Dragons of Etchinstone – Let's Game More

Ever since I discovered these, I’ve been in love with games that you can play on the go, completely (or almost) without any surface at all. So, if any of you want to jump into this crazy and highly creative world, here are my favorites.

But before, a few caveats regarding this list:

1 – I’m only considering games that are made to be played in hand. There are some amazing games that have in-hand game variants, but I’m not considering those.

2 – No works in progress games. There are some absolutely amazing games in BGG design competitions, but I’m only considering those that have an official page.

3 – To add variety, only one game per designer or publisher. If not, this list would be pretty lopsided.

Without further ado, here we go!

5 – Palm Island

By Jon Mietling / Portal Dragon Games

My first forage into this world, and still holds up incredibly well. On Palm Island, you have 8 runs through your deck to get resources and use those resources to upgrade cards for points or to produce even more resources.

Chowing between this and its sibling, Palm Laboratory was tough. I love that Palm Lab has different scenarios and clear win/lose conditions, but the unlock card system in Palm Island was just enough to take the cake.

This is a compact, highly thinky euro experience where you need to have long term planing and create an efficient machine, all in a quick play time that never fails to feel challenging and satisfactory.

4 – Handy Brawl

By Igor Zuber / Self Published

If any game symbolizes “having and idea and running with it” is this one. The basis is that you get 5 hero cards, 4 enemy cards, shuffle them and have a fight. Every turn you activate the top card. You make your choices, the enemy just activates the first thing that will actually do something. First to reduce the other side to all damaged cards wins.

If you get the first pair, Warrior and Ogre, it’s already a highly fun and tense back and forward. But Zuber created so many characters on both sides that expand and innovate, all based on this simple system. Honestly, the only two things that hold this game back is the lack of art and a need for a bit clearer symbology.

Handy Brawl is not just a game, it’s a whole system with so many possibilities and variety. Every combination so far feels well thought, exciting and unique. Get in some art and we have a bona fide classic in our hands.

3 – Loot the Loop

By Wil Su / Self Published

If you want to start in this universe, start here. No investment needed, as Loot the Loop is simply played with a regular 52 card deck (and a joker).

The idea is simple, if the top 2 cards are face down, turn them face up, then chowing one number value of the two you move that many cards down, the famous travel mechanism, and then check. Find aces or numbers, you collect them, find the joker and you may exit, find any face card and you lose. Can’t travel? Lose as well. But if the top card is a number, you can save it for later and that one mechanism adds so much strategy and forward thinking.

Loot the Loop is simply addictive. It’s lightning fast, a bit random yes, but the flow is so fun that you just want to play again. Such an elegant and well thought out design, so much that inspired many other games in the genre.

2 – Galdor’s Grip

By Gregg Jewell / Self Published

Galdor’s Grip takes the travel mechanism described above and elevates it to its max. On Galdor’s Grip, instead of collecting cards you need to find four binding stones and then the game’s namesake Galdor’s Grip while also manipulating other cards to reach 9 points. But some cards that give you points can also cause you to lose.

In its base, its an insanely addictive game that rewards repeated plays and knowing the deck. But there are 3 expansions so far. You take 12 base cards that always need to be there and ANY combination of 6 cards, and you have now an unique scenario where it’s up you to figure out how to manipulate them for a win. That is so much variety and replay value.

Galdor’s Grip is brilliant. It has everything you want an in-hand game. It’s lightning fast, portable and super easy to pick up or put away. But, allied with that, it’s a thinky puzzle where every game plays uniquely and require its own solution.

1 – Dragons of Etchinstone

By Joe Klipfel / Chip Theory Games

Coming from the master of compact and in-hand games Joe Klipfel, comes a game that combines all characteristics of the other games in this list. It’s thinky, compact, quick, easy to put away and pick back up and has great replay value.

