

- RENEGADE GAME STUDIOS THE FOX IN THE FOREST BOARD GAME MANUAL
- RENEGADE GAME STUDIOS THE FOX IN THE FOREST BOARD GAME SERIES
An example of the dense text shows the incredibly icon-heavy nature of the rules. Since that isn’t referenced, you’re left with the text from Victory Point Games.
RENEGADE GAME STUDIOS THE FOX IN THE FOREST BOARD GAME MANUAL
As a reviewer, yours truly expects that games can be learned from the provided components alone unless the manual refers to an online teaching aid.

Since you’re currently choosing to evaluate this game by reading a review rather than (or maybe in addition to) watching a video, we’ll assume you might enjoy reading a game manual or two. However wonderful and engaging this sounds, dear reader, this review needs to discuss the biggest issue that Renegade has going against it: the rules. If the objective cards require actions that just aren’t efficient based on the current decks of the players, and if better cards aren’t available from the shop, they’ll have to wait and suffer until they can make some turns work. Flexibility and adaptability are needed, but then again, players are at the mercy of the cards available for purchase as well. This can also doom players if needed actions, such as attacking server defenses, aren’t possible with the combination of cards drawn. The Hack Shack (card marketplace) could have useful cards, but it could also be frustrating to wait for just the right tools. Since every player sees all the cards in their deck every round before the enemy server actions are completed, a player’s tactical decisions matter heavily in coordination with their overall deck strategy. There is a high degree of strategy and planning amongst players and turns can be a deep discussion of options for the round. In a nutshell, Renegade feels like an advanced version of deck-building Pandemic where actions are dictated by how a player’s Command Points and card options work out.

RENEGADE GAME STUDIOS THE FOX IN THE FOREST BOARD GAME SERIES
When everything gets finally laid out on the board, what appears more is an abstract series of tokens and spaces than a thematic hacker vs computer game. If not, usually some punishment of additional server defenses are added to the board and the game continues. If those goals have been completed, the players win. Players win the game by following the goals set out on the selected SMC cards. All of these tokens have a connection to the theme which is referenced heavily throughout the rules. Other Command Points allow players to move across the board, move tokens around (their own or the SMC’s), or create new tokens. That token then aids the players in a variety of ways in their actions. For example, to place a new Contaminant (token) of a certain color requires 3 Command Points of that color. When players do this, they are required to trash a card so that decks always stay at the starting count of 15 cards.Īs players take their turns, a variety of actions will require them to spend Command Points, which are produced like Mana as cards are played. There’s a shop to buy new cards, which are usually more efficient or powerful than the starting cards. On a turn, players will play their hand of cards and then draw back up in standard deck building style. The Hacker’s player mat gives some reference information, but it’s a text heavy dump of terminology.Įach round of the game allows each player 3 turns of card play. The board is prepared with each player’s hacker pawn placed on separate starting server partitions (spaces) along with some tokens representing player utilities to attack the server and black tokens for the server’s defenses. This requires choosing a card which has some scenario rules and selecting 3 goal cards (Copper, Silver, Gold) which provide progressively difficult objectives. When a game of Renegade begins, players will be choosing the SMC (Super Massive Computer) they wish to go up against. Renegade provides 1-5 players 90 minutes worth of game and, ironically, two players or less is this reviewer’s preferred player count. It’s primarily a deck building game with elements of area control and pick-up and deliver with a cooperative goal. Renegade is a game about hackers infiltrating a large computer system known as the SMC. Readers should keep the above in mind as this review unfolds. This activity alone creates a certain feel to the game that players won’t soon forget, and to be honest, may very well enjoy. Usually the physical mechanisms are not so complex, but the intricacies to arrive at decisions and compare options are heavily burdened with jargon and references to subsections of rules that require multiple attempts at analysis. Phil Eklund is a game designer (not this game’s designer) who enjoys producing complex games.
