The Spoils: Gloamspike’s Revenge
Gloamspike’s Revenge is the second expansion for The Spoils trading card game developed by Arcane Tinmen.
By Aaron T. Huss
If you need a filler between game sessions or to pass the time before the last players arrive, check-out The Spoils from Arcane Tinmen. With great sci-fi fantasy flavor, fantastic art, and tongue-in-cheek humor, it’s a good fit for role-players who enjoy the occasional card game.
Gloamspike’s Revenge is the second Seed expansion for The Spoils with a underlying storyline driving the card types. It was put on hiatus when sponsorship problems occurred with Tenacious Games but completed and released by Arcane Tinmen as their revitalization of the game. It is half the size of the first Seed expansion and some of the cards appear to be unfinished. However, it still follows suit with the rest of the system and brings new options and mechanics to the game.
The power of this expansion lies withing the mechanics offered for the various new cards for each trade, as noted below. While incorporating more characters, there is a large offering of tactics to enhance overall game-play.
ARCANIST
The Arcanist cards brings in two lines of characters: Monstrosity and Wizard. This is along the same lines as already available characters and blends well with the the look and feel of the trade. The new characters themselves are quite the variety considering cost and stats. Each one contains great new mechanics and some new keyword abilities to add a little flavor. An even better addition to the trade, however, are the number of new tactics and items introduced. There are a good number of tactics and some great low cost items. This can be very valuable to game-play as it allows the player to react in new ways according to how their opponent is playing.
BANKER
Following the storyline of Gloamspike’s Revenge, the new Banker character cards all appear to be Mau. While this coincides with the trade and all previously released characters, I would prefer to see new character types brought into the trade. Each one is fairly standard with the rest of the Banker trade but do carry some good mechanics. The new tactics are mostly higher cost and could benefit from more low coast tactics. However, these mechanics are good as well and still add value.
GEARSMITH
The Gearsmith cards are very typical of previous Gearsmith cards; a blend of elf (31F), golem and crafsman characters. These ones are generally higher cost but also carry good mechanics. There are few tactics being added to the system but the items take a different direction. Previous Gearsmith tactics concentrated heavily on stat enhancement, these ones are more mechanic driven giving new options to Gearsmith players. I like this direction and hope its expanded upon with future releases.
ROGUE
The Rogue cards continue their “criminalistic” feel, which is great for the Rogue theme, and contains multiple types that are mostly higher cost. These ones have lots of mechanics on them and could make for some interesting game-play. The Rogue set is better enhanced with the low-cost tactics and items. The tactics are fairly Warlord-like adding more strength to the Rogue trade and the item selection is fairly decent.
WARLORD
The Warlord cards are fairly standard Warlord cards. Additional characters include dragons, soldiers and a couple others and there is a definite variety for cost and stats. The new tactics are great being low cost and carrying good mechanics with items that follow the fairly standard Warlord style.
OVERALL
Overall this is a good, small, themed expansion set. Sometimes it’s difficult to design expansions without simply repeating the same cards already available. The incorporation of lots of new mechanics and a themed storyline make for a well-designed expansion with plenty of game-play options.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 9 out of 10
The Spoils has some of the best artwork in the industry. Gloamspike’s Revenge continues this tradition with extensive illustrations containing detailed backgrounds and great coloring. I’m not a big fan of the “rune-like” encoded letters in the flavor text. While it could bring players to the website, sometimes the tongue-in-cheek flavor text of the game is something that makes it that much more fun to play.
Mechanics: 10 out of 10
One thing that stands out about the card mechanics is the lack of new mechanics and the abundance of great uses for current mechanics. This means players do not need to learn new game rules but rather find new ways to utilize those that already exist. I especially like the introduction of new mechanics on the tactic and item cards along with the number of characters exhibiting similar features.
Value Add: 8 out of 10
While this set is a great themed addition, the cards themselves are fairly standard with only a few things really standing out. Children of the Lingamorph introduced new resource cards which really add value to the expansion, but Gloamspike’s Revenge generally lacks any of those “gotta have” items. That doesn’t mean the expansion lacks value, it means that the value lies within the variety of new cards presented giving greater flexibility to one’s deck during game-play.
Overall: 9 out of 10
While not being new, considering its original release date, The Spoils is a growing game system with loads of potential. Gloamspike’s Revenge helps to further that growth, especially with the addition of a themed storyline tying the majority of the cards together. I like the themed expansion concept and would love to see more of it but incorporating more support and location cards without flooding a player with more character cards. This is a great expansion and addition to The Spoils product catalog and I look forward to continuing releases.
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