It can be easy to get a little jaded with so many common themes coming up in games recently.
Anthropomorphic animals? Check.
Set collection? Check.
It can be easy to get a little jaded with so many common themes coming up in games recently.
Anthropomorphic animals? Check.
Set collection? Check.
Auction? Check
Combining the auction with a game of Snake? Che… wait, what?
In this 1-4 player game you are a fox mystic searching the forest for special ingredients. Nocturne does, at first glance, look quite pretty – but also pretty predictable, with the core being set collection from a shared supply. Where it stands out is how it combines multiple systems together to create a game that’s greater than the sum of its parts. This does make it a little more complicated than a first glance would suggest, but there’s not really anything too complicated. It’s not that it makes it difficult to play; it just means there’s more strategy required to play it well.
A busy forest
First, each player chooses a Character card and the associated colour of wooden Spell Tokens. The tokens run from 1 to 7, along with an extra “I win” Star token. In advanced rules the Character card can be flipped to give each player a unique one-use special ability.
At this point you get the first sign that this game has a few moving parts. Give each player a Starting Concoction Card; this is a hidden extra scoring card. Also, shuffle the deck of main Concoction Cards that can be picked up during the game to add more hidden scoring.
In another way to add some variety, set out three random Twilight Goal Cards. These are objectives that each player is racing to earn in the Twilight phase of the game. Next, deal out (but don’t reveal) three random Moonlight Goal Cards. These are similar to the Twilight Goals but are shared extra scoring rules that will be revealed for the Moonlight phase of the game.
Next, put the Shadow Spell Tokens in order and nearby. These are handed out during the switch from the Twilight to Moonlight phase.
Now place the Sprite Board nearby, and add tiles to it. This is a secondary drafting system that is updated during each phase and then resolved at the end of each phase.
Still with us? Good, now comes the simple bit. Deal out a grid of tiles, the size depending on the number of players. This is where the gentle chaos and most of the gameplay happens.
Setup is quick and doesn’t take up much table space
I thought it was badgers that made sets...
The core set collection gameplay is obvious when you see the tiles laid out, although there’s a nice level of variety. There are five types of scoring tiles, each of which scores in different ways:
Skulls – These are just worth the points on them. Nice and simple.
Firebird Feathers – A basic set collection; you score an escalating amount based on the total number of these you have.
Herbs – Another variant of set collection. Each tile has an individual score and also a bonus for the number of unique herb species collected.
Mysterious Eggs – This uses ranked scoring. Whoever has the most eggs scores the most per egg, then the next highest collection scores slightly less per egg, etc.
Mushrooms – Okay, now it gets a little complicated. There are two different species of mushroom, and you’re looking for specific sets of each to score. One species scores for each pair, but nothing for a single mushroom. The other species scores for sets of 3 or a single spare mushroom, but nothing for a pair. You have to make the largest sets you can, so no pretending you have two single mushrooms.
There are also some tiles that indirectly affect the score:
Ancient Runestones – These allow you to draw three Concoction cards and keep one. A nice extra scoring opportunity as long as you have the ingredients.
Cursed Treasure Chests – Draw three unused tiles and keep one. This can be a huge advantage, so fingers crossed you get something useful.
Mirror Stone – Treat it as a copy of any scoring tile you have (ignoring their ingredients, which are used for scoring Concoctions and will be explained later).
Bidding and blocking
Now comes how you get these tiles. This is the biggest way Nocturne stands out and is probably my favourite auction system I’ve played.
Players are making gradually escalating bids with their Spell Tokens. However, rather than just bidding for a particular tile, each bid is placed to build a path through the grid of tiles. This means you’re not only trying to win the bid, you’re trying to steer the path in the right direction, and you’re trying to be the winner when you reach the right tile. The winning Token is left in place of the winning tile, creating a barrier for later auctions’ paths. All other Tokens are taken back.
The next auction begins with the winning player, starting from adjacent to this winning Token (if possible). As the phase continues, your options get narrower and your remaining Tokens become depleted, keeping things interestingly fraught.
