Gameplay Overview: Why Relic Knights?

Now that Relic Knights Second Edition has been announced and we have discussed the basic mechanics, it’s time to talk about what sets this game apart. There are lots of choices out there in terms of miniature games, and they all have certain things in common. They provide an experience where players can choose, assemble, and paint an army and really make it their own. They are also highly thematic, allowing you to play-out intense action on the tabletop with beautiful terrain and flavorful rules. Finally, they rely heavily on positioning, creating a tactical challenge for experienced gamers. However, each miniature game takes its own unique spin on the genre, so what does Relic Knights have to offer?

Relic Knights has masterful resource management, forcing you to choose the best time to strike and unleash your most powerful attacks. Unlike most miniature games, Relic Knights uses cards instead of dice to determine whether actions succeed. This allows you to use cards from your hand to guarantee that your attacks succeed rather than simply relying on the fickle whims of dice. However, that doesn’t mean you always get what you want! You only have so many cards in your hand, so you have to ration them and decide which actions are the most important, creating interesting tactical choices.

Units in Relic Knights also gain “power tokens” if they don’t activate. These tokens can be discarded for special attacks or abilities, or be used simply to get extra cards. These tokens are another interesting resource to play with, and they create the cinematic anime narrative of a character standing in the back of the battle glowing and screaming before unleashing an attack that annihilates his enemies!

Most miniature games end after a specific number of rounds have been played. While this is a fine and long-established way to end a game, it can often leave you wondering what would happen if you had gotten one more turn. Such an ending can feel arbitrary and a bit incomplete at times. In Relic Knights there are no rounds, and the game ends as soon as one player has enough victory points to win! This way you are never left wondering what could have happened, and the game ends on a climactic note at the height of an epic combat or tactical decision that got you your final points.

Positioning your models to do the most damage to your opponent while keeping them safe is a key skill in any miniature game, but Relic Knights has a unique spin on it. Shooting and psychic attacks in Relic Knights have infinite range, as technology in the Last Galaxy is brutal and efficient. This means that keeping your units from being seen by the enemy is the only way to make sure they aren’t attacked. Finding cover and using terrain is even more important in Relic Knights than it is in most other miniature games! However, your units don’t have to sit out in the open any time they want to attack.

In Relic Knights, when a unit activates, it gets to move, then it gets to take an action, then it may move again. This allows your units to pop up, get off a shot, then run to the next piece of cover. The combination of infinite range with Relic Knights’ unique move-action-move system creates a dynamic and intense experience where you’re always running to the next piece of terrain and always looking for the next angle for the perfect shot.

Deployment zones are something that you typically see in a miniatures game. They determine where each player can deploy her units at the start of the game, but they can sometimes lead to an uneventful first turn where each player is simply getting their units into position. Relic Knights does not use deployment zones. Instead, players take turns placing units onto the board, simply adhering to the restriction that they can’t be too close to an enemy unit or objective. This means that the action starts as soon as the game starts! There is no downtime, as soon as you draw your first hand of esper cards, you’re in an intense fight for survival. This method of deployment also helps to give melee units an edge in a game where every gun can shoot across the entire board!

Relic Knights has all the best qualities of any miniature game you have come to know and love. However, the mechanics that make it stand out create a fast-paced, intense game where resource management and shrewd positioning determine the winner. So what are you waiting for? The Last Galaxy awaits the knights that will save it, or watch it burn…