Inis Board Game

Product Information

The action cards fall into two types, Triskel and Season. Season cards are those you can play as your action, which will generally allow you to recruit troops in some manner, move your clans (which may start a battle), explore a new tile on the map or gain an epic deed card. The chieftain of each territory takes that territory's matching Advantage card. If a territory does not have a chieftain, the Advantage card stays faceup near the play area. At the end of the Assembly phase, each player has four Action cards in hand and maybe some Advantage and Epic Tale cards. Sanctuary: A place of worship. Being present in territories with Sanctuaries is one of the three victory conditions, and placing new Sanctuaries in a territory allows a player to draw an Epic Tale card.

A player is considered “chieftain” of a given territory when he has more units there than any other player. Be chieftain over 6 of your opponents’ units, and you have satisfied another victory condition. On your turn you can play a card, pass, or take a pretender token if you meet a victory condition. But remember this doesn’t let you win until another phase, so other players can potentially take your hard-earned victory condition away.There are two building types: Citadels and Sanctuaries. There is no limit to the number of buildings a territory can contain. If a player attempts to place a new building in a territory, but there are no more buildings of this type in the reserve, he cannot place this type of building. A clash occurs when one or more clans are moved to a territory where any opposing clans are already present. Also, some card effects can cause clashes to occur without any clans moving. A clan that is "placed" in a territory (such as the "New Clans" Action card) does not initiate a clash.

At the start of each round, players draft a hand of four action cards (with 13 action cards for three players and 17 for four players) during the Assembly. Action cards not played at the end of one season are not held for the next. Players also have access to leader cards for the territories that allow it and where they were elected leader during the assembly. Each Assembly reallocates those cards. Finally, they collect "epic tales" cards that depict the deeds of the ancient Irish gods and heroes, like Cuchulainn, the Dagda, Lugh and many others. These will be kept and used to inspire the clans and achieve extraordinary feats...under the right circumstances. The cards provide a variety of actions: adding clans, moving clans, building/exploring, and special actions.

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Deed tokens can be gained through certain actions and allow you to use them to reduce the victory target (i.e. instead of requiring you to have people in six different areas, you could have four with two deeds tokens). So it is any good? Religion: Have your clans present in territories that collectively contain at least six sanctuaries. Battles can be important in determining chieftains, which not only helps you on to your way to one of the victory conditions, but gains you an advantage card. These are cards specific to each territory which is claimed during the first phase by the chieftain of that territory. They range from pretty useless (I'm thinking of you, swamp) to allowing you to swap an action card, or gain an advantage in battle. Inis is a really brilliant game that I can't recommend highly enough. Whilst it may initially appear to be a war game (especially when played with just two players), it soon becomes apparent with higher player counts that a long protracted war will often leave those players affected at a significant disadvantage to the other players. Leadership:Be the leader — i.e., have more clan figures than any other player — of territories containing at least six opponents’ clans.

Now, Inis (pronounced in-ish) is a fantastic game, because it takes the kingmaking problem and explicitly makes a game about making a king, though not exactly in the way you might be thinking. The board and the cards that will drive play. Let’s Be Pretenders to the Throne The drafting mechanic works well. All actions cards bar one are used in every round, so you know which other cards are held by the other players, just not which player has which card and every round has tough decisions. Which card do you play? Some cards have two very valid options. Will they agree to a truce if you invade or is it going to result in a brutal war? In a war, should you throw away that really useful action card or lose your last man? The game is extremely simple and accessible, but it presents an incredible amount of flexibility and decisions. It is the extreme of clean design, deep choices, and a lot of variation between plays. The game is extremely interactive, to the point that it makes it quite a reactive game, with nobody really being able to snowball a lead because there are consistent answers that people can have to any kind of lead. You see victory coming many turns in advance, and there is plenty of opportunity to try to prevent a victory while setting yourself up for a victory in the future. The game has an incredible amount of replayability. We've gotten to the point that we know all of the red and yellow cards by name, and the red cards add a huge amount of variety to every game. 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. In a 2- or 3-player game, return the Action 1 cards that have a 4 in the bottom- right corner to the box; they are used only in a 4-player game.

Clashes

At the start of each round, players draft a hand of four action cards (with 13 action cards for three players and 17 for four players) during the Assembly. Action cards not played at the end of one season are not held for the next. Players also have access to leader cards for the territories that allow it and where they were elected leader during the assembly. Each Assembly reallocates those cards. Finally, they collect “epic tales” cards that depict the deeds of the ancient Irish gods and heroes, like Cuchulainn, the Dagda, Lugh and many others. These will be kept and used to inspire the clans and achieve extraordinary feats…under the right circumstances. The cards provide a variety of actions: adding clans, moving clans, building/exploring, and special actions. 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!

The artwork on both the box and cards is very unique, bright and distinctive, which really brings Inis to life. 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. These are in a strange pseudo triangle shape that tessellate together in the style of a jigsaw. 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.Then we're on to the main thrust of this phase, the drafting of the action cards. This is where you select one from your starting hand of four and pass the rest on, before passing two from four and finally three from four, leaving you with a hand of four cards. At the start of every round, players draft a hand of four action cards during the Assembly. Action cards that are not played at the end of one season are lost. Also, players have access to leader cards for the territories that allow it and where they were elected leader during the assembly. Each Assembly reallocates those cards. Finally, players collect "epic tales" cards that depict the deeds of the ancient Irish heroes and gods, like Lugh, Cuchulainn, the Dagda, and many others. These will be kept and used to inspire the clans and achieve extraordinary feats when the right circumstances arise. The cards provide a variety of actions: moving clans, adding clans, building/exploring, and special actions.