Mantle of the Keeper Preview

A free for all for the Vaile.

Mantle of the Keeper is a new Kickstarter game that puts players against each other in a fight for the realm. There are 6 characters to choose from in the core game and it can play up to 4 players. The game starts by creating the battlefield. Each player will select a double sided tile and place it on the table. Then they add hazard tiles to complicate things for the other players (and maybe yourself). Each player will then place their character and set up their play area. The game breaks down into 3 phases; income, actions, and end of turn. During the income phase, players draw a card and gain a favor to spend on more powerful abilities. Player then can move and play 2 cards from their hand. This can be to attack players or grant additional movement points. Each character has their own decks. Combat is straightforward. Play a card and resolve. The other player can also play a card to defend if they choose to do so. Finally, discard to your hand limit and the next player goes. Play will continue like this until the last person is standing.

The Good: I really like how different each character is. They're your pretty standard faire of ranged vs. melee but they each felt very different every time I played. It was also really cool how the map needs to be set up first and each player has a say in what it actually will end up looking like. This brings a lot of variety to every single game. The ruleset is also very simple but there's so much variability that the game felt fresh each time.

The Okay: Because this is a completely new IP, it may not feel as approachable to some players. That should not deter anyone from checking this out. I only played a preview copy so I'm hoping that in the full version, there will be more map tiles. I only had 4 to choose from (technically 8) but it would be nice to see different biomes and areas. I also would like to have seen it possible to bolster decks a little bit with other cards that can be bought or acquired somehow.

The Not So Good: If player elimination isn't your thing, then let's hope you don't lose. If your character is killed, you still can move around hazards but that's not as fun. There is also a teams mode to help with this a little bit as well.

Final Thoughts: Mantle of the Keeper is a really solid skirmish style game. There is a ton of replayability in the box. The art style is really well done and each character plays really differently from the others. If you're in the market for a unique skirmish game that can be played and replayed I would highly recommend Mantle of the Keeper.