Maybe the Valkyries would use up their supply of mana in a battle, giving me a chance later on to research without giving them the opportunity to level up.

Now, you might be thinking that my optimal move was to avoid researching for the time being. The Non-Obvious Solution Is Sometimes The Best Solution The problem was, if I took the research action (exchanging mana for a level-up), the pesky Valkyries would also be allowed to research - and their third level forces everyone else to lose three resources. More importantly, the dippy Merfolk had recently moved onto my map and I was looking to push them off. I’d been eying my third magic level for a while because it makes the Orcs better in combat, and everyone knows an Orc loves a good fight. For example, in one recent match I was playing as the Orcs. The trick is that when you pick an action, each other player also gets to take it, so the best course of action is usually to quietly figure out which action will benefit you without helping everyone else at the same time. There are six in total, including a couple that let you move your guys around your map or onto other players’ maps, a few that let you spend your ore, mana, and food to further your goals, and the final trade action, which is mostly the spot you’ll pick when you want to block someone from doing something better. On each turn, a player picks an action, marking it off on the action board. From there, the goal is four-fold: expand your population, learn magic, build the tower, and conquer city spaces. While the maps and races might be Tiny Epic Kingdom’s more flashy components, its beating heart is found in its action system.Įach game sees players settling a pair of meeples on their own personal map tile. Pick An Action, Any Action (other than the previously picked ones) So instead, let’s talk about what makes TEK stand on its own. Personally, I like Eight-Minute Empire a bit better, but as I mentioned above, I don’t think the two games are really all that similar. Whether playing as the alliance-abusing Halflings or the tower-building Dwarves, each of the game’s thirteen races come with their own distinct feel, and it’s a lot of fun learning what makes each of them tick.ĭoes this make it a better game than Eight-Minute Empire? No idea. These different races are possibly the most mesmerizing of TEK’s offerings. It’s longer, giving you a bit more time to develop your fledgeling kingdom it sees you managing more resource types, and in general it’s more complex, with a variety of different actions, including a race to build an enormous tower and a tech tree ladder to climb and, most impressively, a big old pile of maps to expand across and races to play as. For me, the appeal of a game like Eight-Minute Empire is in its simplicity and ease of play, and Tiny Epic Kingdoms ramps it up on pretty much every front. The question, then, is whether TEK is an Eight-Minute buster. Tiny Epic Kingdoms is also compact - smaller than either of the 8ME boxes, in fact - also smart, also quick, and also generally easy on the eyes. And while I don’t think the two are really all that similar, it’s easy to see why people have been making the comparison. I’ve noticed a few folks drawing parallels between Tiny Epic Kingdoms and two of my favorite games from last year, Eight-Minute Empire and its sequel Eight-Minute Empire: Legends, which were standouts for their tiny boxes, smart and quick gameplay, and Ryan Laukat’s gorgeous artwork.

Space biff squamos