Crowdfunding Preview: Ynaros Fallin' by Peekwik Dreams

At the end of September this year Ynaros Fallin', the first game from Italian indie publisher Peekwik Dreams Kickstarter appear. In German, the game will be available later this year thanks to publisher Mirakulus in the game forge be affordable. We were able to talk to game designer Ugo Tomasello about the work of him and his colleague Luca Sanfilippo in advance and test the prototype extensively. You can find out what awaits you in the following crowdfunding preview.

Once upon a time, the kingdom was populated by gods who lived in harmony with one another. But then they disappeared, leaving their power in the world. In the struggle for this power, the kingdom has taken a lot of damage and is falling apart. Only Ynaros still exists. The last two shamans fight each other in a final battle to become the most powerful shaman and restore the harmony that was once the kingdom.

What is Ynaros Fallin'?

Ynaros Fallin' is a strategic area movement game that can be played with two or four players, or even solo with an extension. The game largely dispenses with elements of luck, which means that almost everything that happens on the game board is in the hands of the players.

The base game contains three different scenarios. The former is a kind of introduction to the game that introduces the basic mechanics. With the second, a kind of landscape influence is added, with which enemy figures can be limited in their movement and - similar to the video game Splatoon - you can cover parts of the playing field with your color in order to generate victory points. The third scenario adds a kind of skill system with which you can unlock special abilities after a certain number of victory points. There are also temples that can generate additional victory points at the end of your own turn.

It should be emphasized here that the individual scenarios can be seen as different game modes. The new mechanics change the flow of the game in general. Depending on what you feel like doing more, you can choose a scenario here, play it and get a completely different playing experience.

Quickly explained, quickly played

The basic mechanics are quickly explained. The aim is to have more experience points or victory points than your opponent at the end of the game or to eliminate all opposing characters. To achieve your goal you can collect green and orange magic lands, bring new characters into play and carry out battles. The game is played over several rounds in alternating turns. A train is divided into three phases: The deeds (Deeds), the fate (Fate) and the magic spells (Cantrips).

In the first phase, the deeds, the active end of the game can complete two actions. He can either draw 5 shadow cards, discard any number of shadow cards to increase the value of his personal die by the same value, use the personal die to move figures, or sacrifice a magic crystal to control an opponent's figure's power . If necessary, you can complete an action twice.

Then the fate phase is activated when certain location conditions have been met in the deed phase. For example, if you stand on mystical sources at the end of the first phase, green and orange magical lands are discovered. These can then be conquered by standing on them. Magical lands bring either one-time or ongoing benefits to the battle for Ynaros. In addition, new followers can also be summoned or followers can be raised to shamans in the fate phase. You can think of it like chess. If you reach the opposite end of the game board or the opponent's heart with a figure, you can carry out this action. If you stand on a square with an opposing figure in the fate phase, a magical fight ensues. Later more.

Finally, in the third phase, Spells, you can convert collected Magic Crystals into experience points and receive boons from every red magic land you control. Red magic lands are always face up and cannot be conquered. They are controlled by having a piece standing on them.

The game ends as soon as a player has conquered 6 green or orange magic lands, three magic land stacks have been used up and when a player has lost all vital crystals or all of his figures. In our test rounds, the games lasted about 45 - 60 minutes, which is pleasantly short.

Interesting combat mechanics

In combat, another board comes into play and another important mechanic, hand management. Because depending on how many and what kind of cards you hold in your hand, you can do more or less in combat. Cards of your own color give you two battle points and cards of your opponent's color only one. Battle Points can be used to damage the opposing Shaman or to heal yourself. In addition to cards, magic crystals can be used to power a battle die. Each end of the game may use only one of three combat dice per battle. However, if you have several crystals of the same color as the die, you can discard them to be able to use the die again.

The fight ends when the player who is about to lose drops out of the fight. Each end of the game then receives experience points equal to the damage done. The person who emerged victorious from the battle also receives a vital crystal from the opponent. He then loses experience points equal to the vital crystal and must place his character back on the corresponding starting space.

The nice thing about the fights is that they are consistently exciting when both players have cards and magic crystals. Because then there is a real head-to-head race for victory. Since you can do damage and heal yourself with your battle points, the values ​​usually stay in a similar range until finally one has to end the fight. That's really fun! However, in combat you should be careful not to land on the skull symbol at the end of the damage bar. If a fight ends here, the fighting shaman will be downgraded to a follower. If a follower has fought, it dies.

The beginning and end of a trilogy

Ugo and Luca were already working on a board game between 2015 and 2020 and were in the final playtest phase. However, the start of the pandemic forced the playtests to be halted. A big problem was that the game wasn't designed for 2 players. With the lockdown, the two game designers therefore start to develop a new game for 2 people, which contains similar features as the old game, but also brings many innovations with it. Ynaros Fallin' is born from this new game.

Ynaros Fallin' is set to be the first game in a trilogy that will also include the original game. Narratively, however, Ynaros Fallin' is at the very end of the trilogy. Ynaros has already perished and is about to be completely wiped out. Developed in 2015-2020, the game will be themed on the prequel to Ynaros Fallin' and will be a competitive game for 3-6 shamans. The final game in this trilogy is expected to be a 1-6 player cooperative game set at the time the Fall of Ynaros begins.

Kickstarter or game developer?

Since Ynaros Fallin' has a German publisher with Mirakulus, who is starting a crowdfunding campaign himself, the question naturally arises as to which platform is better to get the game. As we learned from Ugo, the German rule book can only be financed through the games company.

However, it should be mentioned that the game will be completely language-neutral. Our prototype had no text and was easy to understand. supporting the Kickstarter campaign will probably receive the game sooner than supporters of the game company. Ugo also confirmed that it is in the Kickstarter There will be many stretch goals in the campaign. If you want to be sure that you are getting the best version of the game, you should support the Kickstarter campaign as a German backer. Here the designers have all the strings in their hands. However, for those who would like the German instructions, this is it Games Forge campaign the right way.

Ynaros' Fallin impresses with its exciting combat mechanism and its chess-like gameplay. Anyone looking for a good, fast and, above all, tactical game for 2 players will enjoy this game. Ynaros Fallin' will be released on Kickstarter at the end of September 2023. Feel free to stop by if you are interested in a wonderful and exciting 2-player game.

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