Dad's Gaming Addiction

I absolutely loathed gym class back in grade school.  I get it, “move to stay healthy” and all that.  I didn’t mind the running so as much as the part where I got hit in the face by a dodgeball or was asked to guard someone in sportsball that was twice my size.  I guess I was more of a chess player back then…I was unmatched.  Luckily, tabletop and video games over the years have introduced ways to play sports without the physical contact.  Today we’ll be looking at “TUG-of-WARRIORS!”, a card game for 2 players appropriate for ages 10+ with an average play time of 15-25 minutes.  “TUG-of-WARRIORS!” will be seeking your support on Kickstarter come April, 2022.  Before we begin I must stress that my version is a prototype and everything you see and read about here is subject to change, including the rules.  I’m also bound by FTC regulations to disclose that I was paid to cover this game, however any and all opinions are my own.

You may have guessed the overall theme by now if you were paying attention to the title of the game.  “TUG-of-WARRIORS!” is a tug-of-war, head-to-head game where both players will be placing warriors on their side of the rope in order to score points.  The pulling strength and special abilities of these warriors will cause the skull marker to move along the track, either left or right as appropriate.  The game ends whenever someone has played all of their warrior cards or when one player has moved the skull marker all the way to their side of the pit.  The winner, however, is determined by points.  I like that idea as it shows that brains will indeed sometimes defeat brawn.

My copy of the game came with 25 orange (team corrosion) cards, 25 green (team toxic) cards, 6 cheater tokens, a skull token, 1 board, and a small to medium sized 12-13 page rulebook.  I also received an extra set of cards that the developers hope will be added to the core set, I’m assuming as part of a Kickstarter stretch goal (thank you!).

To set up the game, each player chooses either the green or orange deck.  They then choose 15 cards from that deck placing the others aside, face-down.  They choose one warrior, play it face-down, then shuffle the rest of their deck into a face-down pile.  On the count of three they reveal their chosen warrior and the player with the higher initiative goes first.  The warriors are placed in the first slot of their side (each side has a maximum of five slots, however you can stack warriors once all slots are filled).

Player One will then resolve their pull strength, moving the skull marker toward them.  They also resolve any action the warrior may have.  Player Two repeats this and the game is ready to begin.

For the rest of the game, each round, players will draw three cards from their deck, choose one to play face-down, and place the other two on the bottom of the deck. On the count of three they reveal and resolve as per the above…initiative, warrior actions, etc.  New warriors go into the next available slot.  After a while players will have all five of their slots filled, allowing them to stack warriors on top of existing ones up to a maximum of three per slot.  Only the warriors on top of a stack will count their heart points and pull strength at the end of the game.

Some warriors are “cheaters”.  They have high stats and great actions, but if you end the game with one on top of one of your stacks, you automatically lose.  Stacking another normal warrior on top of a cheater will deactivate it.  Goody-two shoe cards have terrible pulling stats, but cancels out cheaters at a 1:1 ratio.

As mentioned above, the game ends when one player pulls the skull all the way to their side, or when both players have played all their warrior cards.  If no one was caught cheating, players will observe the pit to see which player scores bonus points based on where the skull marker is.  They add the heart and pull strength points of all their cards on the tops of their stacks.  The player with the most points, wins!

The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.

My initial overall impressions of this game were positive.  The game is incredibly easy to set up and clean up.  The small size of the box makes it ideal for travel.  I was skeptical about there only being 25 cards to choose from to build your 15 card deck and I think that there’s huge missed potential here.  I think the developers recognize that since they included the aforementioned bonus deck in my copy.  Hopefully they expand the game to include more cards with varying stats and abilities.  To be fair, that’s why Kickstarter projects exist in the first place – to raise money to help bring their vision to life.

Potential aside, “TUG-of-WARRIORS!” has a lot of kick in such a small package.  I saw myself dealing with decision paralysis more that I thought I would.  I wanted to save my high stat non-cheater cards till the end, as they are counted again when figuring out your final score.  That said, if you play too many low valued cards in the beginning, your risk your opponent out-pacing you and taking an early rush victory.  There was a constant battle going on in my head as to what I want to do and what I should do.  Games that manage to do that are usually all favorable in my book.

The 15 card draft was also a nice touch.  You can create decks that mess with your opponent or focus on solidifying your own…or opt for a little bit of both.  Some cards have attribute words like “ROUGH” or “TOUGH”, so it’s important to observe cards that chain with each other while building your deck.  Some cards have great actions and have terrible health / pull stats, making me question whether or not I should really be including them in my 15 card deck.

You can learn more about and support this game via the following link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plastichandgames/tug-of-warriors

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