Ignite – First Impressions
You may not have heard of Ignite yet but it’s a skirmish deck-building game from Ginger Snap Gaming and the Kickstarter campaign is close to fulfilling, with pledges being delivered to the backers sometime in the middle of 2021.
Designed by Darren Terpstra, it’s a dueling game where players will build off of the same pool of upgrade cards while darting around a variable-terrain battlefield. Push your enemies into lava. Burn them in a forest fire. Electrocute them in water. Or just bash, stab, and arrow them like you would in any traditional combat scenario.
Different races of warriors are represented in the game, each with its own unique ability and it will be up to the savviest player to take advantage of the battle and win the fast race to four victory points. Ignite is a game for 2-8 players and it will probably last between one and two hours when you get those physical copies in your hands.
What It Does
So, Ignite is a tabletop skirmish game. You’ve got miniatures (designed with dagger recesses in the back, ready for damage) that represent unique races of warriors. Humans with axes. Elves with bows. Valkryie with lightning bolts. Centaurs with… hooves. There are a lot of different factions that you can choose from and the goal is to stay alive longer than your enemies—while also being involved in killing those same enemies. It’s a delicate dance.
But it’s also a deck-building game. You can march. And stab things with daggers. And you can occasionally block some damage. Everyone can do that, though! If you want to be special, you need to upgrade your deck from the pool of Battle cards. Get that Ring of Fire. Learn how to raise an Ice Wall. Buy a bow. Or an axe. Or maybe get an eagle to take you places. Those creatures are much more efficient at movement. Whatever decision you make, improve the deck and start fighting.
Players are skirmishing. And they’re deck-building. At the same time. The best players will figure out how to strike a balance within those two mechanisms. The starting deck and Battle cards lend a much more nuanced look at the skirmish side of things and the lethal combat gives a heavy dose of player interaction and meaningful consequences to the deck-building part.
How It Does It
What are all of the things that Darren Terpstra has created to achieve this dual-sided combat game?
The asymmetric race abilities are a start. Each race has one significant advantage in movement, attack, or defense, which incentivizes players to not only experiment with card combinations but also narrower strategies that involve what their race is already accomplished at.
A variable-terrain board is another huge factor in how each game is going to play—especially when you consider which cards will be useful on which maps. Snow slows you down but it doesn’t really alter the state of the game. Neither does regular grass. Forested tiles, though? Those provide cover against ranged attacks while remaining vulnerable to fire damage. Lava? That will straight-up kill you. Acid and water spaces provide other unique battlefield influences. And then the outer village spaces and the inner bazaar will affect how players move their units around.
With the Freeze expansion that’s available, Ignite has over 1000 cards. And that means a lot of fluctuation in strategy and gameplay. You might not have any of the same cards from one game to the next. Each set of Battle cards will determine what players decide to buy and what they will pair with their unique race. It’s another component in the variability of Ignite that increases the likelihood of replay.
Don’t forget the broad player count either. Two to eight players can compete on this map, with each particular number providing its own challenges. Time will increase with the number of players, but each game can provide a lot of engaging choices as players weigh what race to go up against and how to build out their deck.
Why You Might Like It
Few tabletop miniature or skirmish games give you the variable player count that Ignite does. Playing with 8 people? That’s insane and really appealing because you can have a larger group enjoy an engaging combat-oriented game with some slick mechanics like deck-building that make it something that other games don’t have.
Miniatures are also going to convince some backers, but there are other design components that make Ignite intriguing. I love the damage tracking system where you insert daggers into the back of the units. Clever and memorable. And the deck-building is definitely going to win over some fans. It’s remarkably variable when taking the terrain into account.
Why You Might Not
Mixing skirmish tactics and deck-building has its ups and downs. Skirmish games reward tactical maneuvers and tense combat. Deck-building games reward patience and smart combinations. At first glance, these two mechanics feel like they’re pulling in different directions. It will be a matter of seeing where the middle ground is and how to walk that line.
The best value is jumping all-in on the Kickstarter because you get the most bang for your buck and have the highest variability possible with all of the cards and player races. But that’s a financial hurdle for some that may dissuade them.
Final Thoughts
As Alex would say, “Color me intrigued!”
I think there are a lot of parts in Ignite that have potential and can work well together. I need to get an in-person play—and likely more than one at different player counts—to finalize my thoughts.
I love the variability that comes with the pool of Battle Cards. It gives a lot of freedom to players who want to fight in their own way. In the game I played, I went for a more early-half melee approach. One opponent focused on ranged attacks, far-reaching movement, and economy. And the other two had a blend of everything with a heavier lean into magical attacks.
I’m curious to see which part wins out over the other—the miniatures skirmish part or the deck-building. Or, after multiple plays, if they really do pull equally against each other to make a super tight gameplay experience. Darren has done a great job building a world that interests me. I love the miniature design and the modular terrain. Those are things that make me want to jump back and keep trying out the different races.
But don’t just take my word for it. Check out the Kickstarter and see the campaign, as well as what other content creators think. Also, late pledges are currently still open, so you can jump on board if it looks like your kind of game!
Kudos to Darren for a thrilling combat experience and I hope the game gets out to backers as soon as possible!
I want to hear what you think, though! Do you like skirmish games? Deck-building games? Have you seen both of those mechanisms combined like this before?
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.