Gudnak Review
There is something to be said about a tactical skirmish game that you can set up and get to the table in just a few minutes. While I love my games of Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone, or even Marvel Champions, before I can play, it takes me quite a bit to build a team and equip them.
In comes Gudnak. Designed by Timothy O’Brien and Ian Oliver, this tactical card game features four unique factions and plays in about 15-20 minutes—army building optional. Plus, the logo can be read both right side up and upside down, so it’s got that going for it. Which is nice.
To play Gudnak, you first have to get your army deck. You can either use one of the 4 pre-made starter decks or build your own from various cards (if that’s your thing). The game is played on a 3×3 grid, with each player’s stronghold sitting behind the center square on their back row.
A player’s turn has 3 parts:
Start Phase: Draw a card, or if you are sieged (an enemy unit is in the space in front of your stronghold), then you discard the top card of your deck.
Action Phase: You have two actions to spend. These will let you summon a unit to the board (no cost), move a unit to an adjacent space, draw a card, attack, play a tactics card (these are 1-off action cards), or defend your stronghold. Attacks are just a strength comparison, with the lower value unit being discarded (or both in the case of a tie).
Units of matching types can also be built into stacks (piles). Only the top unit of a stack is active, but when it’s killed, the one underneath it takes its place as the active unit. Stacked units can be moved with one action, so this is a great way to ferry troops around the board quickly or retain control of a space.
Your turn ends with the end phase, where you unexhaust your units and pass play to your opponent.
If you can get a unit in front of your opponent’s stronghold when they have no cards left in their deck, you win!
Gudnak is a fun little game. It’s easy to learn, quick to set up,
Read more on boardgamequest.com
