Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 30-45 min
Age requirements: 6+
Set-up time: 5 min

LOKA is a chess variant with great looking miniatures. The board is a different shape and dice determine whether you capture your opponent’s piece.

LOKA Rules Description:

LOKA is team game that is played on a cross-shaped board. Your teammate sits across from you and your team wins when both enemy kings are dead.

All the familiar chess pieces are included and move as you would expect. However there is castling or en-passant though.

To start LOKA you randomly choose and place four pieces of terrain. Most terrain gives a defensive boost and can only be moved through by one type of piece (ie knights).

Then each player takes turns placing one piece in their back row. You must place your king first. Then you may place any piece besides your pawns. Your pawns are placed last and must start in the second or third row from your edge.

When capturing an opponent’s piece you both roll a die. The die you roll is based on a few details but starts as a d4. Each player has the ability to boost the die all the way up to a d20. The attacker automatically gets one boost. If your piece is of a higher rank (queen > rook > bishop > knight > pawn > king) you boost the die again. Then for each piece that you or your teammate has that can also attack the figure you get another boost. This also helps the defender. Any friendly piece that could move into the defender’s space gives it one boost too.

After rolling the attacker captures the defender if they have the higher roll. If either piece rolls a 1 they are removed from the board.

When you capture both enemy kings the game is over.

Quick Review of LOKA:

LOKA looks really good. The miniatures are sculpted well and the board looks cool. The game play is a bit random and I have to admit to not being a huge chess fan.

The rules are decent for the most part but a bit fuzzy in some areas. Magic Portals are a terrain that allows instant travel between them. But there is mention of pawns attacking through them and that needs some clarification.

I like how you can boost your chances and manage risk for captures and defense. But be warned it can lead to analysis paralysis for some players.

Some variants are listed in the rulebook. And you can even play normal chess by flipping the board over. And it is nice the rules are modular. Play with the ones you like.

There is also a point buy system that lets you make custom armies. Unfortunately the pieces in the box don’t allow for much modification. You can buy additional pieces, but it would be nice to have some ability to customize things right out of the box.

LOKA is a good game, but not entirely for me. As I said I am not a big chess fan and some of my friends that are purists thought this was too random. So I would say LOKA is a try before you buy type game. Some will enjoy it but you’ll want to know if that is you before you pick it up.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 3 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 3 out of 6
Overall 3 out of 6