Blazon Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Blazon, a tile laying and tableau building board game published by 25th Century Games. In Blazon, players are creating shields with HearldyBlazon trying to earn the most points.

In the early morning, as the sun began to lift over the hills, a dense fog began to dissipate from the battlefield. What we thought were mounds of dirt and debris shifted before our eyes to groupings of bodies felled during combat. Swords littered about. Missing limbs. And throughout the field a trampled ground of muck that covered everything in a dirty gray tinge.

We searched for our father, who we’d followed without permission. We knew the heraldry of his shield, always glimmering in the sunlight, the crescent and lion on a sea of argent and azure. We were unsure if he would be there to greet us, but we’d learned that the family heirloom would always survive.

Blazon, a game of medieval heraldry, was designed by Dave Conklin, illustrated by Ian O’Toole, and published by 25th Century Games. Are you eager to design your own shield using heraldic techniques to ensure your family’s honor lives on for generations?

Blazon features hand management and tile placement/tableau building and plays from one to four players in less than sixty minutes. It uses a simple turn structure and a restrictive placement space to create a rhythmic gameplay loop. It utilizes a central board to house two distinct element decks (devices and tinctures), five bonus cards (distinctions), and all the main rules via iconography.

The objective of the game is to place element cards onto your player board (a shield) to score prestige, earn distinctions, and have the most prestige upon the trigger of end game. This occurs when any player either reaches fifty prestige