value. It is quick to play, easy to teach, and graphically appealing. Gary Games has supported it with two expansions and a number of promotional cards available through their website and at conventions.
This game involves the mechanic of purchasing cards from a central supply in order to gain points and build a powerful deck. Players of Dominion will be very familiar with this concept. However, there are some key differences between the two and the devil is in the details.
First, I’d like to address components. The cards feature excellent, bizarre artwork reminiscent of MTG cards which I love. The game includes a game board (not necessary, but a nice touch) and colored point gems. The case is very nicely designed to fit all the components perfectly. The only drawback is that the glossy texture of the cards feels cheap and strange and can be a nuisance.
Like Dominion, you use ‘money’ to buy cards from the central supply. Unlike Dominion the cards in the supply are constantly changing rather than being a fixed set. Also unlike Dominion, Ascension includes monsters which can be ‘banished’ using attack points for a point reward. This functions in a similar way to the purchasing but requires a separate set of currency cards. Most of the cards purchased for your deck earn you points at the end of the game and other points can be gained by various actions and are tracked using the gemstones.
Ascension also introduces the concept of constructs, persistent cards that affect the users hand every turn (like MTG’s enchantments or Dominion Seaside’s duration actions). After accruing a few of these cards, you can quickly get to the point where you’re juggling multiple buffs and points each turn.
Between the complicated scoring system, the two types of ‘money’, and the time spent adding up the abilities of the constructs, I found this game to add a lot of complexity without much payoff. The game feels less strategic and more random than either Dominion or MTG and ultimately less fun. While it’s is a nice change of pace for those who might be looking for a change of pace, it lacks some of the balance and polish that makes Dominion such a great game.
I’ve mentioned Ascension in other reviews for what I call its “Reactive” deck-building as opposed to “Proactive” deck-building games like Dominion. What I mean by this is you build your strategy by reacting to the players in the game and the cards in the centre row instead of being able to proactively decide a strategy from the get go.
You can’t go combat heavy if there aren’t monster cards in the centre row, and going Mechana Construct is a lot harder if someone else is too. You need to change your strategy as you go. You need to react.
This is the reason I prefer it to Dominion, which, with many more cards than Ascension, got stale much quicker. With Dominion I felt that the strategy of the game was decided on the first turn. What strategy would be successful was clear once the kingdom cards were set up.
If you like deck-building, but want a different approach to it from Dominion, I can’t recommend this enough. For those with an iOS device there is an app available to give you a taste of the game at a fraction of the price!
For those of you new to the genre, deckbuilding games are literally just that. Instead of playing with a set deck of cards, you acquire them from an open pool and make your own deck bigger and stronger. The variety of cards available in this game (which only grows with the expansion and limited edition promo cards) and several different strategies for playing blow the replay factor out of the water. The recent expansion allows for 6 to play, but I still feel 4 is the prime number in this one. Best with a small- to mid-sized group, but still fun with a larger player count.
I do have one hang-up with this game…and it’s a doozy. The first (and, so far, only) expansion to Ascension, titled “Return of the Fallen” (Hello? Transformers?) ushered in a new kind of card. Cards from the expansion are slightly smaller and thinner than those in the base game. It’s not a huge difference, we’re talking a millimeter shorter. It is, however, VERY NOTICEABLE when you try to shuffle the old cards with the new. This makes card sleeves for the entire set pretty much a necessity. Also, the ink used on the newly-printed cards IS ALSO NOTICEABLE, making opaque sleeves (a.k.a.- usually more costly) an investment you will almost certainly make.
PLEASE DON’T GET ME WRONG. This is easily one of my favorite games to play! Anyone with some background in constructable card games will pick this up very quickly. Being designed by former Magic: The Gathering player Justin Gary,the resource management and timing strategies involved will be familiar to a lot of gamers, but the background isn’t necessary. Sit down to play Ascension and you will enjoy yourself…and probably want to start another game immediately! Try closing this box, I dare you.
Dust Rating: 1
(My own personal rating system, 1-10, where low numbers are good.)
I am not the biggest fan of the deck building genre, but this game changed the way I think about it as a whole. Ascension at it’s core is a very easy game. The rules are not very complicated which makes it easy to teach to new players. You start with a basic deck that produces 8 runes (resource) and 2 power (how you kill stuff). There are 3 static cards that you can always buy or fight; two are cards that produce +2 runes or lower as opposed to the basic +1 cards and the other is the cultist who you can always fight to gain 1 honor (victory points).
Those are the basic rules of the game! There will always be 6 cards face up in the center row, you will buy new cards from there to add to your deck and encounter monsters that can be defeated for honor and sometimes other benefits. Every time you buy or defeat a card from the center it gets replaced by a new one. The new cards you buy from the center will produce all sorts of different effects like allowing you to trim less powerful cards out of your deck or draw extra cards as they are played. My favorite mechanic of the game is playing the cards: you have to buy them from the center row, but every time you draw the card it is free to play! You only pay for the cards once. The object of the game is to obtain the most honor. There is a set amount of honor on the table (30 per player) which are represented by little gem looking counters that come with the game. You get this honor by killing monsters and playing specific cards (some characters produce honor when they are played for example) and once all the honor is gone from the table the game is over. The cards you purchase have printed honor value on the bottom of the cards that factors in when you are calculating your final score. Whoever has the most honor wins!
With all of that boring **** out of the way this has seriously become a favorite in my household and amongst my gaming group. We absolutely love the dynamic of the game and not knowing what is going to flop in the center row next! This game has appeal for our hard core gamer friends (most of us work at the same board game store) but our more casual friends love the game as well. It has become a staple at almost every game get together we have, and I can’t reccomend this game enough!