About that cover picture...

Celtae first got on my radar when its cover picture was published. This is the power of a good cover - even though we normally aren’t big fans of The Mico, this time he did a great job. The art is very striking. After a while some gameplay details started arriving, which is when I knew I needed this game. It had the magic word that always calls to me immediately: Rondel. 😄 Celtae uses a shared rondel for action selection!

The theme is pretty loose: players are different celtic clans, building citadels and forts to fend off invading roman armies, growing their tribes and training druids. But the theme isn’t supposed to be the focus. There are 4 actions that you will be doing throughout the game. These are all pretty barebones, but the way you trigger and boost them makes everything interesting. On your turn you must move the action pawn 1-3 spaces clockwise, then do an action where it lands.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the actions:
🌾 Farm - draw multi-use cards
🔨 Build - discard cards with the same color to place down discs, activating a bonus
⚔️ Battle - discard cards with matching combat icons to gain strength, then spend strength to defeat a roman army
🙋 Recruit - place workers into your tribe, and optionally train a druid

An important thing to mention are the worker discs. 🧐 There are 4 worker types with the same color as the 4 actions., and having workers of the corresponding color makes actions stronger. As you move the action marker, you can optionally swap a worker with one from the board, this way you can adjust your focus. Although you can only have 3 active workers, the recruit action locks some into your clan, which also boosts the actions, making you more versatile as the game goes on.

As the marker goes around and certain tokens run out, Progress markers will be placed on end-game scoring cards by players. This way players can hand-tailor the win conditions they think fit them best.

💬 All in all, our first impressions are good. 😊 Celtae plays fast, with snappy turns and very minimal downtime. We are going to explore it more to see how the replayability holds up over time.