Description

From the designer:

Chaos Stone the Board Game is a game inspired by the hit-classic, Nexus Ops, this is a first ambitious attempt by a rising designer in the scene, Calixtus Ashley Wee, with aid gained from his friend and first employee, Matthew Zhao. One of the core differences from the game of its homage, is the main issue of having entirely symmetrical playable factions remade into asymmetrical ones. The four factions in the game are fighting for control of the large deposits of Chaos Stones, the namesake of the game, in a moon at the centre of the galaxy.

Each have different methods of engaging the enemy, with The Civilisation of Humanity boasting superior technology and the ability to promote your ordinary troops into higher elite ranks, maintaining its theme of being focussed on defence, as reflected in its regard for the maintenance of the precious lives of humans, as part of the enlightened doctrine that represents the utopian ideas of this advanced Civilisation of the future.

The second faction in the line-up is The Animagusi Coven, a very powerful sect of spellcasters who are adept at wielding magical powers, for which they use the potent concentrate of energy held within the Chaos Stones as fuel for these spells, to commit feats that even the Science of the technologically advanced Humans can barely achieve, for which they have resided in secret within the laws of their society, hidden from knowledge. They are arguably the most interesting of the factions to play, not to mention challenging and the most complex, given your need to manage two decks consisting of either Energetic State Cards, that determine the success rate of spells, or Magical Element Cards, for which are used in combinations in order to synthesise the various magical spells that form their arsenal, to destroy the enemy. Biologically speaking though, they are just a different group of humans with separate goals, but the focus of all factions is eventually the seizing of complete control of the moon that contains these precious Chaos Stones. The Animagusi actually take their names from the shapeshifting powers of their original members, able to transform into different animal forms.

The third faction in this sequence is called The Evolved Bionids. As the name suggests, they have characteristics that puts them in similar categories to the Zerg of StarCraft, or the Tyranids of Warhammer 40,000. They are a very interesting race that is focussed on the macromanagement aspects of a board game, centrally about managing your economy to produce and upgrade your Strains in huge and various amounts, and have the most diversified and myriad of all unit choices, given each Base Strain can be mutated into two Divergent Strains, with distinct and separate utility between their abilities, although you are not restricted from morphing both. The Bionids in fact have management of a secondary resource, as an emphasis of their distinct playstyle focussed around fuelling the pump of this living engine of war, to outproduce and overrun by sheer production of numbers.

The fourth and last, although designed second in order, is The Great Rhuds, the natural residents of this moon that is being contested over. And this moon, which we can call the Lunalode, is prized over precisely because of the presence of its great wealth of Chaos Stones. These powerful objects have a close symbiotic relationship with the Rhuds, in fact the cause for their sentience in the first place. Being rather primitive and unevolved compared to the other sentient beings in the galaxy, they make up for their lack of formidable technology by relying on the Chaos Stones for power, so in comparison to all other factions, they are the ones to utilise the power of the Chaos Stones most directly and efficiently, and depend on them as a technology to engage on par with the other races, for nearly all their weaponry and warfare. A large focus on the Rhuds, or The Great Rhuds as they refer to themselves, since they are arguably the least advanced, they have a reliance on cheap and numerous troops, the usage of speed and mobility through interconnecting tunnels they can create throughout the board, and the potent yet risky power they harness, presented by Chaos Stone Tech Weapons. The sheer power of the Chaos Stones, of which among the four factions, The Great Rhuds are the only ones to tap most directly into with raw effect, and access its potential in the way that it can ultimately or best achieve, make them the most able users of that particular technology.

If you read the categories and mechanics that the game falls under, you will realise it is an ambitious synthesis of many elements, some inspired and taken from other board games, into a complex and elegant whole. How the factions almost have their own mini-game within the mechanics of how they play, and the focus of each separate mechanic makes for very different playing experiences, and differing tactical and strategic approaches to winning the game.

Above all else, to know how the game is like, it is best experienced and played. It is my belief you will enjoy it, and with your support, you can expect the possibility for three expansions already planned.