EA Sports FC 24 is continuing to treat its players as we enter the holidays with a chance to earn some of the best cards of the year so far.
Overboss: Duel Review
08.11.2023 - 17:53 / boardgamequest.com
We review Overboss: Deul, a two palyer game from Brotherwise Games. Overboss: Duel takes the tile laying game play from Overboss and converts it to a two-player experience.
Back in 2021, I reviewed the tile-laying game Overboss from Brotherwise Games. It got high marks from me for its replay value, easy to learn rules, and streamlined mechanics. My biggest gripe with the game was from setup and tear-down. Having to pick apart all the piles and tokens at the end was a pain.
However, it appears the folks at Brotherwise may have been listening as Gen Con this summer brought us the release of Overboss: Duel. This is a stand-alone (although it can be used as an Overboss expansion), two-player-only version of Overboss. Is the quicker setup along with the modified rules and overall win? Let’s find out.
If you have played Overboss, you’ll find a lot of similarities in the ruleset here. In fact, the rulebook even has a dedicated section for returning players. But for those new, never fret, the turn structure is actually quite simple.
On a player’s turn they will draft one set of tiles and tokens from the 4 available in the market. The tile must be placed somewhere on the shared board (either on your half or your opponent’s). The token must then be placed on a tile (if it’s a monster). There are a few tiles with specific rules on what tokens can be placed on them, but for the most part, you are free to place tokens anywhere. Although you do get bonuses for placing monsters on matching terrain types. After that, the market is refilled and the next player goes.
I should note that new to Overboss Duel is that many tiles now have immediate actions when played. For example, the Road tile lets you swap any two tokens on the board when played, while the spawning pool lets you draw an extra token from the bag.
The game ends when all the spaces on the board are filled with tiles. Players will score the tiles and tokens on their half of the board. Most points wins.
While I really enjoyed Overboss, this new Duel version was somewhat hit or miss for me. I actually enjoyed the multiplayer solitaire nature of Overboss, so the “take that” nature of Duel wasn’t really what I was looking for. I much preferred to create my own kingdom without having my opponent randomly drop-down tiles I didn’t want on my half.
That being said, I did appreciate the quicker setup time of the game. Now with only 6 tile types (7 if you include the promo expansion) you just shuffle and go. No more taking tiles in or out. Getting the game faster to the table was definitely a much-welcomed change.
And I’m also still a fan of the tile drafting mechanic. The grab a tile/token pair was made popular recently by SdJ winner Cascadia. While I wasn’t really
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