Publisher: Small Box Games
Designer: John Clowdus
Artist: Mike Riiven
Year: 2011
Players: Two players
Ages: 12+
Playing Time: 30 Minutes
Retail Price: $29.95, including shipping
Prior to Origins, I hadn’t seen anything from Small Box Games. Omen looked interesting to me. It comes in what looks like a video tape box, which I hope it is because I’d like to think that someone is making use of the probably millions of surplus tape cases that are languishing around the world destined for some landfill.
The artwork is well done and distinctive. A tip of the hat to artist Michael Ng who did both the cover art and all of the cards. To me they look like oil paintings in the style of some master that I don’t have enough knowledge to know who it is.
The box contains many cards, and 20 half dollar sized yellow coins with stickers that you place on them. I didn’t realize that they were composite coins and spent a few minutes trying to figure out if they were wood or plastic.
The rulebook, though small (it is about 4” x 5”) has 14 pages and is full color and glossy with illustrations, artwork, examples, and optional rules. It is well done and understandable.
The game itself is a card game, if you haven’t guessed. The players are supposed to be rival brothers battling for domination of the Grecian lands. During the game you will accomplish feats, earn rewards, fight battles, consult oracles, all in the pursuit of victory points. The player with the most victory points when the game ends is of course the winner.
There are three types of cards in Omen. Reward cards are supposed to be blessings of the gods. There are twelve of these cards and they are placed in three separate piles in the center of the table. These represent the cities that you will battle over throughout the game. As a player wins a battle, they can claim a reward card. The reward cards will be worth two points for each one you gain. However, they also have powerful blessings that you can utilize once per game. If you use it, the reward will only be worth one point at the end. Once two of the cities have been depleted of cards, the game is over.
Each player also starts with six identical feat cards. As you accomplish each feat, you get to flip the card face down. If one player manages to complete five of their six feats, the game ends. For each feat that you have completed, you will earn two points. Feat’s all have something to do with card manipulation. For example, Artemis’ Feat reads: If you have at least one beast in each city at the end of your fleet phase, flip this card face down.
The Unit cards are the last type and make up the balance of the remaining cards. There are Soldier units, Beast units, and Oracle units. You will play these in the cities in an attempt to win the reward cards.
I don’t want to rehash all of the rules here. The game is fairly complex with many possibilities for strategy. Each card can be used in multiple ways. For strength in battle, as an offering to the gods, to use their special abilities, and I guess that is it. Each card has a cost to play, so you need to manage your money well.
During your turn, there are multiple phases. You gain coins during the first phase, deploy your units to the cities in the second phase, earn portents from the oracles in your cities during phase three, check to see if you have successfully completed any feats in phase four, battle during phase five, and give offerings to the gods in phase six.
It took a few turns to really figure out what was going on, and the entire game to remember the phases without consulting the rules. This wasn’t because it was too complicated or not understandable, it was simply because there is a lot going on and it takes a while to remember it all.
Battles are simple. You play units on your side of the cities. Once each city has a total of five units (counting both sides), a battle will occur that turn in that city. So you can force a battle in a certain city on your turn if you have the resources to do it. Simply add the total strength of all units on each side of the city. Highest total wins and takes a reward card. The winner has to discard all but one of their units from the city, while the loser keeps two. It is an interesting mechanic that ensures that no one can completely dominate the game in two turns.
I had an excellent time playing Omen. Frankly I was surprised, I couldn’t see how a simple card game could be so enjoyable. After a few plays we really started to get the hang of it, and the game took off. My seventeen year old son played with me and then taught my niece to play after I went to bed. They proceeded to play the rest of the night. We were on vacation after all, but of course they slept most of the next day away.
There is an interesting deckbuilding option in the rules. You separate all of the cards into 24 different stacks. Each player drafts a stack one at a time until both have ten stacks of cards. Shuffle together the drafted cards to form a draw pile for each player. I’ll have to give it a try, it seems like this option adds some new strategy to the game after you have played it enough to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the various cards.
The game is easily completed in under a half hour. It is a good game, and looks good on your shelf.
It is only available on the Small Box Games website. We need to tell our retailers to start carrying Small Box Games.
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I have been demonstrating Omen since late June/early July at game nights and conventions. Players I have shown the game to have been very receptive to this game and have all commented about the beautiful artwork.
Just found out today an expansion, Shattered Aegis, will be available for order beginning August 1st!
Three or four new variants for Omen gameplay will be included in the expansion.
Oman is a great game and Small Box Games does a fantastic job of providing personal customer service.