An Age Contrived Board Game Review

The designer of An Age Contrived recently sent over the deluxified version of his game, An Age Contrived. Generally, we turn around board game reviews pretty quickly, but there was a lot of setup involved in this game. For the record, this review is based on this super deluxe version which included metal player “boards” – that being said, the core functions of the game remain unchanged, and outside of the deluxified player “board”, the other items are available in the base game!

So what is An Aged Contrived? It’s a mixture of movement, tile placement, and deep strategy. It’s not the easiest game to teach, but it is not the hardest either. The rulebook was very helpful in my opinion, with lots of colourful examples to help explain the more complicated rules. And if that fails you, there are some great How to Play videos available on YouTube!

This is a daunting game to get to the table as there is lots to set up prior to beginning. Depending on your player count, you’ll need to get certain monument metal frames placed into the board, setting the monument pieces to the side. You’ll need to lay out various upgrade tokens, bridge tokens, and more, and that is all just to get the main area of the table setup. You’ll then need to get your player area setup as well including placing your board and tiles, finding the various tokens you need, and more.

THe production here, however, is top notch. The cardboard is nice and thick, and for the various monument pieces, the cardboard is inlaid with magnets to stick to the game’s metal frames. It gives the game a really cool visual appearance that expands and grows as you play the game. It’s a nice addition that gives you the feeling of building something like few other games do. The quality in production extends to each player as well. Everyone gets a fantastic plastic miniature to move around the main board, and a handful of acrylic tiles that will be placed throughout the game. Add in the awesome player trades included in the box, and you know that a lot of love went into An Age Contrived.

Ultimately, the player will decide to take an advance turn or an action turn, but of which will result in different things happening. In most cases, you will be putting your energy tiles from your player board onto the central board, usually to help build monument pieces. Doing so will get you a variety of benefits and potentially give you opportunities for end game scoring. If you have achieved an achievement – yes I know how that sounds – you can place a token there perhaps. And yes, actions can be upgraded by purchasing upgraded tiles that will replace your base set of player tiles. It’s worth noting here that each tile is a different type, and can only be used in specific areas, unless of course it is a wild tile.

This probably all sounds a bit confusing, and off the bat it definitely is. But we found that for those willing to make the investment, there is something really fun beneath the surface that is engaging, entertaining, and strategically deep. Deciding when to upgrade and what to upgrade can be the difference between success and failure. Try too many different strategies and you’ll probably fail, but invest in too few and you will probably fail to. There is a neat balance here of seeing what is happening with your opponents, seeing what is available in the tile shop, and making decisions from that information. Scrambling around the board after other players makes you second everywhere you go. And second isn’t first. So deciding where you need to go, and how you plan to get there is such a rewarding experience.

There is also a good amount of tile management in this game. Some tiles, when placed on the main board, can be recalled back to your player area to be used for something better in the future. Other tiles, however, are stuck the second they are played, reducing the number and types of tiles you have available during each turn. Once again, assigning your tiles to permanent locations too quickly and too often will hamper you down the road, so what is best for you?

Ultimately, after getting this tabled a number of times, we realized that this is a game that requires a lot of investment upfront, but once you understand all the ins and outs of the experience, it is rather intuitive. And multiple plays is really required to get the most out of An Age Contrived. There are different bonuses, end game scoring options, and strategies that players are going to want to implement, and figuring it all out will take a game or two before attempting to settle into a specific strategy. But I think for those that enjoy a heavier game experience – as I would classify this as a medium-hard weight title – I think there is a lot here to explore and enjoy. And with a solid production, regardless of whether you get the retail release or the fancy release, it’s a beautiful game to table as well.