The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era Components Overview and Impressions

Chip Theory Games has been doing what I’ve been asking companies to do for a long while now – get rid of miniatures and create a good, premium alternative. Most companies ditch miniatures for acrylic standees, others for cardboard standees. Chip Theory, as their name implies, has gone for heavy premium chips, which has proven to be pretty unique in the board game space. With strong dice-based role playing games like Too Many Bones already available for consumers, I was curious whether this game – somewhat similar, but still wildly different- would be necessary. That is a discussion for another day, but first let’s answer the really tough question – is this game worth over 250.00 CAD?

Big and expensive games are generally expensive because they are big. In most cases, what you get in the box is probably worth it proportionately to other board games you buy. Value is based on two things – what you get in the box (let’s say that’s 60% of the cost) and what you get out of the experience (let’s say 40%). I’d argue that if these values (estimates by the way) are true for this game, they are probably true for most other larger games as well. With that in mind, for me personally, I do believe The Elder Scrolls is worth the price.

There are a lot of different components and items to consider here when breaking down all the components in the game. There is a ton of card shock in this game, whether it be the large overland maps, skill cards, character cards, etc. For this type of game, a nice cardstock makes a lot of sense, and these all feel phenomenal!

There are no boards in this game, which I like a lot – the central battle mats are all neoprene as are the player boards (which have stitched edges), with holes punched throughout for skill tokens, health and stamina trackers, dice and more. These mats, as with all the other components in the game, have little storage boxes that they can be stored in to “save” them for your next adventure.

Here seems to be a good spot to talk about all the little storage containers, because there are plenty in this box. Storage containers for dice, for tokens, for chips (enemies, heroes, health, etc) and of course storage boxes for the player mats. Chip Theory even included a few storage boxes that are pretty empty, which either allows players to reorganize their trays in a way they desire, or provides space for current (Valenwood) or future expansions.

Moving on to the dice and tokens, all are made of a nice plastic. I’m not a huge fan of screen printed dice, and overtime I could see the faces of these dice wearing a bit, but to include this number of dice all with etched sides would have been prohibitively expensive, so I understand the choices Chip Theory Games made here.

Another cost saving measure I understand is not having premium health chips included in the box. Most of the poker chip like pieces you’ll be using in The Elder Scrolls are nice and heavy, and give you that premium poker chip feel. This includes enemy chips and hero chips. The health chips which will be stacked under each enemy and hero are made of straight plastic, and if you’ve ever owned one of those 9.99 Poker sets, you know the quality you are getting exactly.

Again, I’m not sure this is a big problem. While I would have preferred premium chips all around, I understand why that isn’t the case. Again, this would raise the price of the game quite extensively, and ultimately the quality of these chips really doesn’t matter. It would have also added a good amount of weight to the game too, and would require some reorganizing inside the game box as I’m pretty sure the premium chips are thicker than the health chips, which occupy a full chip tray as they are currently produced.

There are plenty of other bits and bobs inside the box including a good number of cards (great quality), a few bags for pulling chips and skill tokens (great quality), and a cool plastic tracker dial which will track both your party experience and which day you are on using small magnets to keep the wheel trackers in place. It also has a spot for a die to keep track of combat rounds! One of the BEST features that is so simple yet so important is the plastic card holder which provides spaces for all the cards you need for a session in one easy to reach, easy to see space. No more laying down decks upon decks on the table. This is such a simple addition, but SO valuable!

Ultimately, this is a great production, and with many other great productions, it comes at a price. Personally, it is a price I would have been willing to pay had Chip Theory Games not sent me this for review. I love The Elder Scrolls and any chance I get to dive into this world, I’m going to take it! If you love adventure games and are tired of boxes and boxes of miniatures, this is a great option for your next campaign!