In this card-driven 2-player war game by Mindclash games, Ironwood pits industry against nature. The Woodwalkers inhabit the forest regions while the Ironclads reside in the mountain regions. Each faction has its own goals and victory requirements. The setting for the battles to come is a central board where players use their card decks to move their combat units, initiate combat, and implement the work tasks they have in front of them to move them closer to victory. Each round, the Woodwalker takes the first turn, choosing a card to play followed by the Ironclad. Once three cards are played by each faction, the round ends.
What are the paths to victory?
Woodwalkers: Their goal is to secure three totems that reside on the highest mountains. Woodwalkers have a dedicated deck of vision cards, each of which contains a possible location for a totem. At the beginning of the game, they start with one of these cards that only they see, and during the game, they will be able to draw additional vision cards. Woodwalkers can only discover and secure totems in mountain locations when they have that vision card in their hand. To discover a totem, they must have a warband (a group of one or more combat units) located adjacent to a mountain for which they have a matching vision card. That mountain cannot be controlled by any Ironclad combat units. Then, they can play a card with the keyword Discover on it and a totem to the location with their warband. If they can use a move action within the same round, one of the fighters in their warband can take the totem and move it to one of the outer forest areas. Once there, it is immediately put on their player board. If they cannot move it, either because their opponent defeats the warband needed to move it or they do not have a card that allows them to move it, it fades away and they lose it. Once they can secure the third totem in this manner, they immediately win the game!
Ironclads: Their goal is to build 3 forges on outer mountains. To do this, they need to use a card that lets them build a foundation—which means they can place one of their forge tokens with the foundation side showing on an outer mountain they control. To control an area means that you have at least one combat unit on that mountain. Once you have obtained 5 crystals and have a card that lets you build a forge, you can flip the foundation to its forge side. Once you have built your third forge, you win the game immediately!
If you like one-on-one area control/battling games that are card driven, this game might be for you! It is simple to learn and plays in an hour or less. For 1-2 players with solo rules included. ~ Marsha