Board game by names, review and criticism

Hardly anything can end a game night in disaster like a row at the game table, if it is not inherent in the game and thus part of the organized process. With his big innovation at the 2022 trade fair, Bernd Eisenstein (Irongames), Discordia — Latin: discord — is striking a preemptive blow, so to speak, perhaps in order to promptly counter emerging trends. The story of the game talks about the dispute that prevails over the best possible development of the vital trade infrastructure. So it’s clear: it’s just a game.

What is the board game Discordia?

Whether and what discord in Discordia actually exists is not directly clear. One to four players try to get rid of initially 15 pieces of up to four colours. Whoever manages to do it first within four rounds wins – immediately, even if the four rounds are not over yet.

Diverse textures and attractive illustration

Game materials are plentiful: large and small tiles, dice, a sack full of maples, a master game board and one for each player. Before the first game, each player’s game boards are glued together, resulting in a kind of double-layer game board. This works really well and is easy by hand, you just have to hit the glue dots really well and the result looks very nice. Unfortunately, the bottom half of the gamepad is a bit flimsy. This does not bother the game at all, unfortunately, there are some unsightly warps when packing, which no fan of the game would like to see on their materials.

Graphically, the game is very attractive in every detail right from the moment it is unlocked. It instantly makes you want to play a game. All materials are beautifully drawn and of good quality (except… like this one).

How is Discordia played?

In order to get rid of the randomly received characters, each player must expand and expand his city with city tiles. These fields contain the numbers that will be placed on them in order to put them back in the bag where you need them most. In each round, the player can choose one of three dice. The dice field determines the range of actions from which the player chooses one.

In addition to expanding the city, there are two pillars that offer you one-time rewards or permanent rewards, ordinances can be executed and perks can be achieved. Everything for the sole purpose of getting rid of his people or not getting new ones.

After each round there is a temporary score, where you must occupy as many town squares and other squares with certain symbols as possible. If not, these new characters will bring you to town.

It’s over after four rounds at the latest. Whoever has the fewest meeples remaining wins.

learning effect

I played my first game of Discordia solo, which on the one hand brings you closer to the mechanism and on the other hand makes no difference to the multiplayer game, because apart from choosing the dice you have almost no points of contact with other players. The dice competition is well simulated in the single version, it’s actually fun.

After that first match, I had serious doubts about how to achieve the goal of eliminating Mabel. But already during the second game (multiplayer) the result was noticeably better.

Naturally, a building game begins with the idea of ​​making as much progress as possible as quickly as possible. This will fail on Discordia.

The goal here is to balance growing your city, giving you opportunities to sell your meeples, and preventing you from getting new meeples. You don’t have to get rid of every sleeper you don’t get, that’s the motto.

Small successes

What I really like about Discordia are the little rewards you get, eg for gradually filling your beams (Exploration and Development) with (small wooden) stars. The development bar is of particular importance because it accelerates the sale of maple from a certain level. Although that should be achieved clearly only in the second half of the match. The double layer of the game board proves its value here, because the little stars lie in the indentations.

Even chain hoists

At the start, there are still three or four basic actions that players have to take into account, but in another context of the game, side actions are also possible with each main move, which you have to keep in mind during your turn. There are even small chain hoists; They are also not only attractive from a playful point of view, but also cause small moments of success in the players.

Why the dispute?

The reference to the name of the game – Discord – will most likely appear after the end of the round when it comes to defending yourself against a Germanic attack, for which you should have prepared the military buildings in your city by then. But, story or not, this is a bit of an exaggeration; I’m still looking for a real link to the name of the game (in vain).

The rules of the game should take some criticism. Overall, it’s very clear and well organized. However, the subtleties in the wording are not subtle enough in places. Bernd Eisenstein should exercise a little more care here, then Discordia could very well start as well.

The goal is always the same with Discordia and the way to reach it is also clear at some point in principle. The appeal of a reboot is to improve the means and get rid of all the meeples a little earlier in the next game. All in all, and last but not least, since it can be played with two players without any restrictions, I consider it one of the best games out there.

Resources on Discordia