Villains

Played it at Magfest 2019

Played prototype at Origins. This is a game that is hard to describe, but if I were to make a tag line for this game it would be "no one said taking over the city would be easy."

Villains is richly themed Illuminati style city conflict with asymmetric player factions, lots of moving parts, and plenty of player-induced chaos. On a 1-10 rating of player interaction, I'd rate this a solid 10, if not 11. Each area and player objective provides new options or advantages, so even the smallest things are contested. Major objectives tend to elicit major fights.

The game uses a secret order placement mechanism / action point allowance system hybrid. Players go around the board, spending one of their action points to place an order, which is resolved in a separate phase. Orders come with the faction, but are generally things like Deploy, Card, Move, Battle, etc. Each order provides influence (provided it is executed), as do units (amount varies by type). Many units have attacks, which are primarily to eliminate enemy influence. Combat uses dice, with cards and orders playing a more important role in the outcome than the actual rolls, although the dice rolls do matter. If you (foolishly) pick evenly matched fights, you'll be at the mercy of the dice. If your attacks are strategic (i.e. you put a lot in when you have an important objective at stake) you should win a high percentage, as the unit limit means players tend not to over-allocate units where they're not needed.

Once all orders are in place, orders are resolved, also going around the board clockwise. Cards are dealt at the start of each round, and can be used to support your objectives or thwart enemies. Controlling areas convey unique advantages as well as providing victory points. Usually a player wins by fulfilling faction-specific cards with conditions called "Plans", but there is also a VP accumulation win for controlling turn-to-turn objectives. "Plans" might consist of taking over an enemy zone, killing a certain number of enemy units, acquiring a target (a zone selected by each player at the start of your turn), "cleansing" an area, etc. Completing objectives gives you a bonus depending on the difficulty, and 4 give you victory. Major objectives create a lot of conflict since they represent the fastest victory condition, but even area bonuses are often fought over because of the advantages they bring. The game requires a high level of contingency planning, a judicious sense of timing and when to run, a sense of guesswork about who's doing what, and a good feel for playing to your factions strength.

There are many clever ways to support fights even as forces are assembling (or attempting to assemble) in the area. Cards add a metric ton of options to conflicts, and adaptability is key to overcoming hindrances and maximizing opportunities. The game is not as much about planning, as it is about misdirection, counter-planning, contingency planning, recognition, and evacuation. You have to recognize when your opponent has brought the house, and has you out-powered, or you will lose too many assets to quickly achieve future objectives.

Villains has a lot of secret information:

• players declare target locations for the turn with face down cards
• orders are face down until revealed
• plans are face down until revealed

Because of this, deduction (and to some extent spying) is a major tool as information is gathered. Similar to poker, you want to bet your resources according to your sense of value of the bet. If you go all out every turn, you could easily wind up with nothing. Choose your battles carefully, and only go "all-in" when you've got the best position, and you'll have a good chance at achieving your plans.

Villains is as much an experience as a game --the player interaction is very high, as is the chaos from people bumping into each other. This is a game that will not appeal to a broad class of gamers due to the game length, strategic depth, overall complexity, or high chaos factor. However, for those that love the genre, and persevere through the learning curve, this is a truly masterful work of art: deep, elegant, and epic.

Fun, mean, Ameritrash delight that requires smart planning and tactics.

Comments pending!