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 What is Ascension? Ascension is a competitive "deckbuilder" -- a card game where you acquire cards to your deck over the course of play. Rather than starting with a pre-assembled strategized deck, every player starts with a small deck of weak cards which is used to gain more powerful cards. You can also use some cards to defeat monsters which yield Honor, the game's point system. When the Honor pool is depleted, players tally up their Honor, and whoever has the most wins the game. Unlike other deckbuilders, there is one pile of cards from which players assemble their decks, rather than distinct piles for each card type, which adds an element of randomness to the game.  Every turn, players draw five cards from their personal decks and may pursue several courses of action: acquiring a Hero in the center row, which provide benefits such as more Runes to buy cards, or more Power to kill Monsters when they are played; acquiring a Construct in the center row, which provide benefits every turn once they are played from the hand; defeating a Monster in the center row to gain Honor and other rewards; acquiring or defeating the always-available cards, which provide modest benefits; or other actions added by expansions to the base game. There are a limited amount of cards available to buy or kill in the center row, however, and the cards available are constantly changing as players take their turns. Players are sometimes faced with tough decisions, such as whether to gain Honor immediately or acquire a card that might pay off later.  Lore (via the official website) The game takes place in Vigil, a world that has been protected for millennia by the Great Seal, keeping the realm free from divine influences. It was put in place after an ancient war with a corrupt god, Samael the Fallen, when it was decided that none of the gods should be able to interfere. But now, the Seal is failing, and nightmarish Monsters that had been forgotten are breaking through. Your job, as a hero of Vigil, is to take your small, ragtag band of Apprentices and Militia, and gather an army powerful enough to lead you to your destiny as the Godslayer, and in doing so, slay Samael once and for all. During the game, players will recruit powerful heroes and constructs from four different divine factions to aid them in their quest:  Arha is a world where knowledge is prized above all else. The Enlightened are comprised of ascetics and warrior-monks who yearn for nothing more than to achieve a higher state of being. In the game they’re represented through cards that allow players to draw cards and manipulate the board through unconventional means.  The world of Ogo is one of constant growth and trials. The Lifebound strive to grab onto the fate that life has laid out for them, and grow to meet the challenges that presents. The addition of the Lifebound to your legion will give you access to powerful magics and the ability to control your own fate.  Coming from the machine world of Hedron, the Mechana are engineers and are capable of crafting machines of immense power. Players who lean on the Mechana during the game will get to wield powerful Constructs that work together to create powerful effects.  Without Death, there is no life, and the Void is the source of everything that is. Its dark-humored guardians worship death in a way that few can understand, but they have become hardened by fighting off the twisted creations that the Void has produced as it strives to continue the cycle of creation. If you ally with them, you will gain power over death itself, and have warriors of unimaginable strength to insist upon it. Expansions The Center Deck can be customized with add-ons in the form of Expansions which Stone Blade Entertainment has released in the years since the original's debut. You can also play with any of them as a standalone set.  Return of the Fallen Establishes the Fate mechanic. Cards with Fate provide an immediate effect to players when they enter the center row.  Storm of Souls Adds Events, Trophy Monsters and Fanatics. Events are aligned with a particular faction and provide a constant benefit following their faction's theme when revealed from the center deck. Trophy Monsters are acquired instead of sent to the Void (the discard pile), and can be used by a player during any of their turns to gain an additional benefit. Fanatics are always-available Trophy Monsters which, when banished to the Void, provide a special effect based on the current Event.  Immortal Heroes Soul Gems are cards from previous expansions that are gained to a player's hand when specific cards are used or specific Monsters are killed. They must be used on the turn they are acquired, and return to the Void at the end of the player's turn, but they are esentially free cards that can greatly increase a player's options.  Rise of Vigi Energy Shards! These are a new kind of reward, also referred to as treasure cards, that are shuffled into the Center Deck and are placed under other center row cards. When a player acquires or defeats a card, they gain all the treasure under it in addition to that card's effects. Each Energy Shard increases a player's Energy for the turn it is played, and lets them draw a card. Some cards have additional effects when an Energize threshold is met.  Darkness Unleashed This set debuts Dark Energy Shards, the edgy younger brother of Energy Shards. They are the same as regular Energy Shards but include the additional Fate effect of letting players banish a card in their discard pile. Also included are Transform cards: Heroes, Constructs and Monsters which permanantly evolve into more powerful cards when they are Energized.  Realms Unraveled Multi-faction Heroes are introduced, along with the Multi-Unite mechanic, which provides a lot of synergistic effects when Multi-Unite cards of the same faction are played.  Dawn of Champions Adds Champions, chosen at the start of play by each player, that grant special abilities when thresholds of a new resource called Reputation are reached. Also introduces the Rally mechanic: when a player acquires a card with the Rally effect, they may also acquire the next card from the center deck if it shares the first card's faction.  Dreamscape (NEW) A new resource, Insight, allows players to acquire special cards from their personal Dream decks, which are created at the start of the game and replenished under certain conditions. Insight is gained when a Dreamborn card enters the center row from the main deck. Dream cards include exclusive Heroes, Constructs, and a new card type called Visions, which produce a powerful one-time effect when they are acquired.  Ascension X: War of Shadows (UPCOMING) Introduces the Night and Day mechanic, which gives some cards additional effects, as well as dual-cost cards, which require both Runes and Power to acquire. Will be released in July 2016.
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May 3, 2016 16:51
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 19:01 |
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Reserved for information about other Ascension-related stuff, like the mobile app, promo cards, tournaments, trivia, etc.
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May 3, 2016 16:51
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Reserved for misc. stuff Also, I'm not very creative. if anyone has any suggestions for a better thread title, feel free to post them.
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May 3, 2016 16:51
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I've been thinking about picking up Ascension, but there are so many goddamn expansions (and the 'Year _' boxes are a little too rich for my poverty blood). Putting aside the two-player mini-product, is there one expansion that functions particularly well as a stand-alone, introductory set?
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May 9, 2016 18:43
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I would tell anyone who's never played Ascension to try the base game first, also titled "Chronicle of the Godslayer." If you have a smart phone and a few gigs of storage to spare, you can also download the Ascension app for free, which comes with the base game pre-loaded. You can try out the game there and see if it's to your liking. Expansions can also be bought in the app and cost a few bucks each. Be warned that the app is a real memory and battery hog. My personal favorite standalone expansion is currently Dreamscape (which unfortunately is not available on the app yet), but it incorporates multiple mechanics introduced in previous expansions as well as several entirely new mechanics, so it might be a bit much for new players.
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May 10, 2016 14:18
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If I had to suggest one outside of the base set, it'd probably be Return of the Fallen; Fate is a mechanic that shows up pretty much all the time from then on, so it's a good thing to have a handle on. Realms Unraveled and Dawn of Champions are super high-variance; just one good rally can swing things wildly. That said, they're the two sets I play most frequently in the iPad app (along with Return of the Fallen), because flipped Adayu lets you break the game over your knee. I've actually managed to complete exhaust the deck by taking a single enormous turn with a double-copied Adayu, using Samael to buy up all the monsters as well.
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May 10, 2016 17:11
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 19:01 |
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Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I actually managed to play the base game for a little while at a board game cafe a few days ago. It was a lot of fun, and mechanically pretty simple (this was after we had picked up and deciphered Netrunner beforehand), so I'm thinking about trying a more complex expansion when I get it For Real. Either Dreamscape or Return of the Fallen seems like it might fit the bill (or Dawn of Champions, honestly, because Commanders are Cool).
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May 12, 2016 00:21
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