Cerebria The Inside World

RRP: £62.99
Now £46.21(SAVE 26%)
RRP £62.99
Success! We will let you know when this product is available again.
Your email address has been unsubscribed!
Your email address has been unsubscribed!
Notify me when this product is available to purchase!
This email address is already subscribed to this product!
Nexy Day Delivery

You could earn

4621 Victory Points

with this purchase

Cerebria is a dynamic, team-based, objective-driven area control game, where players play as Spirits, powerful entities representing Bliss or Gloom. These opposing forces – the two sides of human nature – struggle to control and shape the Inside World, the metaphorical representation of an evolving personality. Cerebria introduces a unique theme and numerous innovative m…
Read More
Category Tags , SKU ZBG-MINCEB01 Availability Out of stock
Share
Share this

Awards

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You Might Like

  • The beautiful artwork.
  • Quirky and clever theme.
  • Depth of play and the learning curve.
  • Player interaction on each team.

Might Not Like

  • Large table footprint.
  • Challenging to learn.
  • Risk of Analysis Paralysis due to so many choices.
  • The iconography and game language takes some getting used to.
Find out more about our blog & how to become a member of the blogging team by clicking here

Related Products

Description

Cerebria is a dynamic, team-based, objective-driven area control game, where players play as Spirits, powerful entities representing Bliss or Gloom. These opposing forces - the two sides of human nature - struggle to control and shape the Inside World, the metaphorical representation of an evolving personality.
Cerebria introduces a unique theme and numerous innovative mechanisms. The game is centered around the player-controlled Spirits, and the Emotion cards controlling Cerebria’s areas, each with their own stats and abilities. The Spirits can perform up to three actions on their turn. These include moving between Cerebria’s Realms and Frontiers, using the specific powers of the Realms, invoking and upgrading Emotion cards, removing opposing Emotions, and building Fortresses to consolidate their influence on certain areas. The Actions cost Willpower, gained primarily by absorbing from the Origin’s Spheres in the middle of the board. Both Bliss and Gloom also have a rare shared team resource, Ambition, enabling them to use the game’s most powerful effects.
The teams can score points either by accomplishing publicly known minor objectives (the Intentions), or completing their major objectives (the Aspirations), which change dynamically during the course of the game. Scoring Aspirations allows players to add Bliss and Gloom Fragments to the Identity, built in the middle of the board. These are key moments in the game: Cerebria’s state is in constant flux, but the Fragments are permanent imprints of a game state during the scoring events.
The game is won by the side with more influence over the finished Identity, thus becoming the dominant force in Cerebria.

 

Simply wow! Cerebria: The Inside World by Mindclash Games is serious eye candy. This is one of the most visually stunning games I have ever played. The artwork is unbelievably good and captures the inner workings of a mindscape which forms the battleground between the forces of bliss and gloom seeking to take control of the origin at the centre.

Despite the head turning table presence of the sizeable main board and player boards, underneath the beautiful aesthetic is a complex, area control game that requires a number of plays to develop a full understanding of the rules.

Cerebria – The Game

Cerebria is a 1-4 player game, although it is best set-up as a two on two co-operative competitive game. The rules explain the different game options depending on player count and include a solo and a two-player game.

Player choose a spirit emotion, including love, harmony, misery and anxiety, and place the corresponding standee on one of the 10 available spaces on the board. Players each select the four actions available at the start of the game by placing tokens on their player boards. Emotion cards are placed onto the board, cards are shuffled, objectives checked, hand of two cards are dealt out and token are sorted – the game is ready to go.

Players can take three actions per turn and this is where the complexity really starts. Player boards provide 4-5 spirit actions and can be upgraded by discarding an emotion card from your hand. There are four groups of emotions and each additional upgrade must be from a different emotion group. Alongside your own spirit actions, the board offers an additional five actions that can be used during your turn.

The game requires emotion cards to be placed on key area of the board and depending on the essence (power) added to the cards, the different teams can gain control of two area types on the board: frontiers and realms. Controlling these provides reduction in cost for actions and allows players to gain more of the game currency (will power) and potentially supports a team’s objective.

Players work together towards completing a shared objective and each team has an additional individual hidden objective to complete. These are checked at the end of each round and depending on the results, team fragments are placed in the rotating centre of the board (the origin). These will contribute to scoring at the end of the game.

Once each turn, players can draw willpower from one of the five spaces of the origin and potentially collect additional bonuses. Once one of these spaces has been emptied of willpower, the round ends (a revelation) objectives are checked and fragments are added. If players have used an action to fortify a realm they control, and the fragment played is adjacent to the emptied origin, it is also added to the growing column in the origin, scoring additional points at the end of the game.

Points are picked up throughout the game by completing specific intentions outlined on your team board, these are tracked on the team score tracker. At set points on the tracker players receive bonuses.

A game of Cerebria ends following the last revelation, when all objectives have been completed or when a team cannot place a fragment so have to place their top piece on the origin. Points are totalled up and the highest score wins.

Once this level of the game is mastered there are additional rules: players have specific powers, as do the cards that are played, there are a number of options in terms of your starting deck of emotion cards and you can also upgrade your emotion cards to more powerful emotions, during your turn. The player boards are double-sided, allowing player actions to become more asymmetric.

Playing Cerebria The Inside World (Credit: cirdan BGG)

Final Thoughts on Cerebria

Cerebria is complex game and requires a number of plays to fully understand the rules and how to carefully manage and balance all of the different emotion cards, will power and essence tokens, as well as the options that are available to you.

It’s a satisfying game, once mastered, but is not for the faint-hearted. Cerebria is well worth the investment of time and the return is a challenging game which requires plenty of thought and strategic play. The component quality is amazing and this is truly a stunning game.

The artwork, and the way it links to the theme, illustrates the level of thought and design that has gone into making Cerebria what it is; a wonderful vision of the battle between powerful emotions inside the brain for overall control of the origin, the power source of a truly beautiful mind.

Zatu Score

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You might like

  • The beautiful artwork.
  • Quirky and clever theme.
  • Depth of play and the learning curve.
  • Player interaction on each team.

Might not like

  • Large table footprint.
  • Challenging to learn.
  • Risk of Analysis Paralysis due to so many choices.
  • The iconography and game language takes some getting used to.