Review Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor

 Uprising: Curse of the last Emperor - cooperative 4 for 2-4 participants. Players must defeat both the legions of the Empire and the hordes of Chaos to win freedom for their peoples.

FILLING THE BOX

 The quality of Uprising's components is impressive. All the illustrations are great. The plastic stands look great, as does the playing field. It is very large and divided into hexes. The game laid out on the table looks impressive. The playing field simultaneously serves as a very convenient landmark, where a rather complex structure of the move is written in detail, and in two directions; no matter where you sit, it will be easy to reach the attraction.

 In addition to the main playing field, there are also two tablets: one for quests and items, the other for the bad ones. A pleasant, but completely optional supplement. If they are not placed on your table, you can simply not use them. As for the players' tablets, they are also good quality and thick and also clutter the field.

 The cards are made of high-quality material, although they tend to stick together, which makes it difficult to shuffle them. Protectors are highly desirable.

 I liked that garrisons are marked with plastic tokens that are placed on top of each other, as well as walls and towers that you can surround your shelters with. There's a lot of stuff on the playing field, and it's nice that three garrisons take up as much space as one garrison.

 Thank God, the game has a built-in organizer, and a very good one at that. It is far from ideal: cubes do not fit in there, and there is no compartment for some items. But in general, it is quite convenient and speeds up the layout of the game.

 I also really liked the rule book: small, square format, spring-bound - just the thing to lay open during the game. It looks bright, there are a lot of examples, everything is clear, except for a few points that would not hurt to describe in more detail. There is also a table of contents and an index, thanks to which it is easiest to find the necessary rule. I really appreciate that the authors clearly worked on the rulebook, unlike many other companies.

4X IN CUT DOWN VIEW

 In Uprising 2–4, the tribes decide to take advantage of the conflict between Chaos and the Empire to regain their independence. Players will have to explore new lands (eXploration), collect resources (eXploitation), build units and new shelters (eXpansion), and, if everything goes well, destroy the forces of the Empire and Chaos (eXtermination - whoever destroys whom is a big question). Players score joint victory if they have more victory points than the Empire and Chaos by the end of the game.

 At the start, players have almost nothing: only one shelter (village) in the corner of the map, some resources, a few starting specialties and a hero. Most of the land is unexplored, so the hexes lie shirt-side up — except for the imperial capital in the center of the map and its surrounding garrisons.

 The party is divided into 4 chapters. Although the turn structure is quite complex, the basics are clear from the turn: in the event phase, enemies are placed on the map, in the construction phase, players build armies and fortify shelters, in the action phase, players act by spending their 8 action points, in the nemesis phase, enemies move, and in the set of points, everyone gets their software.

 At first glance, everything looks standard: at the beginning of the game, your hero explores several new lands, revealing the hexes and enemies placed on them. Your armies go out to fight them (and win if you're lucky). You build a new shelter in new territories, which will bring you resources to build new armies, etc.

 However, Uprising has a number of significant differences from the classic formula. The mechanics are closely interconnected, the difficulty is very high, and you need to cooperate so that you have at least a chance to win.

 The process of exploring the surrounding area is dangerous: there is an enemy on each opened hex (and if it is empty, then one of the enemies in the game receives reinforcements). And these enemies will help the goblins if you don't exterminate them right away: Imperial Garrisons bring Imperial OP, and Chaos Skeletons... Well, they are quite passive on their own, but if you have to place three Skeletons on one hex, then a Chaos Horde will appear, and the appearance of the horde is very bad news. You get nowhere without research, but at the same time, research makes your opponents stronger.

 You have your own army to fight the garrisons and skeletons. Initially, only basic units are available to you, but later you will have access to advanced units. Each unit rolls one die. The color of the cube depends on its chances of throwing a hit, shield (which cancels enemy hits) or lightning (allows you to activate special abilities); different units have different dice. Additionally, archers roll their dice before combat, potentially giving them a chance to shoot an opponent on approach. Although enemies can also have archers...

 The main problem is that you can't have more than 5 units in one hex, and therefore in one skirmish. The world of Uprising is a cold wasteland that simply does not have the resources to feed a large army. Therefore, you will always have to carefully plan in advance with whom and when to enter into battle. A couple of skeletons or level 1 garrisons are usually easy pickings, but more serious opponents present problems. Both garrisons and skeletons are mere flowers compared to...

LEGIONS OF DEATH

 Your main opponents are the legions of the Empire and the hordes of Chaos. Although each of them is represented by one stand, in fact there is a whole cluster of unpleasant units. Horde/Legion characteristics and the dice they roll are listed on a separate card, with their hazard level (basically HP difference) ranging from 1 to 7. And they roll lots and lots of dice.

 Moreover, they are not only big and scary, but they will make you dirty in every way: they make you dirty when they are displayed on the field, they make you dirty every time they throw lightning. They will teleport you to unpleasant locations, steal one of your 8 actions until their death, steal one of your actions forever, destroy your units before the battle begins.

 Legions will literally chase you. Each legion has its own objective token, which is awarded to the player with the fewest troops. The Legion will move towards that player until it destroys their shelter. Then it will move to the next shelter of that player... In short, you get a personal nemesis.

