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Other games by the brand include Throw Throw Burrito, A Game of Cat and Mouth, Bears vs Babies and Happy Salmon. Of course, Exploding Kittens is perhaps the most popular of the bunch. If you’re a fan of traitor games and looking for a 2 player version, you’ll enjoy this game as long as you are willing to accept one glaring weakness: game balance. It’s not that the game favors Assassins or Witnesses; it favors itself. The game and its Events are far more likely to kill a player, especially in the early game, than either player is. In one game I had, the Assassin won not because he did anything smart or made any choice towards killing the Witness, but because the game was so brutally efficient in killing off the Witness (and would have killed the Assassin in another turn or two). The game has the capacity to kill a player even with both players doing everything they can to help each other.
You are in a mob-ruled town in the 1940s, and at least one of you was a witness to something you were not supposed to see. You need to make it across town alive to where there are people that can protect you, but your journey will be a dangerous one. By the deal of hidden roles, each game could have only witnesses, meaning you must all survive together to win. Or there could secretly be an assassin hidden among you, subtly manipulating the situation and waiting for the right moment to strike.
Analysis and Thoughts
As a big fan of Battlestar Galactica: The Boardgame, the temptation for me to open this review with a comparison of Mantis Falls to BSG is too strong. If you like traitor games but have been dismayed that they all require at least 3 players and benefit strongly with 4+ players, brighten up! The sun will shine through the dark nights of Mantis Falls as it successfully brings you all the suspense of a traitor game with as few as 2 players. However, the road out of Mantis Falls is a long, treacherous one, even for the traitor! Read on to learn more about Mantis Falls and how it manages to create uncertainty with only 2-3 players. I played both a physical copy and a Tabletop Simulator mod. The Tabletop Simulator mod is a delight as well. Theme Then the current player draws an event card to their hand. These Event cards typically either immediately harm the players or threaten to harm the players if the players cannot prevent it. Each event card has a type: either Seen or Unseen. The player must reveal it if it is a Seen type event or keep it in their hand if it is an Unseen type. A player may say whatever they like about the Unseen event, but may never actually show the card and must actually follow the rules of the card during Event processing which occurs after the Main play phase. Each player receives one secret role card at game setup. This role may either be a witness or an assassin. Games may consist of only witnesses or there could be one assassin: Place action cards of the same suit (Amber, Granite, Hunter, Lilac, Royal, or Midnight) face down in the play area
If there are only witnesses, then this is a cooperative game that the players win or lose together. • If there is an assassin, then this is a competitive game. Each player should leave a little room for a score pile. Then, place the rest of the cards in the middle of the table dark side up. You will not be holding any cards in this game. 2. Begin play (score and steal) This means that if you draw an assassin role card, then you (secretly) know that the game is a competitive one. If you draw a witness role card, then you do not know if the game is cooperative or competitive. Action cards of the same suit can be comboed together, with players working together - or apart - on each turn. Image: Distant Rabbit Games This play is made as an additional, normal action play (any number of action cards of the same suit), and is immediately processed as a sidebar to all other action. • After this, the player’s "gasp marker" advances one space right. • It is possible to survive Last Gasps if wounds are reduced to below maximum and the gasp marker is below three. In this case, play continues from where it was suspended.As witness to something not meant to be seen, you must escape the dark mob-ruled town of Mantis Falls alive. You are told another witness will join you, and together you must use cooperation to survive the increasingly dangerous roads of the night. Your ability to work with another could be your greatest strength, but what if they are not who they claim to be? Key to this is that often only one player actually gets to see the event, even after it’s resolved. While you can’t cheat by altering a hidden event’s effects, you can twist the truth - or outright lie - to try and manipulate your companion. You might pretend a minor foe needs as much firepower as possible to see off - leaving your target defenceless - or insist you had to deal them wounds, keeping schtum about the card’s choice of dividing them as you like.
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