Inis

A solid game, and good craic as well. Shipped fast and a fair price; absolutely lovely.

I used to like heavier euros before I picked this game up, but it has since eclipsed them by far (even though one of them was Eclipse).What I love:The game is extremely simple and accessible, but it presents an incredible amount of flexibility and decisions. It is the extreme of clean design, deep choices, and a lot of variation between plays. The game is extremely interactive, to the point that it makes it quite a reactive game, with nobody really being able to snowball a lead because there are consistent answers that people can have to any kind of lead. You see victory coming many turns in advance, and there is plenty of opportunity to try to prevent a victory while setting yourself up for a victory in the future. The game has an incredible amount of replayability. We've gotten to the point that we know all of the red and yellow cards by name, and the red cards add a huge amount of variety to every game.Things to consider:The game is very different at 3 and 4 players. I cannot say I would recommend 2 players (it sounds awful, as this game is really reactive and with 2 players it seems like a lot would be missing), but I haven't played it that way. With three players the game will last around an hour (maybe less, if you are all experienced), and end when someone sets up a turn really well and makes sure the opponents used their ability to interact with other players before showing their hand. While it is usually true that you lose knowing you could have played better that turn, it is also sometimes true that you couldn't have - you either weren't in a position to do so, never got passed the cards to do so, or couldn't have played around a particular red card.With 4 players the game is completely different. It can sometimes last a really long time if people are playing well, but all the while the game is tense and no one person can say they couldn't win. Everybody is interacting, reacting and setting themselves up. The only issue is that the deed tokens - the things that let you meet victory conditions much easier - are much easier to get in this mode, meaning that the game either ends quickly and - I would say - satisfyingly, OR another person gets a victory condition while someone else being the Brann (something much harder to accomplish in a three player game). When the latter happens, the game can last a while. I will say though, it is tense throughout. Every turn FEELS like the last turn, it feels like you could win every turn if you play your cards right.... it just ends up being that most of the time, the game can continue with ties that get harder and harder to keep until it explodes. When it lasts too long, the end just feels anticlimactic, like you could have won four turns in a row but at the end the person who got ignored or who you were counting on ends up taking the win. This is really rare, but this is also why some people might get the experience of it dragging out. It usually doesn't, but unfortunately the more evenly matched you are, the more it can happen.

I purchased this game specifically to be part of a St. Patrick's day celebration due to all the Celtic references (we have Irish family). My spouse and I are game lovers and I thought this would be a fun surprise.The game play has been easy to learn so far and has a fun dynamic. Playing with more than 2 people definitely adds a different dynamic.The quality of this game and the art is AMAZING. The exterior box is nice thick sturdy cardboard and has the most beautiful high-quality print showing off the impressive art. Additionally, inside the box the inserts are designed well to hold everything in place perfectly. The "boards" are also a quality thick cardboard in fun shapes. The tokens or "clans" are plastic pieces, so naturally they get a little bent due to the delicate detail, but it's nice that they aren't all the same. The cards in the game are larger than standard cards, so no running them through our card shuffler, but they also have great art and clearly explain how to be used. Lastly, there's even information in the instructions on each of the "characters" in the game, which I think is a really nice touch.

Inis is a great medium weight board game, it only take between half-hour to an hour to play on average and since it usually goes quick you’ll often play 2-3 games easily before moving on. The components are all above average quality (some minor warping on the small figurines b/c soft plastics), and the art is ABSOLUTELY wonderful. I love this game, we play it often and have not gotten tired of it. One of the best things in Inis is the speed of play: the game is not bogged down and turns are fairly quick. The card drafting mechanic (which governs ALL actions in the game) is executed perfectly.You spend a fair amount of time mulling over who could have what cards in hand (there are only a total of 16 basic actions cards in the whole game, with other cards for more unique special onetime actions) and because of this you often get to play some really fun surprise attacks or nutty combos on opponents. It’s a really well designed game and again the art is just incredible. Usually only takes 1 game to learn most everything, biggest mistake people make is assuming everything needs to end in bloodshed or combat. Yes there is “combat” in the game, but it literally always ends in pointless attrition that can knock you out of the game, instead this game is primarily area of control where you have to occasionally learn to live with your rowdy neighbors. Love this game.