 Hordes of Chaos are not so dangerous at first glance, but only at first. They don't have a specific goal, although they will definitely prioritize the player's shelter if it comes their way. The main thing is that they curse the lands they pass through. Cursed lands are of no benefit to the players, and even worse, bring OP to Chaos.

 This creates an interesting dichotomy: The Empire is trying to intercept and destroy you, so you have to play defensively. Chaos is not as focused, but you will have to intercept his hordes yourself - otherwise Chaos will easily win.

 Battles with hordes and legions are the most epic part of the game. These are formidable opponents, and you have a maximum of 5 units in one battle. So an undamaged horde/legion cannot be defeated in one battle; will have to attack multiple times, often by multiple players. In Uprising, your armies will be decimated repeatedly (but you'll rebuild them just as often if you're lucky).

PLAYER OPPORTUNITIES

 However, the players are far from defenseless. Actually, they have so many different tools at their disposal that it is easy to forget about any possibility.

 To begin with, each hero has their own special ability deck (and each faction has two heroes to choose from), and you'll get a new one in each chapter. Some are useful in combat (effects vary from rolling dice to all kinds of bonuses), others allow you to manipulate the map, others provide mobility, etc. Most combat special abilities work only if there is a hero on that hex. If you attack yourself, it is not difficult to plan everything. If you are attacked by several enemies, it becomes much more difficult.

 There is also a market in the game where you can buy useful items. And druid cards, which are revealed in each chapter and give bonuses when discarding monsters. And quests are cards that give useful buns if you roll a certain result on the dice (by the way, this is the only way to remove the curse). And varied terrain that can help or hinder.

 In short, there are a lot of all kinds of factors here. It's a good idea to read the rules carefully before matches to know what can affect the outcome of the fight if you want to have a chance of winning.

 But the main tool in your arsenal is the conflict between Chaos and the Empire. They treat each other no more kindly than they treat you. When Horde and Legion converge on the same hex, they engage in battle. Such moments are especially gratifying. Moreover, these are random clashes; The placement and movement mechanics of the hordes/legions are well known, so with some effort you can manipulate them by pitting them against each other. This is an important component of the game that is critical to success.

FLEXIBILITY

 The parties in Uprising are difficult, especially for beginners. While players aren't permanently out of the game—if a player gets rid of all shelters, they place new ones for free in the next chapter—they can find themselves in a very unenviable position. But after a while you will gain experience, start winning and probably want more challenges.

 Fortunately, Uprising is a flexible game.

 The duration of the games is adjustable: you can play in 3 sections, you can also play in 2. I do not recommend the latter (the layout takes too much time compared to the game), but 3 sections are just what to fit into one evening. And 4 chapters are better suited for an afternoon party on the weekend.

 The difficulty is also adjustable: easy mode will provide you with a decent challenge in the first few games. But apart from it, there is a hard mode as well as a nightmare mode. Difficulty is regulated by the appearance of new content in the game, marked with a red skull: additional difficult locations, hordes, legions, difficult quests, and to give you a chance to win - more powerful items.

 While Uprising remains the same challenging game at its core, the flexibility of customization allows you to optimize the game for your group.

A LITTLE CRITICISM

You probably already guessed that I really like Uprising. Nevertheless, I cannot but point out a number of shortcomings.

 First, randomness can make the party obscene. A chain of several event cards is enough to build up too much of an advantage in favor of the Empire or Chaos. At the same time, you not only lose the extremely important opportunity to balance the Empire with Chaos and vice versa; the winning side also goes into the lead on the SW. Of course, it is possible to make it more complicated - say, to divide the events into imperial and chaotic - but this means a lot of fuss, plus the element of surprise is lost.

 Secondly, the game is much more difficult with 2 players than with 3-4. Some scaling, but not enough. If two legions appear in the first chapter, it will be very difficult for two players to fight them off, not having the opportunity to properly support each other. In most of my 2 player games, the field was overflowing with enemies and the players didn't have time to meet and help each other.

 Therefore, with two players, it is better to take two factions each. If playing solo, it makes sense to take three factions; four would be too much.

 And finally, the Curse: that which remains on the lands through which the Chaos hordes passed after their activation. Each curse gives Chaos 1 VP at the end of each chapter. Early curses can lead to an easy victory for Chaos. And the possibility of removing them depends on randomness: only a few quests allow you to get rid of the curse, so you have to hope that you will draw the right quest and roll the right value on the dice. I've had games where Chaos broke away from SW because we couldn't do anything with curses.

CONCLUSIONS

 Uprising is a great game. She squeezes an entire epic 4x into a relatively short batch. Yes, the game takes up a lot of space on the table, but the components are actually not that many. There are rarely more than 10 armies, 3-4 shelters, etc. on the field at the same time. And although the field itself is large, there are not so many hexes on it... Despite this, you will have epic battles, and the development of a tribe from overseas to a rival of the Empire itself, and intense exploration of unexplored lands. Even the rules are not too complicated for a game of this genre, although there are many important nuances.

 However, Uprising is merciless to players and definitely not for everyone. It is about a desperate clash of the overseas with the enormous forces of the Empire and Chaos; the odds should not be in your favor. If you are comfortable with this schedule, then you are in for a wonderful, unique adventure in the world of Uprising.