Vindication Board Game First Impressions

Vindication sees you washed up, confused and in danger.

Will you vindicate yourself on the way to victory?

Thrown overboard for a life of wretchedness, you wash ashore a hostile island ruins — completely alone with nothing except the breath in your lungs and an undaunted spirit.

Vindication Game Play

This game is fairly in-depth so this will be a brief overview of how the game plays and what you can do. It’s far from comprehensive, but you’ll get a good idea of how the game plays.

Players get a character tile which is guilt-ridden scumbag side up. Everyone gets a journey card that shows them the setup instructions for their character, including which space on the map they washed ashore. Players get 2 secret quests cards, they keep one.

Next to the characters are random region tiles on the board to set up the map and 2 end game trigger cards show how the game could possibly end.

Actions

On a player’s turn, they will carry out 3 actions once each.

Move – up to the character’s current speed level.

Activate a character or Companion – If you activate the character and they aren’t yet vindicated add 1 strength, inspiration or knowledge from your player board to an attribute sphere on the board. If you are vindicated, add 2.

If you activate a Companion, earn any attributes shown on the tile and use their special ability.

Visit a Region or Rest – To visit a region, pick one adjacent location tile and use the ability.

Academy – Roll the attribute die and earn 1 attribute of the rolled icon.
Ancient Tomb – Spend 2 wisdom to gain 1 Trait card with a player power on it.
Arcane Tower – Spend 2 vision to gain a Relic card that gives an ability.
The Inn – Spend matching colour basic attributes to gain 1 Companion card.
Command Post – Spend 3 Strength to upgrade the speed tile to the next level allowing you to move further.
Fort/Holy Spire/Library – Gain 2 of the shown heroic attribute.
Monastery – Spend knowledge to move a cube on your player board right. (More on this in a bit)
Gaping Maw – Spend 2 courage to fight and obtain 1 Monster card.

Fighting

After choosing a Monster to fight, use the Companion card with the lowest number to fight it. The Companion always wins, but you roll the die to see what happens:
Blank – Nothing
Faded Circle – Add 2 influence cubes to this Companion due to fatigue.
Skull – Death!

To rest, take 1 cube on your player board and move it one sphere to the right. This is important as cubes in the left sphere are ‘Potential’ and are currently unusable and those on the right are ‘Conviction’ and can be used for special actions. Those in the middle, Influence, are used for most actions.

Some of the more interesting bonus actions are:

Convert Heroic Attributes, changing 2 adjacent basic attributes into 1 heroic attribute.
Gain control of a region, meaning players gain a point when another player uses it.
Vindicate yourself, once the conditions are met.

Game End

As players reach the 30, 45, 60 and 75 point spaces on the score track, a new end-game trigger is added. Whenever 1 of the end-game conditions is met, the current round ends and then each player will get 1 more turn.

For each of the 6 attributes. give the related Mastery tile to the player who has the most, these are worth points. Score points from Monster, Trait, Relic, or Companion cards as well as secret quest cards. Score 2 points for each region you control and the player with the most points is the winner.

Theme

It’s an interesting theme. It’s weird and fantastical and a bit dark. I know you wash up on this island but I don’t know why or who you are or if this is an alien or familiar place.

Setup

There are piles of cards around the boards and things here and there, nothing too bad. The tiles on the board come out as they are explored so you don’t have to do all that at once.

Players get a nice little container with all their pieces, I always like that in a game.

Components & Artwork

The components are very nice. I know the version I played was a Kickstarter edition so I have no idea what the retail version looks like. I doubt the metal coins and metal player pieces are retail but they are a minor part anyway.

Ease of Teaching

Once you get your head around it it is a very simple game to play. There are a lot of different things going on and as you play it all starts to make sense. You then start to get your strategy in place.

Having secret goals always helps, giving players something to focus on even if they still feel overwhelmed at the start.

Vindication Summary

This game reminded me of my 2021 game of the year, Destinies more than anything. That has more hidden stuff and is more of an exploration story-driven game than Vindication but it’s the closest I have!

There is a lot of stuff going on but it does all work together well. Once you know how to get cubes to where they need to be so you can move them into their final position you’re good. From there you can start to build to score points and complete your goals.

I really like the mechanism where once certain point totals have been triggered a new end game condition appears. This stops the game from dragging which I think COULD happen once the entire board is fully explored. By that point, you’re well on your way to achieving any goals you have set.

If you like this sort of euro-esque style game then you’ll like Vindication. It’s fully deterministic EXCEPT for the die you roll for combat. But, combat should always include a bit of randomness in my opinion.

Jesta ThaRogue