Emberheart – These Flames Burn Bright

The land of Emberheart is the last bastion of the mighty dragons. Unfortunately, that makes the land a prime target for poachers who are trying to capture these magnificent creatures. The King calls together his champions to free the dragons and save the land. If you can do the best job, you just might become the next Dragon Ambassador.

Emberheart is a worker-placement game by Adam Porter and Rob Fisher with art by Andrew Bosley. It is published by Mindclash Games, and it is for 2-4 players ages 12+.

Setup

Each player takes a player board and matching tokens. They choose one of the three Attributes to put at the second spot and place the others at the bottom of their tracks. They also take ten Grunt tokens and two Gear tokens.

Set up the main gameboard with piles of cards for each location, along with the four kinds of Hireling tokens (Grunt, Scout, Ranger, Warden), and a supply of Gear tokens.

Pick a first player, give them the First Player token, and get to saving some dragons.

Gameplay

Emberheart is a worker-placement game. Each turn consists of one Action, usually placing a Crest on the board. At the end of the round, you reap the benefits from the locations you’ve chosen.

But it’s not quite that straightforward. Each of the six Common locations on the board has five slots associated with it. To go to a Common location, you must place one of your Crest tokens with 1-5 Hireling tokens underneath it, matching the numbered slot you are placing it. The lower the slot, the fewer the Hirelings you need to place to go there.

The higher the slot, the quicker you get to choose from the possible rewards. Emberheart is a bidding worker-placement game. In effect, you are bidding for the rewards at each location.

There are also two Special locations, the Warehouse and the Firestation. You do not place Hireling tokens when you go to these locations, just one of your Crest tokens. The Warehouse grants you two Gear tokens, while the Firestation gives you four Grunts (at the cost of bumping your Flame token up one).

The final option is to take an Aide token, each of which gives a small bonus. This does not require a Crest or a Hireling. Just take one of the four Aides and keep it until the end of the round.

What makes Emberheart interesting from a worker-placement viewpoint is the Hirelings.

Gearing Up The Hirelings

At the start, each player starts with 10 Grunts. These are the unskilled, common workers of Emberheart. They can go to any location on the gameboard, but after you resolve all the spaces at the end of the round, the Grunts simply wander away. You lose them.

However, you can upgrade the Grunts to Experts by using Gear tokens. As a free action on your turn, you can spend Gear tokens to upgrade an equal number of Grunts to Experts of your choice. The Experts return to your player board at the end of the round rather than wander away like the Grunts.

What’s the tradeoff? Well, Experts are highly trained, so they only go to certain locations. Scouts can go to the Heroes’ Guild, Tavern, and Poachers’ Camp. Wardens only go to the Mountain, and Rangers can go to the Preserve and Garrison.

You can form a party of both Experts and Grunts to go to a location. You’ll lose the Grunts at the end of the round, but the Experts will return to your board.

Dragon Companion

Every player also has a Dragon companion that can join one party on the board per round. At the very beginning of the game, the Dragon doesn’t do much. However, you can increase your companion’s attributes by raising the Attribute trackers on your gameboard.

End Of Round

The end of the round is triggered when all four Aide tokens are taken.

The players will finish up the current turn, ensuring each player gets equal turns. Then, starting with the Heroes’ Guild, players will resolve each location on the gameboard, starting with the highest value party at each location.

When players rescue dragons, they can pair them with a color-matching Hero or Preserve card and get the respective bonus (if any). If a player gains a Garrison card and has met the requirements, flip the card over to show it’s been completed. Otherwise, leave the card face-up until it’s completed.

Cards do not refresh as they are taken. So, if there are not enough rewards at a location for a player’s party, that player returns the entire party (Grunts included) and gets two Gear tokens for their troubles.

All the locations go this way, except for the Mountain. The Mountain has three tiers of dragon rewards, and only the Wardens themselves can progress beyond the bottom tier. As parties resolve on the bottom tier, any Grunts are discarded and Warden and Flame costs on the dragon cards are paid as needed, and parties with Wardens stay. After all the parties are resolved, the parties are reordered by the number of Wardens. In case of a tie, the player with the Survivalist Aide chooses the order. Then players can claim dragons from the second tier, paying the respective costs of any dragons as well as losing a Warden for each claimed dragon. If any party makes it to the top tier, the player will pay the cost for the dragon, lose a Warden, and move up the Flame track by one. This player will also get to move one of their Attribute tokens up one spot of their choice.

The Poachers Fight Back

After all the locations are resolved, the Poachers get a chance to fight back against the players. Each Raid card forces you to discard some number of Hirelings. If you don’t have enough Hirelings to lose, you’ll increase your Flame damage. It pays to get the Defender Aide token; if one Raid card is much worse for you than the other, you can protect your hired help.

Reset And Go Again

After all that, discard any remaining cards on the table (except for the Garrison). Then refill each Location from the specific deck, return the Aide tokens, and move up the Round marker. Time to go again!

Game End

Emberheart ends after five rounds. Players then calculate their total Glory based on:

• Total Glory value of all dragons, whether attached to a Preserve/Hero or not
• Highest unlocked Glory value on all three Attribute tracks
• Glory from Heroes with an attached dragon and scoring requirements fulfilled
• Glory value of each completed Garrison card
• Relative position on the Flame track

The player with the most Glory wins and is named the next Dragon Ambassador to Emberheart!

In case of a tie, the player who has rescued the most Dragons wins. If that is a tie as well, the players share victory (and the Dragon Ambassadorship is now a committee, I suppose).

Two Player Mode

If you were to play Emberheart at two players, it might seem a bit easier with less jockeying for spots. So Mindclash included a deck of Two-Player cards to specify blocked-off spots at each location and discard cards on their “turn”.

After each round, players draw a new Two-Player card to randomize the blocking Crest layout. Otherwise, the game proceeds as normal.

Impressions

First of all, I love the art of Emberheart. It’s a unique look with a rustic fantasy feel. The Dragon companions are fantastic, and the Dragon cards are great, too.

The gameboard can feel a bit overwhelming at first, with six Common locations, two Special locations, plus the Raid cards and Aide tokens. There is a lot to digest, so everyone needs to be patient.

However, each turn is quite simple. You simply take one action, and move on. Once players are comfortable with how the game flows, it feels much less overwhelming.

The scoring also offers unique ways to play Emberheart. Yes, everyone has to collect Dragons. However, are you pursuing Preserves and bumping up your Attributes? Are you trying to collect as many Garrison cards as possible? Or are you hiring Heroes from the Guild and maximizing their end-game scoring?

Not Just Worker Placement

I enjoyed the different take on worker-placement games. I’ve enjoyed games like Lords of Waterdeep as well as more unique takes like Asking For Trobils (where you can bump someone out of a location). Emberheart’s bidding system, plus the different types of workers, makes this a unique experience for me.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of going in and dropping five Hirelings (or using your upgraded Dragon companion) to jump ahead of every other player at a location. It can be a bit demoralizing to get bumped to the back of the line, but the ability to regather your full party and gain Gear tokens does lessen the sting a bit.

The scoring takes a bit of work to get through. Also, you could argue that the Flame mechanic can be toyed with (there’s no punishment if you are supposed to go higher than the track allows).

However, at the end of the day, Emberheart is a fantastic game. It adds a slight element of take-that to worker placement, thanks to the ability to effectively outbid the other players. Bid high for that amazing Tavern card to get a whole lot of Hirelings or that seven-point Dragon card on the Mountain. Plus, who doesn’t want to save dragons?

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Emberheart from Mindclash Games for this review.

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