Slings & Arrows [Micro] – What’s Eric Playing?

Base price: $40.
2 – 4 players.
play time: 20 – 40 minutes.
BGG Link
Buy on Amazon (via What’s Eric Playing?)
Logged plays: 2

Full disclosure: A review copy of Unmatched: Slings & Arrows was provided by Restoration games.

Oh, yeah, Unmatched. I love these games, but my frequent game partner did not care for them, so we ended up not playing Unmatched that often since he was my usual for two-player competitive games. Other groups for other things and all that. Not a dig at the series; I think he just didn’t like “Direct Combat” games, so there’s not much you can do to change someone’s mind even if the game itself is good. And I’ve liked Unmatched sets before, so you can loosely assume my opinion of the sets are “good”, unless stated otherwise. This new one’s got a bunch of Shakespeare characters in it, though, so let’s check out Slings and Arrows!

In Unmatched: Slings and Arrows, players take on the role of the legendary bard Shakespeare or one of his most (?) famous creations. Do you seek to twist fate and fortune to your ends as the Wayward Sisters? Do you want to carry on with a song amidst the moonlit night as Titania and Oberon? Or do you just want to be really sad all the time and whine to the skull of some dead guy from your childhood, like Hamlet? He’s got a lot going on. No better way to settle who’s best than an old-fashioned fight, though! So use your skills, use your head, and take out your opponent’s Hero before you get downed. Will you rise to the top as champion? Or will works be made celebrating your defeat?

Overall: 8.5 / 10

Overall, I continue to be a huge fan of Unmatched, and Slings & Arrows is a fantastic set. I honestly would never have believed that William Shakespeare could go up against any of his creations (or any other characters in the series), but the decks all feel well-balanced and fun to play with their own unique challenges and strengths. For one, I love the character design. It’s always been good, but the sculpts here are particularly excellent. Special call-out to Hamlet and the Yorick Skull he’s holding; it really makes me want to consider getting into mini painting. Titania is another inspired sculpt. I do wish the Wayward Sisters came marked a bit more clearly, but them’s the breaks. I didn’t realize that Weyward, Wayward, and Weird are all potential terms for the sisters, since they were pronounced pretty similarly in Shakespeare’s time, so I also learned something! My AP Lit teacher would be proud. Each character is also delightful to play! You get to have a cauldron and mix ingredients to cast spells with the Wayward Sisters, Hamlet gets to choose whether he wants To Be or Not To Be (and some of his cards punish opponents for their indecision when they use Versatile cards!), Titania and Oberon are both dummy hot and their Glamours have very useful effects, and Shakespeare himself wields his ultimate weapon: iambic pentameter! Thank God the cards are marked with how many syllables their titles are; I’d’ve been screwed otherwise. I wouldn’t call the characters inherently more complex; they just have thematically-relevant abilities that are quite fun and fit in nicely with the rest of the Unmatched Family. I’m excited to see Sherlock’s powers of deduction against Shakespeare’s iambs. I also have to mention the art; it’s always fantastic, but it was particularly excellent in this set, and the game is better for it.

There are a few drawbacks, but they’re largely minimal. This is, of the Unmatched sets I’ve played, the one with the most extra “stuff” (cauldron, To Be / Not to Be board, Glamour Deck), so it can be easier for things to be a bit more challenging to see during the game. For instance, I played against the Wayward Sisters and still don’t entirely know what their cauldron can do, largely because the text on it was harder to read. I know Unmatched has been going more and more single-map boards, but I would have loved to see a board based on a Shakespeare play that wasn’t included, like Verona or Venice or Othellotown (I never read Othello but I love tricolon). I wouldn’t call these much more than the occasional distraction, though, and I actually like the Globe Theater map a lot. There’s a lot to do but still a bunch of fun spots in it.

Unmatched has developed a pretty loyal following, and that doesn’t surprise me; the game itself is fun enough and simple enough that it’s pretty easy to pick up and play. I would be interested in seeing if there are more literature character sets that can get made, though. I just think they’re fun. Are people going to play this in their Literature classes? Unlikely, even if you add Ophelia or Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse-Five, though I think you could get a lot of people excited about beating up The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield. A lot of people. Unmatched continues to explore the edges and frontiers of adaptability, and I particularly like that contest winners got incorporated into this set; it feels like a nice way to develop new talent and reward some of the game’s most die-hard fans. In the meantime, though, if you’re looking for more Unmatched, you want to slam down some iambic pentameter, or you just like good art and solid gameplay, I’d definitely recommend checking out Unmatched: Slings and Arrows! It’s quite fun.

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