Nightmare Cathedral: Lucid Dreams in a Haunting Artscape
Frances & Anthony
How it Plays
Anthony and Frances have been producing playthrough and review videos since 2016, and bring to the Nexus a fun-first approach. Primarily mid-heavy eurogamers, they provide insight into the 2 player experience for many popular board games. Join them as they show you how your next game plays.
Summary
At first glance, Nightmare cathedral may look like your typical monster-fighting area control game. In reality, surrealist painter and sculptor Zdzisław Beksiński‘s haunting imagery brings to life a two-phase experience, where players take on the role of dreamers, directing the course of their joint nightmare through action selection.
How it Plays
Nightmare cathedral is played in two phases. In the first phase, as players take turns choosing actions, they will collectively build (you guessed it) the nightmare cathedral itself. Once built, the second phase of the game begins, and the nightmares are released, followers get devoured, and game end is eventually triggered.
Each player has a starting tableau consisting of 5 actions, each of which correspond with action locations on the board. Players use their dreamers to select an action, then refer to their cards (which can be upgraded throughout the game) to determine how the action resolves. Dreamers always start their turn in a night space, one of the dark spaces adjacent to two or three of the action spaces. The only actions a dreamer cannot choose are those adjacent to the current night space. Players can also pick a legal action space, and simply draw two cards without resolving the action.
The available actions are: perform a ritual by climbing the ritual track; summon followers by placing new units from your supply on the board where indicated; fortify by building fort levels; maneuver, which grants movement and allows players to convert units into followers; and develop, by playing development cards.
Each action card has a corresponding pair of reactions. These are effects that may be performed by other players after the active player has finished their turn. If the reacting player is not in a night space adjacent to the active dreamer’s action space, they can take the dissent effect depicted on their own corresponding action card. If they are adjacent, they can choose either the dissent effect or the more powerful conform effect.
Players also start the game with dream cards. These dream cards are objectives that help guide player actions by awarding victory points for meeting conditions. They can be swapped out at the end of every turn, if the player desires.
Finally the players hand consists of development cards. These cards could be action upgrades or ploys and are played during the develop action. All development cards can also be played in conflict to inflict injuries and defend against them. Conflict only occurs in this game when required by a card, and players can choose up to one card per unit they have in the fight. Killed units go to limbo, where they can assist with the ritual track progress, and defeated units retreat from the conflict area. To the victor go the spoils, if they are fighting shadows.
At the end of the active dreamers turn, the turn marker is moved and another piece of the cathedral is built. Once the entire cathedral is built, phase two begins and the nightmares are released!
Some of the art prints inspiring the game’s design.
There are 8 nightmares in the game, and players will play with two. Each nightmare is unique in how it traverses the board, and how it interacts with followers. Development cards, including upgraded actions, now give players an additional benefit – they can command the nightmares. In fact, this is the only way nightmares move. The nightmare’s main purpose is to devour units and drive the end of the game, however some nightmares also destroy forts, produce units, and convert units to followers, among other benefits for the controller. Each nightmare has a devoured limit, and this limit will determine how many unfortunate followers will need to be eaten to trigger end game. If a player reaches the end of the ritual track, or the time marker enters the fourth space, end game is triggered even if the nightmares are still hungry.
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When end game is triggered, scoring is very simple. The player with the most devoured units is awarded 8 points, while second, third and fourth place receives 5 3 and 2 points respectively. Players then earn points for position on the ritual track, upgraded action cards, one or two points for 2 or 3 level forts, and finally for any completed dream cards.
Our Thoughts
We went into this game thinking if was an area control game with monsters and bad guys and lots of conflict. That was not the case at all, and for our preference, this was a delightful surprise. The art is interesting because you don’t notice the intricacy at first. Once you begin looking for it, Zdzisław Beksiński‘s art is everywhere. It really gave this game a unique feel that makes you want to play with the lights down and candles lit.
I am a sucker for two-phase games, and this was no exception. I appreciated that the area control was just limited to meeting dream objectives and populating units, and conflict was easy to resolve. This is an action selection game wrapped in a haunting package.
Frances – The Board Game Nexus
What we liked
- Plays quickly, and players can control the pace of the game to a degree.
- Players can control the overall feel of the game by combining different types of nightmares.
- The art is hauntingly beautiful
Who Its For
- Anyone who enjoys action selection and wants a darker fantasy theme tied in.
- Art aficionados
Our Reservations
Setup was a bit challenging determining where the cathedral pieces go. Our hope is that in production they are numbered to make it easier to lay them out. At the time of this publication, only a few of the nightmare combos were playtested enough to be balanced. We have not played with the other nightmares, but have high hopes for their ability to change the feel of the game based on what we’ve seen so far.
Those art prints are amazing!