This is a really well designed game with a lot of beautiful pieces and different sized boards depending on the number of players.
The game itself is really easy to
pick up and play as the
core mechanic is very simple -
2 tokens to conquer an empty region and 1 extra token for each token in an occupied area.
You choose from one of
six race/ability combos stacked by the board, the first is free but each one you skip over to grab the one you want you have to place 1VP on. This combo determines how many tokens you get as well as what abilities and possibly bonuses you may have. Each turn you conquire areas then score VP's for each area you occupy plus any bonus VP's. Your VPS are kept hidden from other players. When you feel you have used up your combo you can put them into
decline, they still score VP's but that is all you do that turn. All bar one of your tokens are removed from each area and the token turned over to the uncoloured side to show it is in decline, at the star of your next go you select a new combo. Play continues like this for several rounds, the number varies depending on player numbers.
At the end of the game the person with the most VP's wins. This game is just elegant in how it looks, plays and scales as the board size varies according to the number of players. There is a lot of humour in this game born out by some of the bizarre combos you can get, for example Bivouacking Ghouls.
There is a fair amount of carboard in this game and, I must say I think this is unique, no waste you use the carboard sheets left over from the punching to line the bottom of the box so when you place everythin back in the box it fits snugly stopping the tokens from moving around. They also supply a custom fit try to house all the race tokens which works really well.
A lot of thought has gone into this and its a joy to play and look at another worthy addition to the collection.
