ESCAPE to EDEN

I was all set to put up a post about how I am slow walking the tabletop gaming side of the hobby because of health issues, time issues etc. All familiar excuses of course, and just before I wrote it, something weird happened.

I actually played a skirmish game! Unplanned (which was probably why it happened because if I HAD planned it, you bet it would never have happened!)

The game?

An extremely obscure French tabletop skirmish game called Eden. It’s set in a post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian future where several different factions fight it out for power, resources, wealth etc. You know, the usual.

I initially got into this because of the board game put out by the same company, using the same minis/models/characters/factions/background lore as the tabletop skirmish game. The board game also came with cards to play the tabletop skirmish game with. Win-win!

Except… prior to September, I only played Eden once. I did remember I liked the game:

• Activation sequence was cool. You CAN bid Strategy Points to take the initiative (die roll + points) BUT… when you do win the initiative and you want to activate your first model, and if your opponent has a model with higher Speed than yours, they can pay a Strategy Point to go first! Very tense.
• Damage is taken via locations on the body (Head, torso, arms/legs) with a corresponding downgrade to your abilities if you take too much damage.
• Tactical cards can be played at various points in the game (depending on the card) and you pay Strategy Points to play those cards.

Otherwise, the game’s pretty standard. Roll d6’s plus your stat to see if you succeed or fail in a task. Each model gets 3 actions and you can ‘bank’ an action to defend yourself when you’re not the active model. This is important because if you DON’T have an AP left to defend yourself with, the opponent model essentially gets a free strike at your model. So that adds another layer of tactical choices to be made. Go all out, push your luck and hope to score points… or play conservatively.

To set up a scenario, you draw mission cards so both sides might have different mission objectives.

In my game, there were 2 factions: ISC (Robotic Overlords) and the Resistance (mostly human/cyborgs).

Resistance mission: Discover the secret Underground hideout (One of the 3 tokens - indicated by the white arrows - is the door to the secret underground hideout). You have to explore each one to find out. Score points for each model that exits via this secret entrance.

ISC mission: Reconnaissance: the map’s divided into 9 quadrants (indicated by the sticks and tokens marked in red arrows per the photo above) and if an ISC mini is in a quadrant and not in base to base contact with an opponent, they score max points for that quadrant at the end of the round. The token is to indicate a one time bonus score. If the same mini is still in that same quadrant at the end of the round, they can still score, but less VPs are awarded.

GAMEPLAY

There was lots of back and forth.

At first the ISC went after their mission objectives, figuring to outscore the Resistance. 

Resistance managed to discover the hidden entrance on the second try… but still have to break down the wall to reveal the door.

ISC devoted one model to try and prevent Resistance minis from exiting (while the other minis score points).

Lots of exciting combat. But the fact you can try to Dodge or Riposte (attack back) really makes both sides very involved in the outcome of each combat. Unless you don’t have any APs left to defend yourself with.

Here, the ISC Blue Rikishi used its Electrical Charge to throw both Ashton and Alice back. Ashton was unhurt but Alice slammed into a wall, sustaining some damage. Luckily, nothing that was crippling.

The tiny bot that could - Freedom - managed to dodge the attacks of the more capable Black Ubume.

In the end, the Resistance managed to exit all their minis (luck played a part) but only managed to gain the max 100 VPs.

Meanwhile, the ISC managed to grab more VPs and I can see that the ISC should just go for VPs, leaving it up to the Resistance to stop them instead of the other way around. 

If anyone is interested to check this out, rules and card downloads are available here: 

http://www.taban-miniatures.com/downloads.html

TL; DR: I do like the game mechanics. There’s definitely something different here, and the 3 action economy is refreshing compared to most skirmish games (very much like Space/Sword Weirdos). However, I’m in the process of streamlining my games due to the shortage of time I now have to actually PLAY said games. So… my pruned, updated list will be available soon. I hope. Because October is also Solotober Month on BGG and I’m trying to play a least 1 game a day even if it’s a quick 30-minute, small box game.

So we shall see.

PS. Excuse the unpainted minis. This is actually my spare set from the Escape board game. The primary set of minis from the Kickstarter are in the process of being painted… (at least they now have some paint on them, and the slap chop white has been improved.) 

That's the ISC faction above. Below is the Resistance.