Stats:
No. of players: 1-6
Amount of time to play: 10 min
Age requirements: 7+
Set-up time: minimal-5 min (depending on playing mode)

Stak Bots is a robot-fighting, card game. You have a stack of cards with robots on them. If your stack is the last one standing, you win!

Stak Bots Rules Description:

Stak Bots can be played in several different ways. The basic game starts with each player having a stack of nine face-down cards. Then you deal them two cards for their hand. The leftover cards form a draw deck.

To begin the game you flip over the top card of your stack. Some cards have entry effects that trigger when they are played from your hand or flipped face-up on your stack. If any of the first cards have entry effects they trigger in player order.

On your turn, as many times as you like, you may play cards from your hand, scrap (discard) cards from your stack or hand and attack with the top card of your stack. The trick with attacking is that only one card may attack per turn. Also before the end of your turn, at least one card from any player must go to the scrapheap (discard pile).

Each card shows the bots power, rank and any entry effects or special abilities it has. When you attack or defend your power represents your bots health. Your bot will not heal until the end of the turn but always does the same damage no matter how hurt it is. So that means my power 4 bot can attack your power 1 bot and then follow up on the freshly flipped over power 2 bot. It can then stop attacking and heal.

Things aren’t that simple though. Most there are 16 different bots in the game and 15 of them have an entry effect or a special ability. Some scrap cards in your stack when they damage a card, others move cards down in your stack and some remove a top card automatically when played or attacking. Cards range in power from zero to seven and cards with lower power may have more powerful entry effects.

A card’s rank is only used in ranked games. In ranked games you evenly split each rank to create a deck for each player that is more balanced. This is just one of several ways you can change and tweak Stak Bots. There is a team variant, a quick-play variant, and even an x-ray variant where all cards start face-up. You can even find a solo mode online.

And in case the variant play modes don’t offer you enough variety and replay value, there are toggles. Toggles game the gameplay slightly and you may play with as many or as little as you wish. You can play with more or less than nine cards in your starting stack, increase the number of cards that must go to the scrapheap each turn or react to attacks by playing cards from your hand.

At the end of the day no matter how you choose to play Stak Bots, the last player with bots in his stack wins!

Quick Review of Stak Bots:

Stak Bots is a quick, fun card game that can be enjoyed by a variety ages. It is easy to teach and learn and very portable. Plus all the different play modes keep this game fresh.

The art on the cards is simple. It is so simple, it is great. The bots are cute and the illustrations are fun. The rules are well-written an easy read too. The card backs are black and I am interested to see how well they hold up. So far mine are fine but part of me feels this might be a card game you want to sleeve.

The best thing about Stak Bots is the chains that occur when cards are scraped and new ones are flipped over. It is fun to see what is coming next and you will sometimes scrap a card on the top of your stack hoping for a card with an entry effect that scraps your opponent’s top card.

As I said above the variety that comes in this one deck is great. With all the modes in the rules (plus more online) it is like having a few games in a single deck of cards. There are more variants and toggles in the rules then the ones I mentioned above. The creator even encourages you to play how you like and make up your own mini-games.

I do kind of wish the game had a method to track a card’s health. It is not too hard but can sometimes be a chore to remember. It does get easier to remember once you get the flow of the game and an actual health tracker might be too fiddly. Also be warned this game is pretty random.

Stak Bots is a hidden gem that you really should check out. It is a great filler for game nights and fun for families. They have a youtube channel that explains the basic gameplay and variants. You should look it over if the game interests you or just go buy it at the Stak Bots website. Also look for an iOS version of the game that will be available soon.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 2 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6