We're gaining infamy and completing nefarious plots.
That's right, it's Overlords of Infamy
from Obscure Reference Games.
This sinister strategy game pits Evil Overlords
against one another in a competition
to make the world miserable.
By acquiring Resources and stealing Relics,
Overlords complete evil plots to accumulate Misery Points.
The player with the most points by the end of the game
is denounced the winner.
Setup begins with each player selecting an Evil Overlord
and taking a set of Lackeys and their corresponding Lair
and Infamy Marker.
Each player places their Lair in the corner space
of the board nearest to them.
Place three Lackeys on the Barracks to start.
Shuffle and place the Plot cards, World Events,
and Map tiles on the board.
Set the World Tension Tracker to zero,
place each Overlord's Infamy Marker at one,
and place the Adventuring Hero in the center of the board.
Finally, deal two Knavery Plot cards
to each player face down.
Those players choose one and discard the other
to the bottom of the Knavery deck.
Randomly determine the first player,
and then turns will proceed clockwise.
Before starting the game,
determine how many World Event cards
need to be revealed to trigger the end game.
Depending on the number of players seen here,
the game recommends a certain amount of cards,
and you are free to raise or lower this number
if you wanna vary your game time.
Let's look at the board for a four player game.
Each corner of the map has a space for an Overlord's Lair.
This is their starting triple-hex tile.
Each Lair consists of a Barracks, a Village,
and a Resource space.
The Barracks is for unused Lackeys,
the Village is used to recruit more Lackeys,
and the Resource space lets you gain that Resource.
Additionally, each section contains
a Zone of Influence for each Overlord,
which they can exploit during their turn.
There's also Contested Areas,
which multiple Overlords can use
if their map tiles touch that space,
and the Kingdom of Good,
which has special Relics and the Treasure hoard of the Hero.
Gameplay occurs in turns, divided into four phases.
Hero Phase, Action Phase,
Espionage Phase, and End Phase.
First, in the Hero Phase,
the active player determines
if the World Tension Marker landed on or passed
the three, six, or nine space of the board.
If so, the player gets to roll the die
and move the Hero that many spaces.
If not, move on to the Action step.
Moving a Hero can foil the plans of other Overlords
depending on his placement.
If he ends his turn on an empty or Contested space,
no one can place a Lackey there.
A Map tile or Contested space with a Lackey
removes those Lackeys from the board
and back to their Lackey pool.
The Hero also takes a Resource
of that tile type from the supply,
and returns with it back to his Stronghold.
Placement on the Overlord's Lair forces the Overlord
to lose half rounded down of their Resources,
and if they have a Relic,
it's also returned to the Kingdom of Good.
Finally, if the hero lands on a Map tile with no Lackey,
that tile is liberated, and discarded.
The Hero returns to the Stronghold
along with one of that Resource Token
taken from the General Supply.
All of the Resources the Hero recovers
can be stolen back by the Overlords.
Next, in the Action Phase,
the active player gains three Action Points
to be spent in the following ways.
Harvest a Resource.
Spend one Action Point to move a Lackey from your Barracks
to an unoccupied Resource space
within your Zone of Influence,
or a Contested space if your tiles touch it.
Gain one token of that type.
If your Overlord's affinity matches that Resource,
you gain an additional of that type.
Recruit a Lackey.
Spend one Action Point to move a Lackey
from your Barracks to a Village tile,
and then add one Lackey from your pool to your Barracks.
One note about Lackeys,
you can never have more than six on the board at a time,
and you must always have at least one.
You cannot take any actions
that force you to lose your last Lackey.
Recall a Lackey.
Spend an Action Point to move a Lackey from a Map tile
back to the Barracks.
Recall all Lackeys.
Spend three Action Points to bring all your Lackeys
back to the Barracks.
Exploit the Land.
Spend one Action Point to draw two Map tiles,
placing one on a space in your Zone of Influence
adjacent to one of your Map tiles,
and discarding the other back to the bottom of the stack.
Steal a Relic.
Spend two Action Points to replace a Lackey on a Relic space
and take that Relic.
In order to interact with the Kingdom of Good tiles,
or Contested tiles,
players must have a connection of Map tiles to that area.
Relics are unique in the game,
and Overlords can only have one Relic at a time.
Raid the Hero's Treasure.
Spend two Action Points,
and if the Hero isn't in his Stronghold,
the Overlord may discard a Lackey
from their Barracks to sacrifice,
and take the resources from the Stronghold
to add them to their supply.
The Overlord can only take a number of resources
equal to their current Infamy Level.
If you're not bad enough,
you can't do more bad stuff, y' know?
Sweep for Infiltrators.
Spend one Action Point to remove all enemy Lackeys
from your Zone of Influence,
which returns them to their owner's pool.
Additionally, as these actions resolve,
players can complete their Plots
and raise their Infamy level.
Once an Overlord has acquired all the assets needed
as noted on the card,
they summon their best Evil Overlord voice
and read that Plot aloud.
Place the Plot face-up on the section of the play mat
for completed Plots,
and advance that Overlord's Infamy by one level.
Additionally, the World Tension Tracker
is moved based on the level of the Plot.
Knavery moves it one space, Villainy two,
and Domination three.
The active player then chooses a new Plot level
depending on their Infamy,
and draws two Plots, keeping one and discarding the other.
If a player wants to abandon their Plot,
they can use a free action called Start from Scratch,
by lowering their Infamy level by one,
discarding their current Plot,
and drawing two new Plot cards from the stack
in the same fashion.
This can only be done once per turn.
Next, in the Espionage Phase,
players can hinder their opponents
depending on their Infamy level,
provided the Overlord can reach their target
by having Map tiles connect to a shared zone,
like a Contested Zone or Kingdom of Good.
The active player chooses one Espionage Action
to take during this phase
of their Infamy level or lower,
which include Glean Intel,
view the active Nefarious Plot of one Overlord,
but you can not share this information with other players.
Infiltrate.
Place a Lackey on an opponent's non-Lair tile
as if it was in your zone.
Your opponent can not place a Lackey there
as long as it remains.
If you place on a Village or Resource tile,
resolve them as normal.
Plunder Resources.
Discard a Lackey from the Barracks and roll a die.
On a one or a two, nothing happens.
On a three, steal one Resource from the target,
and on a four, take two basic Resources or a Relic.
You could do this to another player, or to the Hero.
Sabotage.
Discard a Lackey from the Barracks,
and place a Sabotage Token on an opponent's Plot card,
when the Overlord completes that Plot,
they must roll a die for each token on the card.
Any ones mean the Plot fails.
Assassinate.
Works like Infiltrate, but you can place your Lackey
on an opponent's space that already contains their Lackey,
which is then removed from the board.
Each of these actions have a handy guide
on the back of the turn reference sheet as well,
so don't you worry.
Finally, during the End Phase,
determine if the game is about to end.
If the amount of World Event cards
set in the beginning of the game has been revealed,
everybody gets one more turn to gather more Misery Points.
After that, the game ends,
players count their completed Plots' Misery Points,
along with one point for each Lackey on the board,
one point for every two Resources,
and two points for a Relic.
And the Overlord with the most points
is denounced the winner.
Overlords of Infamy also includes
variant rules for solo mode,
and a five player game where one player takes on
the role of the Adventuring Hero.
As the Hero, they get to antagonize the Overlords
and attempt to complete a number of Hero quests
to win the game.
And that's Overlords of Infamy,
I'm Becca Scott, and I plea guilty to all of the crimes
I committed alongside my Overlord and Chief.
You can watch me play this game and other awesome games
with my friends on Game the Game,
right here on Geek and Sundry.
We'll see you there.