Tiny Epic Tactics - How To Play

[Music] hi there and welcome to watch it played my name is Rodney Smith and in this video we're going to learn the 1 to 4 player game tiny epic tactics designed by Scott alms and published by gameland games 12 sponsored this video it was a quiet woodland with peaceful rivers and snowy peaks and then the Warriors showed up swords were swung arrows loosed and spells cast but only one team will emerge victorious it's time to find out who so join me at the table and let's learn how to play the game comes with instructions for five different modes of play but all of them are based off of the two to four player competitive mode which we're going to learn in this video to set up a simple the evergreen forest by placing the scroll on the table I've said on top of a little board that I have here that doesn't come with the game but I'm just using this so I can move things around the table a little easier in this video you then place all the included boxes into their positions like I'm doing here ensuring that all the artwork is facing in the same orientation you'll also find this illustrated here in the rule book if you need a reminder these are the double-sided unit cards ensure the sides that say solo enemy here are facedown and then separate them into four piles based on their class symbols here fighters rogues wizards and beasts these are shuffled separately and then each player receives a random unit of each type to put in front of themself then they take a matching unit token for each one in the color of their choice for example this is the blue fighter rogue wizard and beast each unit has a red health track here and may also have a green ammo or blue mana track on the other side you now collect and put the matching colored markers on the highest value of each of those related tracks now the first player which can be the youngest person at the table or a player chosen randomly will pick any one of the groups of four spaces marked with stars like this which are known as star locations they then put one of their unit tokens on each of these spaces if you're setting up a two-player game as we are here the first player puts any two of their unit figures on the Nate - of a starting locations spaces then the other two go on any two spaces of the starting location diagonally across after the first player has made their choice the next player in clockwise order adds their pieces to the board in the same way this is the tactics deck and you'll shuffle it into a facedown pile dealing two cards from it to each player each person then secretly examines the ones they were dealt and picks one of them to keep then all unchosen cards are shuffled back into the deck these weekend tokens and action dice are then set nearby along with the control card and it's three flags arranged on it just like this and that's the set up in tiny epic tactics players will be trying to capture enemies and various control areas in order to score the most points by the end of the game the game is played over a series of turns starting with the first player and then going clockwise around and around the table on your turn you'll perform four steps beginning with checking for majority but that won't really make sense until we understand a few more of the rules so explain that step a little bit later the second step is to take up to three actions with your units divided among them as you like the types of actions you can perform are shown here on your units you can move melee attack missile attack or cast a spell if the unit doesn't show a type of action it cannot perform it we'll see how each of the different types of actions work in a moment but just know the first time a unit performs an action during a turn it can pick any valid action but if you want the same unit to perform another action during the same turn it must be different than the action it just performed the catch is that although the different types of attacks have different names and the action that causes damage to an opponent is considered an attack so for example you can't perform two melee attacks during a turn or cast the spell that does damage and do a missile attack because although they're named different things they're both considered attacks so if you do perform two actions with a single unit it's likely going to be some combination of making a move and attacking or vice versa also as soon as a single figure performs a second action during the same turn it becomes weakened and you add one of these tokens to it well it has this token it cannot take any more actions so you may have access to abilities spells or tactic cards that could cure this weakness and we'll learn more about those abilities a little bit later at the start of a new turn if a player wants they can spend two of units health by moving the marker here in order to remove its weakened state allowing that unit to act during the turn with that understood now let's talk about the different actions you can take starting with movement a unit has movement points equal to the value showing with this symbol meaning you can move that figure up to this number of spaces figures move up down left or right but never diagonally and each space of the board can only contain a single figure but you can move through friendly ones as long as you end the move on an empty space though you may never move through enemy pieces to move from one level to a higher adjacent level costs one extra point of movement no matter how high up you have to step so to go from here to here cost two points of movement but so would going from here to here to move down from a level costs nothing extra entering a space with water costs one extra point of movement but moving out of water doesn't a unit that passes through or ends its movement on one of these printed villages immediately gains for health moving they're related marker up they also fully regain any ammo or mana they may have used but a unit cannot benefit from the same village twice in a single turn and does not benefit from starting their turn on a village that's it if you do start your turn on a village you could you move action to leave it and then enter it again in which case you would gain the benefits on the map you'll find arrows pointing to caves and doors these represent portals when moving you may go from the space beside a portal to a space beside any other portal as if they were adjacent unless an enemy figure is blocking it I should also point out you can't attack through portals this type of space is known as a peak and it costs one extra point of movement to enter it but no extra points to leave it this space is the ballista it costs an extra point of movement to enter its space but nothing extra to leave it so for example if the road here wanted to go directly to this space it would normally cost one point