I held off backing this , as I didn ' t want to get swept away by the hype . A lot of reviewers were talking about the game , but none of them had actually played it . Sure , the game looks great , but especially so with a new , untried designer , a game needs more than a novel look to earn my tithe . I prefer heavier games Arkwright , Brass , 18 xx , Lacerda so the complexity of so many moving parts appeals to be , but this video did a poor job of explaining how all those rules intermesh . It ain ' t a simple rules set , so a light hearted overview that touched on the many rules without really explaining them was always going to make it seem more convoluted , not less so . Then I watched Undead Viking ' s review . And while it isn ' t as polished as the animated video , it does a far better job of explaining how all those rules work together . It gave a real sense of the many mechanisms acting synergistically especially how area control elements of the main board influence your Guild dominance , which in turn allow you to control one part of the flow of goods to really expand the decision space , suggesting a fair degree of strategic depth . I happily backed it the next day .