SPONSORED: Loyalty is everything in epic strategy board game WarBonds

This article is sponsored by Punk This Studios and WarBonds: Battle for Vitoria. Find out more about WarBonds and back it on Kickstarter until December 11th.

Upcoming board game WarBonds: Battle for Vitoria looks to offer a sweeping, complex strategy experience where your units’ loyalty is even more important than their combat prowess.

WarBonds puts up to five players in the role of warlords leading opposing armies to battle across the wartorn fantasy realm of Vitoria.

The unique warlords align with different moralities of Law, Neutral or Chaos, as well as Good and Evil, influencing both their abilities on the battlefield and their deployment options.

That same alignment contributes to WarBonds’ central loyalty system, which requires players’ warlords to inspire loyalty in their troops to maximise their performance in battle and avoid units defecting to their opponents.

Units who oppose a warlord’s alignment will refuse to join them, while others may be swayed by the stance of the public - who can be influenced by players who spend leadership to change the loyalty of all units on the field - and their warlord’s performance when duelling against rivals.

Units who waver in their commitment to a warlord might abandon the battlefield if their loyalty falls too low, or potentially join an enemy side if convinced by their warlord.

WarBonds’ gameplay sees each player alternating between units based on their initiative, aiming to keep downtime between turns to a minimum and allow players the room to respond to their opponents’ actions.

The game’s strategy involves zero elements of luck, with a pure strategy aspect as players use the inherent strengths and weaknesses of each deployed unit efficiently to defeat their rivals. Units combine to offer complex tactical options, with some able to take to the sky to avoid melee encounters and others offering flexibility across a variety of roles in their army. The units look to work together in different ways to embrace a spectrum of play styles.

This variety also extends to the warlords at the head of each army, with different characters offering conflicting or harmonious specialisations; the lawful good Golyar favours defence, while Tangus prefers an out-and-out aggressive attack and Anna’Xandra provides more of a balance between the two.

Victory is claimed via multiple routes to winning, whether by being the last surviving warlord and war camp, outpacing your rivals by being the first to completely level-up your war camp, or having the biggest army once the game ends.

WarBonds: Battle for Vitoria is currently running a Kickstarter campaign, offering the game and exclusive warlord art for Stained Glass Tangus, Aurora Golyar and Colette Iron-Heart to backers.