This can seem complicated, but the manual does a great job of explaining everything
This whole bidding/snake system brings an entire extra level of strategy and interaction that really is fascinating. Players are taking turns to weave a path through the grid, playing for both position and value. As the game continues, the grid starts to fill with used Spell Tokens and the path becomes more restrictive. Each player's remaining tokens and currently claimed tiles are common knowledge, so tactical bidding is easy and essential. Also, a tactic so common they named it (Corner Casting) is to drop your starting bid on a tile with no adjacent tiles remaining. This gets you a double win and potentially winning with an infuriatingly low bid.
Bidding can get tricky as the phase goes on
The losing bidders do get some compensation. Everyone but the winner gets the option to put one of their losing Tokens on the Spirit Board. This gives them a chance to draft a tile from there after the current phase is finished.
Play continues until all tiles are collected. Twilight has now ended, and there are a few admin steps before we move on to the Moonlight phase.
First, we draft from the Spirit Board. Each Spell Token placed on this entitles that player to one of the tiles kept here. Starting from the highest to the lowest number token, that token’s owner takes any available tile. This is then repeated for each token.
Next comes the Shadow Spell Tokens. These are higher-scoring Spell Tokens (running from 5-10 rather than 1-7), and are shared out based on which Spell Tokens each player ended up not using. This is a real help to unlucky players who lost out in the previous bids; because they will have more Tokens left over they are more likely to pick up some of these.
Tidying up, everyone takes back all of their Spell Tokens. Now, for every Shadow Spell Token a player has gained, they discard their lowest Spell Token. This means the people who didn’t do so well in the last phase have higher bidding potential now. Finally, discard any unclaimed Twilight Goal Cards, reveal the Moonlight Goal Cards, refill the Spirit Board and refill the grid of tiles.
The Moonlight phase runs exactly as with the Twilight phase bar that there are no Twilight Goals to grab. When this is finished, draft from the Spirit board again, and then scoring is started.
A moonlit spreadsheet
This is probably the fiddliest part of Nocturne due to the number and variety of scoring items. First, any players with Mirror Stones declare which tile each is copying (a good idea is to put the two together as a reminder). Then, you score for each of the different types of tiles, based on each type’s scoring criteria. Then you assign the ingredients listed on the top left of the tiles to any Concoction
Cards you have (you are able to split ingredients on a tile over multiple concoctions, but each ingredient is only used once). Now you add up any Twilight Goals you claimed and score for each Moonlight Goal. Finally, you score 2 points for each unused token (Spell or Shadow Spell), and if you’re playing with the Character Card abilities, 2 points if you didn’t use yours.
After you’ve run through those calculations, the highest score is the winner!
A pretty forest
Components for Nocturne are not earth-shattering but are pretty, generally sturdy, and well-made. The wooden tokens are solid and hefty; however, the Spirit Board is flimsy cardstock and so needs to be looked after. The overall art style is a pleasing (if slightly ominous) mix of dark and deep colours, with special attention paid to the amazing Character Card artwork. Tile types are very distinct, with easy scoring iconography and a clear text description for anything more complicated.
The Character Cards are standout artwork
Set for life
The core gameplay revolves around path building and optimising set collection, but luckily there can be more to the game if you want.
There are a surprising number of random scoring rules, options to add, and decisions to be made beyond the core rules. Throw in a solo mode, scenarios, and achievements, and you get a lot of options to mix up the gameplay.
Final thoughts
Nocturne initially feels like a family game until you realise how much strategy there is in the path building and bidding, and especially when you’re splitting mushrooms up into sets and trying to assign ingredients to concoctions. This can still be done with younger players, but maybe have a designated scoring referee to make the final tally.
Despite these reservations, I really want to call out the rulebook as a great example of clear and easy reading. It is so easy to follow and there are lots of examples that do a good job of answering questions that you may have. Excellent job.
For more practised gamers, this is a nicely involved game of plotting a path to try and optimise bids, steering the path and timing the bids to try and get as much as you can with a low a bid as possible. It brings in a surprising number of tactics to try and line up dead ends, redirecting back to the tile you need. Add in the choices for sacrifice Tokens to the Spirit Board, and you can end up juggling some difficult decisions. The scoring is still a little cumbersome, but I feel that this is a pleasant new variant on auctioning that definitely deserves a second look.
