The Mesol War

“If we do not die for what we believe in, we’ll live under their rules and for what they believe in, and they believe us to be less than them,”

- Tes’Gurak Bloodbringer

The Mesol War is our attempt to make a cheaper alternative to table-top games. I’ve enjoyed many table-top games in my life and played a considerable amount of Warhammer when I was younger. The joke in the community is bankruptcy is definitive if one is to enjoy the hobby and that you can always find a bit more cash for that new mini-figure that you’ve been wanting for a long, long time.

The Mesol War has done away with the plastic. I know that it’s a major part of tabletop games for people and I’ve loved painting mini-figures over the years, but it just did not feel right for The Mesol War. We want content to be our biggest priority with this game and providing the most amount of game to people. When choosing between mini-figures for the generals and having forty envelopes of content to unlock, we knew we simply had to go with the content.

What’s different?

We’ve changed armies from being comprised of many units on a board to it simply being a general on the map and the armies are moved to a “general board”. This allows us to expand on the game and allow for the player to build many armies and create an overarching strategy in order to win the game.

Another change we’ve made is the removal of dice and we’ve instead made combat decks. This allows players to refine and upgrade their decks throughout the game, making their armies more specialised and stronger. Armies and generals are also not permanent to an army, meaning that if you lose an army, you can swap things around and change things within the same game. Each faction has a unique set of units, generals and combat deck, so what might be a strong strategy for one faction isn’t guaranteed to be a strong strategy for another.

Choose Your Faction

The Empire

Powerful. Unique Building Requirements. Diverse.
The Empire’s power is unrivalled. Their resources unmatched. Assembling this power however is a slow process and our vast empire is antiquated, leading to infighting, but no matter, our strong ally of Meturaz and our powerful duchy of Eranith can bear the brunt of he fighting until we are ready to sweep across Xelon and claim its lands for our own.
"We are the Empire, we do not shudder in the shadow of the dead Mesol Empires," - Espis Flamus

the Empire
The Duchy of Eranith

Resilient. Industrious. Jack of all trades.
The Empire brought us into this stupid war and it’s too late to do anything now. They will be slow to prepare and support us and so we are alone to hold off the Cul’Furazens and support our allies in Grandur. Could be worse, I suppose. At least Meturaz’s roaring navy has declared for our side.
"We either bleed together, or we die alone," - Eric Wight

Eranith
The Archduchy of Meturaz

Wealthy. Opportunistic. Naval.
We didn’t have to fight, but that’s not who we are. We are not those who sit idly by. The Empire is weak and thinks the world is theirs for the taking. Eranith is a shadow of Cyndor’s realm. Cul’Furaz is blinded by religion. Tandani is fixed in their old ways and Mekka’Tuska is so rotten that they are ready to fall apart. We simply must build. Build and inherit the world. It’s ours if we just take it.
"If we were not meant to sail, then why would the Gods make the sea?" - Braxin Brixtun

Meturaz
Grandish Thorns

Auctioneer. Unique Mechanics. Martial.
Betrayed by our own. Great nations die when brother turns on brother and I fear for Grandur after such a war. Oh, Casurius, I love you, but do not for a moment mistake that for weakness. My duty comes first and I’ll slay you bfore I fail them.
“Be careful to grab the rose, or you shall prick the thorns,” - Valnurrian Sangrus

Grandish Thorns
Kingdom of Cul'Furaz

Aggressive. Disruptive. Martial.
How long must I carve away parts of our land to appease this tyrant? How much must I give? The humans do not understand, but we have faced worse than them and our kingdom still stands. I cannot forsake the pacts of the Teldorai and I cannot give them anything more. Espis is all-consuming and we must stand before there is nothing left.
“You enjoy the blossoms because they are temporary. If they were every day, you’d hate clearing the garden,” - Tes’Gurak Bloodbringer

Cul'Furaz
The Twin Kingdoms of Mekka'Tuska

Defensive. Supply Master. Tuskan Treasures.
The greatest deception a nation can play on its enemies is to look weak when it is not. We are the ones who wait. We are the flicker of sand in the corner of your eye or the leaf that falls in the forest. While other players danced on the stage, we were quiet, we waited and we grew strong. The Empire thinks it is fighting sick birds, they do not know the Southern Raven is mighty and is ready to block out the sun.
“Do not be so eager to strike that you do not even know what target you must hit,” - Daevisa Tuska

Mekka'Tuska
The Kingdom of Tandani

Naval. Diverse. Disruptive.
The sea is ours. Xefulon gifted it to us. These serpent-worshipping apes have tried to steal it from us. We must amass the armada and drown their ships beneath the waves. We must restore our raiding colonies on the Elornian cost and restore ourselves to our former glory.
“Drum and let the rowers heartbeats match them,” - One-Eye

Tandani
Grandish Thistles

Auctioneer. Disruptive. Strategically Key.
My brother’s religious ways have blinded him. He wants to turn our nation into a cult and pray daily to the sand gods. We are the key channel between the north and south. We have the major ports on the west coast. Why do we pray to gods for our wisdom and strength when it’s there for the taking?
“Yes, let us ask the Gods to feed our people and not the farmers in the field,” - Casurius Sangrus

Grandish Thistles

Build your army

Each army is built with one general and 5 units. Different units give different synergies with other units and fulfil different niches. Each faction also has a unique combat deck, meaning that factions are naturally drawn to some units than others.

