Designers: Hani Chang, Gunho Kim

Artist: Sophia Chang

Publisher: Bad Comet

Genre/Mechanisms: civilization, dice rolling, resource management, worker placement

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Shaolia: Warring States is already fully-funded.  In fact, pledges currently total more than 4.5x the initial funding goal.

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: high

What It’s About: Choose your strategy– peacefully winning with culture points, or aggressively winning by dealing damage to your opponent’s palace– in this kingdom-building, worker placement, and dice placement engine-builder.

How It Works:  There are two paths to victory in Shaolia- deal 12 damage to an opponent’s palace and destroy it, or achieve a Culture Score of 18. Each round consts of 3 phases: Purchase, Building, and Action. In the Purchase Phase, players can purchase cards and resources. In the Building phase, players build the purchased cards on the Territory Board. And in the Action Phase, players roll dice and activate buildings on the Territory Board.

Comparisons: While Shaolia: Warring States is a civilization game of sorts, it’s also a very light game. We’re not talking the think-y, crunch-y decisions of Through the Ages. No, Shaolia seems to pair the individual engine-building of Endeavor: Age of Sail with the tableau-building and occasionally combat of Imperial Settlers or 51st State. Some other light territory-builders include Dice Settlers, Rajas of the Ganges, and Tikal.

What Should I Pledge?:
$39 Standard Edition: a copy of the standard edition plus all unlocked stretch goals.
$56 Deluxe Edition: a copy of the KS-exclusive deluxe edition plus all unlocked stretch goals

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives:
The Deluxe Edition is entirely KS-exclusive. It includes the following additions and component upgrades: upgraded metal coins (25 1-gold pieces and 12 5-gold pieces), 15 upgraded wooden Attack Tokens, 15 upgraded wooden Life Tokens, 10 upgraded wooden Blockage Tokens, the inclusion of the Mountain People faction, 24 related Level 2 cards, 5 related Character cards, the expansion pack The Blue Gold with a new game mode, and a box sleeve with the alternate war elephant cover art.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S. you’re looking at $56 for the Deluxe Edition plus $9 in shipping for a total of $65.

Shaolia: Warring States completes its Kickstarter on Friday, July 5th and tentatively ships in February 2020.