A.E.G.I.S. as told by Carmen Bellaire

Our first GenCon ever was GenCon 2015, and it blew us away. We met all sorts of great and prolific people, like Carmen Bellaire, designer of Robotech RPG Tactics. We ended up sending him home with one of our prototype copies, and a while later he sent some kind words back to us.

A while ago I was given the chance to play a review copy of an excellent, little, robot combat game from designer Breeze Grigas of Zephyr Workshop. It was unpretentious, fast-paced and simple, but not simplistic. I got to try it out with my family and friends and it was a hit with everyone. Even my nine year old nephew was easily able to grasp the game and put up a decent fight in short order.

The game revolves around teams of fighting bots divided into five basic classes: Assault, Evasive, Guard, Intel and Support, or A.E.G.I.S. for short. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses, and there are even multiple makes of robot in each class.  Better still is the fact that these various bots can combine together to form even more powerful classes and makes of robots.  The first secret to the game is learning how to mix and match these robot classes to make the most effective team possible.

 Combat in AEGIS is easy to learn and based on a simple energy allocation system, but its tactics are rich and difficult to master, just as any good combat strategy game should be. Each robot generates a number of energy points during a turn and each action the bot takes uses up a specific number of energy points. For example, moving one hex costs a single energy point, but firing a weapon takes a number of energy points equal to the dice of damage that weapon does. It’s dead simple, but that doesn’t mean it lacks tactics, with a host of actions, weapons and passive abilities, your options are nearly endless. The final secret to the game is learning when to expend your precious energy points.

All in all, I really enjoyed AEGIS for what it is; a great, strategic, little, robot combat game with a cool anime, combining-bot feel. While not on the level of a full blown miniatures combat game, it is fun enough and simple enough to play with younger players; and it plays fast enough to be a night’s warm up game before playing some other heavier board games. Or, my personal favorite way to play AEGIS, is as a “Beer and Pretzels” game, playing several games of AEGIS over the course of a night! So grab a few cold ones (if your legal age of course) and kick back for some kick butt Combining Robot Combat Fun!

by Carmen Bellaire

Thanks Carmen!

Check out Robotech RPG Tactics and the many other cool things by Palladium.

If you would like to send us some words on your experience with AEGIS, drop us a line.