January 2016 – Page 2 – Tom'S Epic Gaming

Catan Review

Foreword

Catan is one of the most important games, if not the most important, for bringing board gaming to greater prominence in the United States. It is a streamlined game with a lot of player interaction but limited inherent player conflict. This game has been so successful and played so much that parts of the “gaming community” are starting to get a bit tired of it, even though it does what it sets out to do exceedingly well.

How To Play

Goal

The goal of the game is to gather resources to build roads, settlements, cities, and developments to reach a set level of prominence before any other player.

Set Up

At the start of each game, players create the game-board by randomly filling in the island of Catan with hexagon tiles representing 6 different kinds of terrain: hills, forests, mountains, fields, pastures, and desert. Then, on every tile except the desert randomly place one of the numbers ranging from 2-12. (There is no 7 and only one of each 2 and 12.) Finally, around the board are ports that specialize in trading. To randomize these, put a ship marker on each printed ship.

Start of the Game

To start, the first player places one of their wooden houses (settlements) on the vertex of one of the hexagon tiles. Then, that player places one of their wooden roads on one of the edges adjacent to that vertex. Each player does this once, then starting with the last player to place and going backwards, each player does it again. For example, if I have Mary, Frank, Tom, and Jane it would go: Mary->Frank->Tom->Jane->Jane->Tom->Frank->Mary.

When you place your second settlement, you collect resources from all tiles touched by that settlement. Forests produce lumber, hills produce brick, fields produce grain, pastures produce sheep, mountains produce ore, and deserts produce nothing. So if I place my second city touching a hill, pasture, and forest, I would collect brick, sheep, and lumber.

Each Turn

Each turn consists of 4 parts: Roll the Dice, Collect Resources -or- Activate the Robber, Trade, and Build. It may seem like a lot of text below, but it is really intuitive, and you will pick it up quickly. I promise.

Roll the Dice

At the start of each turn, the current player rolls two dice and adds the number.

Collect Resources -or- Activate the Robber

Each tile with the rolled number will produce one resource for a player for each settlement they have touching it.

If a 7 is rolled, the robber is activated. Each player with 8 or more resource cards in hand must discard half, rounded down. If you have 9, you would discard 4. Then, the current player must move the robber from its current tile and place it on a different tile. While the robber is there, that tile will not produce resources when its number is rolled. In addition, the current player gets to randomly take one card from one player with a settlement (or city) touching that tile. If there are 2 or more players available, the current player picks one.

Trade

After rolling, the current player may trade their resources with any other player. For instance, if you have 2 lumber you could offer to trade 1 of your lumber for 1 of another player’s brick. Then that player or any other player could make you a counteroffer. This can last as long as the current player wants.

You can also trade with the bank at a rate of 4 of one resource for 1 of any other resource. If you have a settlement touching a 3:1 port, you can instead trade 3 of one resource for 1 of any other. There are also 2:1 ports for each resource. So if you had the sheep 2:1 port, you could trade 2 sheep for 1 of any other resource.

Build

Once you have finished trading, you may build any number of roads, settlements, cities, and/or development cards that you can afford and legally place. (The cost of each is shown on each player’s reference sheet.)

Each player is also restricted to 5 settlements, 4 cities, and 15 roads. For instance, if you have all 5 settlement pieces out, you will not have any left to build. If you turn one into a city though, you take back the replaced settlement piece, and then you can build the settlement again somewhere else later. In addition to the limited number, there are restrictions on placement.

1. Roads can only be placed adjacent to another road you have on the board, but only 1 road can be on each edge.
2. Settlements must be adjacent to one of your roads and must be at least 2 edges away from all other settlements and cities.
3. Cities replace a settlement you control. Cities collect 2 resources from a tile they touch when that tile is rolled instead of 1.

There are multiple benefits of building, and it is the only way to gain Victory Points (VP), 10 of which are needed to win the game. Roads let you build more settlements, and the player with the longest road, at least 5 long, gets 2VP (this changes hands whenever another player’s road exceeds the length of the current holder). Settlements are worth 1VP each, cities are worth 2VP each, building them increases the amount of resources you collect, and they can give you access to ports.

