Armello Review

Armello is one of the games I got from the Steam Winter Sale, and from first game fell in love with it.

Armello is a quick-turn based strategy game much like a board game. It brings in classic mechanics seen in games like Catan but with beautiful art styles and music.
The basic premise is this: Armello is a kindgdom, which is currently ruled by The King, who is being overcome by Rot, an evil plague that succumbs it’s victims to corruption and madness. Because The King is losing control to the Rot, the different clans are sending heroes to overtake the thrown to rule Armello.

There are five clans, with four clans available in the initial game. There is the Wolf Clan, Rabbit Clan, Rat Clan, and Bear Clan. Each clan has a few playable heroes you can chose, such as in the Wolf Clan you can play River or Thane, and with the Usurper’s DLC Magna. Each of the 4 clans has 3 playable characters.

The 5th clan is the Bandit Clan, which is only available to the Kickstarter backers until Spring 2017. Unlike the other clans, the bandits are a mix of animals and backgrounds.

The game play goes like this: every hero gets a a day turn and a night turn, which create one full day. The turns always begin with The King and his soldiers. Each character gets AP points to move across the different terrain blocks on the board, and can choose different actions based on the tile, or based on who is on a tile near them, or what cards they have. For example based on the image above, the current character is Mercurio (The Rat). He has 2 AP points so can make 2 movements. He could go for the King’s Guard or Thane (The Wolf). Or play some of his cards which cost resources, but not AP points.

There are 4 ways to win. You either go take the castle and kill The King outright. You can earn the most prestige and be the prestige leader when The King dies of Rot. You can also become infected with Rot and then kill The King as the Lead of Corruption. Or you can collect Spirit Stones which destroy Rot, and once you have 4 stones you take them to the castle and will destroy everything infected by Rot.

The game comes with a great tutorial to start that let’s you play multiple characters and unearths story and skills. Definitely do the prologue to learn the game and see the videos that are gorgeous!

I’ve found the game rather addicting and enjoy taking a break to play a round or two. I will probably achievement hunt this game to no end, so I definitely recommend it if you’re looking into games that feel like board games but can be played alone.

What games are you getting addicted to? Share in the comments!