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Back in 2022, Archona Games launched a successful Kickstarter campaign for their board game Pest. Fast forward to today, they’re back with a new campaign on Gamefound, offering Pest – Guilds of Thokaia, which brings us the 2nd Edition and a brand-new Expansion. In this grim world, the empire has been ravaged by a devastating plague. As the leaders of the great houses, you and your rivals must step up, take charge, and do whatever it takes to restore the empire to its former glory!
👥 1-5 players, ages 14+
⌛ Playing time: 60-150 minutes
📝 Designers: Thomas Nielsen, Kai Starck & Milan Tasevski
🎨 Artwork: Daniel Cunha & Sara Stanoeska
🏢 Publisher: Archona Games (review copy provided)
Check out the Gamefound campaign by clicking here
Gameplay Overview of the Base Game
Pest is played across three eras, each split into two rounds. At the start of every round, pest and aid cards are revealed, showing where the plague hits and what help is available for players.
During your turn, you’ll move your plague doctor to various locations, collect sick citizens, and place them in quarantine. You’ll construct buildings from your player board, which helps you rebuild ruined cities, gain influence, heal the sick, and put healthy people to work. This allows you to produce resources from those buildings. You can also send diplomats to the capital and research new technologies to better combat the plague.
At the end of each era, you’ll score points based on how well you’ve fulfilled the empire’s agenda. And after the final era, the player with the most points is crowned the empire’s new hero!
What’s New in the 2nd Edition?
The second edition of Pest doesn’t just come with a visual facelift—it’s packing some nifty gameplay tweaks too. One of the major changes is how influence works. Gone are the days of advancing on a track; now, you earn prestige tokens, which you can spend in one of the expansion’s modules or trade for resources on aid cards. This change not only adds flexibility to your strategy but also removes two whole boards from the setup, significantly reducing the game’s notorious table-hogging tendencies.
The era board is now smaller, and the agenda and imperative are separated into individual cards, boosting replayability by ensuring no two games feel the same. The capital city board has been merged into the main board, streamlining the experience and making it easier to manage. A few technology cards have also been tweaked for better balance, eliminating the “one-card wonder” issue that could skew strategies.
With the prestige track gone—once the decider of turn order—a new first player marker steps in, along with a round track marker, extra sick people tokens (no more running out!), and, of course, new prestige tokens. These adjustments simplify turn order and keep the game moving without sacrificing depth. It’s all part of the upgrade pack offered in the current campaign, letting you dive into the updated experience without missing a beat.
These changes might sound small, but they make a big difference, tightening up the game while keeping all the challenge and strategic depth you love. It’s like they gave Pest a fresh coat of paint and tuned up the engine without losing the character that made us all fall for this plague-ridden world in the first place!
The Guilds of Thokaia Expansion
The Guilds of Thokaia expansion for Pest takes the game to a new level with two fresh modules: the Guildhall and the Mutagens. These modules don’t just expand the gameplay—they introduce new mechanics, fresh challenges, and even more ways to immerse yourself in the struggle against the relentless plague.
The Guildhall Module: Where Power Meets Prestige
Welcome to the Guildhall, where the five great guilds of Thokaia—Inventors, Healers, Diplomats, Craftsmen, and Architects—convene to plot their path to prosperity. The guilds aren’t just sitting around drinking tea; they’re working together (or not) to tackle the ongoing crisis. This module introduces a separate Guildhall board, where you can send your envoys to compete for influence and rewards.
Your envoys start at the bottom, like the interns of the medieval world, sitting in Tier 0. From there, you’ll work your way up through the ranks by spending influence to climb to higher tiers, eventually vying for the coveted Guild Master spot—basically, the ultimate office chair of power. Each level up rewards you with seat tokens, which you’ll need to play powerful Guild Cards. These cards can turn the tide of the game, offering unique abilities and endgame scoring potential.
As you assign healthy people to guild seats, you’ll gain influence and draw from the Guild Deck, unlocking new strategies and possibilities. The Guildhall isn’t just a board; it’s a battleground for influence, where every move feels like a strategic decision in a world trying to rebuild. But be warned: seats are limited, and only the most dedicated players will reach the top. At the end of the game, you’ll score based on your seat tokens and guild standing, with hefty rewards for those who managed to snag the prestigious Guild Master title.
The Mutagens Module: When Plague Gets Personal
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, the Mutagens module comes along to remind you that the plague is always one step ahead. This module cranks up the tension with clusters—intensified pockets of infection that spring up in the game’s cities and spread sickness faster than a bad cold at a family reunion.
Clusters are represented on a new Cluster Board, which tracks different strains of the disease, each nastier than the last. Every round, the active strain marker triggers clusters on the map, spreading sick people to adjacent locations. If you’re feeling brave, you can try to contain or eradicate these clusters with your plague doctor, but be prepared to spend research tokens like they’re going out of style.
Containment camps can temporarily pause the spread, but eradication is the only way to truly shut down a cluster and score big at the end of the game. If that’s not enough chaos for you, the final era introduces Capital City Clusters that spread even faster and can’t be eradicated, making sure your last turns are as tense as a cat on a hot tin roof.
By the end of the game, your success is measured by how many clusters you’ve eradicated. The more you’ve cleared, the more renown you’ll gain, proving once and for all that you’re the true hero in this never-ending fight against decay and desperation.
Final Thoughts
If you’re already a fan of Pest, like us, then you know it’s a game that pulls you in with its dark, plague-ridden world and keeps you hooked with its clever strategy and tense gameplay. The 2nd edition doesn’t just give the game a new coat of paint—it smooths out the rough edges and makes everything feel more streamlined and engaging. The changes to the influence system, the reduced table footprint, and the updated cards make the game flow better without losing the depth that we love.
And then there’s the Guilds of Thokaia expansion, which really breathes fresh air into the gameplay. The Guildhall adds a new layer of strategy, where your envoys battle for power like medieval apprentices trying to climb the corporate ladder. Meanwhile, the Mutagens module cranks up the challenge, reminding you that in Pest, there’s always another crisis lurking around the corner—just when you think you’ve got things under control.
With the 2nd edition tweaks and the fresh challenges of the new expansion, Pest evolves into an even more dynamic and replayable experience. From maneuvering your way through guild rivalries to containing a relentless outbreak, every game feels like a new story unfolding. Eurogamers and fans of heavier, strategy-rich games will especially love the depth and decision-making this version offers. Pest is a must-play for anyone who enjoys a challenging and immersive board game experience.
📝 The publisher, Archona Games, provided a review copy.
