Unmatched: Cobble & Fog

Welcome back friends! Amanda, Hector and I all hope that you are having a fantastic new year and enjoying yourselves as much as possible given the current state of the world. We’ve taken some time off to not write reviews every day and play some of the games we have already reviewed, and we do not intend to re-review games unless we add expansions to them. For this evening we sat down to play a game of Unmatched: Cobble and Fog.

Unmatched is an interesting system for a skirmish game, and it makes use of a board system I have been waiting to re-appear for some time. The basic concept is to take various public domain characters from myth, literature, movies and so on and have them brawl it out in various settings. This has been done a half dozen times before in various systems, but so far Unmatched is my favorite of these.

I’ll begin with the components, which are more or less perfect. There are excellent miniatures for each character, coupled with a base ring that lines up with their deck of cards. Although I intend to paint them, each of them comes pre-washed with a dark shade, which really makes them look perfect for the overall theme of the set, even just being grey. The insert has a spot for every component, and even comes with a couple of extra center thingies for the health dials. Having gotten bad ones of those so often I am very appreciative of this. The boards are nice and the cards are very thematic, as well as being well laid out with excellent graphic design. My only complaint might be the lack of minis for sidekicks, but the idea of having the main character stand out more on the board isn’t bad either, and the sidekick tokens are excellent.

The gameplay is a pretty straight up brawl, players can draw a card and move, play a scheme or fight. Combat is very basic on it’s face, players play two cards face down and if the attacker has a higher value than the defender, then the defender loses health equal to the difference. Where the gameplay shines is in how each player’s cards play out, as each deck is constructed very differently. Each player has special abilities and attack cards that play out very thematically based on the supporting literature and mythology, although on occasion it descends into the slightly ridiculous with Sherlock Holmes punching out Mr. Hyde in the streets while Watson provides supporting fire from a nearby rooftop.

The games mechanics make for a very tense fight, with lots of tactical cardplay going back and forth. With a few minor quibbles it is one of the best vs systems I’ve played, although the “exhaustion” rule effectively makes using up one’s deck an automatic loss, which I’ve never been a fan of, it does keep the playtime down. Deck design seems to be slanted towards that not becoming an issue, so it’s not a major quibble for me.

I had avoided Unmatched up till this point, thinking it would likely end up being another kludge game along the lines of smash up or duel of ages which may have a fun theme but tend to be severely lacking in gameplay, relying on the ridiculousness of their theme to carry them. Unmatched took a different tack and focused on creating a solid game system first, and then adapted the characters to fit the system and not the other way around. The game would be just as good of a system with original characters, but the theme of this set, along with the positive buzz online is what finally drew me in.

I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a dueling type game, and it’s likely that I will try another Unmatched set, but this set in particular has such an excellent theme that I would recommend anyone interested in the series start here. The Cobble and Fog box is a complete game on it’s own, and will stand up well even if I never get an expansion.

Note: Quite fun, but very much just a brawling game. If that’s what you’re into, go for it. The character art is great, and the abilities for the character I was playing made sense. It’s a cool way to do something “classic” or “mythic” etc. without actually having to know the source material. I would recommend it.

The Teal Deer

Game: Unmatched: Cobble & Fog
Designer: Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson, Chris Leder
Price: $40
Players: 1-4
2 player Scaling: It’s a really a 2 player game with the option for team play.
Playtime: 15 minutes per player
Estimated Lifespan: Will replace at least one duel game from my permanent collection.
Expected Average Play Frequency: Bi-Monthly
Complexity: 4
Components: 5
Bang for Buck: 4.5
Value for Time: 5
Fun Factor: 5
Overall: 4.5