D.E.I.: Divide et Impera Review

A new ice age has hit the earth and you control a clan of survivors trying to collect the most loot and gain the most reputation by scavenging the streets of London. At the start of the game, each player will have a leader and some followers and some cards for actions. Actions can range from moving around the map, recruiting new followers, building items and outposts, picking up items, purchasing new cards, and controlling your drones. Oh yeah, you get drones. They're awesome. Each round has 3 action phases. You'll play 2 cards from your hand on top of each other and do the actions from bottom to top. In the second phase, you'll play 2 more cards but you can also gain feats which are permanent boosts. If you control 2 of the same type of outposts you'll be able to flip the matching one on your player board. In phase 3, you must choose a mission to complete. These can be done at any time but if you choose to complete a mission that's from an earlier round, you'll take lesser points for doing it. This repeats for 4 total rounds and then players will tally scores. Whoever score the most wins.

This is a pure area control game at its core and a largely peaceful one. In order to have majority of a zone, simply have majority. There are perks that can allow you to have more control than others when you unlock them later in the game as well. Any time you purchase a card, you must recycle one of the ones in your hand. It is played face down and removed but you can still potentially gain points at the end of the game. There are a lot of concepts at play here.

The Good: There's a lot to love with D.E.I. For starters, the map itself is so cool. Before you play, you'll spend a while putting the stickers on to build the multi layered map but it's so awesome when it's set up. I love that the layers have been integrated as spots where players can be. When you build elevators they allow you to move up the buildings and you can build bridges to link them together. I love this concept so much. The mission board is a unique way to score. Being able to complete things early makes it much easier to get ahead but the randomization may make it tougher to actually do this. It gives each player an objective but they may all be working on something else. The mini minis are cool as well. They're tiny but they have a lot of detail and they fit the overall aesthetic and theme perfectly.

The Okay: This has a beefy setup time. There's a lot of content in the core box alone and depending on the player count you'll need to set up the map, put down supplies, get all of the units and market cards organized. It doesn't seem like much but it can take close to 30 minutes to get it all up and running.

The Not So Good: There isn't much by way of conflict with this game. If you're looking for a game where you'll be taking out other players units, this probably isn't the one. There is only 1 drone that can actually eliminate units and there are cards that can kill a unit but it doesn't happen as much as you may like. The general area control aspect is fantastic but don't expect a full blown battle.

Final Thoughts: I loved D.E.I. It was a huge surprise to me when I played it the first time and I adore playing it. I've learned with games like this and The Wolves that I'm a huge fan of a tight area control game. Who knew? It's not a perfect game but it's a ton of fun to play. They advertise it as simple to learn, difficult to master and I completely agree with that statement. You can do so many different things and think things are going well and then boom, brick wall. Now you're losing somehow. It's incredible. I love games that can do this to you. Obviously, I highly recommend D.E.I.

Thanks to Ludus Magnus Studio for providing a review copy.