The beautiful world of Iridescia was abandoned long ago due to catastrophic events. Now, ripe with gems, it is safe to return and explore the land, mine gems, and restore ancient relics! Who knows, maybe you’ll be the one to find the lost Iridescia Stone and ascend to the throne!

What Is It?

🥅The Goal is to have the most points
⚙️Exploration (Worker Placement) – On the their turn a player can reveal up to 2 tiles next to them and then move to a revealed tile where they will collect the gem picture and other bonuses, if applicable
⚙️Dice Rolling – Players can mine for more gems by rolling dice and getting a result that matches or exceeds the gem’s current market value
⚙️Market Speculation – The values of the gems will change as players land on tiles of that type, so players want to collect while they’re low, and sell while they’re high!
⚙️Contract Completion – Players can turn in gems to restore relics and score points
⚙️Set Collection – At game end, players will score points for sets of the same gem tiles, or sets of certain relic types

Who Is It For?

👥1 to 4 Players – I think it really shines best at 4
👥Ages 10 & Up – Pretty light rules, and light strategy
👥Fans of exploration with a modular map with some resource management, and who don’t mind other players possibly getting in their way

PROS

🟢Aesthetics – Really pretty art and components
🟢Quality – Components are all nice, and the storage trays are handy
🟢Decent variety in market cards
🟢Rules are well-written
🟢Turns are snappy and smooth
🟢Board is made up of tiles, so it changes play to play
🟢I like that you get choice of secret objective cards, and don’t have to choose until midway through the game

CONS

🔴Expansion – This added observatory tiles, some new market cards, and a star gem. Everything felt too restrictive with this expansion. It was hard to get the star gems (mining needed 6’s, or you had to hope a specific card came out and then you had to find an observatory to go to) and you didn’t get anything for going to those tiles
🔴At lower player counts, I didn’t feel like the market cards changed enough (they also didn’t feel as important to buy), and the gem values did not change enough

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought this game was really pretty, played smoothly, and gave players a decent level of choices for what they were doing on their turn, while not being too rules heavy.

I definitely don’t think I’d play it with less than 4 players, personally, because I just thought the interactions, and the fluctuation of the markets worked best with the full player count. I also personally wouldn’t play it again with the expansion, as I thought that hindered my experience rather than enhancing it.

That all said, I think it’s an approachable game with a good level of strategy versus luck. If you like a lighter strategy game, kind of “welcoming” weight, it’s worth checking out!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designer – Roberto Panetta
Artist – Michael Dashow, Sarah “Freedz” Conlon
Publisher – Rock, Stone & Dice Games
MSRP – $61.00
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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