Robots, Assemble! A Look at the AEGIS Solo Mode and World
Put together a team of unique robots with the ability to combine into new forms in a dice-based arena battle with AEGIS.
I jumped right into the lore of AEGIS: Combing Robot Strategy Game as soon as it arrived. Awesome robots? Different ways to combine them? Tons of variety with low-priced standees? It seemed like such an exciting premise, particularly with the expanded lore about the world. There was a rich history and fantastic and unique robots to discover as I piloted my team!
Game Overview
Game Name: AEGIS: Combining Robot Strategy Game
Publication Year: 2018
Designers: Many (6 Credited)
Artists: Breeze Grigas & Maung Thuta
Publisher: Zephyr Workshop
Solo Mode: Included in AEGIS: Second Ignition
A team of robots takes center stage with their own abilities and strengths. But the trick is to figure out the right time to assemble a few of them… For these robots can combine into better models! The solo opponent offers some challenges of its own in this battle with many types of action choices.
First Play
August 17, 2025
Complexity
2
Latest Play
August 18, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
40 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
28" x 22"
Low Score
N/A
Into Character
Prior to playing, I went through pages and pages of an art and scenario book to immerse myself in the is world. It’s so cool! A lot of passion went into the backstory and setting.
Characters are also more than just random art: Ainer is the First Pilot for a reason, as he awakened the first relic robots.
The robots fall into different groups, each of which has a different sort of style. What’s so great about that? First of all, you can build tons of different kinds of teams to play as!
More than that, though, is the ability to combine adjacent robots into better forms that become even more powerful.
Arozell Sol, Solo
The solo mode includes a number of different opponents who function differently. Another nice touch are the trophies, or extra rewards to work towards during play.
However, I had concerns about the solo mode. It uses 12 cards, and each round usually involves activating 3 of them.
This gave me advance knowledge of what to expect, but also felt extremely random for a skirmish-style game.
I started at the easy difficulty level, which inexplicably only used 2 cards per round… Making the game drag on far longer than it should have. 3 or 4 rounds should be the limit!
Counting and Rolling
It was neat to have a shared energy pool, which meant I couldn’t move and activate every robot all the time. But counting hexes was endless and almost agonizing.
Each ability comes with a range, so aside from the rare few that only looked at an adjacent hex, I constantly looked at distances in the 4-6 hex range every single turn.
This also carried over to the solo opponent. I had to activate its robots for it… Did I also mention random dice rolls?
Even when I had a good strategy going, dice rolls showed whether or not I actually succeeded. Lots of wasted turns.
Excellent Standees
One thing I have to commend the game on is its use of standees over miniatures. These game boxes could have been enormous and so much more expensive otherwise!
The standees are also very functional: Movement speeds are at the top, and integrity is shown on the right side.
Even with some robots that had a similar appearance, I still found that I could tell them apart well enough… For the most part. Definitely mixed up my assault robots once.
I was so invested in the lore before playing, and wasn’t prepared for how lackluster gameplay was for me. Oh, no!
Getting Into the Lore of a Game Before Playing
The biggest lesson with this experience came down to the disconnect between the depth of the world and game mechanics. Was it a mistake to get so invested in the setting prior to learning how to play? That led to a lot of disappointment for me, yet I still think it was worth it to find some fun. I was quite impressed with all the details!
It’s true that sometimes games don’t measure up in terms of the balance between the story and gameplay. That’s excluding abstract games… No worries with them lacking any narrative depth! But when it feels like the world building is more gripping than the game itself, I always feel bad about my reaction. I wanted to have a great time with this solo mode.
There might be something excellent here as a multiplayer experience, so I haven’t written it off in that regard. But I think my biggest problem was in feeling like I, as a player, wasn’t part of this world. I moved robots, counted hexes, and rolled dice. Never did I feel like I made meaningful choices, aside from when to combine robots, which was only a few times.
Is it me? Probably! I still admire this for its art and depth in the setting. Had this been a tabletop roleplaying game or something that was more about exploring and activating robots, it might have hit differently. Glad I tried it out, though.
Robot Combinations
Despite my issues with the solo mode, it was still pretty awesome to combine robots! This required some matching models to gather nearby at the right moment.
Robots, assemble! I loved seeing the new models and how they carried over some aspects of their parts. These were only the first evolutions… Tiers 3, 4, and 5 are even cooler!
I loved the variety present in the robot types, especially with so many possible teams to try out and create.
Ultimately, though, the constant counting, looking up keywords, and dice rolling weren’t enjoyable for me.
Arena Battles
Another limitation of the solo mode is that it is always played on this small map. It makes sense, but I didn’t find it to be a particularly exciting arrangement, even with walls.
Each play is a puzzle to solve, yet I don’t do well with puzzles that rely on luck. I got caught up with all of the keywords and iconography that didn’t make sense to me.
I wanted to feel like I was commanding these robot teams, right in the thick of the action this setting offers!
Unfortunately, I had a lot more fun reading about the world than playing the game solo. I was sadly very disappointed.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 & 2
Expansion: AEGIS: Second Ignition
Solo Mode: Included in AEGIS: Second Ignition
Play Details: Easy & Standard Difficulty Levels
Outcome: 1 Win & 1 Loss
Although I lost at the standard difficulty level, it didn’t drag on and seemed more like a challenge. However, I wasn’t enjoying my time. Too much extra work took me out of the game, and managing the solo opponent’s moves simply felt like more work. The artwork and world setting are still amazing, but this one won’t return to my solo table again.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
5
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
6
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
4
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- There are tons of robots to build a team from, although pre-built teams make it very easy to start playing quickly.
- Standees offer useful information, and also take up a lot less space than the alternative option of plastic miniatures.
- So much work went into the backstory and world, which shows in the careful robot designs and commanders.
- Each robot belongs to a certain group with a cohesive sort of visual design, and the artwork is fantastic to look at.
- Combining robots is an exciting moment during play, although figuring out the best timing is part of the strategy.
- Most of the general information is split up across helpful reference cards that condense down the major rules.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The need to count hexes with every action takes up a considerable amount of time, and feels very repetitive.
- There are usually a couple of ways to mitigate bad dice rolls, but this means that actions often have little to no effect.
- Managing the solo opponent takes a fair amount of effort and there are often rules questions that are unanswered.
- Aside from combining robots, the novelty of gameplay wears off quickly and the coolest moments are very rare.
Victory Conditions
Defeat the Solo Opponent
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like about AEGIS: Combining Robot Strategy Game? Is there a commander or robot team you enjoy the most? I saw glimmers of greatness and really wanted this to work out for me! Alas, the solo mode wasn’t something that brought me any joy. That’s OK: I can see how this would work well for the right audience, and I had fun reading the scenario book!
0 Comments