Looking for a challenge to sweeten the victory? You need to check out Last Bastion and defend against the hordes, in our latest board game review!
Last Bastion is a one to four player cooperative game from my favorite designer Antione Bauza. Published by Repos Production this game takes about forty-five minutes to play or less depending on how things go. Last Bastion might seem and look familiar to some veteran board gamers. That’s because this is a re-skin of an older game.
That older game is better known as Ghost Stories, arguably the most difficult cooperative game ever. I myself can count how many times my group has won on one hand. Ghost Stories has four Chinese Shaolin warriors against a horde of various ghosts and monsters.
Last Bastion has changed the theme slightly. Now you are a group of fantasy-themed heroes- exciting! So enough about that let’s see how this newest version plays.
Last Bastion: $54.99
Get It For Less At Miniature Market
Fallen back into the Last Bastion, the heroes attempt to beat back the Hordes of the Baleful Queen. If the citadel falls, it’s an entire civilization which will be swept away, and an entire world will fall into chaos…
Last Bastion is an epic cooperative game for 1-4 players. It is based on the mechanics of the game Ghost Stories.
Contents:
4 Bases
8 Boards
64 Cards
4 Horde Boards
9 Bastion Tiles
4 Enclosure Tiles
15 Figures
47 Tokens
5 Dice
1 Scoresheet
1 Rulebook
1 Power Description Booklet
Ages: 14+
Players: 1-4
Game Length: 45 minutes
Note: Published by Repos Production; distributed by Asmodee North America.
Defend Against the Hordes in Last Bastion: Board Game Review
In Last Bastion you are a group of warriors tasked with defending the castle from an unrelenting horde of monsters. This will be no easy task. Each player can choose one of eight heroes, each with a unique ability designed to help the cause.
The castle is made up of a three by three grid of tiles each with a helpful ability. These abilities range from healing a fallen player to making a certain color monster weaker to removing nasty bastion tokens. Each of these spaces are spots players can move into and around. On the edge of the tiles are the walls where combat can take place.
The turn sequence in Last Bastion has three phases. First, the active player will check to see if their board is overrun or not. If yes, they suffer a specific penalty listed on their board. Then check to see if any monsters have an action to trigger. After that is complete reveal a monster card. It will be one of the main four player colors or black. The card goes onto the matching players’ board except for black. Black must be placed into the active players’ board. If the colored board is full then it goes to the active players’ board or, if also full, a board of choice.
The next phase is to move your hero and to either attack a monster or use one of the tiles. Each tile acts as a space, and you may move one space on your turn. This move, however, can come before or after your action.
The action granted by the tile will vary depending on which one it is. Many of these are useful, especially the one that removes bastion tokens which either corrupt tiles (rendering them unusable) or negate your characters’ special abilities. Also once three tiles are covered by bastion tokens you lose the game.
The other manner in which you lose is once the main nemesis is on the board. If you run through the deck of monsters and the main nemesis is still alive you lose if you have to draw a card and cannot. This definitely puts a priority on keeping the monsters under control.
This is no easy task, unfortunately, but this is the challenge of the game.
I really enjoyed all the upgrades to Ghost Stories. Some things made the game seem easier, yet others balanced it out in a different direction. About halfway through my first playthrough of this newest version and I realized it is just as difficult as the original. Our game started to snowball badly and we lost in the end. But that is a good sign of a cooperative game, because if they are too easy then it’s not as fun.
Winning is much more satisfying if it’s won through grit and determination. Nothing beats that feeling of a narrow victory in the face of defeat.
One thing I will say about this remake. If you already own Ghost Stories then I don’t think it’s very necessary to pick up this version unless you prefer the fantasy style theme over the original, then, sure go for it. But seeing as the original is super hard to come by these days, this is a good option.
If you are up to a challenge then definitely recommend trying Last Bastion. It will make you sweat, that is for sure. I hope you get a chance to check out this fun title.
Last Bastion: $54.99
Get It For Less At Miniature Market
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About the Author: Christopher Guyton
