A New Decade with Aeon’s End: Brama and Lash’s Teamwork
Journey into the battles around Gravehold to protect the last city from the monsters beyond the breaches in Aeon’s End.
One game series that continues to show up consistently is Aeon’s End… Everywhere, that is, except my solo table! My last play was sometime in the previous decade. My goodness! I never got too deep into the available content, yet I wanted to try this one out to see if the system was something that called to me. Time to bring out a rather neglected solo game at last!
Game Overview
Game Name: Aeon’s End
Publication Year: 2016
Designers: Jenny Iglesias, Nick Little, & Kevin Riley
Artist: Gong Studios
Publishers: Action Phase Games & Indie Boards & Cards
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
A random market provides the foundation for breach mages to slowly gather power. Gems, relics, and spells offer unique ways to approach a nemesis with an interesting no-shuffle mechanic. Breaches may be opened to cast more powerful spells, yet the battle presents unpredictable challenges!
First Play
December 16, 2019
Complexity
3
Latest Play
November 2, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
17
Play Time
50 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
32" x 26"
Low Score
N/A
A Random Card Market
Most of the variety in gameplay can be found in the small market of cards. Just 9 types are used with each play, and each random assortment can completely change strategies.
Gems are useful for generating more resources to afford the powerful relics and spells, but balance is key! Since decks aren’t designed to be shuffled, the card order is vital.
I appreciated the rulebook, as it did a nice job of reminding me how to play so many years later. Very nicely presented!
Setup was a bit of work, though, and I could only imagine the time needed to hunt down cards in a huge collection.
Brama, the Mage Elder
Gameplay allows for character scaling, although I was never drawn to the solo mage experience. I like cooperation when it makes sense on a small team, so I chose a pair of mages.
Brama led the way! She was focused on healing, which I noticed wasn’t present in the market cards. Staying alive is always a challenge, and this seemed like a safer choice.
Yet Brama wasn’t a background support character. Her deck was powerful, and she was about to lead the charge!
Interestingly, the breach tiles are about the thinnest I’ve ever encountered. Talk about a warp in the breaches. Ha!
Lash, the Mage Scout
It was fun to read the backstories on the backs of the character boards, but I immediately stopped at Lash. His laughter in the face of danger solidified my mage choices!
As much as Brama’s healing ability was more useful, I ended up using Lash’s special power much more often.
Since the turn order is always randomized, this helped the mages act more often in between the nemesis activations.
There were plenty of neat combinations! Opening up more breaches and preparing spells formed a core part of my strategy, and each mage played a central role in the battle.
Ending the Rageborne
My first play was against the simplest of the base game nemeses, the Rageborne. Quite a nasty character! I had to keep a careful eye on the fury tokens and possible effects.
It was neat to have timed effects, too. Sometimes, I found ways to avoid any of the worst abilities, often with Lash’s special ability to affect the turn order deck a little bit. Nice!
This wasn’t a particularly difficult matchup, although both Brama and Lash were in rough shape at different times.
I had a nice time working out the puzzle, and wanted to see if my skills were good enough against the Carapace Queen!
A Realistic Approach to a Large Collection
The solo board game hobby is an ever-evolving part of my life that moves through different phases. Over time, I’ve gone from focusing on playing to collecting, and then back again to playing. It’s a lot to think about at times, and at the moment, I’m trying to pare down a little bit to get back to feeling like I’m not just leaving my games on shelves for years at a time!
There’s nothing wrong with any of these phases, and it can be very exciting to watch a collection grow. New arrivals should be awesome! For me, though, I know it’s time to take a step back when it feels like I have too many things. I still love collecting, and there are some favorites that won’t get played that often. But sometimes, there’s a shift in the hobby space.
Probably the most obvious example are the multiple, gigantic campaign games I’ve amassed over the years. “I’ll play these when I retire or have a long vacation!” That’s probably not wrong, yet using that as justification to keep collecting them means I end up with shelf space that will never get cleared out. So here I am, trying to be realistic and get back to playing!
Spellbound by Brama
Lash offered up some additional support, as it was Brama who often dealt the most damage. I found that I had a better time opening up breaches for her and preparing spells.
Conversely, Lash was a little more focused on relics and dealing shorter bursts of damage. It was a pretty nice duo that functioned well against both nemeses I battled.
Although I thought the game was great in many ways, it’s also one I haven’t chosen to play in many, many years.
My collection is rather extensive, and I wondered if I would choose this one over others in the future. Short answer: No.
A Crushed Nemesis
The Carapace Queen was a lot more difficult! Maybe it was the order of her cards, too, but her husks were absolutely diabolical at times. They swarmed to dangerous levels!
But somehow, Lash slowed them down and helped Brama take additional turns as she frantically prepared and cast spells. Both of their health faltered, draining them quickly.
A-ha! Yet with some of the worst nemesis attacks, Brama paired up a powerful relic with a familiar spell for the win.
The Carapace Queen crumpled like an empty husk herself, and I do believe Lash’s boisterous laughter rang out. Ha ha!
Session Overview
Play Number: 16 & 17
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Normal Difficulty Level
Outcome: 2 Wins
There was a pretty great combination I found early on, and it was the secret to Brama’s ongoing damage! Lash helped out in his way, too, and this was a nice experience. Yet I kept going back to how many other solo games I would choose to play over this one… And as someone who can get caught up in collecting every expansion, this one could be dangerous! A wonderful game system that I can appreciate from afar.
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
5
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- A lot of variety is present with the way the card pool differs between plays, along with unique character abilities.
- Gameplay is interesting as decks are improved with an interesting no-shuffle mechanic, adding a little predicability.
- The artwork is amazing on all of the cards, depicting everything from individual characters to exciting battle scenes.
- Opening breaches is another piece of the puzzle that can affect choices with preparing and using the available spells.
- Learning the rules is straightforward with a clear rulebook that includes plenty of visual examples and diagrams.
- Many options can adjust the experience, such as choosing the number of characters or increasing the difficulty level.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Setup can take a bit of time with randomizing the market, locating the required cards, and building the nemesis deck.
- Although each character is different and there is a lot of variety, the market often points to a single overall strategy.
- The random turn order deck is neat, yet can lead to the nemesis activating 4 times in a row with no ways to react.
- Flavor text is entirely optional and can be ignored, but the extremely tiny font size is extremely hard to read.
Victory Conditions
Defeat the Nemesis
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game against the Carapace Queen.
Win at least 1 game against the Rageborne.
Continue the Conversation
What is your favorite aspect of Aeon’s End? Have you delved into the whole series, and is there anything you particularly enjoy? I can see the appeal of this one, and I had a very nice time! Yet with an overflowing collection, I’m trying to be realistic about what I’ll continue to play in the future. This is one I still recommend looking into for its interesting features!
I have a few other games/expansions in the series but not Aeon’s End.
I find variability and reusability at 7 with just one box, and they went to 10 as soon as I started mixing things from 3 games.
I find the game more enjoyable at the 2-player than solitaire, and it’s one of those rare co-op game my son is willing to play. I probably played 50 times, 15 times solitaire, 33 times with my son, and twice with the family (not their thing).
My son and I like to explore different (sometimes wacky) strategies so, for us, the market does not dictate the strategy. We find more pleasure in finding if something works or not, and why, than we are focused on winning. Don’t get me wrong, we like winning, but the joy of discovery is why we play the Aeon’s End franchise.
All excellent points! I agree that there seem to be some very unique sorts of strategies, and I can see how much fun it would be to explore them all. Playing together with your son sounds amazing: I hope you both continue to have a wonderful time exploring everything the series has to offer! And maybe win every now and then, too. Ha ha!