Why I picked the game
In all honesty the reason why I picked this game was purely down to the artwork on the front cover. Luckily enough the game happened to have brilliant gameplay with a very good solo mode.
About the game
Designed by Florian Sirieix, After Us took 6 years and 42 different attempts of creation and testing to form this competitive game, which also lead to a children’s version of the game called ‘Zoo Run’, and if you ask me, it was well worth the effort.
The core to After Us is a deck building game where you use your primates to collect resources, to gain victory points and greater level apes to improve your tribe. In solo mode you go up against the king of the apes, trying to steal his resources, to gain victory points to get around the board before the king.
You start off with your team of tamarins and try to attract gorillas, mandrills, chimps and orangutans, each of which gives you a special bonus.
Quick thoughts on the base game
I found the game to be very easy to pick up and kept everyone competitive whether they were experienced or new to the game.
An interesting part of this game is it played in phases rather than turns . In phase one everyone together assembles their tribe, gains resources and then spends them at the same time as everyone else. This keeps all players involved without having long periods between turns.
Solo play - Set up
The first thing you do is choose a colour board for yourself and the king of the apes . You then select 3 of the kings’ colour action discs at random and place them above the kings’ board. Whichever disc has been placed on the left-hand side, receives 2 of their corresponding resource. Gorillas receive the black grain pieces, mandrills - blue flowers, orangutans - orange fruit, or if you have the chimp, the resource of whichever token has not been selected, e.g. if you picked the chimp, orangutan and gorilla the chimp will receive the blue flowers. You then select 3 objects for you to use, if the computer has not been selected the king received this, if it has you both use it. You then shuffle the kings’ tamarins and place these to the left of their board, do the same with yours. Then place one of each players’ colour tokens and place these on the 0 on the game board and then the other goes on the four on your player board and the zero of the king’s board.
Phase one assembling the tribe
In solo mode the king of the apes always goes first he receives 3 flowers, fruits and grains, placing these under each ape they correspond to, and two energy. This makes up the king’s personal supply. He then draws the 1st 4 cards from his draw pile and receives the rage bonus for each of these cards, this is found at the top right-hand corner. For tamarins you get the resource shown and add these to the kings’ personal supply. For grade one apes the king gains 3 Victory Points and for grade 2 apes he gains 6 VP, these get added onto the game board. The king also receives the apes’ special bonuses. For each gorilla the king receives 2 rage points, orangutans - two energy, mandrills – 2 VP, chimps – you gain resources from tamarins’ rage bonus again. The other symbols on the card are not used for the king.
You then assemble your tribe exactly the same as you would in the normal game but you receive your resources by taking them from the Kings’ Personal supply. If the king does not have enough resources, then you can take them from the general supply but you want to be limiting the kings’ supply as much as you can. You then go on to resolve the other two rows as you would in the normal game.
Phase two attracting new apes
Starting with the king , whichever resource he has the most of, not including energy, he will then play that apes’ action disc using the same special bonuses as you did at the start. He will then claim the highest grade ape of that token, if he has 6 resource, the grade 2, if only 3 the Grade 1. If the resource tie, then you use the left most disc. If the highest resource is less than 3 the king still receives that bonus but will not attract an ape.
You then randomly select your own action disc, receive that bonus and may attract your own ape if you have enough resources. You can then, by spending two of the same resource, use the bonus that the king just used.
Phase 3 resetting
Before discarding the kings cards you first, if the king has four or more rage points, use his rage points to remove the cards from the game, first removing tamarins, then grade one apes, then grade 2 apes, If he has two or more of these cards you remove the last one he drew. You then move the rest of the cards to his discard pile If the king has five energy, he then spends this and uses the computer for 5 VP, if he has 10 energy he may still only use the computer once. You then move the cards you just played into your discard pile and then restart with phase one.
As with the main game you keep going till either you or the king reach 80 VP or if you both do this in the same phase whoever has the highest score will win. I found this to be a very competitive solo mode with you having to think about your moves very carefully to try and stop the king. The king will usually gain a good lead at the start and you have to draw him back in as the game goes on.
Alternatively as in the normal game your actions don't have any effects on the other players this is a good game for allowing you to play as multiple players at once. Giving you two different ways to play the game if you are by yourself. I found this a good way to learn the game.
My review
Artwork
As I said at the start, the artwork on the front cover is what drew me into After Us. The rest of the game has also been beautifully illustrated from the nine different sorts of primate cards, from the game board to the six uniquely designed players board each featuring a different primate takeover scene. You can see The artist Vincent Dutrait traditional use of hand drawn artwork throughout the game and in my personal opinion is some of the best artwork I’ve seen in a board game.
Complexity
What I like about this game is each player receives an info card which gives you a round overview and explains the symbols that feature on the primate cards. This allows you to quickly pick up the game(although in my experience your sister still won’t trust you and still want to read the instruction booklet). Within a couple of rounds you will soon work out the best way to assemble your tribes without the game moving too far ahead and you being left behind. The solo mode comes with an easy to read separate sheet and even though solo mode gives you more to think about than the base game it is quite easy to follow. The more complex elements to the game are the use of rage points and the objects but again once you get the hang of it you will be fine.
Replayability
With seven different objects that can be used in different combinations, some of which make the game easier than others, and the king not using one of the discs each time, each game creates different challenges. I found the game in both normal and solo play incredibly enjoyable and with the game time of around 45 minutes good for playing back-to-back games.
Player interaction
I will use the standard game for this part, with your actions playing little effect to other people's game, except the use of other players action discs, and the fact that players play their moves at the same time, there's not as much player interaction as there is in some other games but there is still some when you trying to work out how players made big leaps in their score. The fact of everyone playing out phases at the same time is good for those with a low attention span.
Component quality
I like the fact that the players token, even though being different colours, have different symbols as well and each resource, despite again being different colours, have been crafted into the shape of the resource that they represent. Nothing about this game is flimsy and has been made to a good standard.
Comeback ability
At first the king soon runs away with the game. Despite this with good gameplay you can still make a good come back. Not that I’m competitive but a victory where you come back from certain defeat is always the sweetest. In the last game I played the king was ahead of me by 11, scored 12 on its last go and I ended up beating him by 3 points.
Solo play
Competitive, easy to play and different variations each time you play. Perfect.
Family board game
Even though it is aimed at 14+ I still found it a good game to play for a family with older children with the phase based rather than turn based allowing players to be involved in the game more often. It’s also easy to help other players without giving yourself an advantage or disadvantage.
Boardgamers group
Doesn’t take too long to Explain, in fact we spent longer admiring the individual players boards then it took to explain. The nature of the game allows all players to stay competitive
Improvements that could be made
· I would have liked there to be one tribe chief for each ape which would cost a higher amount of resources but would have created a competitive edge to try and be the player to get this card.
· I think more objects would also add to the game as they would create more variations, again having an object that could affect other players would create more player interaction and a more competitive edge. Maybe a photocopier that would allow you to copy a row of another player.
What I enjoyed the most
· The king ape in solo mode is very competitive which means you really have to think about your moves if you want to win.
· Designing individual info cards for each player makes the game easy to pick up.
· The artwork is top notch.
· The well crafted game resource.
Final thoughts
Florian and Vincent Should be very proud of this game as it is well designed, illustrated and thought out and the solo mode compliments this. 95/100
