From Summoner Wars to Unmatched, a good skirmish board game simply can’t be beaten when you’re seeking some quick, competitive fun. So Regulus: High-Fantasy Arena-Sports, a new title on Gamefound by a young indie publisher, The Prince of Games, has piqued our interest.
Of course, we’d have to play it ourselves to know for sure if this strategy board game is any good – or worth gracing the sacred halls of our best board game list, for that matter – but it has a number of features that make it stand out.
The first one that pops out is the adorable story-book style artwork. It’s a great fit for the game’s setting: a fantasy world that’s post-apocalyptic in the sense that there aren’t any apocalypses happening there anymore. In such peaceful times, the high fantasy denizens have taken up sport to pass the time.
That’s mostly just friendly fluff, however, because that sport seems to be beating the snot out of each other – you win through scoring knockouts, area control, and pleasing the audience by playing up to Crowd Favorite cards drawn randomly at the start of the game.
That seems to be the only part of Regulus that is random, however, as the Gamefound boldly advertises that the game features no luck. Attacks deal a set amount of damage, moves have effects that don’t vary, you roll no dice, draw no cards, and if you come a cropper, have no one to blame but yourself.
One of the most interesting features in Regulus is its initiative system. Players control teams of three heroes, and turn order is determined by secretly assigning initiative cards. You get 9 each to choose from, ranging from 1 – 18 (one player gets evens, the other odds, so there can be no draws) and assign them in secret. At the end of each combat round, you’ll discard the cards used.
To me this sounds like a wonderful extra level of strategy layered on top of the combat system, with opportunities to succeed through bluffing, predicting your opponent’s moves and counting cards to know what options they have remaining.
Along with this intriguing mechanic, the other aspect of Regulus that interests me are its loadouts and character customization. In this game, each player controls a team of fighters based on classic fantasy tropes: you’ve got your DnD party, your beard-y dwarves, your draculas. So you’ve already got asymmetrical combat from the outset.
But then you have a bunch of equipment cards that allow for unparalleled customization. You can kit out each fighter with a loadout of four cards, allowing for all kinds of mixing and matching. That excites the TCG-loving part of my brain. It’ll allow for loads of tinkering and think-ering before the battle even starts and give the game way more replayability.
Regulus will reach backers in January 2026. So far it’s reached €6,040 ($6,960) of its €16,000 ($18,440) goal, but with 28 days left in the campaign seems certain to secure funding.
The game appears best-suited to 1v1 fights, but can play up to four people, with rules for 2v2 fights or free-for-all moshpits.
What upcoming games are you interested in? Let us know over at the Wargamer Discord. You can also check out our guides to the best couples board games and best two player board games.
Source: Wargamer