Development cards are either knights, 1VP, or a one-time-use effect. Knights let you move the robber, this does not trigger discarding, but you will steal a resource. In addition, the player with the most knights, at least 3, gets 2VP (this changes hands whenever another player’s knight count exceeds the current holder). 1VP cards are the only cards that can be played the turn you build them, but they remain hidden until you have at least 10VP (including your 1VP cards). At the end of the turn you reach 10VP, reveal them all . The other cards all have interesting effects explained on the cards. Aside from the 1VP cards, only one development card may be played on your turn, but you can play it at any time on your turn.

End of Game

The game ends immediately at the end of any turn when someone has 10 or more VP. That player wins the game.

Conclusion

This game has seen a ridiculous amount of play around the world. It is certainly one of my most played board games (due to the online version at www.playcatan.com). The reasons for this are plenty: it is a good time length, there is enough luck that even a beginner can beat a seasoned player, the variable set up makes it interesting to play repeatedly (it has good replay value), the player conflict is not too harsh and, by targeting the player with the most points on the board, you can keep it from getting personal, and it is simply fun.

Its fun to get resources and build things. There are plenty of viable strategies: diversifying the resources you touch or focusing on one resource and relying on the related port, diversifying your numbers so you are more likely to get something every turn or focusing and relying on getting a lot of resources at once, or any number of other strategies that I do not want to spoil here.

This is a game that every “gamer” knows about, but some may have played it so much they have burnt out on it. If you are looking to get into “today’s board games” this is a good introductory “euro-game” with which to begin.

About Me

Who I Am

My name is Tom Sorenson. I am a History, English double major with a computer science minor who gave up a position programming with a major financial software company to follow my passion, games. Currently I am working on designing board games that I can then submit to small game companies to get my foot in the door of the industry. (I am also working part-time at a local Planet Fitness.)

I am creating this blog to serve a few purposes. The obvious selfish one is to create a body of work that I can present to companies to display what I am capable of producing. For everyone else, I want to create a place for people to break into and advance in the hobby of board games. I will primarily be reviewing games in a manner that assumes no familiarity with the subject. While this blog is partly for myself, I honestly want more people to get into the hobby because I believe it is so amazing. In addition to my reviews, I will be including links to good places to buy games, other reviewers/board game websites, conventions, and anything else I believe new gamers might want to access.

My other primary goal of this website is to discuss the Epic Card Game by White Wizard Games. This is by far my favorite game currently, I want more people to play it, I want to discuss strategy, I want to cover competitive play, and I want to compete in it personally. I am unquestionably biased in this regard because I did help to fund the game through Kickstarter.com, I went to their HQ to design a card for a future expansion as a reward, and I like the employees there. I am, however, not receiving any money from them and will be honest about how I feel about their products. For instance, I am not nearly as big a fan of their other game Star Realms as the rest of the gaming community seems to be, but I don’t dislike it.

List of #1 Favorite Games Over the Years

For fellow gamers here is a list of my favorite games over the years to give you an idea of what I generally enjoy *see picture above as well*. The list starts with my current favorite and goes back to Monopoly. It includes board games, computer games, and one sport.

Epic Card game
Race for the Galaxy
Smash Up
Dominion
Civilization 5
Axis and Allies (1940 European and Pacific Combined 2nd Edition)
Racquetball
Magic: The Gathering
Guild Wars
Risk 2210
Stratego
Masterpiece
Monopoly

My High Level Board Game Design Ideas

Jury-Rigging Mech Arena Game
Multi-deck Mill-centric Non-Collectible TCG
Bowling Deck Building Game

Epic: 5 Critical Aspects

Foreword

Epic is an inexpensive game ($12-$45), but it is also incredibly deep. In this article I am going to be discussing 5 important aspects of the game not mentioned in the rules but emergent from game play. These 5 aspects are Card Draw, Board Clear, Targeted Removal, Tempo through Champions, and Discard Pile Manipulation. They are helpful to keep in mind while playing. In this article I am assuming an understanding of the Epic rules.

