Shaolia is a board game filled with deadly strategy and countless possibilities to build your own kingdom.
Build your very own kingdom with various building & character cards
Utilize creative tactics to take the lead with highly dynamic game play
Dive into the world of Shaolia through fantastic artwork and storylines
There are two ways to win in Shaolia. You can either deal 12 damage to your opponent’s palace and destroy it, or you can achieve 18 culture score.
The game is played through multiple rounds.
A round consists of 3 different phases.
Purchase Phase: Purchase cards and resources.
Building Phase: Build the purchased cards on the territory board.
Action Phase: Roll the dice and activate cards built on the territory board, using dice.
-description from designer
- fast and fun with a high degree of interaction
- strong art style
- variety via advanced cards and combos
- engaging two-player duel focus
- replayability may be limited due to fixed card sets per scenario
- scenarios require card sorting, which can be tedious
- not as deep or heavy as some other games; could burn out for serious gamers
- state-building, culture, education, palace defense
- continent of Shaolia amid inter-state warfare and state-building
- abstract/engineered theme; dice-driven resource management with optional narrative flavor
- Circadian's First Light
- Machi Koro
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area control / dueling interaction — aim to defeat opponent by damaging or destroying their palace/defend your own; high interaction
- card drafting / card management — purchase basic blue cards or upgrade via face-up advanced cards replacing them
- combat and health/damage — buildings have health; damage can be directed at opponent’s buildings; destruction ends threat
- dice placement — allocate dice to buildings, activate bonuses; spaces are limited and some require prerequisites
- engine building — build combos across your state to generate resources and effects
- Resource management — manage minerals, coins, and tokens; some tokens act as dice values
- Status tokens — tokens grant buffs or nerfs, affecting health, damage, or actions
- Turn structure — purchase phase -> building phase -> action phase with dice usage
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The best thing about this game is the art style I absolutely love it.
- it's fast and fun
- not the deepest and most replayable game
- this is a dice placement game with a high degree of interaction between players