This morning I woke to an email/update from the Tiny Epic Zombies kickstarter that they will have started shipping the game to backers by the end of the week. Amazing news, so with a fair wind, a bit of luck (which I never seem to have with the shipping companies) by the middle of September I’ll have my grubby mitts on the game.

I am waiting on the Star Realms Frontiers kickstarter to be shipped. The US has theirs now and it’s very frustrating seeing all these people getting their copies. While here in the UK we are not getting ours yet. They are in the country now. However the shipping company is Games Quest and their kickstarter fulfilment side is amazingly useless. They appear to be totally understaffed, and unable to meet the commitments to kickstarter projects that they have been contracted to fulfill. Can you tell I’ve been on the receiving end of their ineffectiveness a few times now. I wish Kickstarter creators would realise that because Games Quest is cheap (possibly) that they are not any good, and that they tarnish the reputation of the creator.

Anyway back to happy thoughts and Tiny Epic Zombies, and the Tiny Epic series. I thought that just out of interest for myself and maybe some random people out on the inter web I would rank the Tiny Epic games. As a general comment, the only thing tiny about these games is the box. Once out and setup they can take up a lot of space. Oh and one thing Gamelyn do as an optional extra that you can by for these games are play mats. Naturally these don’t fit in the box. But they are pretty cool, and do add to the game, and aid setup and game play.

Let’s start with the one I haven’t played and haven’t been tempted to play Tiny Epic Defenders. It didn’t help that the reviews I saw were not that flattering for the game either. So naturally this goes straight in at the bottom slot. No competition.

Now all the rest I have played, and enjoyed. So lets get onto the real rankings.

Tiny Epic Western is next lowest in the rankings, which currently makes it fourth place. I like the game. This has worker placement, bluffing, area control, rolling of dice, set collection, unique player powers. The bullet shaped dice are thematic and rather unique. But also fun. I love the play mat. But this game takes up a lot of space once set up. I like the poker mechanic that the game introduced.

Third place goes to the 4X game Tiny Epic Kingdoms. I like 4X games, and this hits the spot when I want that quick fix without the epic long game play. I really should play this more. This has individual player mats instead of a single playmat. They are mouse mat size, and there is score tracking mat too.

Tiny Epic Galaxies takes the second place slot. Action selection, dice rolling, resource management. I like the follow mechanic, there is a way to mitigate bad dice rolls. There is also a bit of engine building when you collect planets for your empire/colony. The expansion Beyond the Black is also a nice addition to it. I love the theme.

The top two spots were really hard to choose between. I really like both games a lot. But Tiny Epic Quest just edged it to the top slot. I think at the time after playing the game for the first time, this was Zelda the boardgame for me. The playmat is a must for this game in my opinion. It just makes life so much easier when playing and setting up. It helps that it is a really great playmat. The ItemMeeples and the plug in equipment help make this feel like you are adventuring, and also that your ItemMeeples are unique.

This post will actually help I think when I come to talk about Tiny Epic Zombies once it arrives and I play it. It has also got me wanting to get these games back to the table sooner than later.