Card Draw

Card draw is important for four reasons:

It allows you to potentially play a card and spend your gold every turn

Since every card either costs 1 gold or 0, every card you play is going to have a significant impact on the game. While you do draw 1 card a turn, if your hand ever depletes to 0, you will only be able to play one 1-cost card for both your turn and your opponent’s. If your opponent is able to play a 1-cost card on both your turn and their own, they will quickly overwhelm you. In addition, if you get down to 0 cards in hand and draw a 0-cost card you will be in even more trouble.

The tricky part is deciding when to draw cards and when to improve you position in the game. If you spend all your gold drawing cards and your opponent spends all their gold playing champions and doing direct damage to you, you will lose even if they run out of cards because they will already be so far ahead.

The best times to draw cards are:

When you cannot do anything else and still have a gold (such as the end of your opponent’s turn)
When you are already ahead (such as having 1 or 2 champions in play when your opponent has none), nothing in your hand will give you a significant advantage, and your opponent has either spent their gold or you know they can’t make better use of their coin this turn
As part of playing a card you want to play anyway (Erase, Triceratops, etc.)

It increases the number of options you have to choose from each turn

Practically every card in Epic is very powerful, but each card is better in certain situations than others. Even though you only have 1 gold a turn, if you have 7 cards in hand, you are more likely to have a better play then if you only have 2.

For instance, say your hand consists of Triceratops, Apocalypse, Erase, Banishment, Thundarus, Zombie Apocalypse, and Dark Assassin. With this hand, you are covered for basically any eventuality.

1. It’s your turn and the board is empty: play Triceratops to stay at 7 cards or Thundarus to put a massive threat on the board
2. Your opponent is up by three creatures: play Apocalypse or Zombie Apocalypse to reset the board
3. Your opponent plays Courageous Soul followed by Secret Legion: Zombie Apocalypse stops that.
4. Your opponent plays their own Thundarus: You can’t Banishment it, but you can Erase it and +1 for 0 them (Net gain of +1 for you and opponent loses no cards in hand) in addition to wasting their gold for the turn. Or you could Dark Assassin and reveal Apocalypse and Zombie Apocalypse to give it Blitz on your turn

Now if our hand was only Triceratops and Thundarus, we just lost the ability to respond to 3 of those 4 scenarios even though we can still play a 1-cost card on our turn.

It helps you hit your loyalty costs

If you do not have at least two cards of the same faction for a loyalty cost, you cannot use it. Having more cards in hand increases the odds of hitting your loyalty costs.

You can win by drawing through your entire deck

Included in the pictures below are all of the cards that can potentially draw cards separated into 4 categories.

Recycle

Cards such as Ogre Mercenary and Spike Trap recycle when played, so as long as you have at least two cards in your discard pile, you hand gets no smaller by playing them.

Recycle is almost exclusively on 0-cost cards, so their effects start significantly less overwhelming powerful. In addition, doing something without decreasing your hand size is so good, that the something starts even weaker then the something that does decrease hand size. For instance, Spike trap lets you deal 5 damage to all attacking champions. By itself, this card can break some 1-cost champions which is great, but if that situation never comes up, this card would be worthless, if that is all it could do. With recycle, when the situation occurs it is even stronger, but Spike Trap can always just be played to recycle to get a new card if needed.

Tribute -> Draw a Card

Similar to recycle, champions with tribute -> draw a card always give you something and replace themselves in your hand. While this is similar to recycle since the something you get is a 1-cost champion it is stronger and will need to be dealt with in some way. If you play one of these champions, and then your opponent immediately uses a card like Bitten on it, the net result is that your opponent has one less card in hand then before you played your champion while you have the same number (a 0 for -1). In other words, even though you lost a champion, only your opponent has gotten weaker.

Once again cards with tribute -> draw a card are generally less threatening in play, but still threatening enough that they cannot be ignored. This is what allows them to get you an advantage in hand size.

