Age of Comics: The Golden Years

• 1-4 Players
• Recommended age: 14+
• 60-110 minutes
• RRP: £58 (CLICK HERE)

Age of Comics: The Golden Years is a worker placement game in which 1-4 players each run a (fictional) publishing company during the so-called “golden age of comics” (circa 1938-56). In order to become the top comic book publisher, players will need to build their fanbase by hiring the right artists and writers, publishing comics across a variety of genres, and sending their sales agents out to Manhattan’s newsstands to grab the best sales orders.

Fresh from a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, Giacomo Cimini and Sónia Goncalves – aka Lirius Games – have put together an intriguing take on the well-established board game genre by setting their game in the smoky, cigar-chomping bullpen of the 1940s New York comic scene. The premise here is fairly straightforward, with players competing to earn Victory Points (VPs) by completing various tasks over five rounds. These tasks include: publishing original comic books, accumulating fans, earning money, generating ideas, staying at the top of the comic book chart as often as possible, and improving the printing quality of their releases.

Each comic has a distinct genre (superheroes, horror, romance, crime, sci-fi or Western) and requires a writer/artist creative team in order for it to be published (sorry letterers and colourists!) Players have a variety of actions they can assign meeples/editors to every turn, including hiring creatives, developing comics and comic ideas, collecting royalties and hitting the streets of New York to collect and fulfil sales orders.

The sense of urgency throughout the five rounds is fairly intense at times, with the “diminishing returns” nature of each action making it vital to try and get your editors into play as quickly as possible and prioritise actions due to your own personal gameplan. That said, there’s a faintly repetitive nature to the gameplay where the same actions need to be taken almost every single round in order to hire, develop and publish new comics, so all that really changes is the order that those actions are performed in. Sure, it’s not quite that straightforward, but that was definitely the feeling I got playing through my first few games.

The basic premise of hiring artists and writers before developing and printing comics is fairly simple, but as with all good Euro games, the real key to success here comes in the margins from things like “Special Actions”. These become available after printing your second comic and include things like swapping or upgrading creative teams, generating hype for upcoming releases, or investing in marketing. This is where the real strategy comes into play, and while I’m not sure I quite nailed the best approach (assuming such a thing even exists), it definitely offered up some neat wrinkles from a tactical perspective.  Oh, and if you’re feeling particularly sneaky, you can also bring out rip-off versions of your opponents’ comics – another neat wrinkle, for sure.

While the game actually flows fairly smoothly once it gets going, the initial setup – not to mention the substantial table footprint required – can be a little daunting, particularly when you’re trying to convince non-gamers to give it a try. Seriously, there are a dizzying array of tokens and cards of varying sizes to be laid out before the first action is taken, and it ended up being a bit of a tough sell (to begin with, at least) for at least two members of our fairly casual gaming group.

One thing that really stands out about this release is the way the team at Lirius have focused on making sure the overall “1940’s New York comic book scene”  theme of the game is kept front and center throughout. The artwork, both on the tokens and the board itself, is very true to the era, and I really got a kick out of the comic book cover designs that were available (and their rip-off counterparts).  Obviously there’s nothing authentic or licensed here, which may have been a step too far from a copyright perspective, but there are a few cheeky nods and winks to well-known cover art thrown in for good measure.

Another neat addition is the fact that Giacomo and Sónia have taken the time to put together a Spotify Playlist of background music for game sessions, packed with era-specific tunes that will help set the mood while playing (cigar smoke and stale coffee smell not included).

Thankfully, for those of us who struggle to coordinate ‘game night’ diaries (which I’m guessing is all of us, right?), Age of Comics also boasts a solo mode which, while obviously not anywhere near as engaging or dynamic as the 2-4 player mode, is definitely a fun enough way to spend an hour or so and hopefully hone your tactics for the next time you have some human publishing rivals to go up against.

Overall, Age of Comics: The Golden Years is a well structured worker placement game with an engaging (if perhaps a little niche) theme that the creators have clearly put a lot of thought into. There’s enough tactical variation to justify repeat playing, and no major rules snafus or dead-ends to hold up the proceedings – a definite plus for a relatively new games publisher, and a testament to their playtesting process. Definitely well worth a look if this type of game, or theme, floats your boat.  And with a second game, “Timeless Journeys: The Italian Grand Tour”, coming to Kickstarter later this year, it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of approach the team at Lirius adopt moving forwards.

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The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson-Adams (aka Ceej)
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