Nikola Tesla and Penguins Join Forces in King of Tokyo: Duel | BoardGameGeek News

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As I noted in June 2024, French publisher IELLO will debut Richard Garfield‘s King of Tokyo: Duel at SPIEL Essen 24 in October, with the game hitting retail shortly afterward.

To tease this upcoming release, IELLO has passed along three cards in the game for me to reveal, starting with:

Too cute! Baby Gigazaur is back…at least on this card.

While King of Tokyo can be played as a two-player game, I don’t recall ever doing so because that would have rendered pointless one of its main draws: Planting your monster in Tokyo, and hitting everyone else at the table at the same time. Even with only three players, King of Tokyo can give you the feeling of fighting the world, with momentary breaks in the corner to recuperate before you storm Tokyo again.

King of Tokyo: Duel, as you might expect, does away with the “king of the hill” aspect of gameplay to have two players go head-to-head. I don’t have to track the status of multiple players to see who’s the biggest or most immediate threat; I only have to worry about you, so I can focus my efforts along whatever path is mostly likely to bring me to victory.

“Too Cute” is a one-shot effect that allows me to convert energy into damage. Maybe it will let me finish you off, despite not rolling claws, or maybe it will just push you close to dying so that you’re forced to shoot for hearts on your next roll instead of doing what you’d like to do.

Power cards are another thing to track in King of Tokyo. Who has which cards, and is someone a threat to what I’m doing because of what they have?

And yet…it can be hard to target an opponent with a potentially devastating or game-winning card. If neither of you are in Tokyo, then you can’t attack them except with other power cards, so you have little opportunity to push them out of the game.

In King of Tokyo: Duel, you can more easily track which cards your opponent has and how they might help that player to victory, whether on their own or in combination with other cards — and “Tesla Impulse” lets you attack that player’s position directly.

What’s more, the card comes with an energy rebate to prep you for the next power card purchase. I’ve now played King of Tokyo: Duel six times on a review copy from IELLO, and I’ve noticed these rebates on a few cards. On top of this, you automatically receive one energy in the “Buying cards” phase of the game if you don’t buy any cards. That constant flow of energy — thanks, Nikola! — brings more cards into play, varying the experience of play from one game to the next.

But what’s with the crying penguin?

Instead of playing “king of the hill”, in King of Tokyo: Duel you are playing tug of war, trying to pull fame and destruction tokens along tracks to your edge of the game board. Any power card that features a monster icon give you a bonus “buzz” token when you acquire that card, and you place that buzz token on one of the tracks, sometimes lengthening that track, sometimes shortening it, but most often you add symbols to that track — energy, a bonus die, a claw — and whoever moves a token onto that symbol uses it immediately.

“Unchained” lets you modify what’s on those buzz tokens. If you want energy or a bonus die, you can still get that, but if you just want to punch someone in the face, you can do that instead. Options are good, yes?

You might notice that two of these cards show a space penguin. If a buzz token is on a track, then someone acquires a new power card featuring that monster’s icon, that player can re-position that buzz token on one of the tracks…as long as it’s not occupied by the fame or destruction token.

In addition to varying gameplay, the buzz tokens interweave the victory conditions. Yes, you’re advancing on one of the tracks, which is good on its own, but you’re can get bonuses at the same time, giving you a two-fisted assault on your opponent’s chances.

I’ll post a full preview of King of Tokyo: Duel on Monday, August 26, 2024.