Games of luck are often conflated with the idea that these are games without skill, and yet professional gamblers as well as old-school RPGs have always required skill to be successful. Whether it is managing probabilities by weighing your options, reading your opponents a few steps ahead of them, knowing when to take risks, or being able to adapt to new circumstances in order to win, these are the qualities of flukes that separate a fool winning against the House from a Machiavellian prince wishing to usurp the throne. Things are never meant to go according to plans; it’s the one who realizes this who shall win.

In the case of Armello, it plays its cards like the latter category by not only framing its narrative as a game of usurping the throne either through political, violent or supernatural (good or bad) means, but mechanically it rewards players who bide their time as well as players who challenge the odds for the reward. As it is said about the Game of Thrones, “You either win or you die.”


Normally I prefer not to discuss price-models in depth, except for cases where there is some controversy concerning the product; however, after reviewing all the extra revenue models in Armello, the result is a menagerie of ideas that really don’t agree with me.

When Armello was released, the idea of making four characters exclusive to Kickstarter backers, which could be mitigated if you joined a backer’s lobby, was an idea that rewarded blind adoption for a game not even finished. These characters were eventually released in the Bandit Clan DLC released this year, yet this was only the beginning. Beforehand there were two bundles, the four Usurpers characters and the seasonal boards, which the latter could be viewed as cosmetics, and finally, the individual item “set-prices” and “community market” prices made from loot-crates and keys, which these items were dropped from their initial $7/8 prices to $4 on one day to establish parity with console releases without compensating early adopters for change in prices. Together, all these items have added more than a full-price AAA game on top of the game itself.

Nothing of all that I have said is to dismiss the quality of the content provided as eight extra characters with cosmetic alterations do have value. However, it’s the manner in which these revenue streams have been handled on top of a great game that gives one the impression that Armello isn’t the only land full of weasels.


If you had grown up with reading Redwall, the set-up for Armello is similar to Mossflower: A Tale of Redwall: A tyrannical king mad with power is stricken with an unknown illness as he attempts to stop the resistances armed against his reign as well as finding out the corruption amongst his ranks as his stature of a once noble ruler is tainted by his atrocities. In a nutshell, this description describes the gameplay of Armello as a whole as you can be the leader of a resistance for the King’s head, seek to usurp the throne through the King’s demise, or you can incite magic to restore the King or evoke dark arts to become more tainted than the King himself.

Whereas games like Civilization rely on various victories to encourage playstyles for roleplaying purposes, the options for victory in Armello are balanced to make each viable while also having conditions to be met to keep players from relying on one strategy. The easiest condition for victory is through Prestige where players must earn as much acclaim from the decaying king who enacts more strenuous laws against the other players or on the prestige-leader himself, and all of it can be lost if the leader attacks the King (even if both characters die; only by surviving the encounter does the usurper claim the win). Other options like collecting four magical crystals to cleanse the Rot as well as the Rot victory where the leader becomes more corrupt than the King are often based on how each game plays out rather than pre-planning for one route. None of these strategies are without some preparation required, so players are encouraged to keep several options in perspective with the “Kingslayer” victory as a contingency when the game becomes dire—and dying to the King makes any condition in void.

In addition to the multitude of victory conditions, the variety of leaders to choose are tailored to specific playstyles through their individual mechanics as well as the progression system for all of them. Abilities like River’s Huntress ability that takes away 1 HP before every battle makes her ideal for assassination whereas Mercurio’s Scoundrel ability allows him to take away gold from captured settlements to play more traps. Rings and bonus perks are tailored to each leader’s playstyle to reward players with some leeway with their builds if they know how to utilize each character to their potential. It’s only in the more extreme cases like Zosha and Sargon with so low amounts of HP that their viability for alternative victories are brought into question, which depends largely on the cards you are handed and the resources you have on hand. Perhaps what I enjoy the most about this system is they can turn the tropes of anthropomorphic characters from their mechanics into a tactical bluff if players exploit the expectation of other players.


All of which I have described thus far has taken into consideration of the default set-up of each game as custom games can allow for House Rules. These settings can create longer or shorter sessions by changing the behavior and mechanics of the King, his guards, etc. as well as tons of player-related options to create games unbounded by the default limitations. It’s additional features like this mode that shows the real merits behind Armello when you only think about it as a game.

Had the game continued to expand upon the inclusion of these options and new game modes, perhaps Armello’s shortcomings could be better tolerated instead of being an uncomfortable compromise to accept. Its additional means of support appears to be done for the best of intentions yet it has resulted in a convoluted mess of business models with varying levels of backlash from the community. If you can accept this small blight upon an otherwise flawless classic, then you can perhaps have a go to see if chance will have you crowned or if chance will take it from you.

