Game Review - Tiny Epic Mechs

Have you ever felt like regular sports are boring and could use some more giant weapons? Have you ever felt like walking around in normal clothing is SO 2018 and long for super fashionable power armour? If you sympathize with those statements, then Tiny Epic Mechs is the game for you!

Sure, you yourself may not be wearing the power armour, but getting to pop your coloured Meeple inside the armour and deck it out with wicked cool weapons is the next best thing! In the year 3030, sporting events have become epic battles between heavily armoured and weaponized mechs driven by pilots. You play as a pilot, first starting out with no armour and only capable of holding 2 basic weapons. Your goal is to power up into your Power Armour to wield 2 basic weapons and 2 advanced weapons and then eventually fight to be the only pilot in the Mega Mech; a suit capable of holding 4 advanced weapons!

Turns are played through as a “programs”, meaning you begin each round by choosing 4 actions to take along with directions to move through the grid of cards representing the arena. Then, one by one, players reveal one card at a time and take their actions. This makes the round rather interesting as you may plan out every step you wish to take, but that path may be interrupted by the path the other players take. There are 5 actions a player can choose: Collect (gather Credits and Energy to buy weapons and power ups later), Purchase (weapons for your pilot, Power Armour or Mega Mech), Power Up (suit up into Power Armour or the Mega Mech or use this action to heal lost hit points), Deploy Turret (spend Energy to set a trap for opponents) and Deploy Mine (spend Credits to set a trap for opponents). A player can also choose to take No Action but they MUST move in a direction. Should you move into a space already occupied by an opponent, that is when combat is initiated and players take turns deploying weapons until either one player is K.O.'d or must retreat because they have exhausted all of their weapons. Points are awarded for initiating combat, dealing damage and K.O.-ing an opponent.

The game consists of 6 rounds with scoring only occuring after rounds 2, 4 and 6, allowing players plenty of time to build a board state before tallying up the points. Points are awarded for active mines in zones you control, active turrets in zones you control, the zone you occupy and a bonus 3 points if you are piloting the Mega Mech suit. At the end of the 6th and final round scoring, whichever player has the most points wins!

What makes Tiny Epic Mechs such an interesting game is the amount of replay you could get out of it. Each pilot has a unique ability meaning you could play a different one of the 8 pilots each game and experience a different play style. For example, Rampage collects additional Credits or Energy when you choose the Collect action while Kitty has the option of spending one Energy to rotate one of her program cards. There are also many different ways to earn victory points meaning you could plan a different winning strategy each game. You could focus on pouring down mines and turrets for points, or gun straight for the Mega Mech in the early game and try to stay in it for as long as possible. I will say that the game seems to heavily favour those that engage in combat, so no matter what your strategy is, combat should be included if you intend on winning. That only makes sense as this is a sport of fighting robots, after all. With a $35 price tag and that much replay value, this is a game worth investing in!

If I had to pick one thing I liked best about this game...it would definitely be the aesthetics. Everything is addictive to look at and touch. Each of the characters are unique, interesting and seem to have their own personality that actually comes through in the artwork (I chose to play Rampage simply because of his sassy finger-gun!).

Each of the pieces are very well made and somehow, despite their tiny size, they have an incredible amount of detail. I mean, look at that!

And don't even get me started on popping the Meeples into the suits and decking them out with weapons. It really brought me back to the days of playing with Transformers in the 90s. Specifically that one white raptor guy that you could take his tail off and turn it into a spinning gun....anyway, getting to suit up your Meeple was really fun and honestly really motivated me to purchase more gear and power up, just so I could play with the pieces. The only negative here is that you have to be very careful not to lose any! They are very small, very light and the cards are quite waxy so they tend to slip around very easily. Obviously, this is not a game to play around your toddler or mischievous cat...

Tiny Epic Mechs is a very unique game for 1 to 4 players that definitely warrants trying out. Find it in the “T” section at Scenic City Game Emporium!