Equinox Card Game First Impressions

Equinox has very pretty creatures just trying to make themselves storybook legends.

But is the gameplay tidier than the game looks on the table?

Mysterious creatures gather in the forest in an effort to write themselves into the legendary storybook and for tales to be shared for countless generations. However, there is room for only four more stories — not every story will be recorded, so the creatures have to be cunning and clever to outwit their opponents and make the cut.

Equinox Game Play

So the setup is a little odd as there are 8 grey cards in a row, one for each of the creatures in the game. Then in a column to their left are cards showing the “round” (or whatever) the game is on.

Players also get a random hand of cards from a deck containing these creatures which will a value one to ten.

Players take turns over 4 phases:

Make a Prediction: You can make a regular prediction by placing one of your stones on a face-up card without a stone on in the current row. Each player can only have 1 stone per row. On the first turn of the game only, you can secretly place a card from hand face down with a stone on top to make a prediction for that card. More on why we’re making predictions shortly but just know it’s to do with scoring.

Play a Card: Into the current row that you’re playing. You start at the top row and work your way down. You play into the column matching the creature you played. If there is already a creature of that type there, you can play on top of it. Chameleons are wilds you play on any creature and there are some trees that have weird abilities that you trigger then discard.

The player who has the most prestige from current bets in a creature controls it and is able to use its ability.

Discard cards: You can now discard up to 3 cards from your hand if the creatures on those cards are not longer in play. More on eliminations soon.

Draw: Back up to 8 cards.

End of a Round

At the end of a turn when the row is full, you check to see if a single creature is the lowest value card in that row. If it is that creature is eliminated. Facedown cards are placed in the column under that creature so no more can be played. The next row down is now the active row.

When all rows are full, players earn prestige based on their bets for the creatures they bet that end the game still in play. The earlier they bet, the more prestige it’s worth.

The player with the most prestige wins.

Theme

I really didn’t notice a theme at all. This is a retheme of an arena combat themed game showing that the game wasn’t designed with this theme in mind.

Setup

Setup is simple in its basic form. Shuffling the decks well is a must as cards gather in piles during gameplay.

But also you use 8 of 14 creatures which means in each game you need to separate them all then shuffle them heavily again. Sounds tiring 🙂

Components & Artwork

The cards are nice and big… but they don’t need to be. It just means you need to buy oversized sleeves rather than using some regular size ones you have spare.

The stones are really cool though. I kept fondling them (after sanitising my hands at UKGE of course) and I really wanted to eat them.

The artwork is fine and fits this “theme”.

Ease of Teaching & Accessibility

It’s an easy game to teach.

With only 8 creatures in the game, you can teach their abilities. A new player will only need to be reminded of the creatures they control as they control them.

Equinox Summary

This game reminds me of Cheaty Mages! which came out 9 years after the game Equinox is based on so I’m not saying it came first. In that game you’re betting on fights, influencing them as wizard spectators casting spells to make your fighter win.

Gameplay-wise it reminds me of one of those trick-taking games where I’m expected to predict how many tricks I will win. Here, with a look at my hands of cards, I’m supposed to know which one of them will last until the end of the game? There are at least 29 turns in a game, most of them not me. it feels more luck than judgment.

So while I think this is a very good version of this kind of game, I’m not sure I would buy it. The stones have turned a £15 risky purchase card game into a £30 investment I’m not willing to make. The lack of desire to ‘try new strategies’ mixed with annoying back to back game shuffling is putting me off.

Jesta ThaRogue