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Unmatched Battle of Legends Vol 2 is the newest four character set, and is as the same suggests full of legendary characters. This set takes its inspiration from around the world and brings in different historical cultural characters together. As usual, the Unmatched team have used the mechanics and card play as well as the art in order to bring the feeling of character to life. This is for me what makes me love learning more about the characters whilst I play, they feel so thematic to me. Each is so different, and each game feels fresh to me.
I have now played a lot of games, but for me, Unmatched is really perfect. It plays quickly, and the artwork and components are beautiful. But what really sings for me is the variability and replayability. Each character in the Unmatched system comes with its own unique special ability and deck to learn to pilot. I’ll not labour the point about how to play as I have already covered this in my How to Play guide and also my previous Unmatched reviews. Instead, I am going to dive right into what this set is all about and what I think of each character and the map.
What Is New?
First thing that has changed in this set vs. the previous sets is the advent of the double volley attacks. These allow you to do two attacks in one action. Your opponent is permitted to defend against both individually should they wish. This is a great way to run through your opponents cards, and it is also a way to make a well timed feint card feel infinitely cleverer.
The next thing that they brought in that was new was the map. This is an ancient temple which for the historical legendary figures I feel is very fitting. It has some high ground spots where you can attack down with an additional +1 to all your attacks. You do not want to be having your opponent with a monopoly on these. The board is quite roomy feeling as you play, it is quite easy to run away but also easy to get trapped in a spot too. I think this is a tricky map to play on, much more difficult than that from Cobble and Fog or Battle of Legends Vol 1.
Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary has to be up there with the Invisible Man as the best-looking miniature. She has three faces and disjointed arms coming out of a broken mirror. The legend of Bloody Mary is one that passed me by as a kid. I was very much one to shy away from the supernatural, so I guess it’s not a surprise. Chanting her name three times into a mirror is said to bring her soul back from the dead, and she will steal your soul and keep it for her own. Not something I am willing to try out, but knowing that makes the mini is even more impressive.
Bloody Mary is a tricky character to play, her special ability is that if you start your turn with three cards in hand then you get a bonus third action. This is HUGE because a lot of her cards have abilities that activate if they are played as your third action that turn. I love the dark artwork on this set, it really embodies the horror theme. Bloody Mary is a blast to play, you sometimes will want to not defend simply to ensure you have 3 cards going into your turn. At this point though, the “your opponent discards a card” card action is an absolute monster to your plans. I think this is a tricky character to master, but for me, it is brilliant fun trying.
Yennenga
In the original Battle of Legends set, I loved playing Medusa. She could shoot from so far away and I loved the excitement of seeing if I could pull off the Gaze of Stone card. Spoiler - I haven’t yet! Yennenga is like Medusa on steroids, and I love it. Yennenga is a warrior princess from Burkina Faso. She was a 12th century skilled horsewoman who was a master of the bow and arrow, so in Unmatched she is of course focused around shooting from afar with her battalion of archers.
She has a bunch of Archer tokens and each has two hit points, which you can direct hits from Yennenga to if they are in the same zone as her. Which is simply game changing when you are playing it well. You can sacrifice those archers to save yourself and it is glorious. The archers are also able to be used as a meat shield and control the movement of your opponents whilst Yennenga still rains down the blows at a Melee fighter which is my favourite way to play her. To me Yennenga is a more fun-to-play and more complex version of Medusa and I think Medusa may slip out my “favourite five” in favour of Yennenga.
Sun Wukong
I will confess, I did not know who this was before writing this review. Sun Wukong is also known as the Monkey King and is a character in a Chinese Legend from the 16th Century. Sun Wukong is known to be a trickster. The playstyle in Sun Wukong is great fun to play and quite frustrating to play against. At the start of your turn you may take one damage in order to place a clone on the board. These clones only have one health each, but they are incredibly pesky to play against because the clones can use the powerful Sun Wukong cards. These help you stay alive careering around the map hiding behind your clones.
One of the most annoying cards to play against is the “tricked you” card, this is double volley attack, the first attack being zero. But if your opponent defends against the attack (which given the plethora of hard hitting cards in that deck you most likely will), then the second attack has the same value as their defence. I have fallen foul of this one and it killed me off! It feels quite thematic for the trickster to win by lulling you into a trap of cardplay.
Achilles
I’m going to finish with the best of the set. Achilles is my new favourite character having usurped Bigfoot. Achilles is one of the Ancient Grecian legends, known best for being an incredible unbeatable fighter. That is until his heel weakness is uncovered, so famous we named a body part after it! Achilles has his sidekick Patroclus with him, and unlike in many other characters you actually want Patroclus to die.
Once the sidekick is dead, Achilles goes into rage mode and you become incredibly powerful. As well as just putting Patroclus into harm's way as much as possible, you also have cards which allow you to deal damage to him. Achilles doesn’t has a bunch of hard-hitting cards, and once Patroclus is dead he is unstoppably powerful in attacks. Trouble is that his constant card drawing really means he runs a risk of running out of his cards and having to take damage for exhaustion.
Roundup
I have played a lot of Unmatched, and I think as a set, that Unmatched Vol 2 is my favourite one. I have had a while now and I still keep coming back to it. I think it has four characters that I enjoy playing in it, which in all the other sets I have always had a big disparity in how much I enjoy all the characters. If you fancy diving into Unmatched then these are not the easiest characters to start with, but they are I think well worth the effort as they are truly fantastic.
