Review: March of the Ants

Introduction & Overview

With the arrival of spring, the great thaw begins. Deep within the sprouting meadow grass, the queen stirs in her nest, and the colony comes to life. Soldiers venture out, battling centipedes and clashing with rival colonies for territory. Workers dig an ever-expanding network of tunnels in their tireless search for food. The first larvae hatch, and it becomes clear that this generation will be different: young colonies evolve rapidly into a multitude of new forms. The ants march to claim the meadow as their own!

This is how we are presented with March of the Ants, a design by Tim Eisner (Wonderland Wars, Canopy) and Ryan Swisher. First published in 2015 by Weird City Games in an English version following a successful crowdfunding campaign. In 2025, the publisher released the Evolved Edition, also after a crowdfunding campaign. The illustrations for this latest version are handled by Ana Gabriela Gatchalian-David, E. “Alder” Doveton, and Mr. Cuddington.

It is published in Spain by Delirium Games (there is language dependence on both tiles and cards, as well as the rulebook). It allows for games of 1 to 5 players, with a suggested minimum age of 13 years and an approximate duration of between 60 and 90 minutes. The retail price is €59.95. For this review, a review copy of the Spanish version by Delirium Games has been used, which the publisher itself has kindly provided.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 27.9×27.9×6.4 cm. (a square box like Ticket to Ride, though slightly shorter in its dimensions), we find the following elements:

• Great Tunnel Tile (cardboard)
• 13 Standard Hex Tiles (cardboard)
• 10 Starting Hex Tiles (cardboard)
• 5 Beyond the Meadow Hex Tiles (cardboard)
• 13 Rest Tiles (cardboard)
• Active Player Marker (wooden)
• 5 Nest Boards (cardstock)
• 5 Score Markers (1 of each color) (wooden)
• 6 Strength Markers (1 of each color) (wooden)
• 180 Ants (36 of each color) (wooden)
• 30 Food Tokens (wooden)
• 66 Ant Cards (63×88 mm.)
• 6 Reward Tiles
• Score/Round Board (cardboard)
• Round Marker (wooden)
• 6 Centipede Tokens (wooden)
• Centipede Size Marker (wooden)
• 12 Wormhole / Extra Centipede Tokens (cardboard)
• 5 Quick Reference Guides (cardstock)
• Solo/Cooperative Mode Board (cardboard)
• Strength Board (cardboard)
• “Rise of the Centipedes” Rule Leaflet
• Rulebook

How to Play

March of the Ants is a 4X-style game in which each player controls and expands their own ant colony across the meadow. Throughout a series of rounds divided into four distinct phases, players alternate turns during the main phase starting with the active player. On their turn, each participant can perform one of five available actions by paying its cost: explore to add new terrain tiles to the board by connecting them via tunnels, forage to refresh their hand of cards, march to move larvae and ants across the map, or play cards by paying their cost with ants or larvae to evolve parts of their species (head, thorax, and abdomen), obtain single-use events, or establish colony goals; finally, when a player does not wish to perform any more standard actions, they can withdraw from the phase by choosing a rest tile that will grant them resources or advantages. After actions are completed, the game moves to the soldier phase, resolving territorial battles in tunnels and hexes where rival colonies or fearsome centipedes coexist using a system of strength and ferocity cards. Subsequently, in the queen phase, players harvest resources from their controlled plots, feed their ants in the meadow, and prepare the colony’s production for the next cycle. At the end of each round, the slumber phase is executed, where territory control near the central Great Tunnel is evaluated and active goals are scored. Upon concluding the final round, additional points are awarded for majorities in stored resources and cards, and the player who has accumulated the highest amount of colony points is declared the winner.

