MICRO HERO: Ulysses

Story

After the 12 Labours of Hercules, the Hydra of Lerna spins a very different yarn: getting home. In this humorous retelling of the Odyssey, your task sounds simple enough — bring Ulysses back to Ithaca while withstanding Poseidon. The god of the sea is furious, and he will do everything in his power to keep you from reaching port. Read the stars, pick your moments, and outwit divine anger with the one weapon Ulysses always had: cunning.

Game mechanics

Micro Hero: Ulysses is a solo card game that blends drafting and poker in just 55 cards. In front of you lies the Sea: a rectangle of face-down cards, with more cards laid across the intersections so that freeing one card reveals another. Most are Constellation cards, which you collect. Some are Trial cards, whose nasty effects trigger the instant they're turned face up.

A game runs over four rounds, and each round is made up of several Hands. A Hand has two phases:

• Selection. Draw five Constellation cards one at a time out of the Sea to build your hand. Each card you free flips another face up — a constellation becomes available to take, a trial hits you immediately. This is where you can also spend your Hero's power.
• Comparison. Your five-card poker hand is measured against Poseidon's. When Poseidon is Calm, his hand is made up of the face-up cards in the Sea plus the cards to the right on his track. When he turns Furious, he counts the cards to his left as well — a far bigger, far better hand.

Here's the tension. If you win, the Wrath Gauge climbs by the difference between the two hands — outclass a god and he takes it personally. If Poseidon wins, he advances one card to the right along his track and the Wrath Gauge drops by the difference. You lose immediately if Poseidon has to advance and has nowhere left to go. Winning is necessary; winning big is dangerous. Managing that margin is the heart of the game.

A round ends once the Sea is empty or every remaining card is face up. Then the sea turns: at the start of each new round, some Constellation cards are swapped out for Trial cards, so every round is harder than the last. Survive all four and Ulysses is home.

The 2-player mode is fully cooperative — Ulysses is joined by Eurylochus, and the two of you work together to make port.

Designed by Léandre Proust, illustrated by Rémi Leblond, published by Grammes Edition — the same team behind the hugely successful Micro Hero: Hercules. Every Micro Hero title stands alone: one mythological hero, one unique mechanic, one 55-card box.

What's included

• 55 cards in total
• Hero cards — Ulysses and Eurylochus, for solo and 2-player play
• Poseidon card — double-sided, showing Calm Poseidon on one face and Furious Poseidon on the other; his state decides how many cards he holds
• Wrath Gauge card — tracks how far you've pushed the god's temper
• 40 Constellation cards — the cards that fill the Sea and form your poker hands
• 10 Trial cards — also hidden in the Sea, applying negative effects that make your voyage harder
• Rules (English and French)
• Bonus card for Micro Hero: Hercules — a small crossover surprise hidden in every Micro Hero box