Sylvion: Review

I lay awake, concerned. There is a forest in danger and I’m just sitting here, doing nothing. It’s troubling to think about. All the little squirrels and owls and trees, oh the trees. They’re all in danger. A fire rages.
I should sleep, it’s late but I could set up one quick game. One valiant go at saving the forest which keeps me up at night. Win or lose, I’ll know I tried and maybe get some rest.
There’s nothing to eat, nothing good anyway. The good snacks never last and then you’re forced to eat the crappy snacks. Why did I even buy crappy snacks in the first place? A granola bar and some wheat thins will have to do, I guess. Off to a shit start as I pull the game out.
I always love looking at Oniverse games when I pull their boxes out. Really beautiful components, from the box to the cards to the pieces. The forest is quirky and charming, the home of adorable critters. The acrylic flame Ravage pawn is maybe the best pawn in the series, threatening and warlike.

I start drafting my army, the game within the game. It’s a bit tedious but, still, so much fun. Until the betrayal cards start coming out. Those damn betrayal cards, what would an Oniverse game be without some nasty cards to make the game that much harder? I draft around them as much as possible, but some land in the ranks of my army. I’ll deal with them later.
Once I’m finished drafting I setup the beautiful Oniverse forest. Full of hope and beauty. There’s nothing that can go wrong, right? Wrong. Fire. Fire and ash is on its way to my doorstep. All of a sudden I feel completely unprepared for the battle ahead.
My first hand is good. I pay the cost of cards with other cards, a neat little system. This first turn is easy, there are a bunch of cards that are not useful to me this early on so I can focus on cards that help me prepare or even see the future. I lay down some fortification, some fountains to ward off the flames. It’s a tower defense game at its heart.

The enemy approaches now, hot and angry. Some of the elemental cards are brutal, force me to discard cards from my hand, or even remove cards from my deck out of the game. Speaking of discarding cards, after the first turn it becomes clear how crucial hand management is. Because you are paying for cards with other cards, and the number of cards you can draw each turn isn’t particularly high, your hand can be thin for a lot of the game. It makes battling the enemy that much harder.
The enemy marches forward, wave after wave. On their turn, the evil effect cards are the first to act, do something completely frustrating, before the fire troops move closer to the trees. It feels relentless. Like there’s no end in sight and the forest is beginning to be set ablaze.
There’s one card that becomes extremely valuable. The doves. They allow me to blindly discard the next wave of fire. Without a few of these in my deck, I don’t think I would have had a chance defending against all 20 waves. Love those beautiful doves.
I grind through, wave by wave. I spend as few cards as possible and build up my hand for the last push. The hand management is difficult, sacrifices had to be made, concessions to the flame. A tough pill to swallow, but sometimes bad things have to be done to win the grand prize.

As the last couple waves approach I know I’m in a tight situation. Over half the forest is in ruins and I’m not certain I’ll have enough tree cards to grow it sufficiently back. I can feel the heat on the back of my neck, but I stay calm and stick to my strategy as best as possible. Even when things seem improbable, you have to remember nothing is impossible.
As I defeat the last elemental and place down whatever I can muster to grow back what was once lost I realize I’ve won. I exhale and double-check to make sure I haven’t made an error. No errors, victory is mine. I can finally get some rest knowing the forest is safe. Safe for another night, at least.
It might be my affinity for tower defence games but I really like this Oniverse installment. I fine Sylvion a bit easier than the other games, I tend to win more often than not, so you might want to include some of the expansion rules to increase the difficulty after a couple plays.
Thanks for reading, see you next time.