Key Concepts

Let’s start with the Great Tunnel Tile and Tunnel Tiles. The Great Tunnel is a large central tile that represents the common starting point for all colonies, while the tunnel tiles are hexagonal pieces (divided into starting, standard, and “beyond the meadow” tiles) that are connected to expand the meadow. These tiles show paths with tunnel openings, peripheral areas, and special icons such as wormholes or centipedes. They form the game map where ants are deployed and contain harvest sites to gather resources and control sites to dominate territory. It is important to note that these tiles start unexplored, and as players expand the colony’s terrain, they must decide the orientation of these tiles, needing to be able to access them through at least one of their tunnels, although it is not mandatory to make them all match.

Let’s talk now about the Ants. These are the pieces that represent the player during the game, and their function changes depending on where in the nest or the meadow they are placed. When they are outside the nest, they represent inactive eggs; when moved to the inner chamber, they transform into larvae that serve to pay costs; and when they leave this chamber onto the map tiles, they become adult ants. Their function is to march along the paths, occupy harvest sites to extract resources, explore new hexes, and defend territory in combat.

Let’s move on to the Nest Boards. Each player has one of these individual boards that shows a detailed illustration of an ant’s body divided into three sections: head, thorax, and abdomen. In turn, the board delimits specific areas such as the egg supply, the larvae chamber, and spaces on the margins to attach cards. It serves as a private management zone where ants are organized into their different life stages, food reserves are stored, and evolution and goal cards that alter the colony’s capabilities are placed. On the left track, a summary of the actions that the player can resolve on each of their turns is shown, along with their costs and the reactions for neighboring players.

Another fundamental element is the Ant Cards. These show a cost in ants and/or larvae in their upper left corner, a ferocity value indicated by printed dots, a category, and an explanatory text box. They are divided into three categories: Events (red color), which apply an immediate benefit or alteration and are discarded; Colony Goals (blue color), which are played into the nest to score by meeting requirements each round; and Evolutions (green color), which are physically placed over the head, thorax, or abdomen of the personal board to grant permanent abilities and increase the bonuses of those body segments.

The main resource is Food, represented by seed-shaped tokens that players keep in the storerooms of their individual boards. Food is the indispensable economic engine to pay for the vast majority of actions available in the worker phase, being mandatory to explore terrain, draw cards from the deck, or move ants through the meadow. Likewise, players are required to spend food units at the end of each round during the queen phase to feed active ants on the map and avoid losing points due to starvation.

Players will compete to control the different tiles on the board, especially the Great Tunnel tile. The Reward Tiles will be placed on it. These establish specific rewards (such as food, larvae, cards, or points) that will be distributed at the end of the soldier phase among the players who achieve first, second, and third place after the massive battle for the Great Tunnel, or to the one who controls the area alone.

Let’s continue with the Rest Tiles. These show various resource and action icons, which are arranged in a visible row near the main board at the start of each round. During the worker phase, players choose and take one of these tiles when they decide to execute the rest action, which concludes their participation in the worker phase for that round (although each time it is their turn again, they will choose a new tile). Upon claiming it, the player immediately receives the printed benefits, such as resources, cards, or ant steps, or they obtain ongoing effects for the rest of the turn, highlighting the Great Defender tile which grants priority in the central nest battles. They also serve as the trigger for the end of the round, which occurs when the last of these tiles is claimed.

After the worker phase, the game moves to the soldier phase, where combat will be resolved in the Great Tunnel (if more than one player is present) and in overpopulated hexes (more ants than harvest spaces). When resolving combat, the Strength Board will be used, where each player will have a Strength Marker. This is presented as a small numbered linear track to visually and publicly track each player’s strength in a disputed location. At the start of a battle, players place their markers here to sum the number of ants present, bonuses from their physical evolutions, and the ferocity value of the cards used, thus clearly determining the winner of the clash.

Let’s continue with the Score/Round Board. It contains a numbered track to record points, where each player will have a Score Marker, and another section to keep track of the game rounds. On the right is the centipede size track, where a marker will indicate the combat strength these neutral enemies will have and the type of loot players will receive upon defeating them.

