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I have always been a great fan of films that contain great warriors, from the Conan film to Gladiator all of these have a strong warrior that shows great strength in times of hardship. The fact the weapons they use are big and brutal, and battles often consist of hundreds of adversaries only adds to the entertainment value for me.
So, with the above all being said I was thrilled to take a sneak peek at Barbarians: The Invasion. The game will hit Kickstarter today (April 26) and is set to pit 2-4 players against each other with game time between 60-90 minutes. The game is the brain child of Pierluca Zizzi and is a competitive game where clans will fight to become the strongest.
Tabula Games road to Victory
When I first spoke to Francesco it was clear to see his passion and ambition were major driving forces in his bid to make games people would enjoy. He designed games and published them exclusively on the Italian market to gain experience before the success he had led him and friends to launch their first Kickstarter game Jewels. When asked how he found the whole experience and what he had learned from it Francesco said:
"Jewels was a really amazing experience we learned so much from how to run the campaign to how important it was to engage with the backers that we just knew that we had to invest more time on this wonderful platform (KS). This led to the creation of Tabula Games and work began on Barbarians."
We know Who our Ancestors are
Tabula have created a world that really adds theme to this game and just a quick read of the below will show you how much detail they have tried to implement into this game:
"During their time, before they turned into spirits, the Warchiefs were heads of different clans. Every clan had (and still has) it's own traditions, and had to adapt in many different ways in order to survive the often adverse environments of Fenian. Warchief Kormas and his clan are a perfect example of traditions, rituals and survivability. They prepare their weapons for the hunt with a fire ritual of purification, and pray to the boar god Cintok. Wild boars are therefore sacred animals for them, and cannot be hunted. They can however be mounted, and if one of them dies, its fur and fangs can be used for amulets, vests or ritual masks. In battle, Kormas and his Sacred Knights of Cintok ride the biggest boars, and fiercely and fearlessly charge through enemy lines. "
You can read more on the Lore and backstory HERE.
Barbarians: The Invasion - Rules of Battle
The game consists of several mechanics which include worker placement, area control and economic engine control. In the game you will control a clan of Barbarians and, as you would expect, go around killing and stealing. The most exciting bit of information I took away from our chat was that clans will not fight directly, just work towards the same goal and the player with the most points will win.
This was great as my group (I don’t mind it) really dislikes take that so this means this game would get played more than a handful of times.When I asked Francesco for a detailed rundown of where this game would fit in a category and what games out there would it be like if it had to be compared his reply was very interesting:
He said: "We're making a game with a lot of different strategies and choices because we want the player to be free to mix them up during the game. If the chosen strategy at the beginning isn't effective the player can change it, this is something missing in some games when you have run-away leaders.
"The flexibility of Barbarians: The Invasion has been on of our goals from the early phases of game design. We spoke about the core mechanics but the key to our success will be the fact we decided to put a twist on it with the integration of a pretty unique element: The wheel. This mechanic allows a player to change the available path in a given turn, so the ability to adjust strategy on the fly is really important.
"We are still testing this thoroughly because we want to be sure it's fair but all the testers that played the prototype were excited about it."
Tabula goes Forth into Battle
On April 26th Barbarians are asked to grab their weapons and armour and prepare for battle. The battleground will be Kickstarter and the more people that turn up the more treasure we will win (stretch goals).
More details will be released between now and then so why not sign up to the newsletter or give the game a thumbs up on BGG to be kept in the loop.