plus an extra point because he's going to a higher level and then an additional point because he's entering the ballista and those are all the rules for movement but you don't have to memorize the effects of the different types of terrain as they're all summarized here on the back of the rulebook along with any other effects that terrain might have on attack actions which we're about to discuss next starting with melee attacks any unit can melee attack an enemy adjacent to it not counting diagonally as long as the enemy is at the same elevation this figure here for example could not be the target of a melee attack from this unit because it's at a lower elevation the space this figure is on is a peak space and although automatically that may seem like a higher spot it is considered to be at the same elevation for attack purposes as this one and visually on a table that's exactly what it looks like so this unit could be the target of a melee attack from this one once you've picked a valid target it then takes an amount of damage based on the attackers melee strength as shown here so in this case 3 when a figure takes damage you reduce its health by that amount no matter the type of attack whether melee missile or magic if your target is in water it takes one extra point of damage whereas if a target is in a forest then it reduces the amount of damage it takes by one and don't forget you're reminded of that here on the back the rulebook after damage is dealt you may choose to roll for knock-back if you'd like by rolling a number of dice equal to these knock-back symbols here so in this case two dice for each of these knock-back symbols that you roll you then move the enemy that number of spaces directly away from your attacking figure any other symbols rolled are ignored a target cannot be knocked up to a higher level but it will move down a level if necessary if a figure would encounter a wall at the edge of the map another unit or a portal entrance from being knocked back it must instead stop and if this reduces the distance it should have traveled then it takes a single damage also being knocked into or through a village peak water space or the ballista will not trigger any of their benefits or penalties if the unit's health is reduced to zero its captured its figure and tokens are returned to the box and the player who caused this to happen takes that units card which will be worth points at the end of the game but just note you cannot capture your own units instead of performing a melee attack your figure might perform a missile attack so let's take a look and see how that works first the unit must have a green ammo track like this and a target within range its range is the value listed beside this symbol so in this case a range of four you add one to your range if you're at a higher elevation than your target but you lose one from the range if you're at a lower elevation now when counting the distance don't include diagonals for example the range to this target is one two three four five I have a range of four plus one extra because I'm at a higher elevation than my target so that means this target is within range just note you don't have to worry about line of sight in this game walls cliffs and other figures do not prevent you from targeting a figure I can even be right here and target this figure if a unit is on a peak space it has range to any space on the board but is not considered to be high than a figure at the same level so a unit here targeting it doesn't sound for a penalty to its range with a valid target you now pay one ammo to initiate the missile attack and then roll a number of dice equal to the Green Square symbols here so two dice in this case for each of these mis symbols you roll pay an additional ammo ignoring any other results if you're unable to pay you miss the target your ammo is reduced to zero and the action ends if you can pay as I was able to do here you hit the target dealing damage equal to this green damage value so in this case one point of damage while playing though you should always pay attention to your units other abilities listed here these may provide you with other special effects for example this first one here is called poison and when doing a melee or missile attack it says that the target is weakened so on this successful hit I would then add this token to this unit we're not going to go through all of the different abilities listed on these cards as they're explained directly on them but we will discuss some of these other symbols that you might see with them a little bit later another type of action is casting a spell now remember we said that a single unit cannot take more than one type of action during a turn and any kind of attack is considered the same type of action some spells though don't cause damage and those are not considered attacks so you could for example perform a melee attack during a turn and then with the same unit cast a healing spell either way to cast a spell you need a valid target within its range which works just like a missile attack except you look at the values here once you have a valid target you spend one mana to cast the spell and then they spend between one and three more mana to power the spell up for each extra mana paid this way roll a die counting only these results which based on the spells effect as explained within the box with this symbol may cause it to do more damage or provide other effects some spells have passive effects noted by this symbol that target an area but damage dealt by these do not affect your allies if your unit is the primary target that takes damage from a melee missile or spell attack then after the attack is fully resolved including any knock back effects you may choose to perform a counter against the unit that attacked you now notice I said if the unit is the primary target in other words if instead it was damaged by a spell that's just targeting a general area then it was not specifically targeting that unit so that unit cannot perform a counter assuming a unit can counter first check for any reactive symbol which looks like this on their card these abilities will trigger as soon as that unit takes damage as long as the damage didn't cause its health to be reduced to zero for example this ability here says that if a unit performs a melee attack against this unit it is then weakened now whether you have a reactive effect or not you may then counter with a melee missile or spell attack against the unit that attacked you as long as it's within range if the unit that was trying to counter is already weakened then it cannot counter unless it loses to health first to remove the token however you cannot counter a counter once a single counter is resolved the active player resumes their turn now we've talked about several abilities but there is still another type we need