Thanks for the shoutout, Efka!! Looking forward to writing more on board games & sustainability in the future :)

The way you pronounce "Lady Ga-gaah" is eerily pleasing to my ears.

The way you describe this game, it most reminds me of the video game The Outer Wilds. Not necessarily in mechanics or settings, but rather the vibe of it all. The Outer Wilds is also a game with a slow start, a slow burn progression overall, with a heavy emphasis on wandering around and making your own goals, and is a game about falling in love with the beauty and danger of a universe you desperately want to protect and understand. It's also the kind of game that pisses you off so bad you stop playing part way through, only for it to be the only thing you can possibly think about when you're not playing it. Long after I beat the game, there's still so much thoughts I have left for it. Earthborne Ranger seems like a wonderful game produced in a wonderful way. Can't wait to try it

I love Becky Chambers Psalm for the Wild Built. It's such a lovely story, short, no fluff and utterly charming.

YOU, Efka, are a Treasure to the boardgame, and human, community

+1 for the random "Guillermo!"

Everyone is raving about this game--I'd love to try it! I'm one of the last people to ever complain about board games sounding too complicated, but man, every description of the rules sounds suspiciously like The Cones of Dunneshire.

Thank you, it's often hard to put into words how why and what the magic is, not to mention adding the bad and the ugly without bringing the tone down for something so fascinating

Love this review. Not only is there a very thoughtful and heartfelt impression of the game itself - but also some suggestions for other sources talking about similar topics. Thank your very much for that.

Saw this being played on Rob's Gaming Table and had to have it. Love it! Completed the campaign, backed all the new content, and going to run through again with a new character. Probably my all time favorite game. You did a marvalous job describing it. :)

I have never had an emotional reaction to a board game review, but I just did! This video is why I support you. Thank you!

Great review! Huge thanks for the recommendations in the end! 🤗

Sound seems a bit lower than usual?

Thanks for using such a fancy camera!!!! I’m not much of a solo player so I appreciate hearing your enthusiasm for Earthborne Rangers!

My wife saw my shelve of tons of boardgames after I invited her to my apartment. Loaded with games starting with gloomhaven going to catan heading to chess. Nervous as a geek I was waiting for her reaction. She promised me she would play every game once with me. Suddenly a package arrived. Now she is only playing one with me. One left. Again and again. For hours and days. I think you alread know which one.

Good art makes you feel something. Thank you for sharing all those somethings throughout this review! I have to agree with the learning curve and deckbuilding - I spent quite a few hours trying to understand the game just to run a good demo for friends. We’ll likely be able to push through that, and maybe house rule some of the deckbuilding during the game, but man that introduction is not smooth. But this seems like a game worth exploring, and I’m looking forward to our demo session soon!

As someone who’s played and loved multiple campaigns of this game: your review was excellent and also the best I’ve seen in attempts to try to explain what exactly this game is

The character building seems daunting. Did you get a chance to play with the expansion that includes other classes/cards? I am in the process of backing and wondering if it is a "get it while you can" or a "must". I expect the expansion that grows the campaign is not necessary, but the extra cards for characters seems like it may help with the initial deck building.

Interesting video. I was really enjoying your thoughts but then it came to an end and i realised you covered this game amazingly as a concept and as a game with predecessors in video games and MtG. But there was barely anytime talking about gameplay. Id have loved to hear your thoughts on turns. How do you feel when you deal with forest terrain for 30 mins only to shuffle the same cards again as you move to a new location and play another 30 mins against the same path deck. How do you feel about missions often saying you need to travel somewhere? Do you enjoying just moving across the map? I found the game often demanded you hoping the path deck got out of your way so you can traverse and get out of there. Rather than immerse myself in a place i often just needed to get out of there ASAP and therefore hope to not see mucu of the path deck. How does a session feel start middle and end as a power curve. I liked the thoughts of this as a game concept. Just wish you had dived more into your thoughts more about what the decsion space of the game was across rhe 90 minute session you'd play. Good stuff.

Cue Wilhelm Scream.

Fitting title since as of May 24 the game really is one in a million... One in a million people who want it actually have it 😂

Great video. Especially enjoyed the suggestions for books and animation at the end. More suggestions like that please in future vids

Scavengers Reign is a gorgeous show and gives you so much food for thought - another one I've found myself thinking about in the shower. I can't wait to play this

Great Love Letter to this wonderful Game. Also Scavengers Reign is one of the best Sci-Fi Series ever in my opinion. Becky Chambers is also absolute wonderful. Now i have to check Ray Naylar and MacInnes. Thanks for mentioning these. 🖤

I bought this to play solo and it does NOT work for me. It's laboured and you have to spend so much time getting things done for little reward. Id love to play it at 2 but I think it might be too late for me to enjoy now I know some of the story line. Im feeling my copy! Great review as always.

very good review! headsup though your volume is pretty low

I really appreciated your aside starting at 30:50 - this is what really pulled me into EBR.

The review made me want to do research on Brockian Ultra-Cricket for some reason.

Do you have any idea of when this will be back in stock?

