Suitably Epic

I’m slowly working my way through the games I picked up at Knavecon 7 (and 6 and 5) no doubt almost in time for more impulse purchases at Knavecon 8 in September.
Next on my hit list was EPIC a game by the good people who brought us the excellent Star Realms.
Epic reminds me of a cut down version of Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone Dialed up to 11. It sees you and any number of other players (but probably one) dealing up a random deck of thirty cards each for a game from around one hundred and attempting to knock the stuffing out of your opponent before they do onto you. There’s nothing particularly new or innovative here. Which is fine. It’s good fun while it lasts and it’s not expensive.

Players start with thirty health and a hand of five and each turn they draw one more and can either kick off an event or two or summon champions (creatures) to do your bidding. The limiting mechanic is one gold per turn and most of the events and creatures cost one to kick off (unused gold doesn’t carry over at the end of a turn). Lesser creatures and events cost zero so you’ll be playing one or two cards at most per turn
Everything you’d expect From a Magic type card game is here. Instants, Interrupts, enchantments and a dozen effects and abilities. If you’ve ever wanted to dip a toe in the water of ccgs this is a great taster.
Creatures and events are suitably epic. The story is about gods using earthly champions to do their bidding whilst assisting with the odd godly event. Cards come in one of four colours and various events or champions affect “allied” cards in positive or negative ways.

The game is very intuitive if you have played any collectable card game ever. Raise a nasty army. Attack your opponent and avoid getting hammered by your opponent. It’s absolutely not collectable and everything you need is included in the stout little box of cards. Some bonus cards came with the kick starter but there’s more than enough in the base game.
All the cards as suitably epic. Creatures are big and Nasty. Events are apocalyptic. Even the weeny creatures sorry champions come with some Nasty sting in their tail. Economy management is simple,there isn’t one. You have one gold and off to the one gold shoppe you go at the start of your turn and choose one epic card over another.
Cards are a little unbalanced and luck plays a decent part in your game. Some of the champions are ridiculously overpowered. 18 point attack and defense sand worm for example. Equally some of the events are epic. Remove all champions from the game and so on. It’s good fun but definitely not a competitive or balanced game. If you want that there’s plenty of them out there.
Art work and production values are excellent. The game will well outlast your desire to play it. I’m sure someone out there has put deck protectors on their copy but not me.
If you want something generic, fun and cheap that you’ll tire of pretty quickly but not feel cheated by the entry cost, look no further, Epic is one of the better also ran card games out there.