Draw 2 Cards – OR –

Events will frequently have the option of a primary effect – or- draw 2 cards. When I first started playing, I always valued these cards for their primary effect because they have more direct impact and are more interesting. When building your deck through draft or constructed, this is what you need to pay attention to when deciding to include one over another, but the draw 2 cards option is just as important if not more so for actual play.

If my deck is lacking in draw in a draft, I will prioritize these cards regardless of the non-draw option. Being able to draw 2 cards at the end of your opponent’s turn when they have spent their gold is that important.

Draw 2 Cards and…

Since hand size and card advantage are so important in Epic, any card that lets you draw 2 and do something is incredible. Erase is unquestionably one of the strongest cards in the base set because of this. If your opponent plays any champion that does not immediately affect the game, you can return it to their hand wasting their gold and gaining a net 1 card to hand. Erase, Raging T-Rex, and Ceasefire are the 3 main cards that do this well.

Discard Pile Manipulation

Some cards in Epic continue to be serious threats even after they are sent to their owner’s discard pile. These cards can be particularly difficult to deal with, especially in draft formats. Since the ways to directly banish cards from discard piles are so limited, it is important to keep track of specific cards even after broken.

Included in the pictures below are the 4 ways cards can interact with discard piles.

Directly Return Cards From Discard Pile to Hand or Play

Some cards such as Necromancer Lord and Angel of Mercy return a champion directly to play each turn they remain in play themselves. If your opponent has access to champions in discard piles and these cards stay around, they are essentially able to play two 1-gold cards a turn.

Corpse Taker and Memory Spirit let a player return their most beneficial card directly to hand, if that card is already in their discard pile.

Soul Hunter will automatically come back from its owner’s discard pile every turn until it is banished.

Ally or Gold Triggered Recall Abilities

These cards allow for continual reuse as long as the recall ability can be triggered. Cave Troll is one of my favorite cards because, while it is not a huge threat, it is so useful having a potential free blocker every turn or attacker every other turn.

Psionic Assault, Lightning Storm, and Lash are all capable of controlling games. As a side note, 0-cost cards with gold triggered recall abilities can be used twice in the same turn.

Some cards with recall abilities such as Wolf Companion and Ancient Chant have effects that occur when they leave the discard pile. These can be triggered either when recalled or banished from the discard pile.

Cards Requiring Other Cards in Your Discard Pile

Certain cards like Zombie Apocalypse and Unquenchable Thirst become more powerful the more cards you have in your discard pile. Recycle cards are also included in this list because you cannot recycle without at least 2 cards in your discard pile.

Cards That Banish Cards in Opponent’s Discard Piles

In the base set (not including year 1 promos), there are only 4 cards that can directly banish cards from your opponent’s discard pile. I highly value these cards (particularly Amnesia and Guilt Demon) because they let me stop cards I called out specifically above.

These cards are also good because they make it harder for your opponent to win by drawing through their deck. For each card banished, that is one more card they need to draw, Amnesia will generally completely stop that strategy.

Tempo Through Champions

Since Champions are the only cards that permanently stay in play until dealt with, they are the most important aspect to determining the current state of the game. All champions give you an advantage by having them in play, but when and how that advantage is applied is drastically different. A champion is a threat for possessing attributes defined below.

The higher the offense of a champion, the more damage it can do at once. This make a champion a threat because it can deal a lot of damage to you if unblocked and will break many other champions that block it.
The higher the defense of a champion, the more damage it can take in a single turn. This makes a champion a threat because it is harder to get rid of and can block a greater number of champions without breaking.
Airborne, Ambush, Blitz, Breakthrough, and Unblockable make a champion a threat because it makes them more likely to deal damage to a player directly.
Ally, Expend, Loyalty 2, and Tribute make a champion a threat because they allow them to have an effect without needing to attack. In addition, that effect is immediate and can happen before the opponent has a chance to prevent it.
Ally and Expend effects can also potentially be triggered multiple times.
Static Effects make a champion a threat because they immediately make other cards stronger for as long as the static effect is in play.
Recall, Unbreakable, and Untargetable make a champion a threat because they are significantly harder to permanently stop.
Righteous champions are a threat because they make it harder to reduce a player to 0 health.
Ambush also allows champions to be played on your opponent’s turn allowing you to use your gold that turn, potentially have an unexpected blocker, or get an immediate effect at exactly when needed.

