Description

Rightgames LLC and Snowbird studio have released Eador: Masters of the Broken World board game based on "Eador" strategy computer games series. Action takes place in a fantasy world of Eador which is broken into pieces of a past holistic world, surfing across the Astral. Players take roles of the Masters, mighty demigods, trying to subordinate as many Eador shards as possible. They forward armies to conquer new territories, cast spells and perform powerful rituals.

The board game suits for 2-6 players but it’s mostly comfortable to play for at least 4 players. All players get their Master cards at the game start – such cards exist not only for the atmosphere, they also help to settle some controversies. 12-18 shard cards (amount depends on the number of players) are mixed up to a separate pile and the game is over when this pile flows out. There are always two shard cards on the table, the one for the current round and another for the next – it helps players to plan their moves concentrating on the shards which are easier to get. Shard conquering is performed by playing action cards; there are more then 100 of them – armies, spells and rituals. At the game beginning everyone gets 7 action cards to the hand. Usually it’s possible to add only one more card during the turn so using them should be careful. Rituals are the cards with especially strong features letting, for example, to take more action cards, take someone else’s action or shard cards, to gain more winning points. Player can’t fight for the chard during the turn if he performs a ritual but these cards give him further advantage.

At the beginning of the round each player decides if he will fight for the current shard or not. You need to play an army or a spell card to join a battle. The most important feature of the army is its power. Also there are the type of the army on the card (Light, Chaos or neutral), its class (warrior, monster, magician or undead) and nature of the ground (hills, swamps, plains, forests). Armies and some spells stay in the battle to the end of the round, some spells work only for the round they were played at. The result of the battle round is counted when all players interested in the shard have made their moves. The owner of the strongest army gets authority points counters according to his advantage above the second contender. Players can give up from the second turn and leave the battle. In this case they can’t play armies or spells anymore for the current battle but still have a chance to win if nobody acquires more authority points. When all players pass the battle ends and the shard goes to the player who gained maximum authority points.

Each battle has some pieces of subtleties. Firstly, it’s impossible to play Light and Chaos armies without a special card. Secondly, all the shards are different: some of them give advantages to defined type or class of armies or restrict using them, others allow to play two armies in a round. Thirdly, all armies fighting for the shard at the “native” land get extra strength. Attentive player will get a big profit considering all these features. When battle for the last shard is over players count their winning points on their conquered shards and performed rituals. That sum shows the winner.

The game for two or three players differs – they get 3 or 2 Master cards and make more actions during the round – to play a ritual and take part in the battle.