The tabletop game Tiny Epic Western by Gamelyn Games is the first product I’ve ever Kickstarted and I’m ecstatic I did. As I scrolled through the various game projects this one caught my eye. Mainly because the tagline was “Poker meets worker placement.” It sounded fun and intriguing with the addition of the poker element so I signed up and paid up. Plus those bullet dice tho…

After waiting months for the games completion and shipment I cracked open the game and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of product I received. I was especially pleased with the art style.

After an initial play-through the game was pretty straightforward to learn. It consists of 6 rounds with 4 phases each round. After setting up the playing field you start phase one which is simply shuffling and dealing the poker cards. The next phase consists of placing your little cowboy’s on specific properties in the playing field. Hold on, don’t leave yet! It’s actually quite a lot of fun. The third phase is when you resolve the claimed properties using the poker cards you dealt earlier. These are simple games of three card poker. The cards have four suits and go up to the number 5.

The final phase of the round is when you buy the property you’re aiming to get with influence points and add it to your purchased properties. This is the main way you score VP or “victory points.” Each property has a points value listed on it as well as a number of symbols that represent “industries.” The industry portion is the second way you score points at the end of the six rounds. During the buying phase you play poker against your opponents with the winner getting to buy first and move one of three of the industry tokens. The industries will eventually all be moved to a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd spot on the board with more points going to the top industry and then down. If you have the most industry symbols of that type on your collective building cards you get the most points. The third and final way to score points is having possession of the “Wanted” card at the end of the game. You get the “Wanted” card by winning duels which occur if two players are vying for the same spot on the property mats. If you’re confused it’s not the games fault, it’s my hasty explanation of the rules.

The game really is quite a lot of fun with layers of strategy built in. It’s one of those games that are fairly easy to dive into, but offer deep replay value. The small size of the games allows you to easily take it wherever you go.

Another aspect that drew me in is the fact that you can play it solo. If you’re like me you sometimes have trouble convincing friends and family to play these crazy board games with you if they’re not Clue or Monopoly.

And who really even likes Monopoly anyway?!? I digress, with solo play you can actually enjoy the game on your own…all alone…by yourself…

I highly recommend Tiny Epic Western for its lovely art design, fun game-play, and str-ong replay-ability.

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