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Inis board game
Inis board game

Inis

78
147 Ratings
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Overall Rank: #60 | Trending Rank: #15

The game's mechanics combine card drafting and area control to produce a system rich in strategic options and interpersonal interactions. The tiles give every game a unique, gradually unfolding geography. The art brings Ireland's ancient epics and audacious heroes to life.

There are three different types of cards in Inis:

Action Cards - These are drafted each round and provide the base actions to deploy troops, move troops, attack, and play new regions.

Advantage Cards - These are acquired as a result of controlling certain regions. Each region has its own Advantage Card you receive as a result of having the most troops in it.

Epic Tales Cards - These unique and powerful cards evoke the Celtic gods and heroes to inspire the clans to accomplish legendary feats.

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User Ratings & Reviews

  • by
    Strategy light-war game with an amazing drafting mechanism. I think it's a clever game and stand on its own among the others of the genre. One of my favorites. Works well with 2, 3 or 4 players.
  • by
    I like card drafting games so this one hit the mark for me.
  • by
    I have many more plays than I have recorded, since I bought this before I even considered a BGG account. This is among the first board games I bought for myself when getting into the hobby beyond bringing my copy of Resistance Avalon anywhere there'd be 4+ friends or playing others' copies of Smash Up and Cards Against Humanity in high school. Unlike some of those games, Inis only seems to get better with age.This is a beautiful, subtle, and tight area control game. The Epic Tale Cards add a layer of both strategy and randomness, but not necessarily luck. It doesn't feel like they decide games. Rather, they dictate the power moves that you'll consider building toward. Whatever luck they create is offset by their intensity during play-- having the Dagda at a key moment leaves the table in uproar every time.I can always go back to this game. No matter how much I play, it continues to feel unlike any other game. There is no replacement or alternative for this. Many dudes on a map games have a similar core despite a number of mechanical differences. But Inis is not just a refinement of a system or mechanic, nor is it one that will be copied or refined heavily in the future-- it's too distinct and complete a vision to be easily imitated. To borrow a cliche, it's like this game always existed and Christian Martinez just discovered it in a pile of cardboard and plastic. Another word for this type of game: classic.Also scales very well, from a chess-like 2p mode to a grueling 4p war. And Jim Fitzpatrick can now say he illustrated the best looking board game of all time.
  • by
    Played 2-player a few times, and fell in love. I had one chance to play 4x, and felt it was even better! MUCH better! I really need to find players to play this with more often.
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Top Forum Posts

My Top 10 Favorite Game Art [Roam, Wingspan, Everdell, Nemo's War (Second Edition), Century: Golem Edition, Bruxelles 1897, Tapestry, Irish Gauge, Inis, Oceans]

by | updated 11 days ago

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Ah man I was excited when I read #Inis haha! But it sounds like you made the right call. Think you'll be able to get a proper game of it with your wife played anytime soon?

#Inis is very good. I've played it at all player counts. It's worth a go at 2 but for me it's definitely a 3 or 4 player game. I say that because when multiple players are ving to control one area, it's really exciting. The table talk with 3 or 4 players is cool too because there's a lot of "you better not be attacking me!" type stuff which is just more fun with more voices involved, if that makes sense. When one person pulls away and declares they're going to win, the other players start negotiating and planning to kill the king. That's where the game shines. Anyway, not to deter you, you will still love it at 2, but that was my experience.

#Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale - Played with my wife on Sunday! And I was right. She does like it more than #Welcome to... because it's a slightly deeper game. She was already having fun coming up with a "title" for herself and the name of the kingdom, so it was a good sign. I've learned from past mistakes that I should never go easy on her, so when an ambush/monster card came up, I drew it on a rather weird spot for her and she knew it was on lol. She wasn't too aware of how monsters work and drew mine on a space that actually worked better for me. Knowing that, when the monster card came up on the second round, she immediately drew it in the most awkward spot on my map and I loved it! Definitely our best under 30/45 min kind of game we have so far, and if we ever get some chill coffee date times in the future, I could see myself carrying it around (not that I drink coffee, since my stomach is pretty sensitive to coffee but not to alcohol for some reason...)

#Inis - Okay, we didn't get to play this. We got it out and I explained the rules, but by the time we were about to start playing, I sensed that we'll end up having to end the game at mid-point when our son wakes up from his nap. So I quickly made the switch to Cartographers, explained the rules, and we got going fast. I'm really glad I made the right call or else it would've been so anti-climatic.

Pre-game thoughts: I read the rules for Inis. And it comes off as an elegant, abstract, highly tactical game that promotes compeititve play. Here's what I suspect so far:

  1. I'll probably like the overall mechanics and appreciate its simplicity
  2. 2p gameplay comes off as chess-like. I can see 3 or more being the ideal count and where it'll be an entirely different experience with elements of negotiation/diplomacy to keep the leader in check
  3. After Leder Games' recent talk about the upcoming 2p focused expansion for #Root, it has rekindled my hope of it becoming one of our favorite games to play together. It has the perfect mixture of all elements I like in games--thematic ties in mechanics, good mixture of tactical and strategical plays, and the thrill of luck in combat--and my wife certainly enjoyed our last session together too but the base game is lacking in variety for 2p gameplay. For Inis, it comes off as an elegant tactical battle that I'll appreciate and have fun at higher player counts, but won't be dazzled by when it comes to 2p gameplay

I'll be trying out Inis two-handed either tonight or tomorrow so I'll get a better feeling for it! It'll be an odd one to two-hand though since the hidden info in cardplay seem to be its core element.

*My interest in #Inis is high. I don't currently own a game like this.

*I would definitely buy 1-2 expensive games. All of my games are on the cheaper to medium cost side, so one impressively expensive game would be awesome.

DId you find #Inis to be fairly easy to learn the first time you played?

#Inis would hold the most interest for me. Followed by #The Quest for El Dorado .  If I didn't already own #The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine it would probably be #2.

Man so much goodness!
this community and its benefactors are amazing.

my family would love#Tiny Towns and my "heavier gamer group" would be intrigued by#The King's Dilemma

there is a something esthetically and mechanically appealing to#Inis

Obviously #Inis haha But #Tiny Towns is super interesting to me too, and this is probably because I spent a lot of time watching AEG play it live on Facebook earlier in the year.

I've always wanted to play #Inis because it's Irish. And I looooove all-things Celtic! And then I heard it was an awesome game, which made it even higher on my list.