Trawling the interwebs for games for Meg and I, a while ago I came across the Tiny Epic series. They hit a spot with me because they are small games in a big box (travel), have a feel to them similar to my early days of gaming (you know, the stuff you would make up on a rainy Sunday with a friend, but never completed) and are generally on the money theme wise.
Choices, choices. Too many to get, so little time.
I started by going with Ultra Tiny (Galaxies and Kingdoms), for a couple of reasons;
They are cheap at roughly half the price of the parent version.
They are super small (card pack size), but spread to cover a tray table.
They are generally even more complete than the Tiny Epic’s first volumes, effectively making them 1/4 the price of the base and expansion, including solo play and in the case of Galaxies a small extra element (Satellites and Super Weapons).
They are a dead end (no extras), so no add-ons even if I wanted ;).
They are a master class in ridiculously small game design.
So, in this box, small enough to easily fit into a cargo pants pocket, there are two full games, each of the depth and cleverness of games like Catan, but slightly faster playing and 1 to 4/5 player capable. The original boxes are card pack sized, but after sleeving the cards, they are just too tight. The relatively huge d12 is for UTEK solo mode and the optional 2x d4 combat dice for those of us who like some randomness/risk in TEK combat (a BGG recommendation).
This is most of one of the games (Galaxies). You have the 8mm cubes for; 2 players-Red and Blue (3 more factions are left out for added space), the Action dice (the dark grey ones), Satellites (light grey) and the Action, Galaxy, Planet, Secret Mission and solo “Rogue Galaxy” cards which are printed on the back of the Galaxy cards. The small cards are mini-American sized (X Wing 1e upgrade cards), the larger cards are standard playing card sized.
Kingdoms has a slightly different look with only the larger sized cards used for Territories/Factions (dual sided), Building, Solo, and Action cards. UTEK is slightly lighter in card stock, but “heavier” in cubes with 70 odd.
How does this play? With large hands, I find the cube moving fine. The text, especially on some cards forces my wife to wear her reading glasses and in a couple of cases in UTEK, even I struggle, but after a few games, the size becomes irrelevant (they are after all the same size as most game cards). The games are what they are, engrossing and compelling regardless of size and many of the issues raised by players are just as likely to be found in “Big Box” games (The text is comparable to the bulk of the cards in Eldritch Horror). If it was an experiment in gigantism, it would likely take longer to come to grips with.
The only real issue is bumping, as everything is so small and light, but we have found the answer to that is a little space and careful card placement with single finger cube pushing. Obviously don’t play it in the wind either.
To follow this I also added Tiny Epic Galaxies Blast Off, because it is apparently better than the first, more fun/generic/lite in feel and play and tighter rules wise, so ideal for guests. It does lack Solo play and the Satellites and Super weapons expansions so the smaller UTEG is still relevant. The UTE’s may fit in it’s box also, meaning I have the same game twice (but differently) and a second game all in a video tape sized box (remember those?).
Of the other games, Zombies is tempting, Western, Defenders with the recommended expansion (just bought), “full sized” Kingdoms with Expansion (for the heroes), maybe Tactics, Quest, Mechs, Pirates, Dungeon….,but we will see.
My immediate gaming future looks to be both Tiny and Epic.