Solo Chronicles – After Us

It’s weird, I know, but I have never seen any of the “Planet of the Apes” movies. Not the old ones. Not the new ones. I have seen bits and pieces, but not the whole movie. Laura asked me if this game is like those movies and I replied, “Kinda…” but only because I’m not really sure. I believe the world climate is roughly similar, but in this one there are no humans. We all died out. Hopefully that never happens (I have kids, after all), and especially not by the year 2083, the year this game is set. That seems AWFULLY close, doesn’t it? Hold your loved ones dear, or prepare to battle against Rafiki, Boots, and Mojo Jojo!

After Us is a deck building race game where players are attempting to earn 80 points first. This is a solo review, so naturally I am playing against the King of the Apes (or, the King, from now on). Once either player reaches or exceeds 80 points the game will play until the end of the phase and the winner will either keep his crown or herald himself as the new King.

Setup seems a bit fiddly, but it’s not bad. The main board goes wherever you want it. On the board are placed two separate decks of cards for each of the four types of simians in the game: Mandrill, Orangutan (spelled without a G at the end, people), Gorilla, and Chimpanzee. They are split between level 1 and level 2 cards, shuffled, and placed in the appropriate pile. The resources are placed all haphazardly on the table, but sorted. Blue flowers, orange fruit, gray grains, and batteries. All the yummy things monkeys like to eat. Referring to the photo below as setup, there are also a collection of seven Object Tiles, from which each game will feature three.

The player chooses whichever player color they wish along with the matching board, starting deck of cards, action discs, rage counter (more on this little bad boy later), and score tracker. The same is done for the King, but only three random action discs are displayed and the other is discarded to the box. The starting decks are shuffled, the scoring discs placed on the 0 space of the main board, and the rage counter is placed at level 0 of the player board. The game may now begin!

After Us is played over a series of turns, where each turn consists of three phases. When playing solo, the King plays his phase first, then the solo player plays the phase, and so on. The first phase is Assembling the Tribe. Before even doing ANYTHING AT ALL, the King receives a bounty of resources, presumably from his underlings/subjects. This includes three each of flowers, fruit, and grains, and two batteries. It’s good to be the King. Next, the top four cards from the King’s deck are revealed, and for each Tamarin (the starting simian species) the King will receive resources equal to their depicted resource icon. MORE RESOURCES. Later on the King will also receive three or six VP when a level 1 or level 2 card is revealed, respectively. Oh, and not only that, once he does start recruiting these more powerful cards, they will give him even more resources depending on the species revealed. This guy is getting on my nerves already.

It is now the player’s turn to play their first phase. The player will draw the first four cards from their deck and then analyze the sequences of icons and “frames” shown at the bottom of the cards. They will then rearrange the cards together to form a link of four, thus completing some frames and probably not all. For each resource encased within a completely closed frame the player will collect that amount of resources from the King directly, instead of from the supply. This helps to regulate the King’s treasury and is a very important piece to winning the game. The player first collects all the resources shown within the frames along the top line of the cards, then from the middle, then from the bottom. Some frames require the player to pay certain resources in order to receive its benefit. If you refer to the photo below you will see that the first closed frame in the second row requires the player to pay two grains (to the supply) in order to receive three VP. HECK YEAH! I’d do that allllllll day. The name of the game is getting to 80 VP and if you can trade two resources for three VP, that’s a move I would make every time.

Once all these resources are collected and used for purchases, the King moves to the next phase: Attracting New Apes. Pulled directly from the rulebook as it is very succinct, “From the 3 action discs above his player board, the King of the Apes always chooses the one that allows him to attract the ape of the highest possible level. If there’s a tie between several discs, he chooses the one furthest to the left. If he doesn’t have enough resources to attract an ape, he chooses the left-most disc.” This will change from game to game as action discs are randomized both in which are included and in which order they are displayed. By choosing the left-most disc (or any disc), the King will apply the effect of the disc per the icon printed. This could give the King more resources, VP, or the ability to oust a card from his deck entirely.

When the King is done recruiting his ape by placing the card directly on top of his draw deck, the player now plays their phase two similarly. Firstly, the player may choose to follow the King’s action he took on his action disc by paying any two matching resources to the supply and performing the action on that disc. The player will choose an action disc from their whole complement of four options. Immediately the player will gain the printed benefit on the disc. The player will also be able to recruit a card matching that disc’s species if the player has enough resources to afford the card (three or six matching resources). All card acquired are placed on top of the draw deck to be used immediately on the next draw.

At ANY time during one of the three phases the player may choose to pay four RAGE earned to oust (destroy) a card from their deck. This strengthens the deck, and therefore also the herd. It is only at the beginning of Phase three that the King is able to use this action. Phase three is Resting. During this phase only, if the King has five batteries, he will always pay them to the supply in order to access the Computer object tile (always active during a solo game) to earn five VP. Once complete, both the player and the King discard their four cards and begin another turn.

If the King has earned 80 points by the end of any Phase one, he wins. If the player can earn the points, they win. In either scenario, the King will probably get mad and attack the player out of game anyway. It’s really futile.

Components. I cannot tell you how infatuated I am with the art on this game. It is absolutely perfect, in a great Dutrait style, and it just makes my game table look absolutely stunning. I believe Vincent Dutrait and Kwanchai Moriya may be my favorite artists now, and look of the game is stupendous. All of the components are top notch, but I have one gripe. Three of the four resources are wooden resourceeples, but the batteries are cardboard chits. Why? Just make some brown battereeples and call it a day. That’s the only thing keeping After Us from being an absolutely perfect game in my eyes.

So I imagine it’s apparent that I love this game. I will be honest about it though – I was worried at first that it would just be a good-looking game that is ho-hum at best. I’ve had it in my collection for a few months now and just wanted to keep it a mystery, I guess. But wow am I glad I learned and played it. It really has everything going for it: a great theme, great art, some of my favorite mechanics, some excellent components, and is equally amazing throughout the play count.

Obviously the art draws me into the individual species and immerses me in the theme of trying to lead a simian group to higher intelligence and utilizing past technologies to further my own goal. The amount of replayability here is very high, especially in solo mode. The action discs that come out every game coupled with the object tiles and random upgrade cards the King acquires will certainly keep me busy for years. I don’t often do this, but I am highly considering sleeving my cards so I can play it forever. Well, at least for way longer.

The deck building is awesome here. Should I try to focus on just getting the massive amount of VP from Mandrills? Should I horde all the Gorillas and really lean my deck down? Should I keep Orangutans on constant order to keep the King from over-exploiting the Computer? Oh man, the choices are somewhat endless and the strategies just start flowing. And don’t even get me started on the puzzle of rearranging the cards to maximize their effectiveness in not only earning resources, but also utilization of the resources. It makes my brain feel amazing. Burning? No. But a good jog.

If you are into light-medium fare and are looking for a new game to add that will satisfy not only your solo plays but also groups up to SIX, I highly highly encourage you to check out After Us. It seems still pretty available at most locations and online, so securing a copy shouldn’t be much of an issue. Do let me know your best scores so I have something to work toward as I uncover more and more layers of this amazing game.