Heroes of Land, Air & Sea – the next game from Tiny Epic designer Scott Almes – isn’t so tiny

Scott Almes, the brains behind Tiny Epic instalments Galaxies, Kingdoms and Western, is back with a new 4X project – and this time it’s less tiny, more epic.

Heroes of Land, Air & Sea takes place in a fantasy world spanning a huge 39-by-26-inch (that’s bigger than three-by-two-feet) game board.

Occupying the board are 80 miniatures split across four factions of humans, orcs, dwarves and elves. In a fun physical twist, the figures can hop on board 3D sea ships and flying air machines built out of cardboard to navigate around the globe. Players can also build up their home base with new levels of their capital city and towers, also made out of cardboard structures.

Mechanics-wise, players make use of two actions each turn to explore and do battle, gather resources and build structures, allowing them to recruit new heroes and improve their warriors’ skills. Players will also be able to cast spells for additional effects and potential game-changing results.

Combat takes place without the element of luck, utilising the strength value of a player’s army bolstered by a tactic card, not unlike the system seen in Scythe.

Games are said to resolve in around two hours, with the extermination of a player or exhaustion of the exploration tokens leading to a comparison of amassed victory points to crown a victor.

The Heroes of Land, Air & Sea core box can be played up to four players, but Almes says that six players can be supported with additional faction packs in the future.

The base set is $100 (£80), plus $20 (£16) postage to the UK, with a deluxe $125 (£100) pack adding pre-painted miniatures. Release is planned for March 2018.

At the time of writing, the Kickstarter has already smashed its $100,000 (£79,700) goal by raising over $161,000 (£128,318) with just under a month left to go. The campaign closes on February 25th.