Unmatched: Cobble And Fog Review

The Unmatched series is an attempt to answer the age-old, late-night discussion of ‘who would win between 2 incredibly obtuse characters in history, mythology or real life e.g. Bigfoot and Little Red Riding Hood, Bruce Lee and King Arthur or the case of Unmatched: Cobble & Fog: Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde and the Invisible Man. Now, I could spend this review teasing you whether the ‘Cobble and Fog’ expansion to the Unmatched Universe is good or not. But let’s cut to the chase. In my humble opinion, this is the strongest collection of characters yet assembled by Restoration Games.  

I initially stumbled across Unmatched whilst on the hunt for a ‘straightforward’ battle-to-the-death style game. One that wasn’t too complicated but also did not simply rely on a roll of a die. This fairly broad set of criteria seemed to narrow the field down to 2 – the Funkoverse strategy games and Unmatched. Why choose Unmatched over Funkoverse? Well in my case, it is purely a matter of taste. There are 2 overriding points. The first is purely down to aesthetics. If you haven’t yet looked at any images of the artwork and beautifully crafted miniatures that come with each set, I thoroughly recommend you do. Secondly, both I and my main gameplaying companions (i.e. my children) love Hammer Horror, Greek myth etc so theme-wise, this trumps the more cartoonish aspect of Funkoverse.  

So, what exactly makes Cobble and Fog so great? 

In Battle, There Are No Equals

In case you are unaware of Unmatched, the basic premise is very simple and that is part of its charm. 2 -4 players take a character from any of the available sets, place them on the board and fight one another until there is only one left standing. A 4 player game splits you into 2 teams. Which, whilst fun, is probably not quite as brutal as the direct head-to-head of a 2 player game. A 3-player rule amendment has been released recently, clarifying how a 3 player game can now operate as a head to head battle. Having tried this with 2 somewhat bloodthirsty children, I can confirm that it works…very well.   

Each character has their own miniature, with some having a sidekick and others having several minions. Some are ranged and can attack from distance, some must get close and personal to cause damage.  Each player has their own hand of cards of which you play through until exhausted. Each turn is a seemingly very straightforward set of choices. Your character (or sidekicks) must take 2 of 3 options, these being either Maneuver, Scheme or Attack. Maneuver involves drawing and/or moving around the board, Schemes are special actions and Attack is just that. The trick is balancing the drawing of cards. Ensuring you are not left open to attack, whilst also trying to pick off your opponents. With the lack of dice rolling, the element of chance is somewhat reduced. Though obviously, there will always be an aspect of luck in the way the cards fall. But that is the beauty of the game. No amount of skill can mitigate Sherlock Holmes’ mighty powers of deduction, for example.

Asymmetric Duelling

The beauty of Unmatched is the asymmetric aspect to it. Now on a sliding scale of 1-10, I would put Unmatched lower down than a game like Root or Vast. Games where every faction or character play in a completely different way. Here, there are some similarities between characters and some cards appear in several characters’ hands. For example, every character has ‘Feint’ cards which are very handy when defending against another's special abilities. I have noticed ‘Momentous Shift’ appear in at least 2 sets of cards previously. Each character has attack, defence and scheme cards. But then I see these common traits as another strength of the game. From my own standpoint, I love Root. But initially teaching it can be something of a bind. With Unmatched, you can drop in with any character and you’re good to go in a matter of moments.

Why Unmatched: Cobble And Fog?

Where Unmatched: Cobble and Fog truly excels for me; more so than the first set – Battle of Legends Volume 1 - is the individual theming of each character. Sherlock Holmes has Dr Watson as his sidekick, who is a ranged fighter; wielding his revolver whilst also having the ability to heal Holmes when in close proximity. Holmes’ main weapon is his mind with cards allowing the player to ‘deduce’ his opponents' attack strategy. Trust me, there is nothing more frustrating than having Sherlock Holmes delve into your mind, casually sift through your hand and then force you to discard the one attack card that was sure to win you the game.

Dracula has similarities to Medusa or even Robin Hood from previous sets in that he has 3 ‘sisters’ who can move around the board causing damage and generally being a rather damaging nuisance. And just when you think you’ve eliminated them to focus on the big bad himself, the Count then resurrects them!