Crimson Company is a two-player card game from designer duo Fabian Fischer and Dario Reinhardt. It’s essentially a MOBA in a box as players compete for control of different castle lanes and the first to win two of the three castles is declared the victor. The Germany-based designers have a background in video games, so they’ve brought a unique perspective and wealth of knowledge to their strategic card game.

It released in 2019 and is still a relatively unknown game (at least it feels that way to me), but it packs a punch for such a small box. And it’s popular enough that the creators have been able to successfully fund two expansions for the game, as well as a collector’s box that includes a physical board for the small-box game.

Whether you’re familiar with the game or not, we’re going to examine how the base game is affected (and added on to) by the subsequent releases.

Overview

What’s the goal of Crimson Company? Players want to conquer two of the three castles present on the table. Each castle has a lane where cards are played and each character card has a strength value that adds to the total in the lane. When a lane has at least four cards in it from just one of the two players, it is scored and the player with the highest strength wins.

The mercenaries or sellswords that are placed in the castle lanes all have different abilities that activate at certain points in a player’s turn. One-time effects, phase-specific bonuses, and passive abilities all are part of the strategy and a bidding system exists to put tension between the players as to which cards to buy and which cards to prevent your opponent from buying.

It’s simple in design but nuanced in gameplay.

But how do the expansions change that?

Thematically, The Other Side introduces some supernatural and un-deadly characters to the game, and the destruction ability features on cards more often, creating a minefield to wade through for players. And Ragnarok includes a lot of passive abilities for players to take advantage of throughout the course of the game. The collector’s box, while it doesn’t impact gameplay, does give players a game board to use instead of the scattered castles and card lanes that can appear when laid out informally on the table.

Theme

Are noblemen really noblemen if they’re not persistently plotting for the demise of their peers and the advancement of their push for power? Not really. So that’s the premise for this territorial squabble in Crimson Company, only—in true noblemen fashion—they don’t do the dirty work themselves. The nobility hires armies of sellswords and mercenaries to get the job done, so a quirky cast of characters appears as the nobles send adventurers, mythical creatures, and other strange denizens of the land into the fray.

Crimson Company has never had a convincing story. It’s not really been about the narrative. If you’re looking for flavor text, for something that will give you an immersive dip into the lore pond of this fractured land, then it’s not there. You’ll have to envision that on your own.

But what you do have is a consistent mechanical fight between two players who want the same thing—the castles. It will be a vicious tug-of-war.

Accessibility

Part of the appeal for Crimson Company is the size of the game and the length of a session. It only takes about twenty minutes to play and it comes in such a small box that you can easily carry this around with you.

The only caveat to that is the table presence, which is bigger than some games. The lane-specific card combat that emulates a MOBA needs room for each player to place cards in rows alongside a castle. That creates a larger play area than other micro-games.

Tactical gameplay in itty-bitty living space, though. So it will surprise many players with what it’s capable of, especially once you add the extra content. And the two expansions add a lot of variability with the new cards without really changing any of the core mechanics so that also increases accessibility. For players that are put off by the cards laid out across the table, the collector’s box solves that problem with a game board that can hold all of the required components.

Gameplay

There are few components but there are a lot of ways to use them. Crimson Company comes down to two mechanisms—the bidding system and the character ability resolution.

In a 20-minute duel, players will compete to take over two of the three castle lanes. It’s like walking on a tightrope and every sellsword bought and every character ability activated is a slight tremor that threatens to make you topple off the lifeline.

The expansions broaden the scope of what’s possible and they deepen the well of strategy but they don’t alter the DNA of the game. Crimson Company continues to be a skill-based card game. No dice need to be rolled. If there is any luck, it’s in the draw of the mercenaries that are available on your turn.

It’s a card game, but you don’t manage a hand of cards. Every character you buy from the market is immediately played somewhere on the board so the decision-making is quick and the results are near-instantaneous.

Each of the three lanes has spaces for each players’ sellswords. Once one of the players has at least four mercenaries in a castle lane, then that lane scores, and the player with the most strength in it wins the castle. There is no second chance. Once a castle is lost, it’s out of contention. So players have to be careful as to how they position their sellswords. Overcommit and you might leave the other two castles up for grabs. Not enough strength, though, and your forfeit a third of the game’s victory condition.

That means players may play zero, one, or two sellswords on their turn and drastically affects how a turn might play out. It also gives the inactive player agency when it’s not their turn. They are invested in what their opponent is doing. And they have a chance to influence or negate the intended move.

Modes of Play

One optional element and one game variant provide the mechanical flexibility of the game and the additional cards extend the variability of the core experience.

The optional element, which I highly recommend for all players, is the special castle cards, which give additional elements to consider. A castle might require an additional card before scoring or it might influence the income phase or one of many other possibilities. This adds another layer to the crunchy onion of Crimson Company. It gives a lot of nuance to what could have otherwise been a static feature in the gameplay.

The variant is a team-based mode that involves two players competing against another two players. Cards are shared between the team but coins are separated between teammates so an adjustment to the economy of the game occurs, forcing more tactical awareness and patient play as to not be outbid and outclassed in terms of coins. A shortage of coins is a damaging event.

Innovation

All 30 of the original character cards are unique.

So are the 21 cards from The Other Side expansion.

And the 20 from the Ragnarok expansion.

That’s 71 individual mercenaries with specific powers that activate at certain phases in the game. It’s quite a lot to keep track of—players will be able to discover combinations between cards and between expansions for many games. It’s quite an engaging card game for one so small.

Pricing

There are a ton of pricing options available at the game’s website and shop, but the best deal is getting the deluxe box of Crimson Company, which comes with the core game, both expansions, and the game board. All of that costs 35,00 €, which is not a bad price for what you’re getting.

Crimson Company expansion content is…