A brand-new fantasy wargame by Mindclash Game is on the cards, with Ironwood due to release in 2024 and designed by Maël Brunet and Julien Chaput, a pair of upcoming designers who will make their debut with the title.
Fight for the Coveted Larimor Crystals and Retrieve Ancestorial Heirlooms
As any good conflict game would have it, two warring factions vie for control over the fictional land of Ironwood. On the one hand, there is the Ironclad, a race of hard-working settlers of the Iron Mountains and on the other, there are the Woodwalkers, swift and deadly shadows of the forests.
The game will aim to be rules-light and highly asymmetric, perhaps even a touch like the recently funded KELP, which will rely on cards to drive the gameplay. The game will be played by 1-2 players, which is a nice touch meaning that solo players among us will have a crack at the title after all.
Players will focus on positioning their factions and extracting Larimor Crystals, a precious and coveted resource that stokes the hatred between the two factions. You will use cards to position and issue attack orders in a bid to overrun the opponent and oust them of precious crystal locations.
The gameplay itself will revolve around players alternating to play a total of 3 cards that will be faction-specific. The cards, as specified, will pretty much drive the action entirely, allowing you to bolster up your troops or shift troops from one location to another.
Securing Different Objectives Across the Map
Each faction will be asymmetrical in the way it plays and its victory conditions. The two factions will also compete to control different parts of the map.
The Ironclad would be keen to build forges that allow them to extract even more crystal and metal, whereas the Woodwalkers will seek to locate and retrieve their ancestors’ totems, accessing places that are often caught in the bustle of Ironclad’s latest mining operation.
The solo mode in the game is designed by David Turczi, whose work in building solo play campaigns has become quite distinct. Turczi has worked on solo modes for Nucleum, Apex Legends: The Board Game, Trickerion, and pretty much other great Mindclash Games.