The most important distinction in my opinion is whether a champion has an immediate effect or not.

No Immediate Effect

The above champions, aside from Djinn of the Sands, have no inherent immediate effect. Most of these cards have high stats and good abilities making them incredibly high value targets. If they survive, they can do a lot; however, they can also be removed in a 1 for 1 trade. Due to the existence of Erase specifically and the rest of the targeted removal, I am incredibly hesitant to pick any of these cards. Each card has its place and can excel in certain draft pools, but by playing these cards you are opening up yourself to lose tempo.

If I can spend my gold on your turn for an even or better trade, that is a big deal. These cards are potentially terrible to play when behind because if your opponent has an answer, since you will stay behind.

On the other hand, if you are already ahead and you force an even trade on your turn, that is not bad. If your opponent does not have an answer for these cards while you area already ahead, they are so strong you will get a good deal more ahead. If they have an answer (while you are ahead), you stay ahead, which is good, but you lost an opportunity to get further ahead.

Immediate Effect Champions

These are the champions that I try and prioritize above all other champions (some more than others). All of these cards are either Loyalty 2, Tribute, or Blitz with an expend power. Due to this, assuming you can meet the requirements (loyalty, a viable target, etc.) you are guaranteed an effect and either a strong body or the potential to get that effect again.

For example, Kong breaks almost any champion and leaves you a 13/14 body. Necromancer Lord puts any champion into play on your side and will keep doing it every turn until removed. Raging T-Rex draws two cards and leaves a 12/10 body behind. These cards will almost always get you further ahead or less behind.

As a note of caution, when building a deck, be very careful not to over-extend into too many factions for loyalty abilities. Necromancer Lord and High King are amazing, but if they are your only Evil or Good cards respectively they will generally be more of a liability since they die to literally everything.

Targeted Removal

Epic is absolutely filled with crazy strong champions that will quickly crush you if unanswered. While in theory it is a legitimate strategy to just play more crazy strong champions then your opponent, I personally tend to stick to a more balanced approach. For me targeted removal is a big part of that (targeted removal, tempo gaining threat champions, card draw, and board wipes).

Particularly in draft, if I can take almost all of the targeted removal in the pool, even if I gave you “better” champions, if my strong champions cannot be removed and I can remove your most threatening ones, I will generally win. I would say it is impossible to prevent someone from getting strong champions, but targeted removal can be undervalued and over-ignored.

Especially valuable are cards that can be used as removal – or – draw 2 (Bitten, Transform). Targeted removal that can be played safely on an opponent’s turn are also high value for me (Erase, Lying in Wait, etc.).

Board Wipes

Cards that break, banish, or deal damage to all champions in play are board wipes (board clears, wraths, etc.). In Epic you will almost certainly get to a point where you opponent is 2 or more champions ahead of you and getting rid of everything is the only way to stabilize. It will happen to you, and you will do it to other players. Having board wipes are basically mandatory in any deck.

Board wipes also do not target champions, so they are one of the few ways to get rid of untargetable champions (Lying in Wait does not target either).

There are board wipes that can only be played on your turn (not including Surprise Attack into Time Walker or Angel of Death), and these have no caveats, just break or banish all champions. These are good, but they give your opponent the first chance to start gaining tempo with their gold on their turn. One thing that is really fun is if you expect your opponent to ambush a champion in at the end of their turn, you can try to end your turn without spending your gold. Then if they play the champion, you can play your “your turn” board wipe afterwards. If they do not spend their gold, you would be unable to play your board wipe, so it is a risk.

The second type of board wipes are the ones that can be played either on your turn or your opponent’s. These are generally more restrictive which can be a good thing. For example, if your deck is mostly champions with 10 or higher defense, Hurricane will not break your champions while potentially breaking all of your opponent’s (unless they are all 10 defense or higher too). Board wipes playable on your opponent’s turn are more important because they can stop combos like Courageous Soul followed by Secret Legion.