General types as written on the General card, in this case Eric Wight, allow for upgrades and changes to this combat deck, allowing you to mix up your composition and remove some weaknesses or reinforce some strengths.

As players play the game, they’ll unlock new units, new generals and new mechanics, giving them new choices for deck-building.

Each unit has unit tags, an attack type, an upkeep cost and an ability. Balancing the best army you can have with the amount of upkeep it costs is paramount to success.

Drafting

Each turn, a new season starts and with it, players choose new actions. The actions are from a shared mutual pool and so players will be both choosing actions that most benefit them and actions that most stifle their opponents.

Each season has bonuses or weaknesses for each of the three actions, so certain factions will be stronger or weaker depending on the season in question.

Winter is also unique. As is historically true, most armies didn’t have the capability to wage war in winter and so being able to send and supply an army halfway across the world exists in this game too. Some factions and generals have knowledge and skills that allow them to circumnavigate this problem, but ultimately, it’s a season for building and mustering armies.

Muster actions give players unit power. This unit power is dictated by the unit power of the faction in question. Each faction is able to supply different types of units and therefore their unit power is different. Each faction’s unit power is found in the top left. Each time a card says recruit, you gain unit power equal to each number on the sheet. So a Recruit 1 for Eranith would give you 4 infantry, 3 cavalry, 2 support, 1 light ship and 1 medium ship. These numbers can be upgraded through the Barracks and Shipyard buildings, as well as, through market cards or general/unit abilities.

Movement is dictated by the speed number. Several cards can impact the speed by either buffing or reducing it. The lower the number, the faster you go and so if you need to out manoeuvre your immediate opponent, you need to go faster than them.

Buildings

Buildings dictate your long-term strategies in The Mesol War. Each faction starts with different buildings at level 1 or at level 2. This might help them build towards what they want, or even give them flexibility to build towards something else.

The Barracks improves your mustering numbers for your land units and also allows you to play the higher strength units you’ll unlock throughout the game. The Shipyard does the same thing as the Barracks but for naval units. Both buildings will have the Deckthin ability as various levels, which allows the player to remove combat cards from their deck and streamline their combat builds.

Your Gold Mine and Farm are about growth. Your Gold Mine gives you more gold in order to build better buildings and in order to win more at the auction phase. As there are a limited number of prizes to be had at auction, winning as many as you can will take a lot of gold. The Farm is about helping you build bigger armies with more powerful units. Each unit has an upkeep cost and if that unit has at least 1 unit power, it will have to pay that upkeep cost at the end of each turn. Farms allow players to have their most powerful units in the army without having to give up unit power if they cannot afford them.

The last two buildings to talk about are the Lumber Mill and the Special Building. The Lumber Mill is another building that helps with growth. The Lumber Mill lowers the cost of every building upgrade and increases by level. The Special Building is an alternative to the Lumber Mill. Once you’ve got all your mileage you can from your Lumber Mill, or perhaps if you think you’ll never need it, you can take over your Lumber Mill slot with your Special. Each faction’s Special enhances their playstyle in different ways. The factions who start with several territories have the benefit of having different choices, but new choices can be unlocked for all factions through playing in the game.

Drafting is not the only way to upgrade buildings. Generals, units and market cards will all have effects that allow you to upgrade buildings. Generals and units have very powerful upgrade effects, but often come at a heavy price and so balancing the cost with the bonus is a skill that all players must balance. Market cards may come with a cost, although it’s much more favourable towards the player to simply upgrade without having to give anything up.

Auction

The auction phase of the game occurs after all drafting, building, moving and battle occur. The players will go to the Grandish auction and bid for powerful cards that may turn the tide of the game or reinforce issues in their armies.

Orange cards are instant effects that immediately occur, while Green are effects that will occur over multiple turns. Augment cards (black) are given to generals as permanent buffs for them and cannot be traded from general to general. Yellow effects are unique effects, meaning they are one-of-a-kind and there’s nothing similar in the deck.

The white and green cards are mercenary cards, cards that any player can slot into their army and benefit from the effect. The white and red cards are equipment cards that replace units for a powerful benefit, but provide no unit power in combat themselves.