Lining Up on the Battlefield with Drums of War: Enclave
Deploy units carefully in a close-quarters battle between humans and orcs with various abilities in Drums of War: Enclave.
Lately, I’ve been trying to split my time between some older favorites and new arrivals. Drums of War: Enclave arrived a little while ago, and I was intrigued to see what the solo mode might offer! Card-based battle games aren’t often in my typical realm of enjoyment, although I was curious about what looked like a simple system. Onto the battlegrounds!
Game Overview
Game Name: Drums of War: Enclave
Publication Year: 2023
Designer: Proyecto Enigma
Artist: Proyecto Enigma
Publisher: Eclipse Editorial
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Humans and orcs face off in this lane battle, where unique leaders provide unique abilities and flair. Deployment is a clever balancing act of blocking enemy units, planning attacks, and figuring out which units to discard from play. Lots of elements take center stage with the clear battle flow!
First Play
June 22, 2025
Complexity
3
Latest Play
June 22, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
25 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
18" x 24"
Low Score
N/A
Aiden, a Human Leader
Each faction features 3 very different leaders to give each battle a little bit of a different feeling. I started off with Aiden, who seemed simple enough to understand.
The core feature of gameplay is the deck, which represents an entire army. However, costs are paid by removing other cards from the deck and knowing how to best strategize.
Quite interesting! This made every decision important and ensured I had a lot of thoughtful turns to work through.
Aiden’s ability gave me another option to remove a card to add temporary strength to a unit… An excellent option!
Tons of Unit Types
Many units have multiples in the deck, but this is important with the way they double as resources for card costs. Some duplicates work very well when deployed together, too.
The battlefield was very compact, as was the whole play area. As a lane battler, this simply meant that cards were mostly organized in columns for matchups. Very easy.
I also included random mercenaries, who helped add some more asymmetry and unexpected elements into play.
It was simple to get into gameplay with the rulebook, and I found myself trying out all kinds of strategies right away.
Griffin Attack!
Towards the end of my first play, the orc leader was in rough shape… But so was my leader! I didn’t have a full deck to work with and needed to carefully think about deployment.
The answer became clear when I had a griffin unit in my midst, though! I had to maneuver a little bit to ensure there was a clear opening for an attack, and Aiden nearly fell.
Victory! Granted, I went back and may have made a few small mistakes, but this was far from an easy outing.
It worked really nicely, although I wasn’t sure if there was enough to keep me playing through the solo mode.
Overwhelmed by Orcs
Uh-oh! In a different matchup, the orcs were much more aggressive with the cards that came out. Try as I might, it was a nightmare to fight off their approach.
Had I deployed more low-cost units, they would have put up fights before these riders converged on my leader.
At least I had a lone archer attempting to do something out there. Ha ha! It was a pretty terrible sort of defeat, yet I saw some things I could have done differently to improve.
Gameplay was certainly engaging and interesting, but this is likely going to be a better duel game against my husband!
Identifying What Gives a Game the “My Game” Tag
What is my ideal solo game experience? I got to thinking about this as I played, as I know that lane battles and skirmishes typically don’t fall in that category. It’s a unique phenomenon in our household, but this often leads to me thinking about games in terms of “my game” vs. “my husband’s game.” It’s a subtle difference… I’ll always say they’re all mine. Ha ha!
Yet that’s something I often think about as I play. He has his preferences, and that often means that I’ll still try out new solo modes. You can’t stop me! It’s interesting to me because I sometimes discover surprises I never would have considered, like Four Horsemen. Never would have looked at that for more than 5 seconds, and it’s one of my favorites from 2025!
That also means I find solo modes that I didn’t expect to click with, and they live up to those expectations. I still find that valuable, though, as I get exposed to very different games and continue to become more aware of when a game is clearly “my game” or not. You probably have a good idea if you’ve followed along, but every now and then, surprises abound!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 & 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Humans vs. Orcs
Outcome: 1 Win & 1 Loss
Not too bad! I appreciated the backs of both rulebooks, which had clear game sequence summaries to follow. This was extremely helpful and gave me all of the necessary information at a glance. Very neat! I think this would have worked better for me if I enjoyed these sorts of solo games more, yet it’s a very well-designed experience. Lots of neat decisions in a pretty quick and action-packed play time!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
6
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- The play area is compact and keeps all of the important information front and center without needing to expand.
- Deploying units takes some careful thought about hand and deck management, as well as the sorts of skirmishes.
- Unique abilities exist across units that sometimes pair well against enemy units, or might be better suited for later.
- Leaders provide different abilities and skill levels for different kinds of challenges and other considerations.
- Most of the rules are intuitive after the first play, while handy reference summaries on the rulebook backs help a lot.
- Managing the solo opponent is very clear with a short flow chart that still offers a difficult challenge to work through.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Only having a pair of factions seems to limit the variety, although additional sets look like they’re coming soon.
- A few minor typos are present on the cards that are more annoying than anything, although they do stand out.
- The box is excellent and compact, yet does not fit sleeved cards, even though sleeve bundles are available.
- Wooden tokens replace the cardboard tokens, but don’t include icons and seem to be less intuitive to use.
Victory Conditions
Win the Battle
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game as the human faction.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Drums of War: Enclave? Do you enjoy any other solo lane battling games? I had some fun with this one, and still think it was worth exploring solo. Just not my favorite sort of experience… Although I know my husband is going to have a great time playing against me. I continue to have a great time bringing all kinds of games to my solo table!
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