A Study in Emerald by designer Martin Wallace is a boardgame based on short novel by Neil Gaiman. It’s a Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu mix. Game was published via successful Kickstarter campaign but is currently available to buy from various game shops. It’s is expensive…we are talking over £50. Famous Mr. Timewalker purchased a copy of this gem few weeks ago and I was invited to play this last night 😉

This game is a nice mix of deckbuilding and worker placement together with secret identity roles. We have two teams: Loyalists (green) and Restorationists (pink) (plase don’t ask me how to pronounce this). Goal of the game is to get victory points via claiming different locations (cities), assassinating Royal persons (Cthulhu monsters), advancing on War Track (green) or Revolution Track (pink), killing other players agents etc. You do all your actions (2 per turn) using cards that you can claim during the game just like in deckbuilding games like Dominion.

Best part (some will probably say it is the worst) is final score where: ‘If there are players on both sides, the side whose player has the lowest individual points total is eliminated’ – well if you are first but player on the same side as you is last you are eliminated! I gave it 10 on Boardgamegeek after just one play but I think it can be even better next time we play. True  masterpiece from Martin Wallace! Highly recommend to try it.

I was Loyalist last night…and I lost