More thoughts about Vindication

We were harsh on Vindication in our recent post. I think it’s partly because the game has many interesting elements, so it’s even more devastating how it still misses the mark for us. Anyway, this time let’s take a look at how this fantasy sandbox experience works! 🕵️

I think a good starting point is Influence, aka. the cubes that you will be pushing around all game long. ☝️ On your player board you have 3 spheres: Potential, Influence and Conviction. As you start out, some of your influence is locked away in Potential that you can unlock as you play, and Conviction is a kind of upgraded resource used for certain special actions. 🧐 You use Influence for everything - like activating your companions or turning it into different colored Attributes!

Your other board shows 3 possible actions: Moving, Activating a character, and Visiting a location. Each turn you will do these 3 in any order you want - you have some nifty grooves with discs to track the actions you take. 👌

👣 You actually don’t move on the hexes, but on the triangles between them. As you explore, new hexes get added on the map from a bag. There is a fair amount of variability for setting up this bag (at least with the expansions), but there are always certain tiles you have to include.

💪 A character is Activated by placing an Influence cube on them - they then generate Attributes and you can additionally use their abilities. You should aim to pick out companions that complement each other and synergize well with your other cards.

🏡 You can Visit a location hex next to you. There are many types, but the most significant are the ones that allow you to get cards in exchange for Attribute cubes: Companions, Relics, Traits, Monsters, etc. These give Honor and all kinds of abilities.

As your Honor passes certain thresholds, new End Game Triggers are drawn - the game ends whenever one of them is met by somebody. After counting up end game scores, the player with the most Honor wins.

💬 The biggest strength of Vindication is definitely the joy of discovery, as you pull new location hexes and cards, never knowing what you’ll get, and the lovely production lends the game a luxurious feeling.