Wouter & Ymke 
Once upon a time, humans walked the earth, but their time has since passed. Nature has since reclaimed her territories, and in the absence of humans, apes have ascended. They have evolved, forming tribes and learning to wield the tools left behind by humanity. Each tribe is on a quest for supremacy, aiming to prove their intelligence above all.
👥 1-6 players, ages 14+
⌛ Playing time: 45 minutes
📝 Designer: Florian Sirieix
🎨 Artwork: Vincent Dutrait
🏢 Publisher: Pandasaurus Games (review copy provided)
The Post-Human Era Begins
In the game After Us, you step into the shoes of a clan leader, guiding a small group of tamarins. Your mission is to expand your tribe by attracting a variety of apes, including gorillas, orangutans, chimps, and mandrills, to your cause.
The game unfolds turn by turn, starting with a tribe assembly phase. Players draw four cards, setting them up in any arrangement they prefer to create strategic links. These links can be activated to gather resources, allowing exchanges among fruit, flowers, grain, energy, rage, and points.
Subsequently, it’s time to expand your tribe by attracting new members. You’ll select an action disc, choosing the type of ape you wish to attract, and claim the corresponding benefit. Depending on what you offer – three or six units of flowers, fruits, or grains – you can recruit level one or two mandrills, orangutans, or gorillas. Chimps are less picky, requiring any single type of food in exchange for their allegiance, provided the offerings are uniform. Each species of ape brings its strengths to the tribe. Orangutans are masters of energy, while mandrills excel in scoring opportunities. Gorillas introduce rage links, which can be used to streamline your deck by discarding less useful cards. Chimps, on the other hand, are versatile, their links allowing for the reactivation of other links.
After players have chosen their tribe’s new addition and placed it atop their draw pile, the current tribe setup is cleared away, paving the way for a new round. The endgame is triggered when a player accumulates 80 points, concluding the game after completing the phase in which the milestone was reached.
Crafting the Post-Human World: Design Insights
Designed by Florian Sirieix and published by Pandasaurus Games, After Us welcomes players aged 14 and up into a post-human world where apes reign supreme. With each game lasting about 45 to 60 minutes, it’s shaped to keep the fun going without dragging on too long. Even with a full house of six players, the game doesn’t slow down, thanks to most actions happening simultaneously.
The rulebook is something of a highlight. It’s packed with pictures and examples that make it easy to get into the game. This makes After Us a great choice if you’re new to deck-building games or just looking for something that won’t take hours to learn. Vincent Dutrait’s artwork gives the game a lot of character, fitting the theme of a world reclaimed by nature and its new ape inhabitants. The game pieces are pretty cool, too, with old human relics like Nokia phones and computers turned into game tiles, and the design makes everything easy to understand at a glance. Plus, the wooden resource tokens and quality cards add a nice touch that makes the game feel well-crafted.
At its core, After Us combines deck-building with managing resources, asking players to make smart connections between their cards. Each round, you’re given four cards to play with, and how you arrange them can really impact your strategy. Early on, you might focus on getting rid of weaker cards to build a strong foundation for your tribe. Later, you’ll want to shift towards earning points to win the game.
Like any deck-building game, luck does play a role in drawing the right card combinations. However, After Us gives you ways to tweak your deck by getting rid of cards you don’t need, which can help tilt the odds in your favor. The game also includes human objects that you can activate with energy, offering various benefits like drawing extra cards or trading resources. Knowing when and how to use these objects is key to managing your tribe effectively.
The Verdict: A Fresh Take on Deck-Building
After spending some time with After Us, it’s clear that keeping your deck lean and mean by tossing out weaker cards is vital. This not only gives you resources or points but also increases your chances of drawing stronger cards. Given the limited player interaction, the game has a bit of a solitary feel, but it shines in the strategic depth it offers and the satisfaction of puzzling out the best moves each round. For anyone who enjoys the depth of deck-building games and is looking for something with a fresh twist, After Us is definitely worth checking out.
📝 Disclaimer: Pandasaurus Games provided a copy of the game for review purposes.