Finally, we have the Centipedes. These enter play in the meadow every time a player explores and connects a tunnel tile showing this specimen’s icon. Their function is to act as a persistent physical threat that blocks players’ free transit, as they remain fixed in their hex, forcing any ant colony sharing their space to resolve a mandatory battle against them during the soldier phase, using the strength dictated by the size marker.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. The Great Tunnel is placed in the center of the table.
2. The score and round board is placed with the four-round side up to one side of the play area, and the strength board is placed beneath it.
3. The round marker is set to round one, and the centipede size marker is placed on the corresponding space based on the player count.
4. The numbered starting hex tiles from one to ten are shuffled, forming a face-down pile with two tiles per player, returning the rest to the game box.
5. Two beyond the meadow tiles numbered twenty-four to twenty-eight are randomly selected and shuffled into the standard hex tiles numbered eleven to twenty-three.
6. The pile of starting tiles is placed on top of this set, and the entire combined deck is situated near the Great Tunnel.
7. The food components, centipede tokens, and wormhole tokens are left next to the play area.
8. The great defender rest tile is placed under the round board, the other rest tiles are shuffled into a face-down deck, and as many face-up tiles as the number of players are revealed.
9. Two reward tiles of each level are randomly selected and stacked face down, placing levels one and two on top of levels three or higher, returning the rest to the box.
10. The top reward tile from this pile is revealed and placed face up in the center of the Great Tunnel.
11. The starting player is randomly chosen and given the active player marker.
12. The ant card deck is shuffled and placed near the play area.
13. Each player chooses a color and receives:
    • An ant nest board placed on its basic side.
    • Thirty-six wooden ant tokens of their color.
    • Two food tokens placed in their food storeroom.
    • A score marker and a strength marker placed on the starting spaces of their respective boards with the printed side face down.
14. Each player takes four of their ants and places them in their larvae chamber as larvae, introduces two ants into the Great Tunnel as ants, and leaves the rest to one side of their ant nest board as eggs.
15. Finally, each player draws three ant cards to form their starting hand.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of March of the Ants is played over 4 Rounds, represented by different seasons.

Phase I: Worker Phase

This is the main phase where players alternate taking actions. Beginning with the player holding the Active Player marker, players take turns in clockwise order.

On their turn, the active player chooses one of the actions, pays its cost, and resolves it. Next, the two adjacent players (starting with the one to the left and then the one to the right) can execute the associated reaction for free. After this, the active player marker passes to the next player clockwise to begin a new turn.

The phase ends when a player claims the last rest tile. After this, in turn order, each player can resolve as many reaction actions as they have thorax cards played.

The main actions available in the Worker Phase are:

• Explore (Cost: 1 Food). The player reveals a hex tile from the pile and places it in the meadow so that it connects at least one of its tunnel openings to an already existing tunnel. The hex must be adjacent to a location where the player has at least one ant. Immediately after, the player must move at least one of their ants from the adjacent connected locations into the new hex, occupying empty harvest spaces.
  • Reaction. Neighbors can move 1 larva from their larvae chamber to a hex they already occupy or to the Great Tunnel.
• Draw Cards (Cost: 1 Food). The player draws 3 cards from the ant deck and then discarts any one card from their hand. There is no hand size limit.
  • Reaction. Neighbors can gain 1 larva by moving an egg from their reserve to their larvae chamber.
• March (Cost: 1 Food). The player has up to 6 steps to distribute freely among their ants and larvae. One step allows moving an ant to an adjacent connected hex, moving an ant between two hexes with wormholes, repositioning an ant to an empty harvest space in the same hex, or moving a larva from the chamber to an occupied hex or the Great Tunnel (becoming an ant).
  • Reaction. Neighbors can take 1 ant step or move a larva from their larvae chamber to the Great Tunnel.
• Play a Card (Cost: Indicated on the Card). The player plays a card from their hand (Event, Colony Goal, or Evolution) by paying its cost, returning ants from the map and/or larvae from their chamber to their egg supply. Evolutions are placed on the corresponding segments of the ant’s body (Head, Thorax, or Abdomen); completing a body grants 3 points immediately.
  • Reaction. Neighbors can discard a card from their hand to draw a new card from the deck.
• Rest (Cost: None). The player decides to withdraw from the main actions of the current round. The player chooses one of the available face-up Rest tiles and receives its immediate or permanent rewards. Once a player performs the Rest action, they will be forced to choose a Rest tile on each of their subsequent turns until the phase ends. When the last face-up tile is claimed, the Worker Phase concludes immediately, and all players execute as many bonus reactions as they have Thorax Evolutions in play.