Games of luck are often conflated with the idea that these are games without skill, and yet professional gamblers as well as old-school RPGs have always required skill to be successful. Whether it is managing probabilities by weighing your options, reading your opponents a few steps ahead of them, knowing when to take risks, or being able to adapt to new circumstances in order to win, these are the qualities of flukes that separate a fool winning against the House from a Machiavellian prince wishing to usurp the throne. Things are never meant to go according to plans; it’s the one who realizes this who shall win. In the case of Armello, it plays its cards like the latter category by not only framing its narrative as a game of usurping the throne either through political, violent or supernatural (good or bad) means, but mechanically it rewards players who bide their time as well as players who challenge the odds for the reward. As it is said about the Game of Thrones, “You either win or you die.” [h1]Weaseling Their Way Out of This Hole[/h1] Normally I prefer not to discuss price-models in depth, except for cases where there is some controversy concerning the product; however, after reviewing all the extra revenue models in Armello, the result is a menagerie of ideas that really don’t agree with me. When Armello was released, the idea of making four characters exclusive to Kickstarter backers, which could be mitigated if you joined a backer’s lobby, was an idea that rewarded blind adoption for a game not even finished. These characters were eventually released in the Bandit Clan DLC released this year, yet this was only the beginning. Beforehand there were two bundles, the four Usurpers characters and the seasonal boards, which the latter could be viewed as cosmetics, and finally, the individual item “set-prices” and “community market” prices made from loot-crates and keys, which these items were dropped from their initial $7/8 prices to $4 on one day to establish parity with console releases without compensating early adopters for change in prices. Together, all these items have added more than a full-price AAA game on top of the game itself. Nothing of all that I have said is to dismiss the quality of the content provided as eight extra characters with cosmetic alterations do have value. However, it’s the manner in which these revenue streams have been handled on top of a great game that gives one the impression that Armello isn’t the only land full of weasels. [h1]Let Us Ride to Armello![/h1] If you had grown up with reading Redwall, the set-up for Armello is similar to Mossflower: A Tale of Redwall: A tyrannical king mad with power is stricken with an unknown illness as he attempts to stop the resistances armed against his reign as well as finding out the corruption amongst his ranks as his stature of a once noble ruler is tainted by his atrocities. In a nutshell, this description describes the gameplay of Armello as a whole as you can be the leader of a resistance for the King’s head, seek to usurp the throne through the King’s demise, or you can incite magic to restore the King or evoke dark arts to become more tainted than the King himself. Whereas games like Civilization rely on various victories to encourage playstyles for roleplaying purposes, the options for victory in Armello are balanced to make each viable while also having conditions to be met to keep players from relying on one strategy. The easiest condition for victory is through Prestige where players must earn as much acclaim from the decaying king who enacts more strenuous laws against the other players or on the prestige-leader himself, and all of it can be lost if the leader attacks the King (even if both characters die; only by surviving the encounter does the usurper claim the win). Other options like collecting four magical crystals to cleanse the Rot as well as the Rot victory where the leader becomes more corrupt than the King are often based on how each game plays out rather than pre-planning for one route. None of these strategies are without some preparation required, so players are encouraged to keep several options in perspective with the “Kingslayer” victory as a contingency when the game becomes dire—and dying to the King makes any condition in void. In addition to the multitude of victory conditions, the variety of leaders to choose are tailored to specific playstyles through their individual mechanics as well as the progression system for all of them. Abilities like River’s Huntress ability that takes away 1 HP before every battle makes her ideal for assassination whereas Mercurio’s Scoundrel ability allows him to take away gold from captured settlements to play more traps. Rings and bonus perks are tailored to each leader’s playstyle to reward players with some leeway with their builds if they know how to utilize each character to their potential. It’s only in the more extreme cases like Zosha and Sargon with so low amounts of HP that their viability for alternative victories are brought into question, which depends largely on the cards you are handed and the resources you have on hand. Perhaps what I enjoy the most about this system is they can turn the tropes of anthropomorphic characters from their mechanics into a tactical bluff if players exploit the expectation of other players. [h1]There’s Daggers in Men’s Smiles[/h1] All of which I have described thus far has taken into consideration of the default set-up of each game as custom games can allow for House Rules. These settings can create longer or shorter sessions by changing the behavior and mechanics of the King, his guards, etc. as well as tons of player-related options to create games unbounded by the default limitations. It’s additional features like this mode that shows the real merits behind Armello when you only think about it as a game. Had the game continued to expand upon the inclusion of these options and new game modes, perhaps Armello’s shortcomings could be better tolerated instead of being an uncomfortable compromise to accept. Its additional means of support appears to be done for the best of intentions yet it has resulted in a convoluted mess of business models with varying levels of backlash from the community. If you can accept this small blight upon an otherwise flawless classic, then you can perhaps have a go to see if chance will have you crowned or if chance will take it from you.