Designer: Frederic Guerard (Clash of Rage, Ilos, Titanium Wars)

Artists: Igor Polouchine (King of New York, King of Tokyo, Spot It!, Welcome to the Dungeon), Jean-Baptiste Reynaud (King of Tokyo, Schotten Totten, Ticket to Ride: First Journey)

Publisher: La Boite de Jeu (Montana, Neta-Tanka, Outlive)

Genre/Mechanisms: dice rolling, miniatures, modular board, pattern building, take that, wargame

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Clash of Rage, 2nd Printing is already fully-funded. In fact, pledges currently total almost 2.5x the initial funding goal, with about 12 hours left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 2-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About:  “A miniatures game of conquest and movement,” where “every army is unique, with its own units and characteristics;” Clash of Rage gets a second printing and a new Clan expansion for its “second season.”

How It Works:  Clash of Rage includes a Campaign Mode where each scenario has various win conditions, or players can simply choose to play a non-campaign game where they must conquer the Cities of the Elves and forge Legendary equipment to win the game. Players have 1 Victory Point for each Elven City they control during game-play, as well as 1 Victory Point for each Legendary Equipment they’ve forged. The first player to have 4 Victory Points during the Second Action immediately wins the game.

Until that happens, players will continue playing Clash of Rage in rounds, each made up of 5 phases: Play a Tactic Card, First Action, Reinforcement Stones, Second Action, and End of Round. At the start of the game, players shuffle their Tactic cards to form a face-down deck, then draw 3 cards. When Playing a Tactic Card, all players simultaneously choose a card from the 3 in their hand and place it face down in front of them; then all players simultaneously reveal their played cards, which determines turn order, reinforcements, and revenue for the round.

Then, in turn order, players take their First Actions. Players can either choose from Equipping Armies, or Moving and Battling. When Equipping Armies, the player takes any or all of the following actions in any order they so choose: Buying Equipment from the Black Market, Forging Legendary Equipment, and Reorganizing Equipment on their Clan Sheet. Buying Equipment is done by paying the cost of one of the 6 Market cards. To Forge Equipment, the player spends 6 Crystals if they control at least one Forge and 3 Crystals if they control 2 or more. They then draw 1 Legendary Equipment, plus an additional 1 for each Forge they control. The player then keeps one and shuffles the rest back into the deck. Finally, Reorganizing Equipment is simply done by re-slotting various Equipment cards. When taking the other action, Moving and Battling, the player first moves all of their individual Units as they wish, abiding by each unit’s individual movement points. Then Battles are resolved in any Territory where the active player and another player both have units. Battles are resolved via dice rolls, and combat continues until one player has no more units left or flees.

After all players have taken their First Actions, they’ll check the Territories they control with Reinforcement Stones, receiving one Unit of the type corresponding to the Stone if that Unit is available in their reserve. Then players will take their Second Actions, again choosing whether to Equip Armies or Move and Battling. If a player has 4 collective Victory Points during this phase, they’ll immediately win the game. If not, then during the End of the Round phase, players will Improve the Elves by drawing one equipment card for each type of Elf unit still in play. Finally, each player will draw a Tactic Card to replace the one they played at the beginning of the round, and then they’ll start a new round.

Comparisons: While Clash of Rage features some area control and lots of combat, it doesn’t have the depth of play to qualify as a full 4x game. There’s plenty of extermination, but exploring, expanding and exploiting are minimal. Yet it does plays like a more pared-down, skirmish-y version of Clash of Cultures, Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea, or Merchants & Marauders. And as far as skirmish wargames in fantastical, non-historical settings with a variety of Clans and variable player powers go, let’s also throw in Tsukuyumi: Full Moon Down.

What Should I Pledge?:
$28 Nivi Pledge: The Worshippers of Nivi Box (the campaign’s new clan) and all stretch goals from this 2nd season.
$128 Core Box + Expansion: the Clash of Rage Core Box, Heroes Expansion, and all stretch goals from the 1st season.
$188 All-In Pledge: combines the rewards from both previous pledge levels, plus The Mechanical Cohort Box, The Heirs of Kkran Box, 10 extra green dice, and 10 extra white dice.

Add-Ons:
$27 The Worshippers of Nivi Additional Clan
$33 The Heirs of Kkran Additional Clan
$33 The Mechanical Cohort Additional Clan
$38 Heroes Expansion Pack
$10 10 extra green dice
$10 10 extra white dice
$82 Bundle #1: Includes The Heirs of Kkran Additional Clan, The Mechanical Cohort Additional Clan, and the Heroes Expansion Pack
$55 Bundle #2: Includes The Heirs of Kkran Additional Clan & The Mechanical Cohort Additional Clan

KS Exclusives:
La Boite de Jeu has gone the way of making everything in the Core Box available for retail. However, the 3 Additional Clan packs, the Heroes Expansion Pack, and both Bundles available as add-ons are all KS Exclusives. Don’t expect to see the additional clans and expansion at retail.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $188 for the All-In pledge plus $10 in shipping for a total of $198. Keep in mind that there will be no pledge manager for this campaign, so you’ll need to back at one of the pledge levels to be able to purchase any add-ons.

Clash of Rage, 2nd Printing completes its Kickstarter on Thursday, November 21st and tentatively ships in July 2020.