Build teams of five robots and duke it out in competitive grid-and-dice-based combat! Choose from over 100 unique options across five classes – Assault, Evasive, Guard, Intel, and Support – AEGIS! Combine them and unlock their true fighting potential!
Disclaimer: The publisher played the prototype digital copy of AEGIS Combining Robots: Season 2 online with me. The opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.
Review:
Initial Impression/Components:
There’s no messing around here with a great reputation at stake. The component spread is amazing! If you get a chance to check out the massive list of people that helped bring this to life, it’s worth a look. It’s only early in the year, but I’m expecting that this will be my most anticipated delivery of 2023.
What’s Different:
As this is an expansion on the previous title (that can stand alone) it leads to the question of, well, what’s new? Why should I pick this up when I have the original, or should I if I don’t have the original. The answer is dependent on personal tastes, finances, and a whole bunch of other things. For me, I’d pick up Season 2 whether I had the first Aegis or not. I’ve even jumped onto their KS campaign (you can see me in the comments section). So among other things, here’s why:
– Massive content addition, as much or more than the full original game in fact.
– They put heavy focus on “playable out of the box” content. Setting up a bunch of pre-made teams and things like that
– Streamlining of rules and card description/graphic design
– New mechanics that capitalize on the favorite things from Aegis 1.
– Starpoint Arena Mode – a fast-paced gamemode where you take turns per robot instead of full fleets. Encouraging closer games that often end in a photo finish or sudden death overtime.
– New Solo Mode that took 2 years to work out and provides a full experience of its own with varying difficulties and epic boss battles.
Favorite:
I absolutely loved the control you had over your strategy and the risks you could attempt to take for glorious successes or hilarious failures. My favorite was combining damaged robots to form a stronger robot but at full health. That is incredibly useful when pulled off correctly, but of course, risky. Another example is Gambit that some robots have on their attacks. This allows you the option to double down on an attempt in a double or nothing fashion. I thoroughly enjoy pressing my luck on these large plays.
Least Favorite:
Sometimes, if you didn’t plan ahead, you can walk clear into a really bad placement. This could be putting yourself in the range of a strong opposing robot that will one-shot you. Or, it could be moving the robot that you need to combine with just out of reach. That’s nothing against the game rather than a general warning to be paying attention. If you can plan a strategy that stays 2-4 turns ahead you’ll be just fine. On the other hand, you can just live each turn like it’s your last and see what happens!
Mechanics:
– Variable Player Powers
– Modular board and Multiple Maps
– Hex Grid and Grid Movement
– Dice Rolling
– Critical Hits and Failures
– Action Points
– Area Majority/Influence
– Player Elimination
Rules:
Areas they did well:
• Insane replayability
• Intense gameplay
• Lots of action points that can be spent in a variety of ways
• Vibrant and awesome theme
• How robots actually combine (by type)
• Area control and tactical placement
• Huge amount of Components
• A hundred unique robots!!
• a triple-sided map? yep. that’s a real thing. The board doesn’t just flip over for a new map, it can fold into a third. Super clever.
• Balanced fighters
• No best strategy. There are multiple ways to approach this game and still come out on top.
• Ability to push your luck or live on the edge, as they say.
• Using action points to limit movement. If you want to move far and pay per space, well then you can’t unload everything else you could potentially do. I liked using action points to move as well
• Very slight catchup mechanics or runaway prevention. Nothing drastic that would affect the game too much.
• Game length was perfect for the experience it was trying to deliver.
• Enjoyed the Critical success and failure of the dice rolling. As well as special attack conditions vs dice roll such as recharging.
Areas they could have improved:
• I’d like to be able to stop over an obstacle as a flying unit. They can fly over them, but if some robots can attack past them (arching) then some should be able to finish on top of them.
• It could already be in the game, but there is additional damage for critical hits, anti-air, etc. I would like to see a few units that have anti tank that can do additional damage to upgraded/combined units.
• I may need another few games to dig into this a bit more, but as of now, that’s all I got. I don’t have anything else I would consider changing.
Overall:
The way the individual unit types interact, move, attack, etc. is really cool. You start to get a feel of the style of each one. When you start combining them into bigger and better robots, it gets gloriously out of hand. The unique abilities and attacks they pull off provide a rush that’s not commonly achieved in a game. It was a build up into a grand finale that left me wanting to just set it up and play again. To sum it up, I think they have outdone themselves with Aegis: Second Ignition.
Final Thoughts:
The hype for Aegis 2 was valid and now I’m also caught up in the hype. I know when I’m excited about a game when I’m already pre-planning the location I’m going to display it and which game(s) are going to have to move. If anyone got any questions on this one Zephyr Workshop has a huge crew and an active discord where you can reach them. If you’d like to know more about the game and my experience you can reach out to me as well. I’d be happy to talk more about this one.
I’ll see you next time, back here at The Game Table,
Brad Hiscock, aka Zerility
