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Posted 20 hours ago

Inis Board Game

£22.495£44.99Clearance
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About this deal

A player is considered “chieftain” of a given territory when he has more units there than any other player. Additionally, there are epic tale cards that can be gained through play of the action cards or even some of the advantage cards. Still deep enough to cause some, not too long, but still fun thinking time; moments of analysis paralysis. Players can try to achieve this fabled victory in three different ways: Through Leadership, through Land or with Religion. Additionally, some of them are islands, which can only be accessed from harbor tiles and have some other rules surrounding them that make them harder to access and/or invade.

You can pick all the cards you need to perform an impressive move, you can take something you know your opponents want, or you can try to pick something that compliments your epic tale cards — there are tons of possibilities and no point in listing them all. On the surface, these similarities lend themselves to easy comparison, but in reality they aren’t justified. Inis knows exactly what it is trying to be, and in my opinion it proves that it is what it’s claiming to be, which you can’t say of very many games. The tiles are just big enough to impart a sense of grandeur, and just arcane enough to evoke a sense of mystery and wonder about the game. I love strategy and tactics, but I tend to become bored with the most insular puzzles where I’m buried in my own little world, with minimal interaction to boost my flagging interest.

I’m not going to dive too deeply into the specifics of the rules, but I will outline the three different victory conditions with some granularity. Advantage cards are a very clever mechanic that gives players an incentive to fight over certain territories if they want that particular advantage. In addition to the cards, there are a set of 12 plastic figures for each of the four players, a few citadel and sanctuary buildings and some beautiful island tiles. If all players in the clash agree, the clash comes to an end and everyone gets to remain on the territory along with any units that were behind the safety of the citadel walls.

To mitigate this, I try to prepare new players to take some lumps as they learn the in’s and out’s of the game. Sanctuaries, driving victory as they do, are the opposite – they shift the reward ratio so that even significant risks might be worth taking. You might think that with only 17 action cards, the gameplay would get stale, but I haven’t even mentioned the Advantage and Epic Tale cards.They let you grab a card that someone else has played and discarded, or counteract the last action someone else took. The Triskel cards can be played at a time specified on the card and include effects such as cancelling another player’s action, or gaining advantages in battles. It tends to run about 45 minutes, though some games can be more like 90 if players are more defensive. From the ramparts, yet another chieftain looks down at standoff from the safety of the citadel, anticipating bloodshed.

Then Player D sprung one last move to give him five Sanctuaries + his lone Deed, for two total VCs and a narrow lead. Epic Tale cards foil an opponent’s plans, or even turn an impending defeat into a surprising turnaround victory. But if you enjoy rolling in the mud with 1-4 other players, clawing at each others eyeballs and punching below the belt to gain every advantage, it’s a glorious mud bath.Passing does not forfeit the rest of your actions unless everyone else passes, which would end the round. I personally don’t mind those outliers, but will also admit that, yes, it’s a harder sell when you can’t tell someone how long their commitment to playing will last. Inis is subtler, because it’s often the sly non-combat movement or clever expansionary policy that wins out over overt aggression.

The Brann will always win a tie, and with them going first each round, it makes this a desirable position. Whoever has the most clan figures in a given territory will take control of the associated advantage card.

A strong gust of wind blows through your beard, but your eyes do not waver from the opposing chieftains. In a fight, when a player is attacked, they have to choose between losing a unit and losing one of their action cards. I’ll admit to having some fun with such games, but the ones that really light my fire manage to facilitate meaningful interaction between the players at the table.

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