In a fight, when a player is attacked, they have to choose between losing a unit and losing one of their action cards. All photos on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4. The draft continues in this way, being able to pass cards you previously selected on the next player, until everyone has the set of 4 action cards they will use in the Season phase that follows. The tl;dr version is that it’s a great addition if your group will benefit from a fifth player, or if you play Inis enough that you want some new options to refresh the experience. Or, as is sometimes the case, that you get in hand a combination of cards so situationally powerful that it brings the entire game to a vaguely unfair conclusion.

So I don’t think it plays a huge role in the scheme of things, making it another fairly lightweight addition that won’t alter the overall feel of the game, but one that provides a bit more strategic nuance. Yes, there are elements of passive-aggressive nastiness and direct combat, so conflict-averse gamers need not apply. So Inis is not about bashing each other over the head–it’s about watching your opponents closely, seeing when they are weak, and jumping in to win. I don’t disagree with this opinion, though I’ll point out that it’s splitting hairs either way, since we all largely enjoyed the expansion and each module. These 4 or 5-star reviews represent the opinions of the individuals who posted them and do not reflect the views of Etsy.Any players with “exposed clans” (not hiding in Citadels) then take turns attacking opponents, causing them to either remove a clan or discard an Action card. The ratings/reviews displayed here may not be representative of every listing on this page, or of every review for these listings. If have nothing to do on your turn, you must pass, but you can also choose to pass whenever you want. I now understand why everyone describes this game as elegant — it's really the most fitting word for it. This is what will turn off new gamers, though, even if they like the genre, so it’s a valid consideration.

But having the token doesn’t guarantee victory; during the time you collected the token and the next round, you may no longer meet the victory conditions and will not win.You can pick all the cards you need to perform an impressive move, you can take something you know your opponents want, or you can try to pick something that compliments your epic tale cards — there are tons of possibilities and no point in listing them all. Unlike some that have combat but lean more toward Euro elements (you can win Scythe without ever fighting, for example), you’ll never play a game of Inis without combat, but it doesn’t need to be the hallmark of your strategy. A read of the rules and a bit of theorycrafting means I can certainly be convinced there’s another half star in here if you’re playing with four people, but I can only review on the basis of my own experience. You need to calculate who you can and cannot attack, or create mighty combos that will leave your enemy no chance — but keep in mind that your enemy might have good red cards that might mess your plans up.

Cards in Inis will do everything: adding to the map, moving units, making a territory a safe space, adding buildings, and more.For me, the saving grace is that you can always hunker down and focus on your own plans, rather than trying to counter everyone else’s.

Or, ‘You know if you continue on this path you’ll find Roz slips in behind you and carves up the territory you just vacated.There is very little downtime between your turns as well, and plenty of interaction between the players. They are a fine spice to the main dish of action cards, enough to make things interesting, but not so much as to overpower the dish. Inis is a game deeply rooted in Celtic history and lore in which players win by being elected King of the Island (Inis).