I wanted to do a late-review turn, pivoting to what makes Lacrimosa good, but each strength is immediately followed by, well, by a “but.” In the last section, single note has the majority again. Blue and Purple each earn 3 points, and Yellow earns just 1 point for their double note. Impressions Both games feature beautiful production that emphasizes unique themes, but they are themes that have absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay experience. For Bitoku, about Japanese forest spirits, the theme simply disappears. Lacrimosa is unique amongst games I’ve played for the degree to which its theme actively works against understanding the game. I didn’t bother using the theme of Bitoku to teach new players because it was faster to explain everything mechanically. I avoid using the theme for Lacrimosa because attempting to incorporate it makes the game significantly less comprehensible. That’s really bad.

The final action is the requiem action, representing your involvement in Constanze (Mozart’s widow) pursuit to finish the final 5 movements of Mozart’s last work. This involves hiring 1 of 2 randomized composers to work on these sections in specific ways.A player can Perform an Opus to take a small amount of ducats (listed on the card). If their needs are greater, players may elect to sell a piece of music. This yields a higher amount of money, but they must then discard the Opus. Players start with the Nannerl minuet. It’s not worth much when performed or sold. Operas (such as Don Giovanni) are more expensive to commission (cost at top), but raise more money when they are performed or sold. Finally, collect the reward on the taken tile and the reward indicated on the player board for the chosen instrument. What a journey. Lacrimosa suggests thematic saturation but leaves most of it in the imagination of the player. Sure, we’re given a five-movement unfinished composition, a map featuring prominent cities in Europe, musical notes on tokens and in-era artwork. Even the end-of-round bonus tiles showcase era-specific date ranges. And yet there’s not a lot here that truly connects to a narrative experience outside of the passage of time. No historical tidbits, no juicy gossip, no career highlights. But Devir knows how to produce a game, and they continue to choose great designs that are a lot of fun to puzzle through. Even with the thematic disconnect, I’d still place this in the upper tier of Devir’s collection, right below The Red Cathedral. And if you’ve taken time for yourself to heal from the news of Mozart’s sudden passing, there’s no better time than the present to see if this new addition to the mid-weight strategy game is as impressive to you as its inspiration is to so many others.

After you pay the corresponding composer tile costs, you collect the reward on the tile and place it face down on your player board where you removed the Requiem marker you just placed. The rewards may be one-time, immediate benefits, or in some cases, ongoing special abilities. There are composer tiles that allow you to perform a particular action a second time, some that give you an extra story point during the Maintenance phase, and others that give you victory points whenever you gain, perform, or sell certain types of Opus cards. I hope this review finds you in excellent spirits. Alas, I cannot share in such revelry. I’ve just learned that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a beloved inspiration to us all, has passed on from this mortal coil. And while it’s come to my attention that this happened over two centuries ago, my heart still weighs heavy from the loss. Now I fear that this news may shatter your own spirits if you too are learning this information for the first time. Perhaps this will cause so much grief that you no longer read further? And yet… Wow. This game is gorgeous. The visually arresting box art for Lacrimosa is the most memorable box I’ve seen in the last five years. Thankfully, the artistic touch doesn’t end there. Devir spared no expense in the quality of the components in Lacrimosa, to the point where it is simply a pleasure to play. I get endless (probably too much) pleasure in the player board, which actually allows you to slide the cards inside it and stops them perfectly in place. It just feels right. Less Complex Than It Seems There are five main actions as well as free bonus actions associated with resource conversion. The five actions are as follows: The physical production of the game is excellent. The triple-layer player boards are well made, and even handsome. The process of inserting your cards into the slots is tactile, practical, and makes the game incredibly tidy. It would be so easy for this playspace to be a disaster, and it isn’t. That said, the player boards increase wear on the cards, and some players will struggle with inserting their cards into such narrow slots.Before I explain this, we should get it all on the table, that’ll make the teach easier. I’ve got jobs for everyone, if you don’t mind. Mary and Susan, can you help me separate these cards by, I think the game calls them Eras, by the little roman numeral on that red shield in the middle of each card? Look out for the player crests, too. We’ll each get a set of those as our starting cards. A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.

I really dig Lacrimosa; everything from the theme, to the gameplay, to the components, feels smooth and well-crafted. I found the art to be lovely and very fitting as well, so kudos to Jared Blando and Enrique Corominas for their contributions. Plus, it's great that you can play Lacrimosa with four players in less than two hours, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Religious music is less expensive, but never raises money unless combined with a special power. Travel Players score the corresponding victory points for each of their markers in those sections. This is a very unique strategic element that can have a profound effect on final scoring in the game. After his death, Mozart’s widow Costanze sought to bring light to her late husband’s work. In Lacrimosa from Devir Games, you are a patron, sought by Costanze to finance the completion of Mozart’s Requiem with his disciples and privileged students. Meet with Costanze to record memories of Mozart, recall the trips you took together, commission new works, and, of course, complete the great Requiem. The last action, this fancy cross, is, thematically, you’re paying these composers to work on Mozart’s mass. Practically speaking, this is a little area control mechanic wrapped up with some engine building.A game of Lacrimosa is played over five rounds, each of them corresponding to a different creative stage in Mozart’s life. Each round begins with a Main phase where you take actions, followed by a Maintenance phase where you clean up and prepare for the next round. At the end of the fifth round and endgame scoring, whoever has the most victory points is the winner of the game. If you love efficiency euros, you’ll enjoy Lacrimosa. It’s not going to become your favorite game, but you’ll have a decent-to-good time. Even if you love efficiency euros, it’s not worth seeking out in my opinion. Let Lacrimosa come to you. The theme is a welcome change from farming and war, even if it makes absolutely no intuitive sense in terms of gameplay, but there’s so much more to learn here than the decision space rewards. You’ve got these note tokens on the right side of your board. If you do this action, first thing you need to do is look at the bonus tokens at the bottom of each of the five sections of the mass. Some of them give you resources or points one time, immediately, while others give you a recurring bonus. These two give you a bonus point every time you buy, perform, or sell a piece of music of the matching type, and those last two let you immediately repeat the depicted action any time you do it. If you have this tile, for example, you can travel to a city, pay to get the bonus, then travel to another city and do it again. Let’s look at buying an Action first. You slot the book and candle into your board, that means you want to buy one of these. The cost for Actions is printed straight onto the board, and you can see that cards are less expensive as they approach the right edge of the market. So let’s say I want to buy this card, which costs one Ducat, the currency, and this symbol means it costs one resource of my choice. I pay those, and then the new card replaces the card I slotted into the bottom section of my player board for this turn. That card gets removed from the game. We pop it straight into the box, which is how we ended up in that setup mess to begin with as it should happen. This does mean that you’ll get the resources listed on the bottom of the card you just bought for the next round.