First, a little bit of intro:

I was really interested in Cloudspire, since I love MOBA computer games. Also, it’s a Chip Theory Games game so you know that components are going to be amazing. CTG also published “Too Many Bones” which was, and is, a big hit. So yeah, expectations were big.

Unfortunately, I missed the KS campaign, and when I saw the game available for purchase on Essen Spiel 2019, I was really tempted. 130EUR price tag made me think twice though, since I didn’t know much about it other than I like the theme and components. And that it was big and complex, and I like big and complex games. But then, on the first day of Spiel, a friend of mine sends a message saying he bought it. I don’t have to tell you I was really excited about trying this one out. So fast forward one month later and 2 play sessions later, here are my impressions.

Both of our sessions were competitive mode, one with 3 and the other with 4 players. I haven’t played Cloudspire in cooperative or solo modes.
The game of Cloudspire plays over 4 rounds, each turn consisting of a number of rather standard phases: income, market, build, and onslaught. Gist of the game happens in onslaught phase where players will move their minions and heroes around the board, fight other minions and spires, trying to reach other player’s bases and destroy them. The player who is the last man standing, or the one with the most of his base remaining after 4 rounds, is the winner.

Even before playing it for the first time, I was prepared for a big and complex game. During our first playthrough we spent a good 30-40 minutes going through the rules. For game of this size and asymmetry this was expected. However this was only covering base game mechanics. Mechanics and strategies specific to races made our heads busy for the rest of the first playthrough. Additionally, we had many questions about the rule details during the game, and in the end decided to cut the game short after completing the 2nd round. First playthrough took us around 3h , that is without the rules.

So this is where we get into things I don’t like about Cloudspire – the amount of fiddly rules, rule exceptions, and sheer amount of keywords is just huge. Just to be able to play, each player will need:
1) his faction spreadsheet, describing his base upgrades and heroes skills (comes with the game)
2) list of all skills on all units in the game (BGG)
3) round overview with the details of each phase (BGG)

Basically, each unit will have one or more keywords printed on it. And you will need to go over all abilities/keywords on the units to be able to make any kind of plan for the given turn. So imagine 3 players, each one having at least 2-3 units on the table (5+ in the later rounds), and each unit having 1-2 keywords. I guess through repeated plays this would become less of an issue since we would learn most of the keywords, but still, the amount of options with so many variables is impossible to fully grasp.

Another issue I have with Cloudspire is inconsistency. For example, each minion and hero unit, will have a set of chips below it: health chips and upgrade chips. If a unit has 2 range, 3 health, and 1 dmg, you will only put 3 health chips below the unit chip, to indicate its health. Range and dmg you will read from the unit chip. However, for spires, that doesn’t work the same way. A spire which has 1 range and 1 dmg (spires don’t have a health stat), you will put, one range chip and one dmg chip below the spire chip, but no health chips. Instead, upgrade chips are going to be counted as spire’s health. This means when you are calculating a value of attribute for the unit you are using one logic, while for the spies you are using something completely different, even though all of them are using the same chips for that. It just seems so inelegant. Also, this is only one example. Similar goes for the range calculation, how dmg dealt is subtracted from units and spires, etc. Basically the whole game is made in such a way that each type of units has its own way of calculating the values of attributes, and it becomes very hard to keep track, because there are many units on the table and they are using the same chips, which then have different meanings depending on the unit type. Combine this with aforementioned set of skills and keywords, and before you know it, you will be completely lost.

I could go on about the negative sides, such as totally random event cards drawn at the start of each round, which can significantly change the course of the game in completely random way, to no catch-up mechanism for the players who get f**ked during 1st or 2nd turn and have no means of getting back into the game. Did I mention race balance?

So after our 1st play, I was worried, but still eager to play it again. I thought next game will be much smoother, and since we know the rules, the focus will be more on strategy than on grasping the game mechanics. However, that was not the case. Yes, we did better with our races, and made some nice combos, but still, we had plenty of situations where we had go back to the rulebook, google and BGG. Some rules seemed completely off, and we weren’t sure if we are doing the right thing even after consulting all available resources. I’m certain after all the checks, we still did some things wrong. And the worst part is, even if you manage to get through all the messy rules, the puzzle that Cloudpire puts in front of you was not interesting or enjoyable, not for me, not for other players.

Some good things about the Cloudspire – as you can see in the pictures, it looks gorgeous. Component quality is through the roof. Map tiles are from neoprene, all cards are covered in plastic (no sleeves needed) so basically the whole game is waterproof. Artwork is nice, so yeah, visually and component quality wise, game is amazing. Also, as I said, I only played it in competitive mode. Game experience might be a better in coop or solo but I doubt it since mechanics are the same in each mode, so the critical issue will still be there. Other than that, I don’t know what else positive to say about it 😀

In the end I was happy I was not carried out by the fear of missing out, and didn’t buy Cloudspire in Essen Spiel. Otherwise I would be trying to sell it right now. At least you can count to get, more or less, the same amount of money you paid for it, since its not widely available, at least not in Europe. So there, that’s another plus for the game 😛

For more images check out our Instagram (@wild_boargames), or look us up on Facebook (Wild Boargames) or Twitter (@WBoargames).