Defend your world from the troubles that will abound from cosmic threats in Astro Knights a cooperative deck building game from Indie Boards & Cards and the designer of Aeon’s End.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ibcgames/astro-knights?ref=user_menu

Pros

• Price & Shipping
• Based on Existing System
• Cooperative
• Deck Builder

Cons

• Based on an Existing System

The Page

Indie Boards & Cards has done a lot of Kickstarter before, so it’s no shock that this is a nice page. To me the shocking part of the game, and in a good way, is that the base pledge is only $39. Now I might be surprised on that because everything is more expensive right now on Kickstarter. But I also am surprised because my Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold cost more, but it was also larger.

Really, besides the price being so amazing. This is a very nice page. I like the art style for the game, though I understand that it might not be for everyone. It isn’t anime, but it has a cartoon element to it that’s nice. It’s not as polished as Dice Throne art from Manny Trembley, but it feels similar.

The Game – Astro Knights

The game play itself looks familiar. I put that as both a positive and a negative. While the game does do different things, which I’ll highlight, most of the mechanisms of the game seem to come from Aeon’s End.

A quick recap, Aeon’s End is a fantasy deck building game that is cooperative. In the game you are breach mages fighting against a nemesis. The trick is that you don’t shuffle your deck ever, you just flip it over, so if you can count cards or think about it, you can plan what you might get in a hand. The basic concept for Astro Knights seems similar.

There are some differences. One is the lack of breaches. Now, that makes sense, we’re in space, and we’re not casting spells. This looks to simplify the game. In Aeon’s End you needed to open the breaches, and then you could use them to cast spells.

The other big thing I can see from the page is the idea of home worlds. This, I expect, acts as a placeholder for Gravehold, the town you defend. But there are four different home worlds. The home worlds have powers, and I’m assuming you can charge them up to activate their powers to benefit you. That adds variability to the game beyond just the player characters and boss combinations.

It also appears that there are fewer cards in the market at a given time. I am not sure how that is going to work, if it’s a bit more random or if you select specific decks like you do in Aeon’s End. Either way, it’s not a bad thing, just something to note. That doesn’t look like it’s going to come with the massive stack of cards that Aeon’s End did.

Back or Brick – Astro Knights

When I first heard about this game I was interested. In fact it is on my list of most anticipated Q1 Kickstarters and Gamefounds of 2022. However, Indie Boards & Cards does a great job of getting their games and expansions to retail. So do I get it now?

The answer is, this is a Back for me. After an expensive January with Marvel Zombies and Lost Girl, I wasn’t planning on backing this. But the price point is cheap for this game. I know I want to get it eventually, and the expansion is free with your pledge. I think that supporting it on Kickstarter will cost the same buying both things later.

How about for you, is this a Back or Brick?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.