Amrtaka

Subtitled The Battle for Immortality, Undertreegames' Amrtaka is a card-driven area control game for 2-4 players competing for control of islands in order to win Amrit - the elixir of immortality. Amrit may sound a little like the ambrosia of the gods of Mount Olympus, but N R K Chary's design for Amrtaka draws from Indian rather than Greek mythology. A divine flower blooms once in a thousand years, and the 2-4 players each represent contending powers vying for control of the flower's Nectar of Eternal Life.

Amrtaka is played over three rounds, each comprising 10 turns, tho' a game can end sooner if any player manages to accumulate 60 Elixir tokens. There may be a spiritual theme but, at its heart, Amrtaka is a card-driven war game, with cards determining the ranged and melee weapons used and the special movement available to a warrior. You gain at least one Elixir from occupying, reinforcing and/or conquering territory, and even from 'resting' (discarding and drawing a new warrior card without taking an area control action) - but it's possible to gain as much as 15 Elixir on a turn.

Basic movement counts steps clockwise or counterclockwise around a rondel of islands but special movement allows for movement to specified locations. Players can additionally build and move portals, used to teleport armies, so this is a game with a board that always feels dynamic.

What distinguishes the manoeuvring and tactical play in Amrtaka is the interplay of the various God Follower tokens placed out at locations on the board. These can increase your Elixir gains as well as offering a degree of protection to a player's armies.

There's a lot going on in this game and Undertreegames have updated and further refined the rulebook since we first started playing, but most of our plays have taken only around 30-40 minutes. We've played Amrtaka as a two-player game, where members of our team have described it as a Chess-like strategy game, but it's gone down best as a highly interactive four-player game.

Undertreegames are due to launch Amrtaka this month on Gamefound. We'll endeavour to add a link when the campaign goes live.

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