Second Look - Boardgame reviews in depth. Check out that cat.When I first heard about Tiny Epic Kingdoms I was a bit skeptical. How can you fit a 4X game in the span of 30 minutes? The only thing in my mind it had going for it was that it’s put out by Gamelyn games, the same company that brought us the excellent Dungeon Heroes.

Sitting down to play this one with my 9-year-old, we went through the rulebook fairly quickly and sat down to play (adding in a ghost player since there was only 2 of us.)

Call me pleasantly surprised.

TEK delivered on it’s promises, and proved to be a very competent game in a very short amount of time. The choice of races to play as is robust, and each race has it’s own technology tree to build on. The player boards and territory are a great way to keep things exciting, yet compact. You can claim territory on your own boards, or even hop over to other players’ boards. Combat is quick, easy, yet brutal, as it takes valuable resources to conquer your foes. Choosing a path to victory isn’t simple, as other players can disrupt your progress leaving you seriously hurt if you’re not planning on a backup.

TEKPROMOMy son and I finished our first game in around 30 minutes. We probably could knock that time down a bit. Gamelyn says the game takes between 30-60 minutes realistically, and I agree with that range. Figure 10 minutes per player once everyone is familiar with the rules.

Tiny Epic Kingdoms packs quite a punch for such a small package, very similar to how Dungeon Heroes does.

A copy of Tiny Epic Kingdoms was provided free for review by Gamelyn.