Welcome to 3030, and the future in entertainment, as human pilots face off in mechanized combat to determine who is the best. This is Tiny Epic Mechs! Tiny Epic Mechs is a 1-4 arena combat game, where players are pilots of mechanized robots vying to be the champion! Players begin with 2 simple weapons and as they progress, they increase their credits allowing them to upgrade into power armor suits and eventually try to take control of the super-powerful mighty mech! But the arena is filled with turrets and mines laid out by the other competitors working to stop you. It’s every pilot for themself in this free for all future gladiator arena!
To start, each player chooses a pilot and gathers the power armor, tokens, and pilot card of their chosen color. There are tokens that keep track of their credits (income), energy, health on their player board. In addition, each player receives 4 mine and 3 turret tokens and one to record their points on the scorecard. The game is played over 6 rounds and the player who has the highest score wins. Finally, each player receives 8 program cards also in their color which they will use to take actions and to move around the arena.
Once each player has set up chosen their pilot and set up their player board, give each player a base card in their color. Take the resource cards, following the layout based on the player count, and create the arena. The first player then places their base card on any side of the arena they choose. The remaining players then place their base on opposite sides of the arena until all bases are laid out. Each player selects one of their 4 mines, and places it in their home base. Take the mighty mech and place it on the mighty mech tile.
Separate the basic and advanced weapons cards into two piles and shuffle the advanced weapons, placing the top 4 out in a row. Give each player one of each basic weapon, allowing them to keep 2. Take the remaining basic weapons and create separate piles for each one. Finally, take an item meeple for the corresponding weapon and attach it to your meeple pilot. place your meeple on your base and you are ready to begin.
Each round of the game consists of 3 phases; the program, execution, and scoring. In the program phase, each player selects 4 program cards that they want to execute for this round. Each program card gives a direction on how the player chooses to move their pilot and what action the player will take. It is important to remember direction and facing when deciding movement for your pilot. The actions a player can choose from are; collect resources, purchase a weapon, deploy a turret or mine, and power up.
Collecting resources allows a player to collect one matching resource energy or credits, based on the zone that they occupy or have a turret or mine in.
To purchase a weapon, a player pays the credits for the weapon and then replaces or attaches it to their pilot, power armor, or the mighty mech. It is important to note that a pilot can only carry two basic weapons at a time. However, a pilot can use 2 advanced weapons and 2 basics when equipped in power armor and can use 4 advanced weapons when controlling the mighty mech. Also, once a weapon is purchased, it can be immediately attached to the pilot, armor, or mech.
To deploy a turret, the player pays the appropriate cost in credits or energy to place a turret or mine in a zone. A mine costs the credits based on zones value while a turret costs the zones value in energy. For example, a level 2 zone would require 2 credits to place a mine or 2 energy to place a turret. If an opponent enters a zone with another player’s mine, that mine is revealed and the damage is given to the player based on that mines strength. That mine is then returned to the owner. A turret deals damage equal to the zone’s value and remains in the zone if it deals enough damage to KO the player. If not, it is also returned to its owner.
To power-up, a player either pays 5 credits to enter their power armor (upgrade) or heal (regain 2 health). A player may also enter the mighty mech if they are 1) In power armor and 2) at full health. If a player meets these 2 criteria and they are in the zone where the mighty mech is and it is unoccupied, they may take control of it. Once a player is in the mighty mech they cannot voluntarily leave it. A player can only leave the mighty mech if it has taken enough damage to KO it. When that occurs, the player immediately removes their pilot from the mech and moves to the closest zone in their pilot status.
If a player ever enters a zone occupied by another player, combat begins. Combat is simultaneous where each player chooses one of their equipped weapons and deals the damage listed on it. Some circumstances will allow a player to make a power attack. Each type of attack has a corresponding power attack where the opponent can choose to counter an attack based on the weapon type. For example, a melee attack can be countered by a ranged attack and a ranged attack can be countered by a zone attack. Once a player uses a weapon, unless an ability says otherwise, that weapon is tapped and cannot be used for the remainder of the combat. Combat will continue until each player has exhausted all their weapons. The player that has taken the most damage or is KO’d loses the combat and must retreat to the nearest unoccupied zone. If a player is KO’d they immediately go into ad hoc mode, by taking up their remaining program cards and can select anyone to use even ones already used until the end of the round.
If a player is KO’d in pilot mode, they return to their base zone, return to full health and start again with at least 2 credits and 2 energy. If a player is in power armor, they return to pilot status and retreat to the closest unoccupied zone. If in the mighty mech, they abandon the mech, return to pilot status and retreat to the closest unoccupied zone.
After all of the players have executed their programs and taken their actions, players move to the scoring phase. Players will score points for damaging their opponent, taking control of the might mech and for the zones they control. Players gain points in the 2nd, fourth and final round for the number of zones they control. The game ends after the 6th round and the player with the most victory points is the winner.
Tiny Epic Mechs is not what I thought it was, and like Clank, I was pleasantly surprised. Mechanically, I really enjoy this game. I think it takes a good strategy to plan your moves out and control the zones that will benefit you the most. Combat is fast and brutal, you fight until you can fight no more or get knocked out. What I like is that just because you lose a round, does not mean you are out of the game and still have the chance to win. I think the use of cards over dice, reduces the randomness and having the opportunity to develop your own strategy and make choices as to who to fight and who to try to avoid are great elements in this game.
Component wise, it stands up to the other games in the Tiny Epic line, nice wooden tokens, good quality card stock, and like all their games, very portable. I love that the Tiny Epic games retain a fair amount of complexity while still being so small. One can carry several Tiny Epic games, in the same space as one larget game.
Recently, Gamelyn games just wrapped up the Kickstarter for the latest in the Tiny Epic line, Tiny Epic Pirates. look for that in the summer of 2020.
In summary, if you are looking for a challenging game that lets you make decisions and requires thinking ahead like chess, and if you enjoy the theme of mechanized combat, then Tiny Epic Mechs may be one to consider.
Written by Ed Carter
