#1d6

Harry styles at the end of the decade *chefs kiss*

Overview

Okko: Era of the Asagiri is a miniatures wargame for 2 players ages 12 and up, designed by Laurent Pouchain, published by Asmodee, and featuring artwork by Hub, Francois Lecocq, and Geoffrey Stepourenko. Games are intended to average around 45 minutes. Okko is inspired by the comic of the same name.

Gameplay

Okko: Era of the Asagiri features three factions called “Alignments”. These Alignments are Demon Hunters, Evil Creatures, and Mercenaries. Your army in the game is called a “Band”. Your Band can consist of either Demon Hunters or Evil Creatures, but either Alignment is permitted to take Mercenaries as well.

The size of your Band is determined by the Zeni Value (points, for all intents and purposes) of all the characters and equipment you are bringing to the table. This could mean that you only have two or three characters and a hefty amount of equipment or you could be spamming characters across the board. Both strategies have their merits.

Character statistics can be found on the character’s Profile Card. This card will tell you everything you need to know about the character that you are putting out on the field. The Profile Card details the character’s stats, abilities, Zeni Value, and other identifying information that may come into play during the game.

Each character has four statistics: Attack, Defense, Movement, and Willpower. Each of these statistics has an element associated with it (I’ll talk about this more in just a bit). Additionally, any abilities that the character has will also show what element it is associated with (if any).

Profile Cards are double-sided. One side is blue and the other is red. The blue side of the card represents the character’s stats and abilities when they are “Vigilant”. The red side of the card represents the character’s stats and abilities when they are “Shaken”. Again, we’ll talk more about this in just a second.

Okko features two types of dice: your standard six-sided dice and Inspiration Dice (which are unique to the game). Inspiration Dice feature different elements on each face and can provide bonuses to your characters’ stats as well as enable them to use their elementally dictated abilities.

This was my first instance of combat in the game. You can see the two minis that are squaring off over on the left there.

At the start of a game (scenario play or otherwise) players will first need to set up the game board. The base game comes with several double-sided tiles which can be placed next to one another to form the game board. Typically, the game board consists of four tiles. Once the board is ready to go, players roll to see who will go first. This will determine who is Player A and who is Player B.

Player A deploys their band first. Deployment happens on the very back row of any side of the board, but players will need to deploy their Bands on opposite sides from one another. Once deployment is finished for both players, the game is on.

By this point in the game, two of the Evil Creatures characters had been Shaken.

Play alternates between players A and B in the following sequence:

Player rolls their Inspiration Dice for that turn. (Players will usually have four Inspiration Dice each).

Player activates their characters one by one until all characters have been activated.

Player decides what Inspiration Dice (if any are left unused) will go into which character’s reserve. Any Inspiration Dice not placed into reserve will be rerolled on the player’s next turn.

Play passes to the next player.

During an activation a character can move and then make an action or make an action and then move. Actions that a character can perform on their turn are as follows:

Attack an enemy character

Shoot an enemy character

Test Willpower to return to a Vigilant state if Shaken

Use an ability

Also during an activation, a character can use Inspiration Dice to fuel their abilities or provide a buff to their stats.

A Fire Die adds +1 to the character’s Attack Stat for one attack.

An Earth Die (from reserve) adds +1 to the character’s Defense Stat for one instance of combat.

An Air Die adds +1 to the character’s Movement Stat for one movement.

A Water Die adds +1 to the character’s Willpower Stat for one Willpower Test.

By this point, both the Demon Hunters and the Evil Creatures had suffered a casualty.

Combat is resolved in the following manner:

The active player declares which character will be attacking which enemy and what Inspiration Dice and abilities they will be using for the attack.

The defending player declares which Inspiration Dice and abilities they will be using in defense.

If necessary, the defending player turns their character so it is facing the attacking character.

The attacker and defender each roll 1d6.

The attacker adds the resulting dice roll to the Attack Stat of their character along with any additional bonuses.

The defender adds the resulting dice roll to the Defense Stat of their characters along with any additional bonuses.

The two totals are then compared with the higher of the two determining the victor of the combat.

Once a combat has ended, there are several possible outcomes. The losing character may be forced to retreat, they may become Shaken and forced to retreat, or they may become disabled entirely and removed from the game. In the event of a draw, both characters remain where they are.

The Demon Hunters are down to one man left standing and he was up against some pretty serious opposition.

Hit points in Okko don’t work quite like they do in any other wargame that I have played to date. As I have mentioned above, characters begin the game in a Vigilant state. Through combat or because of abilities a character can become Shaken. Once a character is Shaken, if something happens to them that would cause them to become Shaken again, they are considered “Disabled” and are, effectively, dead. Combat can also leave a character flat out Disabled and completely bypass Shaken. Crazy things can happen.

Ultimately, the Evil Creatures were triumphant and managed to do away with the last Demon Hunters character.

The game ends when one player’s Band is entirely Disabled or when the requirements for winning the scenario have been fulfilled by one of the players.

Visuals and Quality of Game Components

I’m going to break with recent tradition and talk about the quality of the game components first this time. Now, I’m sure most of you that are familiar with miniatures wargames are used to miniatures with more substance. The minis that come with Okko are heavy duty cardboard standees that fit into little plastic stands. That being said, they’re good quality and durable. I’ve put them in and taken them out of the stands with no color disturbance of any kind and no bending or breaking of the standees. They fit into the stands snugly and there is no wobbling.

Here are some of the miniatures that come with the base game.

The reversible board tiles are great. The artwork is really well done (and that goes for everything, not just the board tiles). There is no turning up at the edges and they’re of a reasonable thickness.

The aesthetic of the game is, I think, really cool. I don’t know much about the comic that the game is based on (aside from what I’ve read in the Adventure Book that came with game), but the setting seems interesting enough.

Content and Replay Value

Considering that I bought this game for $9 from Miniature Market, I think it has great bang for your buck. There are one or two expansions, which I can only assume you can pick up for relatively cheaply as well, and the game has quite a bit of replay value. If you are already a fan of the comics I would imagine that that would add to the replay value as well.

I don’t think there is any content that would be inappropriate from younger children, but the rules could get confusing for someone who isn’t very familiar with tabletop games. I think the ages 12 and up rating is reasonable for those looking to play without additional aid.

Verdict: Yea

Whether you are a veteran wargamer looking for something new and exciting or a newcomer to the wargame genre and looking for a game that is easy to pick up and inexpensive to get into, Okko is the way to go. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to try something different. As always, thanks for reading.

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

And here are the pictures of the second game I played, but I didn’t want to squeeze them into the review above.

When it's time for a Bard to sing, he or she should have a song or three to choose from...

The Fall of Crawford's Dell (The Birds All Sing)

The Ass, The Sheriff, and The Priest (All Sound the Same to Me)

She Went Again to Valdren Town (A Riding on Her Mare)

Captain Quincy Can't Quit Charging (His Arse is All Aflame)

One Toe in the Dragon's Mouth (The Other in the Mead)

Ssssure isss a nice sschematic you have there.

Would be a ssshame if sssomething happened to it...