A couple times I've seen this neat looking game being played by gaming customer Mike and Demo Guy John.
LordNth: "So how many can play this game?"
Demo Guy John: "Two. But online there is rules for adding players"
LordNth: "How do you win?"
Mike: "Placing all the wooden dudes from this card onto play"
John: "Colonizing your meeples onto forts and settlements."
Mike: "Or getting 20 coins, but that'll never happen."
LordNth: "So you're about to win Mike?"
Mike: "Sure. I've seen this before. One attack and he'll knock out this one Fort and return half my guys to this card."
John: "The game is set up so Victory isn't quite a sure thing and you can get knocked off from winning really easily."
LordNth: "You guys played this a few weeks ago. How long is game play?"
Mike: "He wins really quickly."
Dice rattle and the Fort is destroyed. John wins a few turns later.
A small box for $30 retail. that might put people off for this little box designed for 2 players.
Very nice looking box and artwork.
Lots of game pieces.
Metal coins, and not just circles. Gives a period feel to the game.
Bonus points to any game that tries to give metal coins with the game.
Hmmm, what games use ships and meeples?
This allows easy replacement pieces or easy to find pieces if you're going to add a few more players.
Wooden resource cubes. You need these to build strong forts.
Colorful cards with easy to read font.
The cards come from the same pile, but they are Outposts and Forts...
Fort upgrades in the form of buildings. These are how you get $ and a little repair to the forts you attach them to.
Ships to give you abilities and special to use during attacks.
Game set up is super easy.
then you do 3 things.
1. Check to see if you won. You only win on the beginning of your turn.
2. Colonize your outposts and Forts.
3. Choose to do one of the following.
a. draws cards
b.play a card (build upgrades, ships or new forts)
c. attack using the dice.
So I have options on my first turn.
Build an upgrade and move the required number number of Meeples from the fort to the upgrade attached to that fort.
Upgrades give you special powers. Mostly during attacks or changing results of attacks.
Attack by placing your ship on the Fort you wish to attack.
Attacks have a first shot. And then a second effect. That could be a second volley or gathering resource cubes.
Here I have 2 grey pieces get destroyed and the a second volley where I chose white to be removed.
Or I reroll any dice that's not the primary attack color (this time it was grey), and any color that not in the primary attack I gather resources of that color from the supply pile.
If you choose to draw cards you draw 3 giving one to your opponent.
So after just a few rounds, Yellow has 2 Forts, and colonized a few Meeples in short time. And has gotten some coins.
While a quick glance says yellow is ahead, Yellow is out of resource cubes, with little options left in cards to play.
While Red could Draw Cards, Build or Attack. He's not placing as many Meeples but has a ship that gives him abilities during attacks.
So if red attacks again, yellow will lose this Fort and half his Meeples will return to the starting card.
yellow plays a card on the stronger Fort, gaining money and the ability to retain Meeples that are destroyed in an attack.
I've played a half dozen games. I haven't played with all the cards, and haven't played more than 2 players (I got the game used with it set up with option pieces for 3/4 players). I do find that being close to Victory doesn't mean you will have it. Any player can remove victory from your grasp in just a turn and then try to grab it for themselves. I do find that early you want a few extra cards to choose from and extra Resource Cubes to make those cards stay around longer.
This is really an over simplified example as there is a whole section on placing Supply Cubes on Forts to increase the resistance to dice roll Attacks.
But it's simple to read, not to terribly difficult to understand the rules and a good replay value.
If I didn't find this Used I was going to fork over the full retail for a standard 2 player game.
As you can gather from the into, it's not for everyone.
gathering Island Siege a 4/5 rating from me.
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