If you have played Tiny Epic Defenders (second edition) check out my review for thoughts on the game, mechanics and theme. If, however, you are looking for thoughts on tactics, here’s my take on this game…

During the Game:

All Defenders – Retreat!; When the All Defenders card comes up, it’s great to re-position or to do a quick secure for each player. Sometimes though it’s tricky to use all the points, or even most of them. I often try to keep an eye for where the all defenders card is and take hits on weak characters from normal enemies just so that I can use the All Defenders card to retreat into the Capital. That way I can get the benefit of the maximum heal, as opposed to letting the hits land and then spending the points to secure but still being on half (or other) health.

Burying Cards; Burying cards is a tactic that works well, but it’s important to think about which cards are left. There is no compensation from burying your own cards so you will want to think about how many player cards have gone and bury later in the turn most of the time.

Protect! Protect!; It seems an obvious point but once you add certain regional powers and player powers you can defend a lot at once and you should! Especially mid game when dire enemies are amassing in the deck, you will not know where they are coming from and you will want to avoid them hitting. Cover the bases and try to stop them on the first attack.

Artifacts; Even if you don’t stop the dire enemy on the first attack, make sure they don’t get through twice. Line up the end of your turn to block them at the early cards of the next round. Make sure you do this, not for the protection of the capital but for the artifacts they drop. Each of these has some value and getting all players equipped with one or two artifacts is hugely helpful. To that end, rotate duties in defense to share the loot!

Collapsed Regions; When a region goes a foe is also lost, but watch out for the remaining enemies. Each hit here hits the capital and the capital can only take 7 hits before dying. That isn’t long given it takes one damage when the region falls! So defend the collapsed regions as they were the ones that got attacked most and those cards are still in the deck!

Epic Foe Efficiency; You want to kill the epic foe in one or two turns. Being efficient with attacks and player abilities is key. If the Kraken will through a player, make sure you get him to that point and it won’t be the first hit of the next player! To that end a sacrifice of hit points to have extra actions might help to ensure an efficient attack.

Remember; You can actually remember the draw deck. You add one card a turn, but you know the rest and therefore you can predict where the cards will fall. Watch the weak areas and defend against the dire enemies.

Good Luck!