Description

Mêlée is a maneuver and fight, dice-less card game of medieval hand-to-hand combat. The game is for two or more players. It recreates combat with playing cards that represent individual warriors and warhorses. In game play, Mêlée is like a traditional miniatures game, except that it uses cards rather than miniatures -- i.e., a miniatures game without the miniatures -- making it very affordable. Multiple sets of decks are being manufactured, allowing it to serve as a collectible.

Battles are fought on a table top, upon an imagined grid of card-sized columns and ranks. Alternatively, players may either create their own or purchase a large scale roll up play mat so that spacing is more visually apparent, though this is not required by any means.

The game is designed for simplicity and ease of play. It is challenging and enables fast-paced play in 30 minutes or less, even when there are 50 warriors or more on each side. The biggest limitation is the size of the gaming table available, rather than the cost or availability of armies of warrior cards.

The game designer's goal was to make a medieval combat game that cuts out the many complexities that often bog down miniatures combat games. Instead, the focus was on rendering a more historically realistic experience on the battlefield with colorful and unique coats of arms carried by each warrior, as depicted in large size on the cards. Launched through Kickstarter, the first sets of the game had cards that were sponsored by individual backers whose names and coats of arms appeared on each warrior card.

While most miniatures and fighting/combat games use various forms of hit points, unit points, and strengths, and these are slowly degraded in various engagements with dice rolling, routing, critical hits, and so forth, Mêlée is different. There is no extensive paperwork and unit tracking round by round. There are no chits or markers to indicate wounded warriors or degraded units -- warriors are either alive and fighting, or are killed.

The game depicts small, medium, or large-sized battles, but focuses combat right down to the individual level. Its combat methodology is drawn from the actual experience of the designer (and play testers) in medieval reenactment battles, where an individual fighter is generally doing fine, fighting away, moving, charging to engage, and so forth, but then at some critical moment in the battle, quite suddenly, he or she gets out too much in front or ends up on the flank with opposing forces circling around.... Things happen quickly from there -- and WHAM, WHAM, WHACK, they're down. Mêlée captures that experience perfectly.

In Mêlée, to be defeated, an individual warrior almost universally is first overwhelmed and is simultaneously hit by multiple attacks at once. For instance, the warrior is attacked by a pole axe, two spears, a great sword, and someone with big mace hitting from the side, and, in that case, no amount of fancy footwork can save the day. Thus, the key to victory is to maneuver your forces and focus your attacks selectively, maintaining a mobile reserve and carefully planning when, where, and how to engage.

The game's combat methodology is easy to learn, quick to grasp, and fast to play. The rules are one sheet -- front and back -- and can be explained in a few minutes to almost anyone. Combat is resolved simply by comparing "Combat Values" on cards. Generally, if the Combat Values of the combined attacking cards add up to a value of TWICE the defending card's Combat Value, the defender is killed and removed from play. While simple in practice, skilled players find that there are multiple dimensions of complexity that result. A unique set of modifiers also are applied based on the four medieval elements -- Fire, Air, Earth, and Water -- as each of these represent combat styles that are chosen and employed in by each player during each combat round.

To win, either the majority of the opposing forces are defeated -- and the other side gives up, seeing no possible victory -- or the opposing side's banner is seized, which brings and early and glorious end to the battle.

Players may also make up their own victory conditions, such as escaping off the field with more than half of the remaining forces when the game is started with vastly unequal sides, or killing the opposing side's Commander, and so forth.

Scenario Packs and Add-On Expansion Card sets are also available, although the basic game provides extensive replayability as it is.

—description from the publisher