Despite the frustration that comes with being at the mercy of the RNG of both dice and cards, Armello is a wonderfully addicting digital board game with solid mechanics and a wonderful design.
Aesthetically, the cards, characters, and board are all visually pleasing. The eccentric theme of animals waging war over the throne lightens up an otherwise dark premise. Ultimately though, it comes down to gameplay, and Armello's design, while not without flaws, is certainly fun. Armello takes deep, complex mechanics and presents it in a fun, fantastical package that's easy to digest.
Armello doesn't completely replicate the feeling of tabletop games, but it's a nice alternative to play with friends who may be long distance. The spirit of tabletop gaming is there, even if all of the designs aren't.
Positives
-
A functional digital board game with a fun premise and compelling mechanics.
-
A clear, concise tutorial that provides a fun way to learn the intimidating rules and seemingly complex mechanics of the game. That being said, it still takes a game or two to fully grasp the mechanics.
-
A simplistic, straightforward story that works with the game’s charming whimsical, yet dark design.
-
A relatively small board that encourages player interaction. Though the board size remains the same, the elements on the map (Swamps that damage your character, mountains that provide defensive bonuses, Dungeons you can explore for treasure) are all procedurally generated each game. This provides a good mix in the way you must approach each game.
-
Nice variety of cards (over 120 in the deck) that are well-balanced and encourage player interaction (mostly by d*cking people over with Tricks and Spells).
-
While general chat with strangers is disabled, playing a game with all friends is fun and exciting. It doesn’t completely replicate the social feeling of playing a board game in real life, with your friends sitting across the table, but it is a nice substitute.
-
Four different clans (each with racial bonuses) and eight different playable heroes (each with unique abilities) provide different layers of strategy in gameplay.
-
Armello doesn’t flat out force confrontations among characters; rather, player interaction exists on a much more strategic level. While you can certainly focus on only killing enemies to earn prestige, there are other ways Armello encourages you to interact with other characters, like playing Trick and Spell cards to hinder an opponent’s progress. Or, as Prestige leader, each round you can select the King’s decree for the day, essentially choosing an effect on all players in the game.
-
Individual quests give you a nice short term goal that provide you with the necessary bonuses and perks to aid you in the overall end game goal of becoming the new King. Participating in these quests also means you must constantly roam the map, encouraging player interaction.
-
While no in-game chat removes the social aspect of board gaming, it doesn’t completely remove the strategy element as you can play cards that essentially encourage alliances. For example, there’s a card that provides you and the person you play the card on with +1 Prestige for every round until one of you dies. This effectively puts you both into an alliance as you’ll want to keep earning this Prestige.
-
At the same time, cards can be played strategically to screw people over. For example, you can place a bounty on a player’s character, encouraging everyone (including the King’s guards) to want to kill that player.
-
Great strategy in how you play a card, even if it’s not how the card intends to be played. Using the same +1 Prestige for two players as an example. It was me, a buddy, and the NPC (Thane) all near each other. In order to avoid Thane attacking me, I played that card on Thane, hoping he’d want to keep me alive to gain the Prestige. It worked, as he walked right past me and instead proceeded to attack my friend. These are the types of bonds you can form with other characters without explicitly saying so.
Negatives
-
Font is too small and oftentimes hard to read.
-
The pre-game preparation feels very short, forcing you to rush your decisions on which character to play as and what special items to equip.
-
Multiplayer games with other human players can play slow. While you can play cards during their turn, the wait for your actual actions can seem a bit long. I found a good balance to be one other person (usually a friend) and two AI opponents.
-
A lot of the fun with board games comes with the social aspect. With no in-game general chat, you lose that feeling of camaraderie. Playing with friends is probably your best option if you’re looking for a true social board gaming experience.
-
Having to achieve certain milestones or meet specific requirements to unlock items to use in game limits the strategy you can employ. For instance, to unlock the ring that provides you with Rot at the beginning of the game, you must first win a game by Rot (killing the King while having more Rot than him). This can be extremely hard to do if other players aren’t helping.
-
Often at the mercy of the dice, which always seem to be against me.
