Battlecrest is like Overwatch but in tiny card game form

Play a hero-focused game but with cards in the upcoming board game Battlecrest.

A tactical skirmish card game for two players, Battlecrest sees players going head-to-head against each other using their chosen hero characters. Similar to many popular hero-centric video games such as Overwatch, Apex Legends or even MOBAs – massive online battle arena games – like League of Legends, Battlecrest enables players to choose from a variety of different playable characters, each with their own unique abilities and playstyles.

In the two-player board game players must attempt to outwit their opponent by thinking ahead and anticipating their moves, using their hero’s abilities and cards to take them down. Each hero has their own set of six cards, including a hero card that lists their ability, as well as a health tracker and a selection of action cards for players to utilise. Players will also sometimes have access to minion or item cards that will take the place of actions cards, depending upon whichever hero they decide to control.

The base game for Battlecrest features two different heroes for players to choose from – a living goddess called Akhena and a resourceful raider called Mutiny. Whilst Akhena channels her ancestor spirits and sharp ringed weapons to perform devastating attacks – as well as an ability to swap with another warrior and perform an enhanced attacks – Mutiny plays dirty with his collection of traps and weapons, favouring a more ranged approach.

The expansion for Battlecrest – which comes free with certain pledges for the game’s Kickstarter campaign – includes two additional playable heroes called Whispyr – a winged spirit with teeth and claws – and a warbot named Forged. Besides providing extra heroes, which boosts the player count to a maximum of four people, the Battlecrest expansion also features a solo game mode that has players facing off against an AI opponent.

Within the Battlecrest base game is the Fellwoods map, a strange forest represented by a selection of different location cards that players move their heroes adjacent to in order to receive their various benefits. During the game, players take turns to perform two actions. Moving sees players moving their hero card between the different open slots within a grid made up of the Fellwood’s location cards. The sides of each location card will grant different effects to heroes, which players can then utilise using their action cards.

Whenever an action card is used it is exhausted, with players needing to use an action to refocus to gain them back. Alternatively, players can exhaust an action card to power up a super-effective battlecrest ability to use at an opportune time. Whichever player manages to reduce their enemy/enemies to zero first is named the game’s winner.

Battlecrest was co-designed by Dustin Dobson – a horror-themed card game - and Milan Zivkovic, who have previously worked together on Rove and Witches of Wickville. The artwork for Battlecrest was created by Jesse Turner and Katcrunch.

Buttonshy Games is the studio behind the release of Battlecrest, which will be yet another pocket-sized card game published by the company alongside Tussie Mussie – a card game from the designer of Wingspan, Elizabeth Hargrave – and tiny civilisation-building game Sprawlopolis.

The Kickstarter campaign for Battlecrest is live until May 21st, with a pledge of $12 (£10) getting backers a copy of the core game in September.