One of the most recently received of our Kickstarter funded projects is Board Royale - The Island by Arvis Games Inc. This convenient travel-sized game of survival pits players against each other in a Lord of the Flies-esque battle royale where players will vie against each other to either escape or survive the island.
Advertised as a game for 3-6 players, it does have a two-player variant also. It's a fast-paced and furious game where anything can happen and often does.
While this isn't a paid review, Diary of a Lincoln Geek are able to offer you a discount code to buy this game direct from the developers. Use the code DOALG at their store for Board Royale: https://boardroyale.com/shop.html
Players: 2-6 Ages: 13+ Game Time: 30-60mins
Gameplay
Each game starts with a preparation phase where you use your resources to gather a few starting items from the craft pool that you will have washed up on the island with. Be careful not to over-equip at this stage as your precious resources are all that's keeping you alive. When you reach zero resources held in your hand you have been eliminated and your items will get looted from your corpse by your fellow survivors.
Once per round if the majority of players agree then the craft pool can be reset...
Each round you gather resources from the island, or steal them from other players. These are then in turn used to buy items from the craft pool. Items in the pool vary from temporary to permanent and can be used to either escape, survive, or attack other players. Once per round if the majority of players agree then the craft pool can be reset allowing you to clear potentially dangerous or useless items from the board.
How you use your items is up to you, and there are a variety of tactics and ways to play the game. One of these is to escape the island by collecting enough escape gear to either complete an escape set or get 10 points of escape equipment held.
With broken promises and sneaky lawyer speak
Of course, this is also a battle royale and so far no game we have played has resulted in anything other than carnage (sorry Mr Chris you left yourself open to that sneak attack). With broken promises and sneaky lawyer-speak as you wheel and deal for the resources you need.
I love the resource management aspect of this game, that you always have to be alert to how militaristic the enemies are being so that you keep enough resources in hand to survive an attack.
Production
I love the graphics in this game, a really nice balance between serious and cartoonish that gives it a lot of charm and should appeal to the younger audience a bit more.
The card stock used is the same sort of plasticised card used in many standard playing cards that means they should be more durable in the long term and not so prone to those little mishaps with drinks, but already after only a few plays we would rather have had a more standard card stock used as these plasticised cards do stick together at times and are already starting to bend. Guess we'll be sleeving them still anyway.
While it may be a Kickstarter exclusive for the survival tier the lunch box metal case is superb and has plenty of room to keep the whole game with all the expansion in quite neatly. The only problem is that there isn't enough room for it all once it has been sleeved up though, will have to think out how we manage this one...
Conclusion
A brilliant take on the classic battle royale theme and a neat little game to take on your travels. I look forward to exploring all the new features in the expansion material included in the Kickstarter bundle.
Hopefully one day one of us will manage to escape rather than just killing each other off. I'll not hold my breath, however, they wouldn't have included the option if it doesn't work...
Overall this is a nice little game that's not too heavy and would be good to play with a family, including teens.
Your friendly DoaLG rules lawyer
George E Ohh