In our inside look at Gamelyn Games, we presented the story behind the Tiny Epic games. Gamelyn Games also sent us the first two games in the series, Tiny Epic Kingdoms and Tiny Epic Defenders, as well as one of their most successful titles, Tiny Epic Zombies. We were able to test the games in detail and would like to give you a brief overview, including our opinion on the games.
Contents
Summary at the beginning
I’ll start with a summary of my opinion… The Tiny Epic games that were sent to us blew me away at first. The gaming groups with whom I was able to test the games were also fascinated by the high quality of the games and especially by how much content can fit into such a small box. Each of the games tested offered so much variety in its standard version that you could play it again and again. With every game, every single game was a little different from the previous one.
Let’s take the first of all Tiny Epic games, for example, Tiny Epic Kingdoms. This alone brings out the big guns in terms of replay value: 8 double-sided territory cards that can be used to change the playing field and thus the options again and again, as well as 13(!) different factions with individual skills and strengths that can be used. It’s similar to the other games that we received. So far, no two games have been the same.
In addition, Tiny Epic Kingdoms and Tiny Epic Zombies offered different variants in which you could play the game. Tiny Epic Zombies even had five in which you could play competitively, cooperatively or in one-vs-many style. Each individual variant worked pretty well and was a lot of fun.
Thanks to their compact size and sturdy packaging, they also fit well in any backpack or suitcase. I took them with me on vacation to test them out and they were impressive. Even casual players were able to understand the games well, even if they had to get to grips with the slightly complex rules at first.
But now to the individual games at a glance:
Tiny Epic Kingdoms
Tiny Epic Kingdoms is designed to bring the feeling of a 4X game into a small box and be playable in under an hour. The basic principle was generally quite simple. Each person has a territory card, which is considered the player’s “home territory”. Everyone moves their figures back and forth on these cards and tries to settle other players’ cards and claim territories for themselves. The territories are important for resources that you need to further expand your own kingdom and thus generate more and more victory points for the end of the game.
There are a total of six actions with which you can – roughly speaking – move across the maps, improve your own faction, send new units into the game or generate victory points. The active player chooses one of the actions. Then all players can carry out the action in a clockwise direction. While the active player has to carry out his chosen action, the others can decide to take resources from the territories they control instead. Once everyone has carried out their action, the chosen action is locked and the next person has to choose a free action that is still available. As soon as 5 of the 6 actions have been locked, all are unlocked again and are available.
So, turn by turn, you decide whether you want to follow the active player’s actions or whether you would rather collect resources. You gradually build up your faction and your number of victory points until one of three game-ending conditions occurs. At the end, the person with the most points wins.
Conclusion : For me, Tiny Epic Kingdoms took a solid middle place among the three games sent to us. The games were consistently exciting and a lot of fun. The game itself is quite simple and yet has enough depth to activate a little brainpower. The trick that one person chooses an action and the others have to decide whether they want to go along with it or take resources was somehow a lot of fun. Because the action is then blocked for a few rounds, you have to plan well in advance. However, a pinch of luck also comes into play, because not everything can always go the way you want it to. Especially if the action you choose is exactly the one you need, but you don’t have enough resources and have to wait a few rounds until it is available again.
It’s a bit of a shame that it’s the only game in the main series that can’t be played solo. Its sweet spot is with 3-4 players. It’s a bit of a shame when you’re on vacation, but it’s not a big issue.
Game point rating: 7.4
Tiny Epic Defenders
Tiny Epic Defenders was the second title in the Tiny Epic series and felt a bit like a tower defense game. Here, all players and their heroes must protect the land of Aughmoore, consisting of seven regions, from invading enemies. Round after round, a card is drawn from the round deck, which consists of defense, enemy, or terrible enemy cards. As soon as the deck is empty, it is reshuffled and a new (terrible) enemy card from the horde deck is added. As soon as the horde deck is empty, the epic enemy appears and must be defeated. If this enemy is defeated, the players win. If the “capital” region in the middle falls at any point beforehand, the game is lost.
The card drawn from the round deck determines whose turn it is each round. If a (terrible) enemy card is drawn, the areas shown on it are attacked and the flame token is pushed up. The attack can be repelled if a hero is standing on the area that is to be attacked. Good placement of your heroes is important, because as soon as the flame token reaches the top field of an area, it is destroyed. Effects that you could use on your own turn are blocked when the area is destroyed, and whenever the destroyed area is attacked, the capital takes damage instead. Therefore, it is always important to protect the areas as best as possible.