Phase II: Soldier Phase

In this phase, battles are resolved in locations that are disputed (where ants from multiple players coexist and there are ants in the peripheral zones, or where there is a centipede alongside any ant).

First, the battle for the Great Tunnel is resolved (if 2 or more factions are present) and subsequently the combat in disputed hexes in ascending order according to their numbering. The battle process against other players is executed through the following steps:

1. Determine Defender. In hexes, the defender is the owner of the control space. In the Great Tunnel, it is the player with the Great Defender tile. Ties in combat are resolved in favor of the defender and subsequent players in clockwise order.
2. Declare Strength. Each participant adds their number of ants in the location plus the number of Head Evolutions they possess, tracking it on the strength meter.
3. Ferocidad. Starting with the player to the defender’s left and going clockwise, each player can play a card from their hand face down. Upon being revealed, the card’s ferocity value is added to the strength meter.
4. Resolution. The player with the highest total strength is the winner. The other players lose the combat.
5. Casualties. The losers collectively assign 1 casualty to the winner for every 2 ants they had in the fight. The winner inflicts 1 casualty for each of their ants, distributing them evenly among the losers in clockwise order. Each casualty suffered forces the removal of an ant from the location to the egg supply. The winner can never lose their last ant in combat.
6. Loot. The winner in a hex obtains 1 point and can claim the control space. In the Great Tunnel, the top three players based on their strength divide the benefits of the current reward tile.
7. Cleanup. Surviving ants in the peripheral zones move to occupy empty harvest spaces.

If the location contains a Centipede, players face it one by one (starting with whoever has the most ants). The centipede sets its strength according to the current size meter and adds the ferocity of cards drawn from the deck (if it draws a value of 1, it increases its strength by 1 and draws another card). If the player matches or exceeds the centipede, they win the combat, remove the centipede, obtain the loot from the size meter, and suffer casualties equal to half of their ants rounded up. If the centipede wins, the player loses all their ants in the location.

The phase ends after all combats are resolved.

Phase III: Queen Phase

This phase consists of three mandatory steps:

• Harvest. Each player simultaneously obtains the resources (food, larvae, cards, or points) indicated on the harvest spaces occupied by their ants on the map, plus 1 food, 1 larva, 1 card, and 1 base point from their nest.
• Feed Ants. Each unit of food spent allows feeding up to 4 of the ants located in the meadow (each Abdomen Evolution adds +1 ant per food). Larvae do not require food. For each ant that cannot or is not desired to be fed, it is returned to the egg supply; if a player suffers starvation by not feeding their entire army, they lose 1 global victory point and are disqualified from end-of-game awards if it occurs in the final round.
• Queen’s Choice. Each player makes two independent choices, being able to obtain 1 food or 3 larvae from the reserve in each to prepare for the next round (this step is omitted in the final round). In the fourth round, this step is not resolved.

Phase IV: Slumber Phase

In this phase, the achievements of the round are evaluated. Each player adds one point for each hex in the Inner Meadow (those adjacent to the Great Tunnel) that they control and checks the requirements of their active Colony Goal cards in play to score the corresponding points based on their level of fulfillment.

After this, the round marker is advanced, the Rest tiles are returned and replenished, a new reward tile is revealed for the Great Tunnel, and the player holding the Active Player marker starts the new Worker Phase.

