First Thoughts – Age of Comics

Sat on my shelf for over a year, gathering dust and sticking its tongue out at me in disgust, as I have continually failed to give Age of Comics any recognition in that time.

Finally, I managed to get a game or two in, enough to put some first impressions down in writing, and so here we are…

I’d been excited for this all the way up to when I bought it for myself, Christmas 2024, opened up the box, and read over the rules. At which point, I found myself somewhat disappointed and popped it on the shelf for a later date… and promptly ignored it for the next year or so.

I can’t quite put my finger on why it didn’t grab my attention as much as I’d expected. I’ve had a love for comics, especially Marvel, since I was able to read and have some fond memories of my Dad buying me a multi-pack whenever I accompanied him on the road – Thanks Dad!

When I finally got the game set up (lots of tokens to sort), I still felt that twinge of disappointment chirping away at the back of my head. Maybe it was the art work, which tries to capture the feel of the ‘Golden Age of Comics’ but falls short on actually being exciting to look at. This isn’t a licensed game so all the comics are made up, though they are in the vain of what was around in that era.

I played a game and-a-half, the half being to familiarise myself with the rules before ploughing into a full game. I decided to play two-handed rather than go straight with the in-box solo mode (which isn’t that far off playing two-handed anyway). I went for two different strategies – one to produce as many different comics as possible whilst still trying keep specialised artist/writers for comic’s genre. The other, I focused on fewer comics but maxing out the sales for each.

The opening round or two was fairly standard for a worker placement game, though I thought the number of available spaces for each action made for less of a challenge when deciding what order to do things in. I didn’t have to consider being blocked on an action because I knew it would be available next round. I also didn’t think there were any major decisions to be made in those first few rounds, it was more of a case of just going through the motions to gather the things I needed to produce my first comics.

Once you produce your second comic things start to take a strategical turn, though I didn’t realise that until I got further into the game. You see, at this point you start placing cubes that will unlock extra options that can be taken when you do a specific action. For example, place your cube on the Hype option, after you take the develop action you have the choice to ‘hype’ up a comic that you hope to produce at a later time.

You eventually unlock three of these options as you produce more comics and, for me, where you placed these was the crux of the game. This placement would decide your strategy for the end game, reaping in those VPs to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat.

The hand I played with the aim to produce more comics whipped into an early lead but, with the right placement of those mighty cubes, the hand aiming for sales totally stole the game in the last turn or two.

Having played through, I sat and thought about my first experience, and don’t forget that’s exactly what this was so my opinion may well change if I play more games (more on that shortly).

I felt it was too easy to follow the path I’d decided on from the start, as there was little chance of being blocked from taking the actions I needed to take. The fact that every player can select the special actions by placing their cubes felt like the game was tailored to help everyone succeed in their chosen strategy.

One of the actions is a sales action. In terms of theme, this is your sales agent driving around the streets, stopping at shops and stalls to procure sales for either your already published comics or those you think soon will be. I felt this was a central part of gathering in lots of VPs, and something all players would be competing for – possibly the most interesting aspect of the strategy. I wasn’t overly keen on how you go about it, moving, revealing and taking tiles, especially as certain tiles get revealed at the start of each turn anyway, but I could see how it really enhanced your ability to get a good score.

I was disappointed in the actual production mechanism of the comics, a bit underwhelmed really. Whilst I could see how the mechanisms worked theme wise, I just didn’t find it particularly exciting. I mean, I’m producing a comic, it should be a bit more of a ‘wow’ moment. I wasn’t keen on the ‘ideas’ mechanism and those attached to it, such as trading them in to increase fandom. At times, it felt like some of the mechanisms had been created to force the theme and in an overly ‘faffy’ kind of way.

I haven’t explored the game to any real depth, let’s make that perfectly clear, but first impressions do count. I do think it would play much better at 3-4 players, as it might make it a tighter game, but for 1-2, I don’t know. It didn’t excite me in the way I was hoping it would. There is some challenge there in building VPs but I do wonder how many viable strategies there actually are – only time, and more plays will reveal.

There are a lot of worker placement games out there and this one didn’t offer anything new other than the theme. A theme I thought I would enjoy, but disappointingly, I didn’t. I think if you do gel with the theme then you’ll enjoy the experience. It appears to be a friendly game in terms of allowing you to achieve your general aims, but has it got longevity? Will it see repeat plays? I’m not so sure.

On that note, I’m not sure I want to pore more precious time into this. If it had a Marvel or DC license, or more exciting and novel mechanisms, then a game based on comics could be great, but sadly, this one didn’t do it for me.