Flamecraft Components Overview and Imperssions (Retail Edition)
Despite not having my own copy of the game, I’ve had the chance to play Framecraft a few times using the Kickstarter Deluxe version of the game. The production on that game is phenomenal, with beautiful artwork and gorgeous wooden pieces, plus a neoprene mat and dragon miniatures for each player. When I saw the retail version and reached out to Lucky Duck Games about doing a review, I was a bit nervous about how I’d feel playing the retail version of the game. While there are things that aren’t quite the same, the production here is still impressive.
There is a lot of cardboard to punch for Flamecraft, so make sure you get this one unboxed ahead of your game night. All of the cardboard chits are of good quality, and pop out of the punchboard relatively easily. I found the resource tokens just a bit small for my fat fingers, but I doubt this will be a problem for many people. Not all the pieces in the game are cardboard though; the dragon pieces used to place on shops during the game are a nice, detailed wooden piece, as our the heart tokens used to track victory points on the central board.
After you get past the main three differences – no wooden resources, no dragon miniatures, and no metal coins – the production differences are non-existent. Shop cards, artisan dragon cards, and fancy dragon cards are all of great quality, nicely detailed, and beautiful to look at. The central board is a neoprene mat, even in the retail version of the game which is a nice touch. Early prototypes of the game showed off a cloth mat, so I was a bit concerned that neoprene was only going to be in the deluxe version!
There is (kind of) an insert for the retail version of the game – the deluxe version came with a nice plastic insert with specific places for everything, while the retail version just has sectioned off areas in the box using cardboard. It’s still serviceable, though, and I found that everything went back into the box with relative ease.
Overall, I’m pretty impressed with this release. Cardboard Alchemy has done a fantastic job of producing this one, and based on my limited experiences with their other games, they generally don’t miss when it comes to production value!
Article By Adam