If I may offer you some criticism, your videos are unusually quiet compared to almost everything else on youtube. I watch an average video at 10-20 volume, to hear your video comfortably I have to crack it up to about 60.

This is wonderful! I've watched other reviews and read praises of Earthborne Rangers but it seems none of them described why the game is good. Your review gave detailed examples and explanations of why the game works so well; now I understand. Thank you for that. For someone familiar with boardgaming, your allusions to Magic and other card games were very helpful. And PS, I agree completely with your thoughts on nature. It reminded me of when I had the opportunity to spend time at a zoo. I noticed the human visitors were moving at a completely different time scale than the animals, and missing so much. Thanks again!

Thank you for the adjacent recommendations as well!

This video has reaffirmed why I love this channel so much. Damn you. Damn you for making me come back again and again. You guys, quite simply, rock.

Thank you NPI for making these long and ernest reviews of games. I much appreciate it even when it's for games I know I won't play. And thank you for reminding me to get a copy of Mountain in the Sea. Keep up the good work

An Absolutely brilliant review. Deep, curious, insightful, and inspiring. Thank you for you creativity, humor, and knowledge. As a creative, and omni-media lover, I appreciate the contexual breadth you provide as well as your follow-up recommendations. Having just finished a playthrough of Flame and Fang, a much simpler but well done adventure puzzler, this review reminded me of the length modern board games can go to capture emergent narrative. It does seem, however, that the time spent in system's management may push many to consider EBR better as a computer game. Do you think that part of the value of this game is in the time it requires of the player to manage all the effects? I ask because I generally think of density of decision making as a positive in games, but perhaps there is value and wonder in just watching the Rube Goldberg machine run. Interestingly, whether the management-type activity is simple as in Flame and Fang, or seemingly coplex as in EBR, over time I find myself removed from the world-space of the game and focused on the activity and math, which in turn leads me to want to adventure outside, in the real world. As a full-time game reviewer, do you think that the volume of games you play gives you a leg up in "playing" such games? Not in the normative sense, but in the sense that you intuitively or through intention, you can let the math drop aside and somehow find a fusion of world and decision making that transcends the math and management? This turned into a ramble but to return to the path, Thank You for all you do!

It's a campaign game, right? Does it mean you need to have the same players until you finish it?

Thank you for mentioning the player count/Path card issue! It's so important that people understand two Rangers is where this game flourishes!

I love how you add suggestions from other media. Already got thr Wayfarers book to read to my kids during the summer. Ačiū.

I played a few gamedays but because life and sickness not the mental energy to get back in.... and I want to get back sooo badly. I will use your video to get me in the mood again. The best thing about the game: I don't care If I make small rule mistakes.... but my story is incredibly fun😅

Really good, but really quiet. Please mix it a little louder in the future. Great job.

This is the most glowing review of a Befka I've ever enjoyed. When they become available I'll rush my order in. That game sounded interesting too.

Great review, as always.

I need a Efka "satisfaction face" tshirt. Great review

Just wished I could buy it anywhere.

It really does seem like the Skyrim comparison is apt, in that its got obvious flaws but still one of the best games ever made. I sadly don't have a regular group to play campaign games with. But thanks for the reading suggestions so I can find things with a similar vibe.

Does it have crunchy decisions?

It's a really good game. But the world building / evocativeness is phenomenal. Single handedly reinvigorated my interest in solo gaming and narrative style games. The deck construction elements are simultaneously challenging decisions but liberating in how they are dished out reorganised in and out of your deck. Negatives. It can be a bit clunky. But that's partly a function of how unique and genre-skewing it is. Travelling and the setup / tear down involved can be a little choring. It also finished on a little of a whimper.

Love the scavengers reign reference.

How is it solo??? Anyone tried it??

The Becky Chambers comparison sealed it for me! Added to the wishlist immediately!

Backed 2nd print plus expansions,cant wait!

great video although the sound is very quiet

This was best preview of Earthborne rangers Ive seen and Id seen it a lot! Efka, you doing realy good job! That cosplay sucked, but your explanation was best on internet. 👏👏👏

As in, there’s one copy available for every million people that want one?

I came very close to backing this, as the theme and art and vibes appeal to me a lot. But ultimately I didn't, because it seems like a game I'd never play. I can barely find time to meet up with my Arkham Horror LCG group, a game like this seems like it needs a very specific group to Get.

What do you think Befka set the air conditioning to before putting on his ranger gear?

should have been a video game?

Wait... Where are the scribbles after the opening shot... I'VE BEEN TRICKED!! *shakes fist in melodramatic frustration*

This is one of the only games in a while that has intrigued me. Most other board games these days seem to be derivatives of one another and has made the hobby stagnant. Can't wait to try this out for myself.

Now I am imagining how Lady Gaga would work a bottle opener. Also - for the Dutch viewers, the name Befka is… unfortunate.

Incredible review, touched on all the aspects of why this game speaks to me. Thank you.

