USD ($)
EUR (€)
Inis is a game in which you are trying to be crowned the King by meeting one of three victory conditions. It might look big, unwieldy and complicated but don’t worry, it’s not as challenging as it looks and this handy guide will teach you how to set up and play this beautiful game inspired by Celtic mythology.
So how do you become King of this new land and win Inis ? You must first meet at least one of three victory conditions with the winner being the one who fulfils the most at this stage in case of a tie. Either be present in 6 or more territories, be chieftain over a combined total of 6 or more opposing clans or be present in territories with a combined total of 6 sanctuaries. This might seem confusing but once everything else has been explained this will all become clear.
Components
Before you setup Inis there are a couple of tiles and tokens that are worth understanding, firstly the Brenn token, the Brenn is the temporary leader randomly determined at the start of Inis but in future rounds will pass to whoever controls the Capital territory, they organise the assembly and also break ties when determining a winner. The Flock of Crows tile determines the direction of play. Then there are pretender tokens which you take to show you are attempting to claim victory if you meet one of the conditions. Deed tokens can be used to supplement one of the victory conditions, for example count as being present in 1 territory, and the festival marker will affect what happens during clashes which we will come to later. Territories which are the gorgeous map tiles, when these are placed they must touch at least two other map tiles and each has a corresponding advantage card which will go to the player who controls that territory giving them a bonus that can be activated or used to their advantage.
There are each players’ clan pieces, 12 in each colour, and during the game these will represent your influence over the territories. There are also two types of buildings, citadels and sanctuaries. One of the citadels is larger than the others and this is the Capital and sanctuaries are used to achieve one of the victory conditions.
Setup
At the start of Inis, each player must first choose a colour and take all of the clan pieces of that colour. Set up all other tokens near the play area. Shuffle all epic tale cards and place them in one pile, and the same with all the action cards taking note of the number of players and ensuring you remove any with a 4 in the bottom if playing with less than 4 players. Shuffle the territory tiles and draw 1 per number of players, and find the corresponding advantage cards that match these map tiles. Give the Brenn marker to a random player, and they determine which territory will be the Capital, and then they place the Capital building, and they then flip the Flock of Crows tile to determine the direction of play for the upcoming round. Starting with the Brenn, each player places 1 clan onto a territory on the board until they have all placed 2 clan pieces.
Phase 1: The Assembly
Inis is played over a series of rounds, each consisting of phases. First is the Assembly Phase, firstly assign the Brenn who will be the player who has control (most pieces) in the Capital territory, if there is no overall control the Brenn stays with the existing player. Secondly check for victory, well this isn’t going to happen in the first round but might in future rounds. Thirdly take advantage cards for any territory you are chieftain over (have more pieces in than other players). The Brenn then flips the Flock of Crows, to determine the direction of play that round, before dealing the action cards to all players. In a 4 player game there will be 17 cards, 16 dealt randomly to all players and 1 face down, and in a 3 player game this will be 13 cards with the setup remaining the same.
Now we move to the action card draft which will determine what actions you can take during the game. Players draft action cards. Each player is dealt a hand of cards, chooses one, and passes the rest to the next player, then two, then three. This continues until all cards are drafted. The interesting difference from other drafting here is that you can place a card back into the hand you pass around from the cards you’ve already drafted. Get ready for phase 2 of Inis - the Season!
Phase 2 - The Season
The Brenn begins first by playing a season card from their hand and carrying out the action. I won’t cover all cards but broadly they may give you new clans, place new territories, allow you to move your clans, start clashes, place new sanctuaries or draw epic tale cards. Then each player in turn order can either play a card, take a pretender token if they meet one of the victory conditions or pass. Once all players have passed in order we move to the next phase, but a player may pass and then play a card when it comes back to their turn as long as every other player hasn’t passed. If at any point a player has no clans in any territories, they must discard a deed if they have one, and then they can place two clans in any territories and then play season cards as normal.
Clashes occur if one or more clans are moved into a territory where another player’s clan pieces are present and this predominantly happens through season cards. Once a player’s pieces enter a contested territory, a clash is triggered. The resolution of a clash is handled in rounds, and each round follows a specific sequence to determine the outcome. Note that if a festival token is present, the instigator must lose one of their clans when they enter the territory containing the festival token, which could create an odd situation where the instigator loses their only piece but still causes a clash between the other 2 players in that territory.
Once a clash is initiated and the first step is the citadels step before we move to the resolution step. In turn order, beginning with the player in turn order after the instigator, players may place exposed clans into any potentially available citadels that may be present in the land where the clash occurs. When all citadels are occupied or all players have chosen not to enter one, we move on to the Resolution step.
At the beginning of a clash, players have the option to withdraw their figures to a neighbouring territory but this can only be the case if they are chieftain (have control of) the territory they are withdrawing into This step proceeds in turn order, and once every player has had the chance to withdraw, the game moves on to the next step, where most the clash will happen.
During combat, the active player (the one who initiated the clash) may choose to eliminate one opposing figure from the territory, and the defender may choose to remove their figure or discard a green card from their hand. After this, each player in turn has the same opportunity to participate in the clash following the same rules, and they may target any player, not just the player who initiated the clash. The clash continues until only one player remains in the territory or all the players mutually decide to stop, at which point all the clans hiding safely in the citadels will pop out and play returns to the next player following the normal turn order.
I think the only thing left to really cover is the Epic Tale cards, which are powerful one time use cards inspired by Celtic mythology, that can really impact the game. They work along the same lines as the season cards, and can only be played at certain points but unlike Season cards, they can be carried over round to round for you to use when the right situation occurs.
New round and declaring a winner
Once a season is over, and all players have passed return back to the assembly phase during which you will determine if one player has won with the Brenn breaking ties, if the Brenn has changed and then if no player has won follow the assembly phase as before, you will keep playing rounds until a player is crowned King by meeting 1 of the 3 victory conditions mentioned at the beginning of this overview.
Inis is a fantastic tactical game and hopefully this rules overview will help you but obviously refer to the rulebook if you still have any questions. There is a 2 player variation in the rulebook and you can read up on the differences between that and the 3 and 4 player version there.