The most interesting though, is that lots of in-hand games either use the travel mechanism or the store resources sideways one. Dragons goes a different route. Each the, you draw a hand of four, and try to overcome your challenge by having the right combination of element, spell and bonus, with one card being kept. It’s a simple system to understand, but there are so many variations and special abilities that makes this deep.

Dragons of Etchinstone is almost impossible put down. The design is inspiringly refined and offers so many great decisions and moments, while being perfectly portable and comfortable. And the base alone would be enough for the top spot, add in the unique characters and you have a classic for ages.

1 Player

Designer: Joe Klipfel

Artist: Frederico Pompili

Publisher: Chip Theory Games

Bring sorcery and Dragons into your hand in this battle of wits of your magic against ancient wyrms, all without ever needing a table to help. But will you tame the dragons or will you just drop all the cards like a clumsy buffoon?

How to Play

You will run 4 times into different regions to prepare to face your chosen dragon in the end. During each region turn, you will draw a hand of four cards, and reveal the top of a fifth one that will determine the challenge you will face. You can face any of the 4 enemies or 4 Journeys.

From your 4 cards, you will use 3. One for the element and initiative (only relevant for enemies), one to get either attack or movement, and the last one to add as a bonus to any of the values generated. If you generate less than half of the target value, you take only penalties. If you have more than half but not the total, you get both penalties and bonuses, and if you get the whole value you just get the bonuses.

Penalties for Journeys make you discard cards from your deck, which makes you have less turns. For enemies, it’s damage that forces you to downgrade your cards. Both types of encounters give you experience, that you can use to upgrade your cards.

When you get to the dragon, you face two phases, each with double hands that are combined. First you draw 7 cards and make two distinct journey hands, combining their total amount. You have three tiers of result, each with a resulting discard penalty. Next you draw the remaining cards and make two attacks, combining both the attack values and initiative. This will tell you how much damage the Dragon sends your way. If you’re able to soak up all the damage, you have won.

Rules and Components

This is a fairly complicated game, doing a lot with not too many components. Thus, the rules have to cover a lot of details. Thankfully, they do it quite well. Plenty of examples and diagrams and reference tables to cover all cases. It takes a bit to fully understand everything, but once you play a game or two the flow becomes instinctive.

The cards are well illustrated with foil details and we’ll structured for gameplay, but they do feel a tad flimsy in the hands. The deck box it comes it holds everything, including expansions quite well. However, that is a preference of mine, not a lot of room for sleeves. Not a big deal, but I am a serial sleever, specially for a game with so much shuffling and handling.

Score: 9/10

Gameplay

This is a sequence of non-trivial puzzles to solve each challenge where you’re trying to maximize the value of your cards by taking minimal damage, extending your plays and having just the right balance of upgrades to prepare for the big showdown. It’s a fast game, but it’s quite thinky and the decisions are not obvious. There are so many factors to consider and how to have the best turn each time. For such a compact game, it’s dense in terms of gameplay.

And this is a so called in-hand game. What about that aspect? Well, it’s easy to handle, comfortable and doesn’t get in the way of the gameplay at any point. Perhaps the final hands where you are creating two sets can be a bit fiddly, but totally manageable.

Score: 9.5/10

Theme and Art

I would love to see each spell having its own unique art and flavour, but from a functionality perspective, I absolutely understand why they chose. Still, the illustrations are high quality and each element has its own flair. The dragons art awesome, very unique and quite menacing. The foil details help the images pop, but are not too forward to help with the readability of the cards.

The rulebook does give some brief details about the world and what you’re doing, but still the dragons have no more and your enemies don’t even have names. Again, very understandable for its compact size, but still a bummer.

Score: 8.5/10

Conclusion

PHENOMENAL POWERS, itty bitty storage space

I’m a big fan of Klipfel and it’s compact designs, but of his in-hand games this is by far the best. It’s tense, crunchy, brain exercise, but fluid, intuitive and comfortable. There is a lot to like, and this Chip Theory version brings in top notch components and extra content.

If you want a portable game that still delivers every time, look no further. I feel this is one that will live in my backpack and pockets for years now.