The Tyrant Queen has seized the throne, eliminating the land’s monarchs and sending their rightful heirs deep into exile. Her rule is oppressive, The Realms lay divided, their former wonder lost and forgotten. As the sons and daughters of the once-great houses, you have gathered your followers, your conscripts, and your army. The time has come to take back what is yours!

Path of Light and Shadow is a massive empire-building experience, combining area control, deck management, and civilization customization. As players vie to rule The Realms, they must enlist and promote supporters, outfit their burgeoning empire with powerful technologies, align with persuasive leaders, and lay siege to their rivals after the throne. Above all else, each player must decide what type of leader they will become, cruel or merciful. But, choose wisely, for each path has its rewards and perils.

Path of Light and Shadow comes to us from Nick Little, Travis R. Chance, and Jonathan Gilmour, the talents behind the popular games Dead of Winter, Dinosaur Island, and Heroes Wanted. Path of Light and Shadow is beautifully illustrated by Beth Sobel, (Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, World’s Fair 1893, Viticulture) bringing to life the factions that will battle for control of each realm.

Path of Light and Shadow is a game of conquest and empire-building, but not one that relies on controlling numerous units and armies on the board. You will only ever have your leader miniature in play, moving across the provinces of the four realms. Custom plastic buildings represent the fluctuating defenses (and value) of these provinces during the game. To control a province, you must conquer it. To advance your empire, you must promote your troops and build structures to gain access to powerful abilities.

Path introduces an interesting mortality mechanism. Players will choose whether they want to be cruel or merciful leaders. There are great rewards for both choices and a few ways to gain cruelty and mercy. Additionally, within both moral directions there are several different strategies that players can explore.

At the start of each game, each player begins with a unique advisor.  Advisors are non-faction specific and cannot be promoted. Mechanically, they provide the player with slight asymmetry in the form of a unique ability. These abilities will often help players to develop an early strategy. Once players choose their starting location, they will recruit two cards from the corresponding deck.

Speaking of deckbuilding, don’t think of it as deck-building; think of it as deck management. Although the players don’t know fully what cards they’ll be recruiting, they’ll have three options as to what they will do with the cards after they have been recruited. The cards can be culled, promoted, or left in the deck. When you cull a card, it is permanently removed and you gain cruelty for removing members of your nation so mercilessly. When you promote a card, it becomes a more powerful version of itself. Each faction has three basic unit cards, each of which can be promoted into an elite unit, and finally a single unique legend. Even the basic cards are useful for the myriad options each turn, but players must choose how to best utilize these supporters.

One of the most important strategies to increasing the power of your empire is the build action, which can unlock powerful abilities, marked on your player mat, that can be used for the rest of the game. You will need to play cards for their labor values to build the structures that grant these abilities. The more powerful the ability, the more labor it costs to build. Additionally, the structures are separated by faction and require support from that faction to erect.

Another important action is conquering. When a player attempts to conquer a province, they play any number of cards for their strength value. The player adds the strength of all the units played except the unit with the highest strength. This unit, instead, rolls custom combat dice equal to its strength, creating an elegant combination of luck and determination.

Path of Light and Shadow is a deep, complex game – with only 12 turns you’ll never be able to take all the build, promote, and conquer actions you’d like.  The winner is the player that can best adapt their strategies to the evolving landscape – building their advantages when able and striking when the opportunity exists.  If this type of empire building game tickles your fancies, look for Path to arrive in your FLGS this November.