Neutral
-
The mechanics of Armello are intimidating at first and may seem complex, but once you play a game or two, you’ll quickly get the hang of it.
-
Although you’ll ultimately have to adapt to what plays out during the game, it does feel like your shoehorned into a strategy by your pre-game selections. Different victory possibilities (Prestige, Spirit Stones, Rot, or straight-up Kingslayer) allow for different strategy, but it’s almost as if you must predetermine the way in which you want to play prior to the match beginning. It feels like you must pre-select your character and items according to the strategy you hope to employ. For Rot specifically, you’re also at the mercy of your cards.
-
No in-game chat (aside from a few preset phases) removes a layer of strategy, as it makes it difficult to create relationships with other players. That being said, cards exist in the game to encourage alliances without explicitly stating such. Of course, it can be hard to determine a player’s long term strategy when they play a card in the short term. Are they doing it to be in alliance, or are they just waiting to backstab you when your guard is down? This is where the Game of Thrones feel comes from.
-
While Prestige victories seem to be the most common, as Prestige is the tiebreaker, it is definitely possible to win in the other three ways. The hardest part about the other three strategies is actually surviving the confrontation with the King. So if you kill the king, but die, the victor is automatically the person with the most Prestige.
As someone who recently delved into the world of tabletop gaming, the release of Armello couldn’t come at a better time. Armello is League of Geeks’ attempt to revolutionize digital board and card games, combining the deep tactics of card games, the rich strategy of tabletop board games, and the character progression of traditional role-playing systems. It’s all of that neatly packaged into a swashbuckling adventure in which four different clans of fairytale animals battle to claim rule over the whimsical, yet grim Kingdom of Armello.
The premise of Armello is simple, really. The kingdom is in peril; the King corrupted with Rot that’s slowly driving him towards death. With the mad King’s death looming, you and three other hopefuls set out to claim the throne.
There are four ways to secure the throne in Armello: through Prestige, Spirit Stones, Rot, or straight-up killing the King. Throughout the game, completing quests, killing other players, or vanquishing Banes (evil enemy forces) will reward you with Prestige points. The player with the most Prestige at the end of the game (either by turns or by the king dying and killing the challenger) is the winner. Side note, at the beginning of each new round, the player with the highest Prestige is able to implement a new law to go into effect immediately.
Spirit Stones are another path to victory. These can be rewarded for completing certain quests and can also be picked up at various Stonehenges located around the map. Once you have four, you must get into the kingdom and cast them on the King.
Rot and Kingslayer are probably the two most difficult paths to victory as both require you to not only kill the King, but to survive. If you kill the King, but die, the victory is awarded to whoever has the most Prestige. What’s worse is that attacking the King will remove all of your Prestige, so if you fail you are pretty much guaranteeing a loss. Kingslayer only requires you to kill the King and live, while Rot requires you to gather more Rot (by dying to Banes or playing certain cards) than the King and then killing him. As a side note, Rot also affects how much dice you can roll during combat encounters. The player with the most Rot gains the amount of dice equal to the other player’s Rot.
Before each game, you select a character. In addition to the character’s unique ability, he/she is also part of a clan which provides bonuses as well. The basic stats are Health, Fight, Wit, and Spirit. Health is your character’s health, Fight is the amount of dice you roll in combat, and Wit and Spirit are used to resolve Perils (traps) around the map. Additionally, there are four types of currencies that allow you to play cards on your turn: Coins, Magic, Prestige, and Rot.
Dice are the primary way actions and encounters in Armello are resolved. There’s attack and defense for combat, as well as various symbols that are used to resolve Perils. The amount of dice you can roll for Perils are determined by your Wit or Spirit.
There are also cards you can play from your hand. These exist in three decks: Items (weapons, armor and tools you can equip for bonuses), Tricks (traps you can set to hinder your opponent’s progress), and Spells (buffs for your defense or offensive curses to play on other characters).
Combining all of these mechanics, the quest for the throne quickly becomes reminiscent of something you’d see in Game of Thrones. Now that the mechanics are explained, let’s get to the positives and negatives of Armello.
