Inis

Inis is a card drafting area control game with some interesting game end conditions and striking art. Although card drafting and area control are unusual bedfellows they have been done successfully before notably in Cmon’s Blood Rage. Inis has a few tricks up it’s sleeves though. It’s theme is set in Celtic lore with players attempting to become the King of the Islands - Inis. To do this players can attempt to earn one or more of three victory conditions. The trouble is when you have achieve one or more of them you must signal this to the other players by taking a pretender token. Of course this gives the other players a chance to counter act your carefully laid plans.

This means that Inis becomes a battle to not only achieve a win condition but either do it in such a way that it becomes impossible for the other players to combat, or go all out on every win condition and hope that it’s enough. This feels like a great evolution of the shifting victory points in Kemet and makes Inis feel different to other games.

Although battle is a part of the game you can’t just go and stomp all over the other players, well you can but not if you want to win! This part of the game is a big part of the appeal as the battle of the minds is as important as the battle over territory. But let’s not forget the cards you draft too. The drafting isn’t a straight forward draft one pass the rest but includes some interesting decisions to make to get you to your hand to 4 cards. Inis is a fantastic looking and playing game!

Players: 2-4

Time: 60 Minutes

Age: 14+