World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch

 The World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch is a 1vs game: skirmish game with puzzle elements from CMON. The action takes place in a whimsical steampunk setting: gentlemen and women protect the Empire itself and the world as a whole from strange monsters from another dimension, controlled by an evil nemesis.

 This review covers the basics. There are many more buns in the kickstarter version, but I haven't gotten my hands on them yet.

 First of all, I would like to note that the game looks great. Beautiful, creative drawing style, very detailed miniatures. It is not surprising, because it is a game from CMON. This company has a lot of experience in the production of quality parts and components thanks to the line of "Zombicides", which has raised millions.

 The rules of Rise of Moloch resemble Zombicide in some ways, but there's nothing shameful about leaning on the shoulders of titans, so to speak. Rise of Moloch is not at all a Zombicide clone in a different setting.

COMPONENTS

 There is enough content in the database: about 60 miniatures, a dozen tablets, 6 maps, a dozen room tiles, etc., many cards and tokens. This is all without taking into account kickstarter bonuses and add-ons.

 Everything looks great: high-quality illustrations, nice design. Spectacular miniatures in the style of steampunk fantasy, where metal, flesh and magic grow, are the product of whimsical fantasy. Like straight out of a Tim Powers novel or the Quicksilver books. There are links to Jumping Jack, Anubis, IT, The League of Gentlemen and more. The illustrations are in no way inferior to the miniatures in processing and atmosphere: the spirit of the Victorian era is perfectly transferred to the game. Of course, all the components are of high quality as you would expect from CMON: thick tiles and tokens, thick cards, etc.

 I only have a few small comments. First, the cards are a bit shiny and slippery, so they don't hold well on tablets. Secondly, if you lay out the tokens on the tablets in the designated places, then there will be a lot of them, they can cover some of the key indicators and icons. Thirdly, why was it necessary to paint the figures in pale blue and bright yellow colors?! A very strange decision. Both colors look off-topic. Figures really need painting. Even if you are not an artist, it is worth at least grounding them so that the details become visible.

 However, these are all trailers. The game is very good.

RULES

 The rulebook isn't the best, but it's far from the worst. Surprisingly for CMON, their rulebooks are usually well laid out. But for some reason, this one is not very clear in places and suffers from typographical errors in the description of the layout.

 More developed sights would not have hurt. Not that they are bad, but they miss a couple of important points. Also, clearer examples, including ambiguous moments, would not hurt. There are no such problems in the "Zombicide" rulebooks. Overall not the level expected from CMON. Of course, it doesn't particularly interfere with playing, just minor flaws.

PREPARATION FOR THE GAME

 Rise of Moloch has two modes - single player quests and campaign. In the campaign book, you will find a large plot insert before each scenario, a description of the layout, special rules and an image of the field in an exploded view.

 In solo quest mode, you simply play one of these scenarios with a fixed set of bonuses. In the campaign mode, the received bonuses are saved from mission to mission. They themselves are very different: from straightforward skirmishes to tricky puzzles, key item transfers, NPC rescues, etc.

 The field consists of several large tiles, on top of which are placed small rooms that reflect and other locations, providing a very diverse field.

 Next, the starting location of the characters and the victory condition are indicated. As a rule, gentlemen need to complete some task to win, and nemeses need to bring their HP to zero several times.

GAME PROCESS

 Since this is a 1 vs. all game, one player always takes on the role of nemesis (bad guy) and the rest 1 through 4 play the role of gentlemen, of which there are always four.

 One player can easily handle all four. As a nemesis, the player usually also has to manage agents (essentially full-fledged characters, just for evil) and a horde of henchmen.

 Both sides secretly determine the turn order of their characters and then activate them in turn. This encourages strategic planning and creates intrigue and interesting surprises during the game.

 Full-fledged characters are gentlemen and agents. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. You can roughly classify them as a warrior, healer, etc., but you can pump them differently.

 Characters can take 2 actions each: move, attack, heal, or use special abilities.

 There are still henchmen: just cannon fodder, but if you start the situation and do not reduce their herd, then there will be so many of them that they will not only be annoying, but also pose a real threat. Minions have 1 action per turn: move, attack... Or (depending on the scenario) explode something. Or arson. Or... In general, now you understand why they are not only annoying.

 The nemesis also has several nemesis special ability cards visible to everyone and several chaos cards hidden from the gentlemen. Their effects can reactivate characters, start fires, explode, and more.

 In combat, dice are rolled in a number equal to the attack values for the attacker and the defense values for the defender. The difference in the number of successes rolled = damage done.

 Nemesis agents die when their HP is reduced to zero, while Gentlemen are only temporarily incapacitated and can proceed to the next turn. However, they will receive a torment card (similarity of injury).

 It is also worth noting that gentlemen use their special abilities not just like that, but by spending ether points. These points immediately fall into the clutches of the nemesis, who can spend them on their own crime cards. An interesting mechanic that encourages players to think twice before launching special moves.

 The layout takes 15 minutes, the batch takes about 2 hours.

REPLAYABILITY

 I'm not sure yet, but the regrabability seems pretty high. There are 6 scenarios in the campaign mode. After completing it, you can play individual scenarios or go through the campaign again, this time pumping the characters in a different way. In addition, although Rise of Moloch is essentially a skirmish game, different scenarios offer different challenges and different gameplay.

CONCLUSIONS

 Although I've mentioned Zombicide many times, Rise of Moloch reminds me more of Ancient Horror. The atmosphere is also felt, approximately the same level of difficulty.

 I really liked the leveling of the characters and the balance between strategy and tactics. Yes, dice bring randomness to the game, but they also provide memorable moments.

 In addition, it is difficult not to enjoy the adventures of quirky, strange and one-of-a-kind characters in an unusual, atmospheric and well-crafted setting.