Conclusion

These 5 aspects are, in my opinion, the most critical to understand to improve as an Epic player. If anyone feels like I left something more important out, feel free to let me know in the comments below, and we can discuss.

As a heads up, all of this does come from the perspective of 1v1 play as I have not had much opportunity for higher numbers then that. My next planned article is to dissect and rate each card in the set for limited play individually. I will be doing this faction by faction.

I love playing, talking about, and thinking about Epic, so I am more than happy to delve into any aspect of it, just let me know what people want to see discussed.

Ticket To Ride Review

Foreword

Ticket to Ride is one of the most popular board games in the board game hobby around the world, for good reason. This easy to learn, attractive, and well-themed game has been enjoyed by every person I introduce it to, and it is my go-to game for introducing people to the hobby.

How to Play

Destination cards

At the start of the game, three Destination cards are dealt out to each player. Each player must keep at least two of them. Two cities are on each card, and you need to place trains on the board to connect them.

To connect these cities you need to make smaller city to city connections called routes. For example, to complete the Kansas City – Houston ticket above you would need to finish at least three routes.

Two of Many Possible Paths

1) Kansas City to Oklahoma City
2) Oklahoma City to Dallas
3) Dallas to Houston
The yellow player has completed these routes

1) Kansas City to Denver
2) Denver to Santa Fe
3) Santa Fe to El Paso
4) El Paso to Houston

The paths do not need to be short or direct. You just need to be able to trace a continuous path between the cities on your ticket.

Train Cards

In order to complete these short routes, you need to collect and turn in train cards of the same color. For instance, to complete the route from El Paso to Oklahoma city, you need 5 yellow cards. Each card also has a specific symbol in its corners and on the board to differentiate themselves for colorblind players. The first player to collect and then spend 5 yellows to complete this route would put 5 of their trains along that route. No other player will be able to complete that route this game.

For colorless connections such as Santa Fe to El Paso, a player could turn in any two cards of the same color. For double routes such as Denver to Kansas City, one player could claim the orange route, and a different player could claim the black route. Wild cards can be used as any color.

Turn Order

On a player’s turn they can either:

Take Train Cards

Take 1 face up wild card

|OR|

Take a combination of 2 face up non-wild cards and/or cards from the top of the deck.

For instance, I could take the blue train card. Another card is immediately turned face up to replace it, another white for instance. Since I cannot take the wild and do not want white or orange I draw the top card of the deck. Luckily, I pull a wild card. Cards drawn from the deck are not shown to other players

Play Train Cards

Play up to 6 train cards of one color to claim a single route. A player may only claim one route a turn. You score points based on the size of the route. Keep track of the score on the score track around the board.

For a 1-train route: 1 point
For a 2-train route: 2 points
For a 3-train route: 4 points
For a 4-train route: 7 points
For a 5-train route: 10 points
For a 6-train route: 15 points

Take Destination Tickets

If you have completed all your destination tickets or just want more, you can draw 3 new destination tickets. You must keep at least 1 of them.

Game End and Scoring

Once any player has 2 or less train pieces remaining, everyone gets one final turn (including the player with 2 or less train pieces).

For each person, check to see which of their tickets they completed. Completed tickets add the number of points shown. Uncompleted tickets subtract the number of points shown.

10 points are then awarded to the player with the longest continuous path without branching. For example, black’s longest route would be Houston to Raleigh, 14 trains. Green’s longest route would be 12 since all are connected without branches. Yellow’s is 7.

Conclusions

Play this game at least once.

The basic rules are very simple and fun. It feels great when the color you have been waiting for is turned face up, you get it, and then you play a critical route on your next turn. Drawing a wild from the top of the deck is a similarly awesome feeling.

Throughout the game the scores remain fairly close, and it never feels like you cannot win. Longer routes award more points and can put someone in the lead early, but if someone has completed a lot of tickets, they can shoot right past the leader at the end of the game.

The game also looks great, especially at the end with everyone’s train pieces sprawling across the board.

