The days of compromise are over. The time for conquering is now! As you take control of one of the grand armies vying for control of the galaxy. You will learn your strengths, and, more importantly, your opponents’ weaknesses. Manage your units, conquer the battlefield, and earn the most medals to arise victorious! Let’s go!

What Is It?

Asymmetric / Variable Player Powers – Each player takes on the role of a different faction. While the core mechanisms are the same for everyone, each army has their own special set-up/rules which mostly affect how they can strengthen their units throughout the game. Their cards all have unique effects as well.

Hand Management – Players have up to 4 turns each round, with a chance to discard and deploy each turn. Each card has a different strength and ability (or abilities) for players to consider when choosing how to use it. They will get any discarded cards back to hand at the end of the round, but any destroyed cards will move to the discard pile, and players will not have them immediately available again. Players need to be careful to keep their options open!

Combat – Players will resolve various battlefields each round. There is one between each pair of players where only their 2 armies can be deployed, and another in the center where all armies can deploy. After all effects, the player with the highest strength in each battle earns a medal – most medals wins the game!

Who Is It For?

  • 1 to 5 Players – Seems to scale pretty well at any count, though I did think that 3 players was the worst count because it either felt too short (at 3 rounds) or too long (at 6 rounds).
  • Ages 14 & Up / Mid-Weight Gamers – The asymmetry can be tricky to get a handle on at first because you have to know your cards well, but you also need to understand what other players can do. It might be challenging for younger players, or less experienced gamers.
  • Fans of hand management, combat, strategy games, and asymmetry
  • Payers who don’t mind not knowing their opponent’s exact moves (since players can play cards face down)

Variants

Solo – You’ll play against an AI opponent who has a deck for one of the armies. It is set up like a 2 player game. The AI deploys 1 face-up, and 3 face-down units each round, and always plays before the player.

It works really well! There’s not too much upkeep, and since the players can normally play face-down anyway, it doesn’t really feel like it adds much more in the way of randomness either, because it’s about the same level of knowledge. It plays quickly and smoothly, so I would definitely recommend the solo.

Battle Royale – Each player has 8 medals (2 on each field, 2 on player mat), and lose them as they lose battles. When they run out, they are out of the game – last player standing wins. I didn’t like this as much. I think it just feels better to earn medals rather than lose them, and I’m never big on any kind of player elimination. There also isn’t a pre-determined number of rounds with this mode, and I prefer a standard number of rounds versus variable game length.

Teams – Teammates can communicate verbally, but don’t share/pass cards. Teammates total their strength if they are both present at a battle. This was also fine; it can be fun to try and play off each other’s cards but it can also be hard to strategize sometimes. I probably wouldn’t introduce this to players until they are more familiar with all the factions.

Turn Coat Mini Expansion – This has just some alternate card options for the factions. Super easy to swap in if you’d like, and gives more options/variety, which is always nice.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Great art, vibrant colors, nice table presence
  • Quality – Awesome components, big and small
  • Variability – All the armies are unique, and there are so many lion card to choose from, and so many strategies to try
  • Rules – Well laid out, clear to learn from
  • Turns are fairly quick
  • Smooth gameplay
  • Solo mode is fun and gives you a quicker option to try different armies
  • Balancing your cards and how you want to play them (discard/deploying/lead or battle effects) is complex, and interesting
  • Insert holds everything well
  • Finger holes on the box lid
  • Handy reference cards
  • Glossary has key words, which are a great quick guide for clarifications
  • Rulebook links to a soundtrack which is fun and thematic

CONS

  • Some typos across various cards, can be distracting at times
    • There were also a hand full of cards/effects that just seemed a bit vague and we ended up needing to look for clarification, which could slow things down
  • Can have a high learning curve; someone less familiar with the game might struggle to keep up with someone more experienced
  • Sometimes can run a bit long

Final Thoughts

Overall, this game is super cool! I think the card play is interesting and the various abilities are fun to balance across the battlefields to get them to work well together.

I think some factions are definitely more challenging to play than others. For newer players, I think I would recommend the Leon Army (red) because the ability to upgrade multiple cards seemed like the simplest play style, and allowed for the most flexibility in strategy in my opinion.

It’s a game that definitely benefits from lots of plays, so if you want a game you can get really involved in and explore the layers of – check it out!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 7/10

Designer – Chris Solis
Artists – Andres Blanco, Jessica Solis,
Alex Tantraz [OuKinoSama]
Publisher – Solis Game Studio
MSRP – $59.95 (deluxe)
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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