Gank is what a MOBA video game looks like when you convert it for the tabletop with euro-design. You don't push around a hundred miniatures on a map with a hundred grid spaces. You don't see dozens of trooper miniatures scattered across the battlefield on the various lanes.
What you do see, are still the iconic 3 lanes that each leads to both your base and your opponent's. But these are very simplified and there are only 7 spaces on each of these lanes, which really act more as tracks. There are no actual soldier miniatures, but there is a frontline marker that represents the point at which each lane is being contested.
It is deceptively simple! You just play down 1 of 5 Heroes (each hero taking unique roles - Carry, DPS, Utility, Tank, Support) from your hand, pick action cards from a pyramid that represent what the hero does that turn, and finally cast skills and spells from that hero. It is then your opponent's turn. Rinse and repeat until either one of the lanes has all towers destroyed and gets overrun by the opposing side, or one of the teams' morale drops to zero from having too many hero deaths, or a team manages to collect all Celestium crystals first and win immediately.
To ensure this is the RIGHT game for you, do not go into it thinking that it is that simple or that it's a casual gateway game. Gank is intended for gamers who are already in the hobby for some time. This is a pretty HEAVY game in every sense of the word, and you have to watch for multiple things like which action cards NOT to take so the opponent does not have options opened up for them, what cards to deny them by picking those yourself (even if you don't really need them) and even looking for big combos between heroes!
As for Hero miniatures, you have an option to make your game even more beautiful and get 3D representatives of your Heroes, or you can simply choose to use the more affordable alternative where Heroes are just cards in your hand. In the event you have the luxury of the premium miniatures, they are no mere decorations. You will use the miniatures heavily during the game as representatives of the Heroes being played out, their sequence and order etc.
As mentioned earlier, the full action of the battle is represented by a pyramid-shaped layout of cards that you and your opponents take turns to pick cards from - starting from the bottom row. There are 4 types of cards, namely Farming, Attacking, Pushing and Treasure cards. Depending on the role of the Hero played forth, you will also pick cards with different rulesets. For example, the Tank can only take 1 card but does not take any damage from Farming cards (which others normally do). The Carry allows you to take 1 card, and then 1 more directly above it (this makes your Carry the most powerful role since it can access the higher tier cards faster) or the Utility Hero which takes any 2 cards in the same row, as long as they are different types. Sometimes on the cards, there are Celestium crystals to be collected, or materials to be farmed (usually from Farming cards) where you can later combine with Item Recipes to create powerful equipment for your Heroes. Gold and Mana are also acquired from these very action cards.
Each Hero you play generally has 2 skills, one of which requires mana to perform. There is a 3rd 'Ultimate' skill that unlocks for them when they level up (there's only 2 levels in the game, so each Hero can only level up once)
The game is played in Rounds, with each ending when the top card on the pyramid is taken. At the end of each round, there is a Planning phase. Players will spend their Gold to manipulate the battlefield. Because buying of strategy cards are secretive, players will inevitably experience exciting mind games. Will they buy card A? Should you buy card B to prepare for a counter?
This game also features a 4 player mode of 2v2 where each player controls 4 heroes instead of 5, making it 8 heroes per team instead of the usual 5. The card pool is also larger by 5 cards per round, but all else stays the same and Gold, Materials and Crystals are shared in a team.
Fantasy · Area Majority / Influence, Hand Management, Set Collection, Variable Player Powers
More ▾
View on BGG ↗
