KommunistKoala posted...
I think I prefer Dice Throne for my Yahtzee dice chucking game but King of Tokyo / New York with some expansions thrown in is still fun
I'm with you there! Which I guess is obvious considering I haven't ranked Dice Throne yet.
19. Inis
Expansions Played: None
This writeup is probably going to be less than this game likely deserves, because it's among the games in my collection that's been played the least. Hasn't even hit the table since my wife joined the group, and... I'm not 100% sure why that is, but I have some ideas.
On paper, Inis should very much be my jam. It shares mechanics and design philosophies with at least half the games yet to be ranked in higher tiers. Drafting, political negotiation and table talk, multiple paths to victory, simple rules with a lot of room for clever strategy, all wrapped up in gorgeous artwork. But in our limited plays, it just never seemed to sing like expected.
This is an area control game that is very polite as regards the "control" part. Players start off being all up in each other's business and stay that way for the whole game, but combat isn't just triggered by two players being in the same area. Specific cards have to be played, and even then, players have the option of agreeing to end things before they get too bloody. Inis doesn't want you to gain influence and power by just wantonly killing everyone else - it wants you to be clever about it and to really think about when it's advantageous. It also becomes a case of mutually assured destruction in some cases, because the map is so small (especially on earlier turns) that it can often be quite easy for another player to benefit more than the attacker by swooping in and gaining a foothold where forces have been depleted,
especially
when you consider that the map also contains Citadels that serve as totally safe havens in which players can completely hide forces from the destruction happening around them.
But also, there will be plenty of times you might not even really have the option to do any of this. Actions in Inis take the form of cards that each do something very specific and, in the grand scheme of things, very minor and simple. Options to do something as mundane as moving or putting new forces down are relatively limited, so you have to figure out ways to do a lot with a little. These cards are drafted as in 7 Wonders: take one and pass. All forms of action selection in board games are effectively opportunity cost mechanisms - doing one thing means you're choosing not to do another - but in Inis, you're also denying that thing to everyone else, which is equally important.
It manages to do something interesting with the endgame as well. Once you've met one of the victory conditions (which are, broadly, widely spreading out your forces, controlling certain structures, or having control over enough other players' forces), Inis requires you to use your turn to take a token that basically serves as a megaphone shouting "I'M GOING TO WIN!" If you still meet the condition when play gets back around to you, you do indeed win. I can never decide how I feel about this, because it feels like it should drive an exciting end with every player desperately trying to stop the one in the driver's seat, but it just never ends up being as climactic as it sounds.
Inis is a very, very smart design. "Elegance" is a word that's kind of become a meme in the board game community for how overused it is, but it really does fit this one. It's a title with a lot of strategic depth and potential for getting even deeper with each repeat play, and it does all that with minimal rules to learn. But I wonder if it's maybe a little
too
elegant. You do so little on any one turn that you only ever feel like you've gotten a few tiny inches closer to victory, and while that definitely creates tension, it also creates a game that feels like it's not all that FUN.
I like Inis. I think it's better designed than some of the games still yet to drop on this list - in some cases, significantly so. But the majority of the time, if I stare at my shelf trying to pick a box to bring out, it just feels so mundane compared to other games that are much more messy and loosey-goosey. Games like this normally bring an enjoyment that extends beyond the last card played or die rolled, where every player sits back in their chair and tries to point toward that one bombastic move that won or lost them the game and learn from it. Inis doesn't have those moments because it doesn't have bombastic moves. And I hesitate to call that a flaw, because it's... Not, really. It's very much intentional and a big part of why this game is good. But it's also why I have yet to have an experience that makes me think it's
great.
Seriously, though, returning to the artwork for a second, this game's look is incredible. I know that's the coldest take ever but it needs to be said anyway. Inis makes the absolute most out of its limited amount of cards and map tiles and commits to making them all beautiful and distinct. It's almost easy to get distracted during the drafting stage just appreciating the cards, and though I guess it's kind of a silly thing to praise, I love how big they are too. More board games should go Celtic, is what I'm saying.
Collection Status and Future Outlook:
Owned by me, and doing this writeup has really made me want to bust it out soon. Popular opinion seems to be that this game is best at four players, and I think the group is better equipped to handle a game like this now than we may have been when we last gave it a shot. This game ticks so many of my boxes that I could see it really exploding up the ranking if we finally get that session that clicks. Otherwise, I'll probably be looking to trade it, though, because as of now, it doesn't do anything that some other game in my collection doesn't do better.