Vermin Vendetta is live
Vermin Vendetta is a 1-4 players deck building and area control game, in which you play as one of five asymmetric insect species fighting for dominance of the land. It is currently live on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for another 27 days. You may pledge for a copy of the game.
At the start of the game, you first pick a faction (Ants, Spiders, Beetles, Cockroaches, Myriapods): they all come with a different starting deck and units with unique abilities. Each faction also has its own set of Missions that you must fulfill in order to win the game. You then choose two factions for the AI opponents, take the 8 Event cards associated with each of these, and shuffle them together.
You start with six cards in hand, and store all Food and DNA cards on your board (these can be used during your turn, or later on during another of your turns). Then, you suffer Hunger. Hunger cards are cards that are a hindrance: they clog up your hand, and you must play them and suffer the consequences. If you cannot, then you must add a second Hunger card to your discard pile, that will integrate into your deck the next time you shuffle it back.
You can then spawn bugs* on the board (provided you can afford their Food cost from your Storage area, discarding the corresponding cards), and move one bug for free. Move has two components, and both are optional: you may first rotate by sixty degrees (units are hexes so you rotate them by one notch in either direction), and then may move forward by one hex in the direction that the bug is facing. You may also pay (in Food or DNA) to destroy a Hunger card.
Besides these free actions, you can spend two Action Points to perform additional ones. You may, for instance, play cards into your discard for one Action Point each. Cards list some of your unit names and may have specific effects. You thus choose to either activate one of the listed units (to move or attack with that unit) or to carry out the effect (if any). You can combine stored resource cards into more powerful ones to free or cull your deck and draw more efficient hands.
Once you are done with your actions, you can purchase new cards: DNA cards with Food, and Technology cards with DNA (Technology cards are more powerful action cards). DNA cards come from a common supply, while Technology cards are available on your personal board. All these cards are available to purchase from the start. DNA cards are added to your Storage while Technology cards go to your discard. At the end of your turn, if you didn’t spawn any bug or purchase any card, you must add a Hunger card to your discard. You then draw six cards, shuffling back the discard into the deck if needed.
In the next phase, you draw one of the 16 Event cards and resolve it (depending on the difficulty level and on your progress with respect to the mission fulfilled, not all parts are necessarily resolved). This will specify what the opponent factions are doing during their turn. You win the game when you fulfill your 6 Mission cards. However, if you must draw an Event card during the opponents’ turn, and the deck is empty, you instantly lose the game!
* Spiders and myriapods do count as bugs.
Thanks, Zerbique! Interesting (though may be too expensive for me after shipping and VAT). I'll check one of the gameplay videos.
I completely forgot to describe how Combat works, but I think this is interesting. Your bug units are hex-shaped and move on a hex-grid. When you attack, you attack all enemy bugs around you. Each side of your hex shows a different value. You then compare the adjacent values (the one on your hex side touching the enemy unit hex, and the facing value on that enemy hex). If you exceed the enemy's value, you kill the unit. If the enemy's value exceeds yours, you get killed. No luck involved.
It means you can kill different units while being killed yourself by another unit.
On top of that, adjacent units of the same factions add their values to each other…