Celtic

2016 · 2-4 Players · ~60-90 min · Card Drafting Area Control

Inis is a brilliant and divisive area control game that replaces dice and raw aggression with card drafting, careful timing, and constant negotiation. It creates moments of tension and triumph that few games in the genre can match, but it also produces frustrating stalemates that test the patience of players who prefer decisive outcomes. The right group will find one of the most elegant and rewarding conflict games available. The wrong group will wonder what all the fuss is about. Knowing which camp you fall into before buying is half the battle.

2019 · 2-4 Players · ~60-90 min · Competitive

Seasons of Inis expands one of the hobby's most elegant area-control designs with a turning wheel of seasonal effects, new epic tales, and fresh territory, and the additions land exactly as intended, more texture, more swing, more of the Celtic chess match's beautiful chaos. For Inis devotees who have drafted the base game's cards into memory, the seasonal layer restores uncertainty and the new content re-widens a solved-feeling meta. For purists, the same layer dilutes the base's pristine clarity with event-driven noise. The expansion knows its audience, veterans wanting weather in their war, and serves them well.

2008 · 2-4 Players · ~30 min · Competitive

Keltis offers a clean, accessible card-and-track game from Reiner Knizia that earned the Spiel des Jahres but divides players between those who appreciate its elegant restraint and those who find it too thin.