Can you and your very diverse group of friends (a merman, an orc, an elf and many others) protect the Augmoore kingdom from many kinds of evil and destruction? Are you true Tiny Epic Defenders or rather Tiny Epic Cowards?
Tiny Epic Defender is a cooperative game in the Tiny Epic series by Scott Almes and published by Gamelyn games. In Tiny Epic Defenders, the capital city is under attack by various monsters and a great evil. Many bad guys are targeting Augmoore. All the more so in the expansion. Only together (or solo in the solo mode) can the monsters be defeated!
Players set up the empire, which consists of five large double-sided cards with different locations. Each round, a pile (one turn) of cards is worked through by the players. These cards depict events such as monster attacks or player turns. When a normal monster attacks, locations lose strength. As soon as a location has no more power, this location is destroyed and monsters can also attack the capital. Dire monsters are slightly stronger and in addition to an attack, a special negative event often occurs.
When a card is drawn on a player’s turn, one or more players may take actions such as moving, special actions of locations or restoring locations. If a player stands on a location that is under attack, a player can fight the monster in exchange for his own life points.
When all cards have been drawn, a card is added from the horde pile and the cycle takes place again. When the horde pile is empty, the big evil comes. If players manage to defeat the great evil, they win. They lose if the capital is destroyed.
Defenders is a cooperative game that is somewhat reminiscent of Pandemic. Players take actions and cards are drawn that make things happen in Augmoore. However, players’ actions are contained in the same pile of cards as the actions of evil. This pile grows and is shuffled. You know what’s coming, but not exactly when, and time really starts to run out, because the evil will take more and more actions and you will take less and less. Because of this mechanism, I find it a nice puzzle and a nice change from the cooperative mechanism you might already know. Another nice element is that when you defend against dire monsters you receive artifacts that can help you in battle. This way it is always a surprise how you will cope with the battle. A simple game full of dilemmas that I like to hoist on my shield!
