presentation
Ekö
Wind and sand for armed forces
Ekö was an Emperor in ancient times in a prosperous country. His heirs destroyed the realm and were banned into the desert and condemned to having to eternally use rocks, sand and wind for their armies to fight their battles again and again.
Terrain tiles are laid out, all discs are shuffled and randomly placed on the movement spaces. Each player randomly draws a player board, receives his buildings and may switch his Emperor and another of his discs before the start of the game. Aim of the game is to accumulate twelve points from camps, towers, fortresses and imprisoned emperors including a castle in a capital or eliminate all opposing discs.
A game turn comprises an Action phase and a Reinforcement phase, both must be resolved. In the Action phase, you can move or construct. You move discs on empty cases or stack discs on disc, total sum maximum four discs per stack, or you attack opposing stacks with fewer discs. Using “Kamikaze”; you can sacrifice one disc to eliminate an opposing stack of four discs. Movement can be blocked by an obstacle. Construction of Encampment, Tower or Castle is done by removing 1-3 discs from adjacent stacks. If you discard three discs from reserve for a “Forced March”, you can do an additional action.
In the Reinforcement phase, you add minimum one disc to the board, always onto a stack and never onto an empty case and not adjacent to an opposing building. There are special rules for the Emperor.
What a fascinating game! Enchanting design, easy rules and a plethora of strategy and tactics, especially via the Emperors and the rules for Kamikaze and Forced March!
Players: 2-4
Age: 10+
Time: 45+
Designer: Henri Kermarrec
Artist: Luky
Price: ca. 36 Euro
Publisher: Sit Down! 2015
Genre: Abstract, area control
Users: With friends
Special: Many players
Version: multi
Rules: de en fr
In-game text: no
Comments:
Beautiful components
Simple, quickly explained rules
Sophisticated use of player boards
High replay value
Variants included
Compares to:
Abstract area control games
Other editions:
Currently none
Chance (pink): 0
Tactic (turquoise): 2
Strategy (blue): 2
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 3
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0