Game Overview

Game Name: Ironwood
Publication Year: 2024
Designers: Maël Brunet & Julien Chaput
Artists: Villő Farkas & Qistina Khalidah
Publisher: Mindclash Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game

A large-scale battle takes shape across the mountains and forests of the land between a pair of very different factions. Card-based play allows for interesting decisions, along with a simple combat procedure. Racing to complete unique objectives first takes some careful planning in this land!

Simply Beautiful

A rare bit of afternoon sun appeared for some fun photos, and I just loved how this play area looked! The board was an intricate place with some fantastic artwork.

The Woodwalker and Ironclad factions roamed this area and were tasked with a final battle to settle their ongoing feud.

I enjoyed this extreme asymmetry and the fact that I could choose who to play as in the solo mode. There were lots of procedures, yet I saw some real potential in the system.

It all came down to drawing and using cards, most of which were unique with plenty of interesting abilities!

Woodwalker Totems

I decided to play as the Woodwalker faction. Fittingly, their components are wooden while the Ironclad use metal tokens. A very neat and thematic way to tell them apart!

In order to win, I would have to draw vision cards and carry special totems from the inner forests back to the safety of the outer forests, where my units remained untouched.

Meanwhile, the Ironclad built foundations on the mountain cities and tried to expand these into giant forges.

With a gameplay sequence that didn’t seem too tricky, I was already starting to think about my first few turns.

Managing the Ironbot

The back of the standard Ironclad player board was labeled the Ironbot. Gameplay here was more about evaluating the current game state and then following a procedure.

I thought this worked well enough, but it did take a lot for me to constantly have to think through the Ironbot’s moves.

Not that it was difficult… I think it felt more tedious than anything. Did its stance change based on a few criteria? What would be the target and source of this action?

The flow was relatively smooth, but I had to pause to think about how to execute a full procedure during most turns.

Easy Combat Values

Most of the strategy came down to positioning, movement, and launching careful attacks. It was quite interesting!

Combat offered the option of wagering a card for its combat values, shown in an upper banner. However, this meant the card wouldn’t be available for future use. Choices, choices!

I liked how the faction cards were mirrored with these icons, which made combat results easy to calculate.

A few cards felt like outliers without clear explanations, but I made logical decisions and found these battles tricky. It didn’t make sense to be overly aggressive most of the time.

Planning Cards

A trio of base cards are always available each turn, returning after being used in any way. The rest of the deck consists of special cards, which are one-time use only.

Figuring out my turns was fun, and I enjoyed how I could see what happened during a round. This was my first round, which set me up for future awards and helped me move.

It wasn’t easy, though! The Ironbot kept expanding and was well on the way to building forges before I did all that much.

However, I treated this first play as a learning game, and just settled in to enjoy the general flow and decision points.

The Perfect Attack

Discovering totems typically meant that the forest warband had to withstand a major attack from the Ironbot. And gathering a large force in a single forest took lots of effort.

But there were also some cool cards I found in my deck, like this one! A small sacrifice would put some other units in a much better position to pick up and move totems.

Unfortunately, this first play turned into a bitter back-and-forth stalemate and seemed to drag on and on.

I probably missed a rule, though, and definitely made some poor choices… Time to call it a loss, then reset!

Tea in Cuprumis

Something told me I needed to find a clever way to use a tiny teapot and cup… So I made a ridiculous connection in my mind and figured that Cuprumis would be perfect!

Actually, this turned out to be the scene of a lot of action during my second play. Battles played out nearby, while I added a fair number of units to the surrounding forests.

The Ironbot transformed this into a forge and was far too close to victory, but my vision deck was on the same page…

With a pair of totems already secured, the last one was located in Cuprumis. I just required a little luck to win!

Shaman’s Guidance

In order to discover a totem, I needed a matching vision card and a unit adjacent to the city. More importantly, that city had to be uncontrolled with no Ironbot combat units.

With the last forge dangerously close to being constructed, I had to act quickly! Fortunately, I had the perfect card that allowed me to discover in a controlled city. Voila!

The Ironbot spread its forces too thinly, and I won a few battles to keep them far from Cuprumis. Almost there…

A final movement card took that final totem out of the inner forest, and I celebrated a rather resounding victory!

Session Overview

Play Number: 1 & 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Woodwalker vs. Ironbot, Level 0 Difficulty
Outcome: 1 Win & 1 Loss

Once I had the rules down, my second play moved along much better. Although I played at the easiest difficulty level, there were some challenges to work through. The solo mode felt a little too procedural for my tastes, though, and there were times when its actions set me up to be in an even better position. Still, a very nice sort of game that I’m glad I had a chance to try out! It was a very fun sort of outing.

Affordability

Price & Value

7

Functionality

Challenges & Mechanics

8

Originality

Design & Theme

6

Quality

Components & Rules

10