Miniatures games are popular with many tabletop gamers. However, the rules are either overly simple or incredibly complex. Plus making a 3D landscape on which to play can be time-consuming and even expensive. A new company has stepped into the ring with a way to make miniatures gaming more accessible. Adventure Together has created a gaming system called SOURCE as well as a game using their system called TimeStrike. Both are available as part of their recent Kickstarter campaign.
What Is SOURCE and TimeStrike?
SOURCE is a system of modular components that can be put together and stacked to create a variety of different game spaces for all types of games. TimeStrike is an accessible miniatures wargame and Boss Battle Royale for 2–3 players, though the game is scalable, and more players can be added with multiple sets. It’s currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, with a pledge level of $69 for a copy of the SOURCE Starter, $99 for TimeStrike with the SOURCE Starter, and additional tiers with more tiles, hexes, and even color printed miniatures. SOURCE and TimeStrike were designed by Chris Torres, Nicholas Mastoris, and Anthony Mastoris and published by Adventure Together.
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Source Components
Note: My preview is based on a prototype copy, so it is subject to change and may not reflect final component quality.
The SOURCE Starter set comes with the following:
— 72 Biome hexes
— 36 Tiles
— 18 Blank hexes
— 8 Edges
— 4 24-hexes
— 4 15-hexes
— Carrying case and organizers
The contents of the SOURCE starter set. Image courtesy of Adventure Together.
Let’s consider the various components and their purposes. First, the edges connect together at angles of 60, 90, and 180 degrees. These form the border of your play area and they also feature trays for keeping dice, markers, and other components organized during a game. Once players have determined the size and shape of their play area, they then fill it with hexes which are the primary building blocks. While some are blank, most have artwork made right onto the top of the hexes. This is not painted on or a sticker but actually made into the hexes so they won’t peel or come off with use. There are some larger pieces made up of 15 or 24 hexes as well. The hexes do not connect horizontally with one another. They just sit next to each other with the edges holding them in place. This makes it both quicker to both set up and take down a play area. The hexes can stack and connect vertically to make structures such as walls, hills, and so forth. Tiles are shorter than hexes and can connect to the top of hexes or lie flat on the table. Tiles can represent water, lava, swamps, or even ice. Hexes cannot stack on top of tiles.
Three of the Biome sets. Image courtesy of Adventure Together.
SOURCE lets players choose different themes for their hexes and tiles called Biomes. When purchasing a SOURCE set, you can select from four different Biomes. The Desert Biome comes with water tiles and obsidian, dune, and stone hexes. The Highlands Biome comes with grass, glades, gold, and cobblestone road hexes as well as lava tiles. The Fantasy Forest Biome comes with forest floor, vegetable patch, mushroom patch hexes, and pond and koi pond tiles. The Frozen Tundra biome includes ice tiles with snowy rocks and snow hexes. The campaign also has stretch goals for two additional biomes: 8-Bit and Muddy Battlefield.
TimeStrike comes with the following additional components:
— 11 Character miniatures
— 8 Monster miniatures
— 56 Playing cards
— 9 Character boards
— 100 Markers
— 16 Combat dice
— 2 D20 dice
Samples of the character cards. Image courtesy of Adventure Together.
While I have not had a chance to play TimeStrike, I did read through a draft of the rules. At the start, players use the edges, tiles, and hexes to build the TimeScape. This is the landscape on which they will battle. Players then draft characters to form their teams. In a regular game, each player would draft three characters and take their corresponding miniatures, character boards, and markers. Once the game begins, players take turns performing actions for their characters. These not only include movement and attacking, but they can also mine resources, go fishing, build walls and roads, tame beasts, and more. In addition to the players trying to defeat one another, the giant boss called the Sentience is trying to defeat all of the players and prevent anyone from winning. Some of the monsters, called brutes, have one mountable slot. Once a brute is tamed, a character can be placed in that slot to form a behemoth which unlocks new mechanics for the monster. The Sentience has multiple mountable slots. Characters on the Sentience are safe from attack and the player whose character is the highest on the boss actually gets to control the boss. The boss can even destroy terrain as it moves across the TimeScape. In order to win the game, one player must defeat or tame all of the monsters as well as the other players so only their characters and the boss are the last ones standing. The boss cannot be defeated.
The Sentience has slots where characters can be placed to vie for control of the boss monster. Image courtesy of Adventure Together.
Thoughts about SOURCE and TimeStrike
Before I go any further, readers are probably thinking this looks a lot like HeroScape. I was a big fan of that game and loved playing it with my children. I thought the same thing. I had the opportunity to meet with one of the designers, Nicholas Mastoris, via Zoom and he explained how SOURCE and TimeStrike are quite different. First off, the hexes do not connect. Instead, the edges hold the hexes and tiles together. In fact, Adventure Together has applied for a patent for their design. Second, the quality and durability of the components are better. The gameplay of TimeStrike is also more robust. You can mine resources and then use them to build walls to block enemy attacks or construct roads that allow a character to move the length of the road, even up to higher elevations for only one movement point. Fishing can yield fish which can heal your characters. Characters can improve over the course of the game. Plus there are the Lost, which are the monsters that attack everyone until they are tamed or defeated.
A game of TimeStrike. Image courtesy of Adventure Together.
While I am excited to try TimeStrike, I am also interested in using SOURCE for other games or using it for games of my own creation. Nicholas shared with me that they have plans for expansions to both TimeStrike as well as to SOURCE. For example, they came up with a golf game using the hexes and tiles. This is truly an open-source gaming system. Adventure Together is even planning an app and website where players can upload files for their games using the SOURCE components.
For more information or to make a pledge, visit the SOURCE and TimeStrike Kickstarter page!
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
