#179: Vindication, Rising Sun and a Short Topic Extravaganza
Timecodes
Vindication Overview 01:06:12
Vindication Review 01:11:03
Rising Sun Look Back
Founders Update 01:44:14
News with Tony T 01:46:45
Short Topic Extravaganza 02:43:40
Opening Banter and Reviews
Feature Review: Vindication
Vindication (formerly Epoch: The Awakening) is a highly strategic, fantasy-based tabletop journey for 2-5 players. Play time is 15-30 minutes per player. Thrown overboard for a life of wretchedness, you wash ashore a hostile island ruins — completely alone with nothing except the breath in your lungs and an undaunted spirit. Through your advanced resource management, area control tactics, and freeform action selection, you’ll add companions to your party, acquire bizarre relics, attain potent character traits, and defeat a host of unusual monsters in the ultimate goal of mastering heroic attributes — and regaining honor. You may perform 3 actions on each turn in the order you feel is most advantageous that turn: activate a companion, travel to a new location, and interact with a map tile. Many actions require the the use of your influence to gain attributes in a one-of-a-kind heroic attribute alchemy system, which is leveraged to gain the game's most powerful rewards. For example, you can meditate at a spire to gain inspiration. You can train at a fort to gain strength. But then you can combine your inspiration and strength to gain the courage (inspired strength) which allows you to perform a bounty hunt. There are distinctive end-game triggers that can be affected through game play, over 72 unique card abilities that can be merged in unusual ways for potent combinations, and fresh tile placement each game for high replayability.
Designed by Marc Neidlinger
Published by Orange Nebula
Lookback Review: Rising Sun
Rising Sun is a spiritual successor in the same mythic big box series as Blood Rage: same designer, same artist, same studio and same sculptors. Rising Sun is a game about honor, negotiation, and warfare in a feudal Japan where the ancient gods (kami) have returned to rebuild the empire. Whereas the distant ancestor of Blood Rage was Risk, Rising Sun claims Diplomacy as its distant ancestor. Tackle negotiations, alliances, and war. Capture hostages and commit seppuku. The game features an honor track, which rises and falls based on your actions.
Designed by Eric Lang
Published by CMON
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