Seeders from Sereis: Exodus

Seeders from Sereis: Exodus was a game I had wanted to try for a long time, even though its English-language journey has been rather problematic. It had been available in French since late 2017, and there are also two or three expansions which, apparently, WizKids does not intend to bring out in English. The English edition is also slightly changed from the original. Even so, this is an unusual marriage of engine building and bidding, driven by a massive Ark Nova-sized deck of cards that provides much of the game’s personality.

The cards are either rooms or crew members. Each round, players draft some of them, while twelve cards are laid out on the board and become targets for agents. That is where the bidding begins: you send agents to contest what interests you, with the game offering variants with or without drafting, as well as with visible or hidden agents. The latter option pleasantly reminded me of Machi Koro—no, the glorious Mechanisburgo—and in general there are enough settings here to suit different tastes.

Once that contest is resolved, you build your engine by placing rooms and crew, triggering card abilities, and collecting victory points. Player interaction is not merely decorative: the cards also let you throw a few punches at one another. This lasts only four rounds, but the real challenge is learning the deck and understanding when it is worth improving your own engine and when you need to slow down an opponent. If someone gets away from the pack, the scoring gap can become extreme.

I find it very interesting and fairly heavy, not because its mechanisms are impenetrable, but because its cards carry a lot of complexity—somewhat like 51st State. It needs several plays before it delivers its full, honest pleasures, and I would not recommend it to every group: the take-that and kingmaking can absolutely cause disappointment. But for those who want something different from the usual fare, there is a lot to chew on here. It is just a shame that the expansions will probably never receive an English edition.