The final stand against the gnomes
👑Fall of the Mountain King is a thematic prequel to ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ - however it uses completely different gameplay mechanics. This competitive euro depicts the last stand of the trolls in their ancestral home as they hold out against waves of attacks by the gnomes. ⚔️ Even though you are all fighting on the same side, you are competing to be the greatest defender by earning more honor and swaying the loyalty of champions and the seven troll clans in your favor.
The core of the game is area control and majority. You want to position yourself well to earn points at the ends of rounds and repel gnomish invaders. 💪 Even though you aren’t fighting other trolls, you do want to be present in more caves, or take majority from them. What really makes the game shine however is its action selection - a really unique one-of-a-kind card layering, action-chaining system! 😁
Each round begins by drafting 3 Ancestry cards and laying them down in your play area. These cards show a 2x2 grid, with each space showing an action symbol. When playing the cards you have to place them over existing cards, overlapping at least 1 symbol. This way as the game goes on your tableau grows, but you also have to make some compromises.
After this the action phase starts, where you will act in turn order until you run out of supplies. ☝️On your turn you can either do 2 weak actions, covering up 2 icons, or do 1 strong action by covering up a continuous group of the same symbol. Interestingly, the cubes you use to cover up symbols act as connections to other icons making it possible to activate those together as a strong action later, so the sequence of actions will be important! 😮
Actions allow you to:
⚔️Move your trolls on the board
🛡️Bring in new trolls
👺Interact with the gnomish invaders
✋Influence champions to join you
🌀Wild action to do any of the 4 above
The action selection is really fun and unique! Unfortunately 2p is not the optimal player count, as it becomes really zero-sum, getting you in a spiral where you just always set up stuff for your opponent. With 3-5p it should be way more enjoyable and evenly balanced.