to go over and the fact with this symbol is a passive ability it is considered to always be active and triggers anytime it's written condition is met now although I said there were 4 actions to pick from during your turn there's actually one more a special action known as firing the ballista to do this your unit must be standing on this space then you pick an enemy within 4 spaces and deal it one damage knocking it back one space in any direction you choose for example I might choose to knock it in this direction because it can't move here and that would cause it to take another damage after the e ballista attack then the target may counter ok I promise there are no more actions but that doesn't mean there isn't more that you can do remember during the setup you were dealt a tactic card when playing if you meet the if condition written on a tactic in your hand you may reveal it and resolve its effect here this is a free action and does not count against the three you are normally limited to when taking your turn some tactics will have a condition that occurs during an opponent's turn if you want to play it then just ask them to wait as soon as the condition has happened while you reveal and then resolve your tactic then it goes back to their turn in either case though after tactic has been used you discard it now as the game goes on units we captured and removed from the board and as soon as a player has only two figures left in play you immediately remove any weakened tokens on them those characters will no longer be weakened by taking two actions but each one can still not take more than two actions per turn if you have only a single unit in play you can take all three of your actions for the turn with it and even repeat the same actions but no matter how many units you have on the board once you've taken up to three actions it's time for the third step of the turn here you remove weakened tokens from any units that didn't take any actions during your turn then as the last step of your turn you draw a tactic card and add it to your hand now if you ever have more than two tactic cards discard any extras at this time into a face-up discard pile and if you would ever need to draw a tactic when the deck is empty chef let's discard pile into a new deck with the four steps of your turn complete the next player in clockwise order takes their turn and so on however at the beginning of the video I skipped over explaining the very first step of a turn which is where you check for majority control so let's go back to the table and I'll explain what that means there are three separate control areas made up of six spaces each marked with flag symbols within these areas one space will have an enlarged flag symbol known as the trigger space during the first step of your turn if one of your figures is on the trigger space check to see if you have majority control in that area which means having more units on the control area spaces than any other player and this includes your piece which is on the trigger space itself ties for most units are not considered a majority if you do have majority advance the matching colored flag on the control card one space to the right a triggered area will remain triggered for the rest of the game even if no unit occupies its trigger space from that point on at the start of a future turn if you have majority control of an area that was previously triggered you advance its token one space forward again but keep in mind another player could steal majority either by knocking units out of an area capturing them or moving their units in now at the start of that players turn since they have majority they will advance the flag if a flag reaches the final control space of a card the player who had majority there when it happened takes the flag now a majority in that area will not be checked again for the rest of the game I should mention if a triggered area has no units on any of its flag spaces or if no player has a majority there then the flag will not advance and with that understood you now know all of the rules and the game will continue with players taking turns until eventually one of two possible game ending conditions occur either all of one players units have been captured or a number of flags have been removed from the control card equal to one less than the number of players so for example in this two-player game the game and would trigger once a single flag has been collected when either of those conditions have been met the active player finishes their turn and then all other players get one final turn which could allow another player to capture a different flag but then either way it's time for final scoring each player gains 5 points for every flag token they captured and 2 points for every one of their units that they still have which weren't captured and an additional two points for every enemy you they captured you also get one more point for each of your units on the board standing in a village space the player with the most points wins and in the case of a tie the tied player with the most surviving units wins if there is still a tie the tied player with the most captured units wins but if there's still a tie than the tied player with the most flag tokens wins if there is still a tie the tied player with the most remaining health among their surviving units wins and if there's still a tie I'm not sure I believe you but then in that case the tied players share the victory as I mentioned earlier the game also comes with a variety of other modes competitive team play free-for-all battle team play a solo game and a cooperative adventure mode but all of those I'll leave for you to discover on your own there are also a variety of different Maps you can pick up and I'll put a link to those in the description below otherwise that's how you play tiny epic tactics if you have any questions but anything you saw here feel free to put them in the comments below and I'll gladly answer them as soon as I get a chance you'll also find forums for discussion pitchers other videos and lots more over on the game's page at BoardGameGeek and I'll put a link to that in the description below and if you found this video helpful please consider giving it a like subscribing and clicking that little bell icon so you get notification anytime you post a new video but until next time thanks for watching [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Watch It Played

Views: 36,727

Rating: 4.9493179 out of 5

Keywords: Board Game, How To Play, Tutorial, Card Games, Gamelyn Games, Board Games, Play Throughs, Miniatures, Rules, Tiny Epic Tactics, Instructional, Game Rules, Tabletop, Watch It Played, Learn, Learn How To Play, Instructions, Learn To Play, Tutorials

Id: wZeVaJGAJjU

Length: 21min 56sec (1316 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 20 2020