Game summary:
A game for 1 – 4 players
Play time 60- 90 minutes
Designer: David Cicurel
Artist: David Cicurel, Matijos Gebreselassie, Mateusz Komada, Katarzyna Kosobucka
Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
Unboxing
This box, got the following components in it:
1 Rulebook
1 Evidence board
30 Character cards
38 Evidence category cards
1 Dog card
15 Special item cards
20 Vision cards
7 Double-sided location Boards
1 Home location board
Beside the box, this game requires an app to play à Chronicles of Crime and you can find this in the Google Player or the App Store.
Here you see an example of an location with 3 persons that are on that location.
Here you see a few locations, look how beautiful they are!
Here you see an example of the board with some cards on it. It just an example ;-)!
Let’s get it to the table
In Chronicles of Crime 1400 you are Abelart Lavel, a knught sworn to King Charles VI the Beloved. You live in Paris in the year 1400 in a family mansion not far from the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. Since you were a small child, you had a strange, prophetic dreams in which you saw violent scenes of past crimes or ones yet to be committed. Soon you learned that your unusual gift can be pt to good use and started to solve cases that nobody else could crack. That earned you some reputation in the city and now people seek your help whenever a mysterious crime is committed.
In Chronicles of Crime 1400 are 4 scenarios , if it is your first time playing Chronicles of Crime I recommend you start with the Tutorial.
But before we choose a scenario, let’s set up the game.
Place the Evidence board in the middle of the table. On this board there are 20 Evidence slots and 3 Unlocated slots.
Place the Home location board on the table and keep the other location boards nearby, also make sure that you got enough space around it.
Place the Character cards and Special items cards face down to the side of the Evidence board. Place the Dog card face up on the table, This dog is always present with you and you may use him to track scents.
Place the Evidence category cards face up on the table. During the game you have to search through these cards freely and sort hem face up to find the one you need at that moment.
At last you place the deck of the Vision cards face down on the table in reach of the players. They shouldn’t be revealed until the app tells you to do.
Now we’re ready to play!
Once you have chosen a scenario, it begins with a dream. In this dream, a number of scenarios come along and these are the cards you can take from the Vision cards deck.
These cards depict something from the future or the past. These can help you solve the case.
Progress in the game is tracked in the app, sometimes you have to scan a location or a character card to get more information. Of course you always do this in consultation with the other players. The scanning is done by scanning the QR code on the card via the app.
When you have scanned a location card and you can investigate somewhere, it may be that you have to scan a number of evidence category cards afterwards. This is how you can find evidence. Sometimes at a location, you can also find a person. Find this person in the character deck and place it on one of the free character slots on that location. When you’ve found evidence, you have to place it on the evidence board
When searching for clues on a specific location, press the Search the Scene option. This time you can see the location and search for evidence. You have the option to do this in panoramic view or in 3d, for this last option you need the 3e glasses and place it on your phone. You got now 40 seconds to look at the scene and describe it to other players so they can search the Evidence Category cards.
In the game you also have help from family members. In the game you have the help of your uncle the Monk, your sister the wealthy Merchant and your brother the king’s Spy. But in addition you will always have the help of your faithful dog Perceval. You can enlist their help by going to the home location or, when at a location, scanning the card of Perceval.
In the world of Chronicles of Crime, you don’t have unlimited time to solve the case. Time is of the essence!
The time is also shown in the app, after scanning a map 5 minutes are added. When you change locations it takes 20 minutes. The time that has passed also affects the final score, the faster you solve the crime, the better score you will get.
Your dog Perceval with his card, please not that you only receive this dog meeple with the Kickstarter or the expansion box. This doesn’t come with the base game but I wanted to show it to you.
End of the game
When you and you’re teammates believe that you have solved the case, you can give your report. Go to the location specified in the scenario and press the button Solve the Case. Your team has to answer a couple of questions. To answer them you have to scan the cards that support your deductions.
Your score will depend on your answers. After checking the score you can press Solution to read the whole story or you can play the scenario again.
Final Conclusion & rating:
Weight: 2 / 5
My rating: 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲
Set up of the game
Setting up the game is very easy because of the insert. The cards are all separate and when you play the game for the first time everything is already neatly arranged, so I would recommend cleaning up as much as possible.
Quality of the components
The quality of the parts are really very good! The maps and app are really great, everything is incorporated in great inlays.
The artwork is really cool both in the game in the app and with the cards. I think they are very nice paintings that you can look at for a while.
The explanations in the rules are clear, but at some points I think you miss some extra explanation how you know for example when you are almost at the end of the game. But overall, the explanation is good, all possibilities are well explained.
Overall impression of the game
I find the entire Chronicles of Crime series immensely enjoyable to play. Both as a solo player and with multiple players. The use of both the app and the board and its cards makes it a really fun combination.
What is really cool done is the scanning of a location and that makes it even more fun with 3d glasses. You really feel like you’re in the game then.
Then about the millennium series 1400 edition, this is a fun game. Personally I think it is a little too far back in time but I had a good time while trying to solve the crimes. What you really have to get used to, if you only played the basic Chronicles of Crime game, is that you now obviously have no help from computers, cell phones etc.. That took me a while to get used to but after a few times going through the cards you get used to it. The use of your faithful dog Perceval can be really handy at times, so pay attention to this while playing. We forgot to use it a couple of times and then you have to go back to the location, which takes time.
I will of course not give away anything about the scenarios but are you now curious about this version? Then I would first download the app, you can already see what scenarios are available. The game can be played in both Dutch and English regardless of which version you have. I have the English version of the game and we play through the app in Dutch.
I received this version of Chronicles of Crime from Lucky Duck Games for testing small parts in the scenarios these 3 editions (1400 / 1900 & 2400). My opinion is not affected because of this.
