From the publisher: “Four factions of warriors battle to survive on a doomed land that will be destroyed piece by piece, taking its occupants with it. You must strategize to survive—by fleeing, fighting or sacrificing your weakest members—whatever you must do to be the last one left standing when the land around you has been annihilated.”

Reign is a skirmish battle royale style board game, from PlayMonster, where 2 to 4 players are trying to eliminate all the other players’ troops to be the last one standing.

Players not only have to watch out for each other but also the impending disasters which destroy different sections of the board and with it any troops and Power Stones that have the misfortune of being on that section.

 

How to play Reign: The Final Battle Royale

To set up Reign, players will begin by constructing the game board in the center of the table. This takes a couple minutes as the board is a large jigsaw puzzle. They then place the countdown timer next to the board with the tracking token on the 11 space along the outer track.

Each player selects a faction to play and takes the 11 figures and the corresponding dice. In turn order, players add their troops to the board along the outer rim. The Power Stones are divided equally among the players who then take turns adding them to the board in the inner section.

Lastly, players shuffle the disaster deck and place it face down near the countdown timer, along with the two Power Stone dice, and flip over the top card.

Players are now ready to play.

Turns:

On a player’s turn, they can move one of their troops up to three spaces. If they end their turn on a Power Stone, they add it to their stockpile (this also ends their turn). If they end their movement adjacent to an enemy troop they can choose to Attack them.

Attacking:

When a player chooses to Attack, both players involved will roll their faction dice and add the result to the level of their troop involved in the attack (there are three troop types – level 1, level 2 and level 3). For example, if Player A is attacking with a Level 2 troop and rolls a 3, their total attack is five. The defending player will do the same. The player with the higher number wins and the losing player removes their figure from the board.

Using Power Stones:

Players can use the Power Stones they have collected in their stockpile to either boost their movement or boost their attack.

Boosting Movement:

Before moving, a player may declare that they are boosting their move. They spend one of the Power Stones from their stockpile then roll the Power Stone dice adding the result to their base movement of three.

Boosting an Attack:

Before a player attacks or defends, they may declare that they are boosting their attack/defense. They spend one of the Power Stones from their stockpile then rolls the Power Stone dice along with their faction dice adding the result of both to their troop level.

Once done moving their troops, collecting Power Stones and attacking players, the current player will advance the token on the count down track. Then the next player takes their turn.

This will continue until the countdown timer hits the first star area. Once this happens, the players will remove the section of board that corresponds with the face up disaster card. All troops and Power Stones that are on that section of the board are also removed from the game.

The countdown timer marker is then moved to the beginning of the next track, the next disaster card is flipped over and play resumes.

The next time the countdown reaches a star section, another section of board is removed. This continues until all the boards are removed. The center portion of the board does not get removed so all troops there are safe (except from one another).

The game ends once one player eliminates all other player’s troops and is crowned the winner.

 

What we like about Reign: The Final Battle Royale

What first drew us to Reign was the 44 miniatures!

There are 4 different factions with 3 different sculpts in each faction creating great table presence. The minis are soft plastic which isn’t great for painting but they do hold up well to small children who get a hold of your games so there’s no worry about damaging them.

The puzzle style board and the fact that after enough time elapses it starts to disappear is also a cool draw to the game. There is a lot of strategy to where you place your troops and gems due to the fact parts of the board are removed throughout the game. This was a lesson that took a couple games to learn, but added a lot to the overall play experience.

The quality of the game is pretty good. As mentioned, the minis aren’t the best for collectors but they work well if you are playing with younger players. The board is solid and goes together nicely and the disaster track is very well produced. The cards are a little thin but you are not using them as much so there is probably no concern about wear.

Finally, the insert is great but the board can be tricky to put away. If you were to number each board as to how it goes together and goes back in the box it would make things much easier.

Finally Reign is a good old fashion “Ameritrash” game that plays quickly and works for young players. If you are not familiar with that term, it means “a game that emphasizes a highly developed theme, characters, heroes, or factions with individually defined abilities, player to player conflict, and usually feature a moderate to high level of luck.” BoardGameGeek.com

 

How does Reign The Final Battle Royale score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Reign works really good for younger players and players who like to battle, play with minis and roll dice.

However, for us it isn’t the best fit as we tend to like games with more choices. Also, as mentioned above, it can be extremely luck-based both with the draw of the land tile that will be removed and with the dice rolls. The luck can be mitigated to some degree with the placement of your troops and the Power Stones.

That being said, I’m sure there will be times we’re looking for a quick battle royale style game and this one will definitely cure that itch.

About the Author

Dane is an Advertising Manager for a national magazine by day and a husband, father of four, and board gamer by night (and mornings). He has a passion for board games and believes board games help bring families closer together while providing kids a unique way to learn many diverse skills. And he thinks they are downright fun!!!

We’d like to thank PlayMonster for a review copy of Reign: The Final Battle Royale.