Inis Board Game

Product Information

The play through video on YouTube gave me the impression that I’d have taken quite a long time to explain the game. However, the gamers in my group could grasp Inis’ concept faster than I expected. I understood how teachers feel when successfully taught their students. Our first game lasted for 2.5 hours, and tutorial, and that included the tutorial, too. We were happy with the game. Read until the end to know why we thought Inis is an elegant, brilliant, and well-balanced game. WHAT IS INIS?

Careful drafting, hand management, bluffing (especially once players understand the importance of passing their turn), good timing, and a precise understanding of the balance of power are the keys to victory. After a discovery game you'll be ready for a full and epic game, where an undisputed player will be king by the Assembly for his merit and wisdom. To be clear, there’s combat here, but I wouldn’t call it the focus of the game. Unlike some that have combat but lean more toward Euro elements (you can win Scythe without ever fighting, for example), you’ll never play a game of Inis without combat, but it doesn’t need to be the hallmark of your strategy. Instigator: The player who initiated a clash, typically after moving some of his clans into a territory.

End of the Game

Inis is a game deeply rooted in Celtic history and lore in which players win by being elected King of the Island (Inis). Players can try to achieve one of three different victory conditions: Brenn: The Brenn is a tribe leader who is chosen to guide all the tribes into the island. He is the highest authority until the High King is elected. The Brenn organizes the Assembly, acts first during the Season, and has a great advantage in case of a tie for victory. He is determined at random at the start of the game and can change over the course of the game. Your grip on your weapon’s handle tightens and you step forward. Your opponent follows suit. There will be songs about this day, songs about the day peace prevailed, or songs to honor the fallen. As the leader your clan, it’s your goal to prove yourself worthy of being called High King over a newly discovered island. You will achieve this feat by having clans in at least 6 territories, being the chieftain over 6 opposing clans, and/or being present in territories with a combined total of 6 or more sanctuaries.

How to Acquire: These cards are drawn when certain game effects occur, such as the "Bard" Action card or when placing a new Sanctuary. Present in Territories with Six or More Total Sanctuaries: Add up the total number of Sanctuaries in territories where the player has one or more clans present (even if he is not the chieftain). If there are six or more, the player has met a victory conditions.These conditions do not in themselves win you the game. Each time you accomplish 1 or more of them, you can take a pretender token, which allows you to win at the start of the next round, provided you don’t tie with another player for most total victory conditions. Unless that player is the Brenn, a player who is chieftain of the capital territory. That player can win in the case of a tie. Some adorable little sculpts. There are also Epic tale cards, which are like superpowered god-mode versions of the other cards that you can hold between phases. When somebody piles up enough of these, they can chain together and win the game. Each chieftain believes to have the most legitimate claim to the throne of this new island. Only time will tell who among them will ascend to become Ard-Ri, the High King of this new realm! Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give the game is that everything in that list works together in a nearly seamless fashion to promote the experience the game is trying to deliver. Call it elegance, call it coherence, call it thematic-mechanical integration, call it whatever you want, but it’s there. Not every session will be like the one I described above. Much more often than not, though, you’ll have something profound happen at the table because there’s nothing extraneous in the game and everything combines into a larger, grander whole. Criticisms of Inis

if the Brenn is not among the tied players, there is no winner. If there is no winner, all Pretender tokens are returned to the supply, and the game continues for another round, proceeding with the rest of the Assembly phase. Bards recount the tales of their gods and heroes, druids act as advisors, and master craftsmen immortalize Celtic civilization.

At the end of the Assembly phase, each player has four Action cards in hand and maybe some Advantage and Epic Tale cards. Citadel: A fortified village. Citadels allows players to send their clans there to seek refuge and protection during clashes. If a single effect results in multiple clashes (such as the "Migration" Action card), the instigator chooses which clash to resolve first. After resolving the first clash, he chooses which clash to resolve next, and so on until all clashes have been resolved.