Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8965107/embers

Designer: Steven Aramini
Publisher: Button Shy
Artist: Steven De Waele

Embers is a solo, eighteen card game where the player utilizes action selection via action points to move heroes around a campfire to defeat monsters. Each round, every hero around the fire has two action points that can be used in a variety of ways, as identified on their hero card. The most common actions include maneuvering, defending, foraging, bolstering, and promoting. Maneuvering allows the heroes to move around the fire (called the camp) in unique patterns and with specific rules. Defense is used to defeat monsters, bolstering allows that character to boost another character by granting one extra action point, and promoting means the character can upgrade to their stronger side. Foraging helps gain back cards lost to keep the fire alive.

The game takes place over multiple rounds with four phases. In the first, one monster is revealed per hero around the fire. The following card in the fire stack dictates its placement, and the last visible fire card has an effect that impacts heroes that round. Next, heroes perform actions to gain back fire cards and defeat monsters. Then, if any monsters remain, they attack for both loss of fire and damage to the heroes. Lastly, if there are fewer than four heroes in camp, you can choose one from the tent (that wasn’t killed this turn) to add around the fire. Play continues for three full rounds, and then once you reach the start of the fourth, if you can survive that single turn, you win!

Overall, I think Embers is fun, quick, clever, and it doesn’t take up much table space, which I appreciate. It’s pretty easy mechanically but there are still some interesting and puzzly decisions to make. The art is nice as well, especially for the heroes and monsters. There is also an awesome player aid sheet with explanations for all symbols which is lovely!

Its biggest downfall is the luck factor, though. Throughout the game, your success hinges on luck of the draw in terms of where the monsters end up and which event is active that round. Some events can be quite savage at certain times, and monster placement can sometimes get out of hand in different locations as well. Thankfully, since the game is quick and can be quite easy (there are three difficulty levels to try), this luck factor isn’t quite as annoying as it could be.

The expansion, The New Guard, adds three new heroes and three “battlecry” cards. I like the additional heroes but the battlecray cards are just okay. The heroes impact gameplay and create more replayability with unique combinations, but the battlecry cards just create objectives to achieve over the course of the game to gain more heroes. It’s a nice addition, but it’s only a need if you plan to play this many times and want more heroes and/or want a small change with the objectives. I wish it changed the gameplay more or increased the difficulty some.

For me, Embers is enjoyable, compact, and quick, making it a nice addition to the Button Shy collection. It’s not a favorite, but I enjoy it and look forward to more plays!