I am a huge fan of Scott Almes's Tiny Epic series. I think the man is a genius when it comes to condensing genres that typically span entire weekends and take up multiple tables into sweet little 1-2 hour experiences. Whilst they will never fully live up to the in-depth, crunchy nature of some of their larger cousins, I think they pay wonderful homage to the themes and make them far more friendly to the average table top or cafe. Furthermore, Almes always takes time to ensure there is a suitable single player mode built into the games wherever they will work well.
I recently got hold of a copy of first edition Tiny Epic Defenders and quite unexpectedly it rose to be one of my favourite quick games. When it comes to condensing a genre, tower defense, into a short, cafe friendly experience, Almes really hit it out of the park with this one. Whilst all Tiny Epic games are relatively low complexity, games such as Tiny Epic Dungeons can often get slowed down by a rule book so thorough that you'd be convinced it cane in a much bigger box. This is not the case with Tiny Epic Defenders. All mechanics have been boiled down into such a neat package the rule book is only a few pages long and can be digested easily right before the first game.
The turn system relies on a deck of cards that are shuffled and drawn one at a time. This deck contains both enemy and player turns meaning each round is luck of the draw when each player is able to take their alloted 3 actions. This helps to keep players feeling as though they are having to play reactively and flexibly in order to keep on top of the hordes of enemies.
Enemy cards target specific areas of the kingdom, which will cause the threat in that region to rise. Should the threat level ever rise to critical point, the region is considered lost and the location bonus action will be unavailable for the rest of the game, plus any future attacks to their region will instead be directed at the capital city. Of course, should the capital city fall it's game over. Players can position their characters in locations and defend them against the onslaught by taking damage rather than raising the threat level of the region.
Each round of the game adds further enemies to the turn deck, meaning the waves of enemies get more ferocious as the game progresses, culminating in the arrival of a boss enemy. These large monsters require slaying for the game to be considered complete, all while constantly maintaining defense against the unceasing onslaught.
TE Defenders offers a very polished experience without an ounce of fat on it. It takes up very little table space and perfectly encapsulates the tower defense genre into a very small box and quick experience. Of course, this will probably fall short when you are after something to really get your teeth into, but for what it is, it is a very impressive little game.;
Also in my collection but as of yet untested is the TE Defenders expansion: Defenders Dark War, which expands on the available characters and final bosses, plus the need to defend caravans of refugees fleeing the various realms of the kingdom. Dark War also introduces the Tiny Epic staple gimmick ITEMeeples, small meeple figures that are able to hold even smaller weapons. Ultimately these don't add anything to the actual game play but they are quite cute. Sadly, I have a first edition copy of Defenders, meaning I only have the regular meeples that cannot hold items. If I cared that much I could easily borrow the ITEMeeples from TE Zombies, but I just don't think I'm that bothered.
All in all, TE Defenders is a solid edition to the TE collection and stands out for how neat of an experience it is.
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