Godtear

Godtear is a two player skirmish level board game published by SteamForged Games in the UK.

The premise of the storyline is that the gods have been slain, and mortal champions have arisen to claim their power from the remaining "God Tears" that have been left laying about, and the resulting conflict with other champions. Unfortunately there is painfully little fluff on the units and characters, so the players are left to fill in their narratives entirely on their own.

From a design point of view, the aim is to get the players into the action as quickly as possible. There are no points scores to calculate and no min-maxing of unit options. Models are played straight out of the box and comprise of a Champion and their Followers. The game assumes that each set is equivalent to every other set in terms of value, although certainly some units are harder to play than others, or offer more complex stratagems in order to play efficiently.

The scale of the game is intended to be played with 1-3 champions per player, with a one champion game taking about half an hour; though larger games obviously scale up in complexity and length.

Gameplay Overview

The turn is split into three phases:

• The Plot Phase, where each player performs the entirety of their actions at once, activating each champion and unit one after the other, looking for good positions to strike, or preparing buffs and debuffs that will help later.
  • The plot phase is the only phase where a champion can put down their Banner and stake a claim to the objective hexes strewn across the board. These are worth big points at the end of the turn, though they will require protecting until then.
  • Going first in the plot phase can have its advantages and disadvantages; It allows you to throw penalties on your opponent before they get the chance to do anything about it, but you are affectively allowing the opponent to see all of your moves and give them the room to counter you.
• The Clash Phase is where players alternate activating their units back and forth and is generally the most energetic phase. Where plot abilities are usually inoffensive, the clash abilities are where nearly all attack and damaging abilities occur.
• The End Phase, where administrative clean-up is performed. Each players banners are removed and victory points are scored. Some champions have abilities that only apply in the End Phase, so its worth keeping an eye on.

In each phase an activated unit can perform two actions, such as moving, attacking, or casting. Sometimes a unit can perform a third action, depending on its abilities, and sometimes units have passive powers that help them in certain situations. Unit abilities are performed using proprietary dice which show hits and misses. When a unit attacks another, they need to roll to hit with a number of dice indicated and meet or exceed a targets dodge value. If an ability causes damage, it then needs roll a number of damage dice and then have a result that exceeds the units protection value.

Like Champion units, Follower units activate all at once, regardless of how many models are in that unit. While they may all move as a single action, only a single model may be the origin of an attack or a casting, potentially meaning that a six man squad could have five men standing around doing very little. To counter this imbalance, Followers often have scaling abilities based on the number of models they have stacked in a single hex, or are in adjacent positions on the board, allowing for impressive moves that can meet or oven exceed those of their leaders.

Victory Conditions

The goal of Godtear is to score a total of five victory points, with each turn providing a set number of victory points to the leading player at the end. This means that games can last up to five turns, but are more likely to finish much earlier.

As each turn progresses, the players record their steps by moving the turn token left and right on the victory ladder, representing their dominance over one another. Players move steps by:

• Slaying an enemy Champion: 4 steps
• Slaying an Enemy Follower: 1 step
• Claiming an Objective Hex: 1 step
• Still having a banner on an Objective Hex in the End Phase: 4 step

If the ladder is on one players side during the end phase, they claim the token and its victory points. The next turn token automatically starts on the other player's side, giving them the choice of whether to go first or second next turn.

Champion Summaries

Slayers

Slayer Champions are cast in red plastic. They gain +1 step on the victory ladder if their champion personally knocks out a enemy champion.

Luckily their abilities are usually centered around high damage attacks.