Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia is a board game published by Stonemaier Games. It is a worker placement game that plays 2 to 6 people. If you enjoy games that move quickly and require some strategy, you might like this one. It was designed by Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone.
Back in 2013, Stonemaier Games had just released Viticulture. At that time, they had not yet made huge hits like Scythe, Wingspan, or Tapestry. Viticulture was a big success for them. Following that success, they released Euphoria later that same year. The game got good reviews, but it never became as popular as the games that came before or after it. Some people thought the theme was strange. Others felt the game board looked too busy or complicated. The deluxe version of the game even had a gray side to the board to make it easier to read during your first few games. We are going to look at this game now to see if it is still fun to play today.
How To Set Up Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia
First, you need to lay out the game board on the table. Make sure you have enough room for the players to sit around it. Next, you will place the resources for the four different factions on the board. At the top, you place the Bliss tokens for the Icarites. On the right side, for the Wastelanders, place the green Food tokens. By the tunnel they are digging, place the Clay tokens. Doing this helps you learn where everything is on the board.
Do the same for the Euphorians by placing Energy and Gold near their area. For the Subterrans at the bottom, place Water and Stone. You will see star-shaped locations in the areas for each faction. You need to block off some of these spaces. Leave only enough open spaces for the number of players in the game. For example, if you have 4 players, leave 4 spaces open in each area.
Next to the board, place the two decks of cards and shuffle them. Deal four Recruit cards to each player. Each player looks at them, keeps two, and puts the rest back in the box. Give each player a re
Give each player ten Authority tokens in their color. They keep these by their side. Give them a heart-shaped Morale token and a heart-shaped Knowledge token. Place these in the first and third spaces of the trackers on the top left of the board. Place unavailable action tokens onto the spaces at the end of the three tunnels. These become available when you tunnel through them in the game. Place Miner meeples at the start of each tunnel. Add the four Progress tokens to the starting spaces on the bottom right allegiance track. Finally, give each player an Ethical Dilemma card. Place it with the player aid facing up. The board should now be ready.
Finally, take the Construction tiles, shuffle them up, and choose six at random. Place them face down onto their spaces on the board. Each of the land-based factions has spaces for two tiles. The Icarites have their own version printed on the board. You are now ready to play.
How To Play Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia
The best way to learn this game is to understand the main board. Get to know the areas for the four factions, the three tunnels, and the trackers in the corners. When teaching this game, it helps to show a few example turns. On your turn, you can do one of three things: place a worker (a die), remove one or all of your workers, or activate your Ethical Dilemma card. The Ethical Dilemma card is a one-time action, so most of the game involves placing or removing dice.
Placing Dice
When you place your dice, you can choose from three types of spots. The first type is one of the three large re
All things you gain in this game are shown in circles on the board. For example, at the Farm in Wastelander Territory, you get one Food token if the collective Knowledge is between one and four. If it is five to eight, you get a Food and reduce your own Knowledge on the tracker. If it is over nine, you get two Food, but your Knowledge goes up. A key point for new players is that losing Knowledge is actually good. Gaining it is bad. We will explain why later. All re
The second type of spot is a smaller box with a cost. You pay resources shown in a square to get a benefit shown in a circle. You could also get bumped here. This means other workers can force you off this spot. This is not bad; it means you get your worker back for free. You just roll them, perform a knowledge check, and add them back to your pool. There are two locations like this on the bottom left of the board that let you pay three resources to gain an extra worker.
Each tunnel space has a location like this too. Here, you pay a resource, place your worker, and gain a benefit like a Gold or an Artefact card. Then you can move the tunneller meeple one space forward. When it reaches the sixth spot, anyone with an unrevealed Recruit card of this faction must reveal it. When it reaches the eighth spot, you can remove the blocker token. This opens up a new worker placement spot with a powerful benefit. This represents each faction tunneling into a neighboring faction to gain access to their resources.
The third type of place is the spaces by the construction sites. Each one has multiple spaces showing a resource. Remember, what you pay is always in a square. There is no immediate benefit here; it is just a site to build. You need two workers in a two or three-player game to finish a site. You need three workers in a four-player game, and four in a five or six-player game. When the required amount of worker dice are placed here, the dice are bumped, rolled, and sent back to their owners. Everyone performs a knowledge check. Then, anyone who had a die here adds one of their authority tokens onto the now flipped construction site.
Anyone who didn’t contribute to the making of this site misses out on this valuable opportunity. This is how you win the game. The first person to place their tenth and final Authority token wins. So do not miss out on this. Also, if you do miss out, you will notice a huge penalty on the new site. Something that anyone who didn’t help build it now has to suffer for the rest of the game. These penalties are big, so try not to miss out.
Each site also opens up a powerful new worker placement spot. This lets you spend resources and Artefact cards to place Authority stars into that faction’s star-shaped territory. Remember, there are only spaces in these areas for Authority stars. You cannot place workers there. To place a star, you must pay the resources shown in the square. The cost usually goes up the more stars you have already placed in that area. Placing stars is the main way you win the game.
Removing Dice and Knowledge Checks
Removing dice is very important in this game. You can remove one die or all of your dice on your turn. When you remove a die, you must perform a Knowledge check. This is a simple roll of the die. You compare the result to your current Knowledge level on the tracker. If your roll is equal to or higher than your Knowledge, you succeed. If it is lower, you fail.
If you succeed, you get to take a bonus action. You can either gain a re
However, if your Knowledge is high, you will fail often. This causes you to lose Morale. The game has a nice balance where you want to lower your Knowledge to make your workers more efficient. But some actions in the game force you to gain Knowledge. You have to manage this carefully.
Winning the Game
The game ends immediately when a player places their tenth and final Authority token on the board. This player is the winner. To do this, you need to build construction sites to open up new spots and gain Authority tokens. You also need to use those new spots to place your stars into the faction territories. It is a race to see who can do this the fastest while managing their Knowledge and Morale.
Euphoria is a game with a lot of moving parts, but it flows well once you understand the basics. The theme is unique, and the mechanics work together to tell a story about a dystopian society. If you like worker placement games that are fast and have a bit of a cutthroat feel, this is a good choice. It might take a game or two to fully understand the board, but it is worth the effort.