Great review. I almost thought you were gonna bypass the issue with the rulebook and the kind of “meh” result you often get while playing this game. That last has prevented me from diving back into the game after playing a little past the prologue. I’m finding it real hard to care enough about what I actually accomplish to endure the time it takes to accomplish it. But I really want to see if it’s possible for me to get into a groove with it. Because, if I squint real hard, I can kinda see the promised land the game is trying so hard to show me.

cant wait to get my copy

I always love your reviews, they are interesting and entertaining, however Earthborn Rangers is definitely not for myself or my gaming group, we simply disliked it.

Earthborne Rangers destroyed me for any other game. I started in the hobby on 1 October 2023 buying Three Sisters (the roll and write).... by 30 November I had ordered Earthborne Rangers having gone the Agricola, Earth, Ark Nova, Dorfromantik route.... and now I scour the forums in search of anything even vaguely similar to EBR - I've enjoyed Sleeping Gods Distant Skies and ISS Vanguard but am really just sitting here waiting for December.

I haven’t bought a game in a long time before this. But I did buy this one. 😊 it just looks brilliant. I feel like I can sell a number of games (looking at you tainted grail) and replace it with this one. Kind of like Mage Knight kills a lot of other games.

What a marvelous review! Sold!

Pathfinder shout out.....hell yeah! 😊

Cows. Yes. I have to.

Great review, cant wait until my copy arrives! Also really glad to hear that it plays well at 2 player! I want to add one book to your reqs: Semiosis by Sue Burke. It is a sci-fi story of a bunch of settlers on an alien planet, where each chapter skips forward a generation and each chapter main characters are the kids to last chapters. It really featured interesting takes on living with nature, being part an eco-system and makes you question how actually intelligent non-mammal alien life would look and behave.

Spire map!!!!

I seem to be the only person in the world that really does not like this game.. Im at a point where Im convinced Ive played this game wrong and clearly messed something up..

The usb ports on Efka's face are freaky deaky

Intrigued!

Ohh! Forced to make a character before you understand how the game works? (And wasting a run on bollocks?) That IS old skool!

Based on my early observations of the demo on TTS, this is a very accurate review. I backed the recent campaign on Gamefound and I can't wait for the game to arrive.

I think this is one of the best and richest reviews I've ever seen.

This is the best explanation of this game's mechanisms that I've seen, I understand the fear of spoiling games like this but you managed to balance things very well. Thank you! Knowing what you know now, could you go back with those decks that do nothing as you said and make them work? Like you know better what is out there so you can seek out things that might make those decks' abilities function better? Or are there just plenty of busted decks based on what you think abilities will do vs. what they actually will do?

Is it? Everything I've seen about the game (gameplay, reviews, etc) just gives the impression that it is a decent product.. for specific people. It certainly does not have a theme or systems that could appeal to a large audience. I'm surprised at the "hype" behind it.. usually from paid content creators, or people actually supporting it. Team Covenant even went as far (and totally hard) to call it an "evergreen" game.. you know, like Catan!? I've seen many a game in my lifetime, and this one does not fit that box. The whole "ad campaign" behind it feels forced. Good review (albeit long and not too direct), awfully quiet audio.

So lucky to win this game on auction recently 😁 unlucky that I haven’t tried it yet

Beautiful critical thinking, both of you, Efka and Earthborne Rangers! I would love to see more of this in the world, stories, content, where somebody took his time and understood some things, loved them, created beauty.❤

This game sounds absolutely perfect for me, i loved death stranding so much 😭

Wow. This was a good review! Thanks a lot.

Great video, thank you

Yours and S.U.S.D. review of this game make me want to play this infinitely more, with my friend. thanks for the review!

Oh holy crap. I was watching this and you said the magical name "Becky Chambers". I am IN.

1:07 "review is a bit long" Efka says. But it's a 35-minute video by a channel who has been adopted into the Breadtube video essay community... I say, tack on another 73 minutes and break it into chapters. While you're at it, throw it up on Nebula, then we could talk about long.

We played through the campaign and freakin' loved it. Excited to try other rangers and for the expansion.

Post-apocalyptic Efka would fit right in The Tribe (1999) TV-series.

What happens when you “fail”/“die?

yeah the game is great! we are all waiting for the second run in October, since we didn't get the first one. They would have fixed the typos and erratas too.

Goddamn- I thought, oh this is like Scavengers and Becky chambers . Then you said it yourself 😂

Great review, thank you!

Caustic things are kinda base, not acidic ;)

I was already convinced about getting the game, but your review now confirms that this is for me. Can't wait to explore the meanders of the walley when my copy arrives in... December 2024... Well, I might need to break the sustainability ethos a bit and print the demo from their website!

That outfit is one in a billion though

11:38 Yeah, tell that to Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding and the others :)

I really wanted to like this game but I bounced off it pretty hard. That may be because I played it on TTS but none of the hooks hooked me. I think the most egregious misstep here - other than just being boring - is that none of the player cards were interesting. This was so odd coming from a designer with an MTG background where half the fun of that game is imagining what you could do with various cards in various scenarios. EBR has way too many cards that just don't do anything. Then it compounds this problem by making your deck your life total. So now you don't want to draw cards both because it lowers your life and because they suck.

Nice to meet you Befka with a silent B

This was FANTASTIC. Thank you!