Tame Dragons in the Splendor of ‘The Vale of Eternity’
The Vale of Eternity is an engine builder game of gathering the biggest and best fantasy monsters and dragons.
Gargoyles, Goblins, Golems, and Griffons inhabit The Vale of Eternity. But so do dragons! It’s up to you to tame the monsters that roam free in order to bring about peace (and also show off your collection of monsters).
Vale of Eternity Overview
While the comparison is not one-to-one, I think there is something to be said that Vale of Eternity has many similar quirks to Splendor. It’s got the same style of simplified gameplay of buying cards with tokens and using your cards to get more tokens to buy more cards. And some cards grant victory points.
Like I said, not a perfect comparison, but it’s a start.
In each round of Vale of Eternity, new monsters are added to a central play area. Each of these monsters has a unique cost, type, and ability. Players go in order, picking monsters and placing a player marker on them.
Once all markers are placed, players take their actions. For example, they can discard one of their marked monsters in order to gain magic stones. This is useful because magic stones allow one of the other main actions: tame. Taming a monster puts the card into that player’s hand. This is useful because it allows for the third action option: summon.
Summoning a monster places it into that player’s play area. When this happens, the monster might trigger an immediate effect, provide a passive benefit, or allow for a special end-of-round effect. Some monsters provide victory points, which is always important.
After the 10th round, or as soon as a player has 60 points, the game ends. Whichever player has the most points wins!
Splendor Meets Wingspan
When looking at a new game, I can’t help but make comparisons to games I already know. In my mind, Vale of Eternity has a foundation inspired by Splendor but with an added engine builder aspect from a game like Wingspan. Or maybe, comparing it to Wyrmspan, considering the presence of dragons.
It’s a streamlined game that allows for multiple strategies to victory. I always enjoy a good engine builder, especially when it isn’t bogged down by too many other layers. Vale of Eternity finds that balance between being accessible for new players but with enough depth to keep veterans coming back for more.
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