I cannot emphasize this enough: even if your only experiences with board games have been Monopoly, Risk, and other similar games that might not have appealed to you years ago, try Ticket to Ride. If you know someone who is into “Board Games”, there is a good chance they have a copy. This game is the tip of the iceberg of all the new great hobby board games. Even if you do not like it, you will know what people are talking about when they talk about board games today. (I sincerely expect you will like it though.)

Epic Card Game Review

Foreword

Epic is my favorite game. I helped to fund it through the website Kickstarter.com, and I was able to visit the company to work on designing a card in return. Now that my bias is out of the way, let me tell you why I love this game.

Non-Collectible Trading Card Game (TCG)

Epic Card Game is a Non-Collectible Trading Card Game (TCG) which essentially means that the game relies exclusively on cards for game pieces, and you know exactly what cards you are going to get when you buy the game. (Epic Card Game base game is 120 specific, unique cards with MSRP $15.) Trading Card Games (TCGs) or Collectible Card Games (CCGs) such as Magic: The Gathering, on the other hand, rely on people buying “packs” of 15 random cards of different rarities.

In TCGs each player has their own unique deck of cards that they will use in order to play. The goal of the game is to utilize cards that stay in play (champions) and cards that are immediately discarded after use (events) to reduce your opponent(s) to 0 health (from 30).

This type of game is interesting because each card conforms to strict criteria, while functioning radically differently from one another. For instance, one player could play a large champion that will deal a lot of damage at once, while their opponent plays a tiny champion that lets them draw a card and continue to draw extra cards each turn. So in a TCG/CCG, each player is trying to pick the best cards to play at the best time to defeat their opponent.

Epic as my Favorite TCG

Epic has 3 unique mechanisms that dramatically set it apart from other similar games.

Every card either costs 1 gold or 0 gold
A player can make multiple attacks on their turn
Each player gets 1 gold on their turn and on their opponent’s turn

1) In TCGs cards can only be played at certain times, and you must expend resources to do so. The general practice is to have your available resources grow throughout the game so cards can cost different amounts. This means that some cards will be literally unplayable early in the game or bad to play late in the game.

Since Epic cards either cost 1 gold or 0 gold, any card can be played from the first turn, and no card is inherently stronger on a pre-determined turn regardless of game state. For example, in Magic if you have 6 resources (lands) available on turn 6 and 2 cards in hand, you will usually play the card that costs 6 resources instead of the card that costs 2.

In Epic you must choose which cards to play every turn based on the current state of the game, instead of the cards choosing for you.

2) The most common way to reduce your opponent’s health is to attack them with your champions. Different TCGs handle this in different ways. In Epic, the current player can attack with any number of their champions. Then the defender may block with any number of their champions. If your attacker(s) are not blocked, they will damage your opponent’s health, otherwise the attackers will damage the defenders and vice versa. In addition, both players get a chance to play certain cards after attackers are declared, and then again after defenders are declared. Once an attack resolves, you can play more cards or declare another attack with different champions.

This system gives the most control to both players. The attacker chooses when and with what champions to attack with based on what they know of their opponent. Then the defender can react, possibly doing something unexpected. So the attacker defines the fight, but the defender chooses how to best mitigate it.

3) TCGs generally either A) Do not allow players to play cards on their opponent’s turn or B) Force a player to save resources on their turn so they can potentially spend them on their opponent’s turn. Epic, on the other hand, gives each player a gold on their turn and their opponent’s (gold does not accumulate, it resets to 1 per person each turn).

Your opponent can use their gold at 3 points on your turn: after you have declared attacking champions, after blocking champions have been declared, or when you try to end your turn. 73 of the 120 base cards can be played in some way on your opponent’s turn (champions with ambush or events). This adds ridiculous amounts of value to the game and makes attacking significantly more exciting.

As a rule of thumb, you should almost always spend your gold on each turn. When you spend it is the interesting part though. Do you attack first? Can you get your opponent to spend their gold first so they cannot react to yours? Or on the rare occasion do you try to end your turn before you have spent your gold?

