Designer: Gordon Calleja (Posthuman, Posthuman Saga, Vengeance)

Artist: Axel Torvenius (Vengeance)

Publisher: Mighty Boards (Petrichor, Posthuman, Vengeance)

Genre/Mechanisms: area movement, card drafting, dice rolling, fighting, miniatures, modular board, puzzle, set collection, storytelling, take that, variable player powers

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Vengeance: Director’s Cut is already fully-funded. In fact, pledges currently total more than 1.5x the initial funding goal with 6 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: high

What It’s About:  “Step into the shoes of a hero that has been bashed and tortured by one or more of the four gangs in the game. You win by building up your hero, scouting gang dens to find the baddies who wronged you, then taking bloody revenge through action-packed fight sequences made up of dice based puzzles.” The Director’s Cut expansion includes a new gang and a new Hero, new abilities called Hero Perks, Story Mission to replace standard Missions, and Director Cards that can be played during another player’s fight phase to slow them down and add additional challenges.

How It Works:  Vengeance plays over the course of 3 Acts, with each Act made up of a Montage Round and Combat Rounds; Act 1 includes 1 Combat Round while Acts 2 & 3 each include 2 Combat Rounds. But the game begins with The Wrongdoing, in which the game’s heroes are bashed and tortured by a number of gang bosses. A draft of Vengeance cards ends once all players have 7 cards. Each player then selects 3 of the Vengeance cards and places the cards in front of them, indicating which gang bosses have wronged the hero, and player order is determined by the various heroes’ Mind values.

The Montage Round is split into 4 phases: Dice Draft, Action, Vengeance, and Player Order. During the Dice Draft phase, all players roll their white Montage Dice into a common pool, and then take turns drafting them. Dice results will provide the players with things like: 2 Heal points, 1 Upgrade point, 1 Recon point, a 1 point boost to a Montage card or the ability to buy a Vengeance card during the Vengeance phase, and a 1 point boost to the player’s Speed which will determine player order during the Player Order phase. During the Action Phase, players play Montage Cards to determine Action Points. During the Vengeance Phase, players uses action points to buy Vengeance Cards, if able. And during the Player Order phase, turn order is reset based on the various heroes’ Speed values.

The Combat Round(s) follow, with each Combat Round made of a Ready Phase and a Fight Phase. During the Ready Phase, players rearrange their Upgrades, play new Vengeance cards, and perform Recon on any of the 6 Dens in play. During the Fight Phase, the active player moves into a Den to reveal its Boss card, and then the Boss Zone is populated. Without getting into specifics, Fighting is a dice rolling affair, with mitigation provided by various resources and character abilities. During the game, players earn points for killing a Boss that has wronged them (as indicated on the Boss’ card), killing all the minions in the Den of a Boss that has wronged them, Clearing a Den (earning points for both the Boss and the minions), Blitz Vengeance card bonuses, and scoring Missions and Achievements. After the final Combat Round of Act 3, players receive bonus points for completing either of the 2 Missions in play, and are penalized for any Stress cubes on their player board. The player with the most points is declared the winner, with ties broken by the player with the smaller number of damage cubes, and then by players with the least amount of Severe damage.

Comparisons: Vengeance is an odd bird because it combines card combat with some narrative storytelling, but packages it all together in a competitive (yet not player vs. player) game. Some other well-regarded games that combine card drafting and fighting include Aeon’s End, Cyclades, Mechs vs. Minions, and Star Realms. The combination of dice combat and character abilities is also very evacuated of Dice Throne, without the head-to-head competition.

What Should I Pledge?:
$30 Director’s Cut: just the new Director’s Cut expansion.
$80 The Newly Wronged One: a copy of the Vengeance base game (does not include the Runa Bolt add-on from the first KS campaign).
$120 The Vengeful Director: a copy of the Vengeance base game, the Runa Bolt KS-exclusive Hero Pack, and the new Director’s Cut expansion.
$179 All-In Rampage: everything in The Vengeful Director pledge, plus the Rosari Gang Expansion, the Saboteurs Expansion, the Big Boss and Gambling Dens Pack, and the Meatboy Murray Hero Pack.

Add-Ons:
$30 Rosari Gang Expansion
$45 Saboteurs Expansion
$15 Runa Bolt KS-Exclusive Hero Pack
$15 Big Boss and Gambling Dens Pack
$15 Dice Pack

KS Exclusives:
The Vengeance base game includes 4 additional Upgrade Item Tiles and 4 Upgrade Ability Tiles, which are KS-Exclusive. The Runa Bolt Hero Pack remains a KS-Exclusive. Additionally, the entire Director’s Cut Expansion is a KS-Exclusive, and apart from retailers with remaining stock of the Vengeance base game it will be a KS-Exclusive moving forward and will only be available to retailers who pledge directly for it as a part of this and future Vengeance Kickstarter campaigns.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $179 for the All-In Rampage and $25 in shipping for a total of $204.

Vengeance: Director’s Cut completes its Kickstarter on Friday, November 15th and tentatively ships in August 2020.