- Publisher(s) : Repos Production
- Designer(s) : Paolo Mori, Alessandro Zucchini
- Artist(s) : Paul Mafayon
- Players : 2
- Playing game : 15 Min
- Weight BGG : 1.44
What's this?
Toy Battle is a strategy game by Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini, illustrated by Paul Mafayon, and published by Repos Production. In this offbeat universe, toys engage in epic battles across diverse terrains: the Caribbean Sea, volcanic jungle, cloud city, or even a space station.
The principle is simple: maneuver your troops, use their special effects, and capture the enemy headquarters… or accumulate enough medals to win.
How do you play?
In your turn, you have two possible choices:
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Place a Troop on the field
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You must always connect the new Troop to your HQ with a continuous path.
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A base occupied by any of your Troops
- A base occupied by an opposing Troop of strictly inferior strength to yours.
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If you control all the bases around a region, you immediately earn the corresponding medals.
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Some Troops and bases have special effects that add a layer of strategy.
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Draw 2 Troops from your reserve
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You place them on your support, up to a maximum of 8 Troops.
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End of game and victory:
The game ends immediately if:
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A player captures the opposing HQ .
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A player reaches the Medals objective set by the board.
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Or if a player can no longer draw or place Troops (in this case, medals are compared).
Is it good?
Toy Battle excels as a fast-paced and tense dueling game, bolstered by tactical depth that reveals itself game after game.
Its strengths lie in its modular design: the presence of eight distinct terrains, combined with the clever rule for connecting troops to Headquarters (HQ), requires constant management of the supply line and continually renews the interest of the troop tiles, each with unique powers.
The game’s fast-paced pace, where victory can be decided at any moment by a lightning-fast HQ capture or the Medal Race, makes it an excellent candidate for immediate rematches.
However, the main drawback lies in the sometimes too brutal impact of randomness in the draw. Quickly obtaining tiles that allow for replays or draws can unbalance the confrontation and cause “rushes” capable of catching an opponent off guard. This aspect may put off players who like to control everything and are looking for a confrontation where only reflection prevails.
Toy Battle is therefore an entertaining and tactically rich game, which nevertheless requires a certain tolerance for the frustration generated by the whims of the draw pile. Fortunately, the dynamics of the games, both intense and sufficiently short, largely compensate for this element of chance and encourage you to chain together confrontations.
Many thanks to the Espritjeu online store for allowing me to test this game by sending a copy. To discover their catalog, I invite you to visit their website:
Toy Battle Review
Positives
- Fast, tense and dynamic duel
- Modularity with 8 different terrains
- Original and tactical HQ connection rule
- Varied powers of the troops that renew the games
- Short parts that flow easily together
Negatives
- Impact of chance sometimes too strong
- Possibility of unbalancing “rushes”
- May frustrate players who like to maintain complete control
