Tabletop Boardgame - Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms (2016) [+]
Nov 22 2021
Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms is a small 4X fantasy game.
Each player gets a card with their race which has their individual magic powers. As you level up magic you get special abilities themed to your race and sometimes extra victory point goals. I had the Dark Elves and their magic made them better in forests and at highest level they got extra VP for controlling forests.
You get a kingdom card where you place your armies. The cards differ. Each has about five territories and you can move an army from one territory to an adjacent territory. There is impassable barriers (water and mountains) which can make movement difficult. Movement from one card to another is abstract -- you can move an army from any territory to a border territory of another card (border: next to the edge and not blocked from the edge by water or mountains). Some cards have cities but we didn't see any in our game.
Every player gets a record keeping card to track three resources: food, metal, magic. When you collect resources you get one resource per territory you have an army on (you want to spread armies for maximum resources but a territory can only stack two armies so if you double up nobody else can come into that territory). Kingdom cards have corresponding yellow grain, red hills, green forests for the resources. There is also a ruins territory which can give any resource but doesn't count for endgame VP.
You can only have a max of 9 of any resource and can convert resources but only if you're the active player and that action is available. Concentrating on one resource is not the best strategy as I found out.
There are six different actions. On each player's turn they choose an action and do it, other players can copy the action or collect resources. That action is then used up and once five actions are used up all actions become available again.
Actions
1. Move an army from between territories
2. Move an army from one kingdom card to another card
3. Level up your tower (this is only for VP, no other effects, but it's not linear so at high levels it's game-winning VP)
4. Level up magic. This costs magic equal to new magic level.
5. Expand your army by one. Pay food equal to new number of army units.
6. Exchange one resource for another on a 1:1 basis.
When two armies occupy the same territory they must either fight or ally. Combat is hidden payment of resources and the highest point total wins. Metal counts 2 and Magic counts 1. Your magic abilities can give you bonuses.
Alliance just means armies of both players can cohabitate until the players don't have any shared control of any territories. My brother had a race that got bonuses for alliances. Alliances cost nothing in contract combat seems wasteful unless you can do them on the cheap.
The game is supposed to take about 15 minutes and I can see that with experienced players. You get a lot of flavor of having different factions and the only differentiator for each race is what magic powers you get. The kingdom cards give you a bit of area control which I like. There seems to be multiple ways to win though tower building is a bit overpowering and maybe that will make other players beat on the builder.
Overall this game was quite fun even with one introductory playing with two friends and Christopher Jr (who really wanted to play, didn't pay much attention, but could make the easy game decisions when it was his turn).
Each player gets a card with their race which has their individual magic powers. As you level up magic you get special abilities themed to your race and sometimes extra victory point goals. I had the Dark Elves and their magic made them better in forests and at highest level they got extra VP for controlling forests.
You get a kingdom card where you place your armies. The cards differ. Each has about five territories and you can move an army from one territory to an adjacent territory. There is impassable barriers (water and mountains) which can make movement difficult. Movement from one card to another is abstract -- you can move an army from any territory to a border territory of another card (border: next to the edge and not blocked from the edge by water or mountains). Some cards have cities but we didn't see any in our game.
Every player gets a record keeping card to track three resources: food, metal, magic. When you collect resources you get one resource per territory you have an army on (you want to spread armies for maximum resources but a territory can only stack two armies so if you double up nobody else can come into that territory). Kingdom cards have corresponding yellow grain, red hills, green forests for the resources. There is also a ruins territory which can give any resource but doesn't count for endgame VP.
You can only have a max of 9 of any resource and can convert resources but only if you're the active player and that action is available. Concentrating on one resource is not the best strategy as I found out.
There are six different actions. On each player's turn they choose an action and do it, other players can copy the action or collect resources. That action is then used up and once five actions are used up all actions become available again.
Actions
1. Move an army from between territories
2. Move an army from one kingdom card to another card
3. Level up your tower (this is only for VP, no other effects, but it's not linear so at high levels it's game-winning VP)
4. Level up magic. This costs magic equal to new magic level.
5. Expand your army by one. Pay food equal to new number of army units.
6. Exchange one resource for another on a 1:1 basis.
When two armies occupy the same territory they must either fight or ally. Combat is hidden payment of resources and the highest point total wins. Metal counts 2 and Magic counts 1. Your magic abilities can give you bonuses.
Alliance just means armies of both players can cohabitate until the players don't have any shared control of any territories. My brother had a race that got bonuses for alliances. Alliances cost nothing in contract combat seems wasteful unless you can do them on the cheap.
The game is supposed to take about 15 minutes and I can see that with experienced players. You get a lot of flavor of having different factions and the only differentiator for each race is what magic powers you get. The kingdom cards give you a bit of area control which I like. There seems to be multiple ways to win though tower building is a bit overpowering and maybe that will make other players beat on the builder.
Overall this game was quite fun even with one introductory playing with two friends and Christopher Jr (who really wanted to play, didn't pay much attention, but could make the easy game decisions when it was his turn).