G@mebox author Lutz Wildt writes about the game:

In Rone by GREIFERISTO, two players, represented by a hero, face off in a post-apocalyptic world and fight each other on the battlefield. Each player has 24 cards at their disposal to defeat their opponent. These decks of cards consist of units, robots, tactics and technologies that can be used in battle. On a common battlefield, these clash and can send the opponent's cards to the graveyard through their skillful use. But these 24 cards are also the hero's life points. If all of a player's cards are destroyed, the game ends and the opponent wins. The only resource available in the game is water. Cards can only be played if the player has enough water to pay for it. In each game turn, the hero receives a designated supply of water, which he must use during his turn. Once this is used up, he cannot play any more cards. For example, to add a tank to the battlefield, the player must invest 5 water to deal damage with it in battle, if necessary. 5 water sounds like a small cost for a tank. However, most heroes only have an income of 6 water. In addition, the tank will not be available for attack for a few turns after it has been used, since the map must be exhausted according to the marker. Especially at the beginning of the game, you can use quite few cards, because a player quickly runs the risk of having no water left, exposing his hero to the attacks of the enemy. This even in two respects. On the one hand, you also need the water to play cards as a quick reaction to an attack of the opponent and thus avoid damage. On the other hand, not exhausted units also serve as protection, because the opponent has to attack them first, before he can attack the hero and thus destroy life points. So it needs to be well thought out which cards to use and how to combine them to protect each other on the battlefield and of course to serve as a shield for the hero. Sometimes it might make more sense to bring several small units onto the field, so that especially at the beginning of the game the defense is not neglected. Fortunately, the hero himself can also be exhausted once in his own turn to get water or a new card. Since at the beginning of each turn all cards recover by one step, this is almost always a useful action.

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There is also the possibility to increase his income. By paying for water, the hero can be upgraded to a second and even to a third level and thus receives a higher water income in his turn and from level 2 even an additional card. These eventually also become scarcer over time due to combat. Upgrading also enables the hero to use more powerful cards, since many cards can only be played if the hero's level is high enough. Rone is always about making the most of your hand cards. Since the cards themselves are the life points, effective use is extremely important. For this reason, another option in the game is of great importance. The cards that are defeated in the game go to the graveyard. From this, the top card can be recycled and can then either be returned to the battlefield as an exhausted unit or can be used as a tactic immediately one more time before it is completely removed from the game. This option is far from always favorable, however; after all, a certain number of the cards that follow in the graveyard must also be removed directly from play.

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In Rone, things get down to business pretty quickly. The first battle is quickly fought and it goes back and forth in the first rounds. After a while, however, players have gathered their forces and can build a larger army on the battlefield. However, the ranks are quickly decimated in battle. This then also means that both life points and attack strength are lost. As the game progresses, it becomes more and more important to get by with few resources and to use your units purposefully, because otherwise the last map is quickly destroyed and the game is lost.

I liked Rone very much. The graphics are a real eye-catcher. The cards are designed in great detail and have great artwork. You also have a tremendous amount of variability. Due to the fact that they cost different amounts depending on their strength and also need to be exhausted to different degrees, they are very well balanced. Due to the amount of cards that are already included in the base game, each game goes very differently, as it always depends on which cards you get at the beginning. In any case, I'm always ready to play a rematch!

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