Omen Review – Clowdus With A Chance of Bloodshed
Debuting in 2011, designer John Clowdus’ oeuvre since has been defined and in some ways overshadowed by Omen: A Reign of War, revisited numerous times in a Knizian fashion with the most recent the definitive version of the system. Ostensibly a two-player ‘lane battler’, Omen’s design synthesises elements of Magic: The Gathering, capturing agonising decisions and tempo in such a way that belies its restrained card pool. Clowdus himself has often stated he feels that he has designed better titles, but none that have quite caught on or reclaimed their relevance like Omen. It feels somewhat redundant even reviewing the game given the amount of attention it has received from one Dan Thurot, whose writing tends to be much richer and more economical than my own, but such is the draw of Omen and the way it stays with me long after the cards are packed away.
A head-to-head only affair, Omen will feel familiar to anybody who has played Schotten Totten or some of its contemporaries like Riftforce, Air, Land & Sea, Compile or Marvel Snap. The play space contains three ‘lanes’, each representing an ancient Greek city players are contesting. Dividing each lane are a stack of Kraters, cards which are claimed by victorious players that contribute points to their end-game score or can be ‘broken’ for a powerful effect while halving their point value – unlike Magic, players aren’t trying to reduce their foe’s lifepoints to zero but instead accrue more points to claim victory. Eliminating your foe is simple; ensuring you do it in such a way that they don’t take a points victory at end-game is much trickier. Omen is characterised by three things to me; a rigid phase system, keywords and agonising decisions from the very get-go. Let’s take the Wealth Step for example; often the first decision of the game, the player has three ‘wealth actions’ which allow them to take either coins or cards– unless they choose to focus solely on one action, in which case they receive a bonus in the form of an extra card or coin. More than once have I agonised over such a decision, because the ramifications can be of utmost importance; turns can live or die on a single card or coin.
Both players drawing from a single 22-66 card deck allows for some fantastic meta-aspects to emerge as familiarity with the cards factors into strategy, in the same way card-counting allows a gambler to make more educated decisions. Early games can feel somewhat random, a strong draw at the right time leading to a hollow victory that feels unearned. But a few more games under the belt shows cascading effects, early decisions coming back to reward or bite you, a well-timed Krater break turning the tables completely. Omen is a game that I find joy in even when losing. Seeing how another player is able to outmanoeuvre or outplay me is exciting, and for me that’s a testament to the design – I’ve played far too many other games that feel miserable when you aren’t doing well.
Omen is a phase-y game, something it shares with many of its designers’ other works. This might be a thing I’m drawn to, as designers’ whose work I greatly admire like Ode (La Granja and Cooper Island) I would similarly describe as ‘structural’ and rigidly so – almost like a recipe, each phase and step laid out making the proceedings far more manageable. But it comes at the cost of a cavalcade of Proper Noun Phases and Keywords; Surge, Portent, Offering, War, Wealth, Barter, Glean, Myriad, Coveted, Triumph, Jilt, etc. This is a barrier that divides those with and without TCG experience, because in my experience MtG fans take to Omen like a duck to water thanks to an abundance of exposure to stacked card effects and turn steps.
Unlike the tit-for-tat of Schotten Totten, AL&S or Compile, Omen lets players take as many actions as they can afford during their ‘Surge Step’, with some big swings and combo chains occurring as a result. This is the stuff that tickles my brain, the low level mathing out of possibilities and weighing up how badly I need to Offer up my last card in hand for some more coins or card draw for my next turn. Going through each Phase can feel like a chore the first few games, in no small part thanks to the ‘thematic’ terms used, ensuring the included Player Aids and Keyword cards will stay out for several games – the latter probably indefinitely in my case. The ‘Portent Step’ is a little bit of tableau/engine building with effects that trigger in any order, while the ‘War Step’, in which combat actually takes place, is fairly calculated and will expel all but one of the winners combatants while allowing the loser to leave two units, a mechanical decision that helps balance out play. Finally, Offering – sacrificing a card in hand to gain wealth or card draw, losing out on playing the offered card and in some cases giving it up to the opposition shortly therafter – a ‘Cursed’ card being offered also has the added benefit of destroying an opposing unit though and could be the difference between a War step being triggered or not. There’s a sentiment that when boiled down, all games are essentially ‘auction games’ – what is our value judgment of each opportunity presented to us? From this lens, Clowdus’ games are some of my favourite auction titles, right up there with the Good Dr. himself. As a result of this confluence of mechanics and design finesse, Omen can be as casual or deep as the players wish, occasionally approaching the fabled CCG/TCG in a box, at least in limited formats with drafting taking place. Personally, I prefer the much looser feel of the single shared draw deck to get in as many reps as possible, besides the fact that trying to introduce a game to anyone via drafting is the ultimate shitheel move. In this way, there’s likely a huge portion of Omen I’ll never appreciate as much as some players, but perhaps I’ll get there with the right opponent.
Aaron Nakamura’s art across the entire Omen series has always stood out in previous iterations, but there’s no denying that layout and wording on cards has improved over time in tandem with a refining of rules that are often so subtle it throws me off when jumping between editions. The Fires/Edge combo from Kolossal as an example has a slightly different end-game trigger that I’ve had to recheck that section of the rulebook more than once when going back to it from Songs of the Far Shore et al. Ah yes, the newest wave of Omen games don’t quite use the Omen moniker to its full effect and as a consequence are tricky to find on BGG. Before you rush to BoardGameOracle or your favourite FLGS, there’s a slight elephant in the room: availability, the Achilles heel of strong designs like Hemloch: Dark Promenade, In the Shadow of Atlas and Pariahs that John has released in recent years. What’s the best way to get your hands on Omen? Well, the tough answer is to already have been into it and managed to jump into a crowdfunding campaign, especially those like myself living outside the US. Through his website, Small Box Games, Clowdus has offered the Omega Edition of Omen for free, forever – simply download the files, grab some old Magic cards, get printing and sleeving. The Kolossal edition, somewhat bloated even as a fan of the material, is also on occasion an economical entry point although it is also disappearing from retail availability – Fires in the East and Edge of the Aegean make a great combo and were a precursor to the future of the series once Clowdus regained the rights to Omen from Kolossal. For the definitive experience you’ll need to order the latest set of decks, currently sitting at five entries, which can be mixed and matched to some wild results. Available through Drive Thru Cards for the reasonable price of $13US per set, postage may sting quite a bit for non-US citizens and therefore paying $2USD per set to Print and Play your own copy is the far more economical route.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m pretty biased when it comes to Omen – it occupies a space on the Venn diagram of ‘gamer cred’ where its gameplay is unique and the game itself is hard enough to acquire that seeing it on a shelf suggests a person isn’t just some normie card gamer; this is a true connoisseur, someone who likely has some Carl Chudyk tucked away and decries the poor attempts at imitating the great Tom Lehmann from some modern designs. But I also want it to succeed far more than it has and become more ubiquitous across the hobby, as well as see other Small Box Games sitting on shelves in game stores alongside Allplay’s Tiny Box series or Regicide decks, showing players the ambitious things that can be done with just a deck of cards.
