D.E.I.: Divide et Impera

D.E.I.: Divide et Impera was one of those projects I backed hoping the box would earn both its shelf space and its presence on the table. Rather pleasingly, it seems to have the whole package: careful production, appealing fluff, and 15mm miniatures which may lack the grand scale of 28mm figures but make the conflict look crisp and concentrated. This is the sort of game that can make you lay out a map after a Tuesday at work just to find out who gets to hold the ground.

At its heart, it is a zero-luck area-majority and area-control game. Nothing is concealed behind a die deciding it would like a leading role; players contest presence and dominance in the various areas, and that contest is the game.

It carries a little of a Lang design’s character, though not as a rough imitation; the ideas seem properly worked through, with several clever touches around them. The Kickstarter package offers enough variety to keep sessions from settling into the same shape too soon, while the conflict stays direct and dice-free: you do not wait for luck to clear a path, you clear it through somebody else.

It is not a revolutionary design, and the price will probably sting. But for a group that wants fighting, area control, and decisions rather than dice rolls, D.E.I.: Divide et Impera looks quietly excellent.