The Omen series of games has provided a pair of great adventures through combat and exploration. Now in the third installment of the series the siblings turn their attention to the East to wage war and attempt to gain the favors of the good of land and sea.
Fires in the East is the 3rd game in the Omen series. It is designed by John Clowdus and illustrated by Manthos Lappas. Published by Kolossal Games, it is a 2 player game.
Overview and Gameplay
The game comes packed into a smaller profile box with the following contents:
1 city board
22 unit cards
4 reference cards
6 reward tiles
20 coins
6 VP tokens
3 war-torn tokens
The game is set up by placing the board between two players. Each space on the board gets 2 reward tiles and 1 war-torn token is atop each one. All units cards are shuffled and placed on the board face-down. Coins are placed in their spot on the board. Each player draws 4 cards and takes 4 coins.
The game consists of two players taking turns gathering wealth, playing troops, fighting over cities and making offerings to the gods. Gameplay continues until Each player progresses through these steps on their turn in order:
Weath step
Surge step
War step
Offering step
In the Wealth step, the active player will gain coins and draw cards. This step represents the player gathering their forces together for the upcoming battle. The active player has 3 wealth actions to spend here and can use each to draw a card or gain a coin. If you use them all for one or the other, you gain an extra of that type.
After the Wealth step, the active player will take the Surge step, spending coins to play Unit cards from their hand. Additionally reward tiles may be used for their godlike powers during this step. Cards are played by paying the unit’s cost and adding it to a city. The active player may play as many units as they would like but can only have up to 5 units on their side in a city. A player may also use 1 Reward tile here on their turn. They give good powers but reduce their overall value.
Next is the War step where players will resolve any conflicts in war-torn cities. To resolve players add the strength of all their units and find the highest value on Strength wins and gains the 2VP tile and loses all but 1 unit while the other player destroys all but two of their units.
Finally in the Offering step a player may offer one of their cards in hand as sacrifice to get extra coins and/or cards.
The game ends at the end of a player’s Offering step where there are no cities with remaining Reward tiles. Each player adds their VP, the highest total is the winner!
Impressions:
Omen: Fires in the East is a fun two-player game that really lets you go back and forth with another player, combating and drafting cards while trying to maintain area control and dominance throughout. The tug of war that happens through the game really shines as player jockey for the top spot and most victory points. If you are a fan of any other games in the Omen Saga, this is definitely a game you need to add to your collection. The game comes with some great options on combining the previous games with this one as well to really mix things up and change the format around keeping the gameplay fresh and new. I would recommend this to any fans of the series and for someone looking for a fun area control card game to sit down and play one on one with another person!
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