Game summary:
A game for 1 – 4 players
Play time 30 – 60 minutes
Designer: Scott Almes
Artist: Roland MacDonald
Publisher: Gamelyn Games
Unboxing
This tiny game box contains the following components:
1 Rulebook
8 Pilot Cards
1 Mighty Mech card
4 Player cards
1 Score card
1 Round card
21 Zone cards
32 Weapon cards
32 Program cards
4 Ad Hoc Mode cards
4 ITEMeeples
4 Power Armors
1 Mighty Mech
32 Weapon Items
46 Wooden Tokens
Here you see an example of a Mighty Mech with the Pilot cards and power armor and a few weapons.
Here you see a few Pilot Cards
Let’s get it to the table
It’s the year 3030, and technology offers humankind unimaginable entertainment. What used to be virtual reality is now reality. Once every five years, hundreds of millions of viewers tune in to witness the spectacle that is M.E.C.H.s: Mechanized Entertainment Combat Heroes.
Tiny Epic Mechs is an arena player-vs-player action-programming game. Players take the roles of skilled and athletic Mech Pilots where you compete in a free for all battle over six rounds.
In each round you’re going to program your actions and execute them in order. With these actions you move around the arena while you place defensive turrets or a mine, purchase weapons, collect resources, power up your armor and even you can take control of the Mighty Mech.
But when stepping in a zone with another player you have to battle with your opponent. During this combat you can use one weapon at a time until a player has exhausted and must retreat. When a player has been defeated that Mech has to respawn at their base.
Dealing damage to your opponent will earn you points which will bring you closer to victory. After round 2, 4 and 6 players will earn victory points. You can score points for having control over Zones with your Mech, Mines and Turrets and for controlling the Mighty Mech. After the 6th round, players also score points for each weapon they’ve purchased.
Each game consists of 6 rounds, per round you have the following 3 phases:
1. Programming; players choose 4 program cards at the same time and lay them down in front of them. Place the cards so that you want to carry out the steps from left to right, so look carefully which way you want to go.
2. Execution; once all players have chosen the 4 program cards. The starting player starts by turning over and performing the action on the first card, after that the next player.
During this phase you can move but also perform other actions like collecting resources, buying weapons, deploy a min or a turret or power up.
While moving you can also get into a fight with one of the other Mech Pilots in the arena.
3. Scoring; in rounds 2, 4 and 6 (the last round) the points are counted. You get points for the zones where you have stands, mines & Turrets. If you also control the Mighty Mech then you score points for that as well.
A few examples of some program cards
The Mighty Mech with 3 weapons
An example of a player card
A few examples of some weapon cards
Final Conclusion & rating:
Weight: 2.4 / 5
Replayability: 7
My rating: 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲 🎲
Overall impression of the game
Tiny Epic Mechs has an interesting component. You first choose cards with actions you want to perform and then you turn over the cards with the actions depicted on them. But the fun part is that you first turn over a card and then the next player until everyone has turned over 1 card, until everyone is done and all 4 cards have been turned over.
This does make it a lot of fun but also a lot of tricky planning. But the mines or turrets can also be very nasty, the mines can just cause you to reach zero health at the wrong moment, which means you will be KO.
In the middle of the arena you got the Mighty Mech, which together with your Meeple and weapons looks really impressive and you feel very Mighty once you have it in your possession.
The only thing I would recommend is to buy a mat, this makes playing the game much more fun and convenient. The cards all stay on the table just a little better.
I want to thank Gamelyn Games for sending me a review copy and giving me the possibility to review Tiny Epic Mechs.
