The Duke

Great 2p abstract with a slug of randomness, though controllable to some extent. Lovely wooden bits, board could've been better. Not much call for 2p abstracts though.

Rating based on Free PnP on their site. (my board game partner didn't like it to much after 2 plays) For sale, PM me.

Trade interest low.

Chess stresses me out. Too much future planning and everything is on the board and your opponent can deduce too much (especially when playing with me). The Duke is very chess-like but you draw your pieces/tiles from a bag so you never know what's coming next. Plus after you move a tile you flip it over and now it moves and acts differently. Great components.

Hard to strategise unless you are very familiar with the pieces and probably still hard to strategise even then. Interesting little game though. Full of gotcha moments and gave me a few laughs... mainly at my own stupidity. lol :) Quite surprisingly unchess-like for a chess-like game too.

It's like Chess on steroids! Granted, it has a random element (with the draw of new tiles), but the added combination of pieces (plus the different moves on each side of the tile) makes for an added challenge to the strategic thought process. The tactile feel of the wood components is an added plus.

This is chess for the mainstream 21st century. Skill is alleviated by chance to lift the weight of skill differential that can make 2-player games a drag.

Feels like chess meets Pokemon which is an A in my book.

Its biggest strength is also its biggest weakness: the flipping of pieces after use. This is awesome in terms of gameplay, but annoying if you haven't played enough to memorize the pieces.