Gems of Iridescia

Have you been searching for the nostalgic fun of controlling clans that are exploring and trying to get enough resources and riches to rule the land? How about that game, in board game form?

Gems Of Iridescia is designed by Roberto Panetta and published by Rock, Stone & Dice. It’s for 1-4 players ages 10+ and takes between 60-90 minutes.

Setup

Set up the board with rows of terrain tiles (Desert, Canyon, Forest, Ruins, and Castle). Set out five Relic cards and five Item cards for players to buy, and decks to refill the market.

Then place the four gray Stone dice on the board, and set each of the four colored Gem dice to a 2, placing them on their respective mountains.

Each player gets a player board and the matching Explorer token, dice, player aid, and scoring token, along with five coins and two Secret Objective cards.

Gameplay

Each turn, the player takes two main actions and then can take as many optional actions as able to/desired in any order.

Main Actions

Take these two actions, in order:

1. Reveal tiles. Flip up to two tiles adjacent to your Explorer.
2. Move Explorer. Pick an adjacent revealed tile and place your Explorer on it, taking the matching gem and any bonuses shown on the tile. Your Explorer cannot move backwards, but can move sideways. This allows a player to choose how much they want to reveal and how much they want to explore as they move toward their final destination in the Castle row.

Optional Actions

• Mine gems. Pay three coins, then roll your dice to try to gain additional gems of the same type as the tile where your Explorer currently stands. You can do this action as many times as you can afford. Some tile bonuses give you extra “Stone dice” that can be added to this roll.
• Purchase a Item card. You may only buy one card per turn.
• Play an Item card. Play as many of your Item cards as desired. Each card may only be used once, and then must be discarded.
• Sell gems. Only once per turn, you may sell gems of a single type, for their current market value.

Final Actions

• Restore a Relic. Trade in the required gems, then take the Relic card and immediately gain points. Keep the Relic card for end-game bonuses.
• Collect the Tile. Take the tile you are on and increase the corresponding gem value by one.

Players can only hold seven gems at a time as shown by the seven slots on the player board. If a player would end up with more, they can choose to swap gems out, or just not take the extra gems.

Game End

Once a player reaches the Castle row, they remove their Explorer from the board. However, they will continue to take turns, removing one tile each time (instead of exploring unrevealed tiles).

The first player to reach the Castle row takes the highest-value Royalty token, and subsequent players take the next-highest value tokens until none remain.

The game ends when all players have reached the Castle row and taken a tile from that row. Then players will complete end-game scoring based upon remaining gems on their player board (one point per two gems), collections of Relic cards and tiles, and their Secret Objective cards.

The player with the most Royalty points at the end of the game wins! In case of ties, the one who possesses the Iridia stone wins.

Solo Mode

As I noted in the introduction, Gems of Iridescia is for 1-4 players. It comes with a solo mode. Play against a deck-controlled opponent: the Rhom clan. It plays almost identical to the two-player variant, with a few changes to give the Rhom opponent more ways to gain Royalty points. The solo mode also adds Barricade tokens that block you from moving onto certain tiles. But castle tiles can never be blocked.

Just like the regular game, the solo game ends when both clans reach the Castle row. The Rhom opponent does not remove tiles if they finish first, so you can proceed at whatever pace you want.

Star Light, Star Bright

My copy of Gems of Iridescia also came with the first expansion, a small box called Starlight of Iridescia. This adds a new gem called the Star gem, one new Observatory tile per territory, new Relics, and new Item cards.

The new Relics are worth the most Royalty points of any Relic, but getting Star gems is harder than getting any other gem. You can only get them on the Observatory tiles, of which there are only one per territory. And you either have to have the Starpoon Item card or roll a six on your mining dice. So, the Relics are worth more, but it takes a lot of work.

My wife and I tried out the expansion, and she was able to get multiple Star Relics. However, I was able to win pretty comfortably. She felt like the Star gems/Relics actually distracted her from playing the game as well as she would have liked. It’s an interesting expansion, but I don’t think it’s a necessity.

A Gem For Your Thoughts

The copy of Gems of Iridescia  that we reviewed is the Iridescent Edition; this did not change gameplay but gave the gems and gem tiles an iridescent finish. This does affect my art score as shiny bits are almost always better.

But what hides beneath the gorgeous exterior of Gems of Iridescia? Does the gameplay live up to the package? Well, yes and no.

Gems does a good job mixing a number of different mechanics. My 14-year-old son and I really enjoyed the “fog of war”-type mechanic of flipping the tiles to explore the map. The manipulating the values in the gem market was a lot of fun, too.

But there isn’t a serious depth to this game. To be fair, that’s not what Gems sets out to be, either. You’re flipping two tiles, selecting where you go, gaining/selling gems, buying cards, and restoring relics. And that’s the game. 

This isn’t a game that will take over older, experienced game groups. But as a family game? It’s beautiful, easy to understand, and provides enough depth to keep adults involved, while younger players enjoy the exploration and the gems. If your family loves beautiful games that have a few choices without being overwhelming, Gems of Iridescia is for you.

If you are looking for a fun and lightly fantastical game with exploring, item cards, and lots of gems, Gems of Iridescia is for you! Get it from Rock, Stone & Dice, on Amazon, or at your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Gems of Iridescia from Rock, Stone & Dice Games for this review.

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