These are the 3 primary mechanisms that make this game so spectacular (the art is also amazing). If you understand these 3 concepts, the rest of the game is basically just remembering key words (airborne, blitz, recall, etc.), turn flow, and champion positions. **Edit** After 7 more months of playing, 1 expansion, and qualifying for the first World Tournament, I am still uncovering more depth to the game even though the rules aren’t too complicated. **Edit** It is now 3/27/2019, and I still haven’t fully explored all of the depth I’ve unearthed at this point. **Edit2**

How to Play Epic

Almost everything you need to know is included in the diagram of the turn flow below. I recommend having this and pages 15-18 (keyword explanations) available while playing. Everything else is explained after. For a more in depth explanation of how to play, check out the first article of my Epic Progression Series.

Turn Flow Diagram

Click here if you would like to see the turn flow diagram from before the April 2017 rules change

If it is your turn, your opponent(s) can only play cards in the blue text spots: when passing initiative in the attack phase and when the current player tries to end his turn.

Additional Rules

To build your decks you can either A) Deal out 30 random cards to each player B) Divide the cards by faction symbol (Evil, Good, Sage, Wild) and give each player one faction C) Draft as defined in the rule book and I will discuss in greater detail in future articles D) Construct your own deck with any cards, restrictions defined in rule book.

Champions have 3 positions: Prepared, Flipped, and Expended. When a champion is played, it enters play prepared. Only prepared champions can attack or be declared as a blocker. When a champion blocks it becomes flipped. Both prepared and flipped champions may activate expend powers. When a champion attacks or activates an expend power, it becomes expended.

In addition, the turn you play a champion it is also deploying. While a champion is deploying, it may not attack or activate expend powers. At the start of your turn, all your champions still “in play” lose deploying.

If a champion ever takes damage equal to or greater than its defense in a single turn it is immediately broken. Put it into its owner’s (the player whose deck it started in) discard pile. At the end of the turn, all champions heal any damage they took that turn.

If one or more champions attack and are blocked by one or more champions, they will assign all of their offense to each other as damage (none to the defending player). The attacker will choose how to distribute the offense from the attacking champions among the defense of the defending champions, and the defender will choose how to distribute the offense from the defending champions among the defense of the attacking champions.

Each player may mulligan at the start of the game. To do so, select up to 5 cards from your hand. Put them on the bottom of your deck, draw an equal number of cards, and lose that much health.

The first player does not draw a card on the first turn.

If you need to draw a card and your deck is empty, you win the game.

Your health can go above 30 (the starting health). Keep track of health with either the free Epic ScoreKeeper App, pen and paper, dice, or any other method you prefer. If you need more tokens or +1/+1 counters you can use dice, print off more from WWG’s website www.epiccardgame.com/rules/ , or even just use shreds of paper.

If a token would be removed from play such as being returned to hand, broken, banished (put on the bottom of its owner’s deck), etc. it is returned to the pile of available tokens instead.

Max hand size is 7 cards. If you have more than 7 cards in your hand at the end of your turn, discard down to 7.

Conclusion

I repeat, I love this game. This game makes me feel smart. Games are generally very different from each other. The more I play, the more I figure out, and the more I figure out, the more I enjoy the game. I love the 1 or 0 gold cards, gold on opponent’s turn, attacking, and all of the more emergent properties I to talk about in my next Epic article (Epic: 5 Critical Aspects).

Epic is something I enjoy so much that a decent portion of this blog is going to be devoted to Epic articles and following Epic competitive play. If you are within 30 minutes to an hour of Minneapolis, MN I would be thrilled to teach or play Epic with you at a board game store or other public place. For all those people that love Epic as much as I do, I look forward to potentially seeing you at competitions.

**Edit** The rest of my Epic articles can be found here, such as my Worlds 2016/2017 qualifying limited decks, my card by card analysis, a showmatch against world champion John Tatian, and more. **Edit**

Catan Preview

In this game you collect resources to expand your settlements to collect more resources to expand and win. Resource trading between players, robbing politics, and card play keep everyone involved constantly. Turns are generally quick, getting your numbers rolled feels great, and trading allows expansion to happen quickly.