Designer: Alexandros Kapidakis

Artist: Gong Studios

Publisher: Phase Shift Games

Players: 1-4

Age: 8+

Time: 40 minutes

Played with a review copy from Phase Shift Games

Reviewed by Jonathan Franklin

Boblin’s Rebellion is thematically a dungeon builder and mechanically an engine builder. If ever there were an argument for goblin unionization against the Goblin King, it would be Boblin’s Rebellion. Luckily, in the advanced version, the goblins can also fight off the trolls who inhibit their work in the dungeon.

To set the stage, Phase Shift Games ships their games in little square boxes. Their past games have been light and fun. Boblin’s Rebellion is a bit of a departure in that it packs ~100 cards, 4 player mats, and lots of goblin and troll cubes into the box. The play has action chains and multiple different resources all represented by where the cubes are placed on your player mat, so you need to pay attention to what you are doing and plan when it is not your turn.

Image by Nicky Stengewis

The basic version of Boblin’s Rebellion is a nice step up from a game like Splendor. It adds complexity, but not too much. The goal of the game is to reach 27 points first. Points are tracked on your player mat.

The center of the table has three room types mineshaft, ice cave, and inferno. To the right of each of those stacks are four face-up cards of that room type. Each room card has a cost in the upper left, the new actions the card offers in the middle, and a destruction track at the bottom.

The resource is goblins. Basic goblins are called Sticklers and Screamers. Using actions, basic Sticklers and Screamers can be trained to become Stalkers, Slingers, Sparklers, and Stabbers. When you convert a Stickler into a Stabber, for example, you move the cube from a space in the Stickler area to one in the Stabber area, While slightly fiddly, it is generally a very simple conversion process.

The rooms each have a different action type. Mineshafts generally train Sticklers and Screamers into the more advanced goblin types. Ice Caves offer passive benefits, perhaps each time you get a Stabber, you also get a Screamer. The locations on the player mat for storing each type of goblin are limited, so if you have no room for a Screamer when you get one, tough luck. The third type of room is the Inferno where combinations of goblins become points. For example, discard a Stalker and a Screamer for three points.

Each turn the player has two actions. Each of those actions can be spent doing one of a few things – all notes on the left side of the board (or use a card in your possession)

You may take three Sticklers or two Screamers.

You may build a room by choosing one of the 12 face-up cards in the central tableau, paying its cost, and placing a goblin cube on the left-most space of the destruction track.

You may search the top three cards of a single face-down stack and pick one of them. As part of the same action, you pay to play it as when taking a face-up room.

Lastly, you may activate an action on a card. These vary quite a bit, but all the icons are covered on the back page of the rulebook. They generally convert basic goblins to advanced ones, give you free goblins, or convert goblins to points.

One important note is that, unlike some engine builders, these rooms break down over time. As you use the room’s action, you move the cube one space to the right. After it reaches the last space the room destroys itself, giving you a small bonus, such as an additional action, an additional goblin, or a point.

The basic game of Boblin’s Rebellion is fun and would work well with those new to this genre. There are limited choices, but there are tactical choices in which room to pick, which sequence to take actions in, and how to most efficiently convert actions into points. The game is a race to 27 points, so efficiency is essential. At the same time, everything feels quite balanced, so everyone should be a turn away from winning when someone crosses the mark.

The cards are nice and clear. The icons for the goblins are clear to read and differentiate. The same cube type is used for all six goblins, so you need to take the cube from the proper location for it to be that type. Note that the higher-level goblins (Stabber, Stalker, Slinger, and Sparkler) are all considered ‘trained goblins’ so you need to make sure not to spend Sticklers and Screamers when trained goblins are required. All the cubes have one side with a stickler face, so no need to rotate them like dice to get the proper cube face.

The advanced game is not that much more advanced but is a step up. As you pass certain spots on the score track, you have to place a goblin on your board, which might mean you cannot hold as many trained goblins, don’t get the final room destruction bonus, or have to pay more for rooms. On the upside, you get a new action, spending a trained goblin to kill a troll gives you two points as well as removing the pesky troll.

Image by Nicky Stengewis

The other major change in the advanced game is that if you have two destroyed rooms of different types, you can trade them in for a fourth type of card, a hero. Heroes give you a few VPs and a special power. These are quite fun and might or might not be useful depending on where you are in the game and your current rooms. Each hero has a different special power, but you cannot get a hero until you have at least two destroyed rooms.

The boards don’t lie entirely flat, as they are folded to fit in the cube-shaped box, and having double thick boards with indentations to hold the goblin cubes would have been cool, I understand this is a game that more people will pick up and enjoy if it has a lower price point while still having quality components.

I have enjoyed all my plays of Boblin’s Rebellion. The basic ones were smooth and the game ramped up and was over in a reasonable period. The conversion process is clean and there did not seem to be runaway winners because the actions of a particular room cannot be run indefinitely. Since ice cave rooms also only work a few times, those passive benefits don’t stick around that long.

The advanced version adding trolls and heroes did add more to consider, but I am not sure it is more fun than the clean basic version I would happily play either one, but don’t necessarily think one is better than the other. If you already have lots of resource chain conversion games, I am not sure this will thrill your game group, but as a fun family game and intro to engine building with a D&Dish theme, it works well.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers:

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers
I love it!
I like it. Jonathan F.
Neutral.
Not for me…