If a defense card is drawn, the hero whose color is shown on the card takes his turn. This hero then has 3-4 action points that he can use to protect the regions. He can move between regions, lower the flame tokens or activate various effects – those of his hero, the regions or collected artifacts. If a defense card is drawn that involves all players, everyone must agree and use the 3-4 action points together. If the number of action points is not enough, heroes can lose a life once per round to receive an action point.
Conclusion: In my opinion, Tiny Epic Defenders was by far the best game of the three Tiny Epic games I tested. It was particularly fun to plan your actions as best as possible and when these plans even worked out, it was always something special. Of course, luck is involved here too, but it doesn’t dominate the gameplay and is what makes Tiny Epic Defenders very exciting. The ITEMeeple were also used here. I did find them a little unnecessary, but they are definitely eye-catching. I particularly liked Tiny Epic Defenders as a solo game. I found it particularly entertaining on vacation. The implementation is not very creative – you simply use two heroes and play through the game with both of them as if it were a game with two players – but you feel like you have enormous freedom to place your heroes cleverly and control everything that happens.
Game point rating: 7.8
Tiny Epic Zombies
Tiny Epic Zombies is a one-vs-many game in its main mode, where one person takes on the role of the zombies and the rest play the survivors. The survivors’ goal is to complete three predetermined objectives, while the zombie player must stop the survivors from doing what they want. They do this by either removing all survivor tokens (by attacking the farm or killing survivors) or by drawing the game until all the cards in the search deck are used up.
The search deck is also the main aspect of the zombie player. He tries to anticipate the survivors’ movements and to slip them a search card that has the same symbol as the room in which the survivor ends his turn. If he doesn’t manage to do this, he simply adds two new zombies to the game. He can decide whether to place both in one room or one in two rooms with the corresponding symbol. If the zombie player slips in a matching card, this activates a special ability of the zombie player. The more often he manages to slip in the matching card, the stronger the abilities become.
In the survivor’s turn, they have three steps that they must complete. Each step can be followed by up to three actions: kill 1 zombie, use a room effect and/or token, and collect items. A step means that you have to enter a new room. In this new room, you use the three actions mentioned above if you can. If there is a zombie in the room, you can attack it. To do this, you roll a die that tells you how much damage you will take. You always defeat the zombie you are attacked. If you manage to roll a special “overkill”, you can move your survivor directly to a new room for free and attack other zombies there if necessary.
After the zombie has been eliminated and there are no more zombies in the entire store (1 map with rooms in the game), you can activate room effects and tokens. These either give the survivor special bonuses or are relevant to achieving one of the three goals. The survivors can then select a card from the search pile of the respective store, if there is one. They can then take the next step if they have not taken three steps yet.
The search pile is created by the zombie player slipping cards. At the end of a survivor round, the survivor must reveal the search card that the zombie player slipped him in the previous round. This card is then placed in the shop where the survivor ended his round. The zombie player then slips the survivor a new search card.
Conclusion: In my opinion, Tiny Epic Zombies was by far the least attractive game of the three Tiny Epic games we tested. But that doesn’t mean it was bad. On the contrary, we liked it a lot. The only problem with the game was that it was quite difficult to explain – which is pretty normal for one-vs-many games – and the zombies seemed to have an advantage. Completing all three goals is extremely difficult. But it’s nice that the game can also be played with automated zombies. This means that the game can be played cooperatively, competitively, or solo. This is particularly good for fewer than three players because games with a zombie player need at least three people.
Game point rating: 7.3
A final word
Overall, I liked all three games. So much so that I had to order two more. It was really great, especially on vacation, to have small, compact games with me that were easy to explain and yet offered great tactical depth. I was able to play the game with nice people who I met on vacation and who had not previously had any contact with more complex games. It went really well and was convincing here too. But the Tiny Epics were also great as solo games and were worth it. Where I usually had one big monster with me, I can now simply replace it with three Tiny Epics and have a lot more fun.
In general, the Tiny Epic games definitely have their right to exist. I hope we will see more of these small, highly replayable games in the future because, in my opinion, they are now a must-have for every vacation (and every game collection).
Tiny Epic games at the Spiel in Essen
Gamelyn Games will also be present at the game in Essen and will present deluxe versions of all popular Tiny Epic games. You will also be able to get a first look at the new Tiny Epic Crimes. The games will be available in limited quantities. If you are interested, please visit Gamelyn Games in Hall 5 at Stand 5-C311.
More great reviews are Below!
