This week at the shop we played AEGIS: Combining Robot Strategy Game! Inspired by tabletop miniatures game, AEGIS streamlines the genre into a quick, easy to learn board game. Assemble your team of robots and fight other players until they are knocked out. We have this game on display on the shop for the weekend, so come check it out!

AEGIS is an acronym for each of the different classes of robots in the game, Assault, Evasive, Guard, Intel, and Support. Each class has strengths and weaknesses, and each robot is unique with its own abilities. Test out your hand in drafting your robot team, or try out one of the pre-made teams provided in the box. You will also find expansions in the box that add variety in different game modes. The board is hex-based, which is great for this type of game. There are more options for movement, and combat is dealt in a straight line along the hexes, so no need for rulers typically found in tabletop miniature games.

After all players have assembled their robots together, you can start playing the game! Looking at each card for your robot determines its abilities, as well as the maximum energy you can gain in a turn, which can be spent to move your robot and perform actions. Add all the green dots at the top, and that will tell you how much energy it contributes to your pool. One of the coolest parts of this game, is that you can combine your robots into a bigger, badder, multi-classed robot. The two robots combining have to be the same class as another robot in your hand. When you combine, remove the two robots and place the new robot in either of its places. You can keep combining your robots, which decreases your total number of robots, but they typically have stronger abilities and start on the board without carrying over any damage or buffs/debuffs.

In the middle of the robot cards, you’ll notice the different action(s) your robots can take. From left to right, you’ll note the cost, accuracy, damage, range, as well as the action-type if applicable. The cost is how much energy you will spend, along with how many dice you roll. Accuracy dictates what you need to roll in succeeding a hit on an enemy or ally. Damage is how many points are reduced or healed from the target. Range can be either a direct, radial, or direct plus radial hits. Some of these actions can have qualities like melee, which can only affect other robots directly adjacent to you. There are also piercing actions which affects the target and any others behind it in a straight line, as long as they are all in range. Some robots also have passive abilities, which are indicated at the bottom of the card. These passive abilities can be used among your whole team, or just that particular bot. The game ends when other enemy teams have either been destroyed, knocked off the map, or become unable to perform any damage dealing actions. The last robot standing wins!

AEGIS does a great job of easing you in learning the game, by providing pre-built introductory decks and robots. There are a lot of terms to learn, so you will want to keep the player cards and rulebook handy during your first few games. If you have ever been interested in miniatures games, but have been intimidated, we recommend giving this game a try. There is a lot less fuss involved, and introduces mechanics that are popularly used in these types of games.

Check in next week, because we will be playing Guardians, a superpower themed card game that uses hand management and player power mechanics. Assemble your team of heroes and attempt fighting your teammates for control using powerful cards from your deck and using powerful Ultimate attacks!