Game End

The game ends after the conclusion of the final round of play (after the Slumber phase). Following this, end-of-game awards are handed out. Only players who have fed all their ants will be candidates for these awards. Each award grants 2 victory points to the player who holds it (in case of a tie, the involved players will score 1 victory point each):

• Most Larvae. 2 victory points for the player with the most tokens in their larvae chamber.
• Largest Food Reserves. 2 victory points for the player with the most food tokens in their pantry.
• Hidden Potential. 2 victory points for the player with the highest number of ant cards in their hand.

The player with the most victory points is proclaimed the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most ants present in the meadow (the central tunnel and hexes) wins. If equality persists, all tied players share the victory.

Variants

2-Player Mode. The initial setup expands by having each player choose a random starting tile to connect to the Great Tunnel and place three ants on it. During the worker phase, the available supply increases as an additional rest tile is revealed per round. The most significant change is the emergence of the “Old Guard”, a neutral and immovable faction representing the ancestral colony of the Great Tunnel. At the start of each soldier phase, ants from this faction are added to the Great Tunnel in an amount equal to the current round number. The Old Guard participates in the central battle simulating a player: after the participants play their cards, it reveals the top card of the deck to add its ferocity value to its base strength. Players always win ties against it, and although it does not accumulate resources if it places first or second, its success blocks and deprives players of claiming those valuable spoils.

Solo Mode (The Rise of the Centipedes). The real player expands their colony while facing the invading centipedes, which act as threats in the meadow hexes. To play, a game deck is configured using cards that contain the solo symbol. The player performs their usual actions in the worker phase, but during the soldier phase, they must battle these creatures in disputed territories. In these clashes, the centipede functions automatically: it has a printed base strength and reveals cards from the deck to increase its ferocity unpredictably. The real player must match or exceed this total strength to win the battle, remove the centipede, and claim the corresponding resources and victory points based on the current level of the creature’s size track. The goal is to try to achieve the highest possible amount of victory points.

Personal Opinion

Back in 2016, I had the opportunity to play March of the Ants for the first time. A curious design that reached a gaming companion after participating in a successful crowdfunding campaign, in which players took control of an ant faction in direct competition with the other factions to control different areas of a meadow.

It was a 4X-style design, you know, those that implement systems allowing players to explore, expand territorially, exploit resources, and exterminate each other in combat, but it aimed to solve one of the major drawbacks inherent to the genre: duration.

By definition, these types of games usually consume a significant amount of time because it is necessary to give players room to develop in order to reach a final climax that leaves players satisfied, regardless of the game’s outcome. This is something difficult to achieve if the game is resolved in just a few turns.

Truth be told, the game designed by Tim Eisner and Ryan Swisher, which marked their debut in game authorship, left very good impressions among those who got a copy. Now we receive a revamped edition with more attractive art, which is the one we are going to analyze in this post. But first, it’s time to thank Delirium Games for providing the review copy that makes this wall of text possible.

As I have already said, in March of the Ants each player controls a faction of ants in a meadow with the goal of subduing the rest of the factions. To do this, players must develop their capabilities, deploy across the meadow, explore new territories, and position themselves within them to achieve important benefits. And, of course, defend those positions from enemies.

The game’s objective is none other than trying to accumulate the largest possible amount of victory points, something that will be achieved mainly by controlling certain board locations and through personal goal cards that establish criteria to try and maximize in order to score them at the end of each of the four rounds that a game consists of.

The game will unfold over four rounds, each with four phases where the first one is core, since it is the one in which players alternate turns. In each of these turns, the active player will resolve one of five possible available actions, which, as a general rule, will allow the players seated at their sides to receive a reaction action. The only exception will be when resting, an action with which the player will obtain a bonus from those available in a supply and will no longer be able to resolve any of the other four actions for the remainder of the round.

Through these actions, players will be able to explore new tiles in the meadow (moving at least one ant from a location it occupies), move ants across locations (or introduce larvae to the board as adult ants), draw cards (there are three types: events, scoring criteria, and technologies), or play a card (which have a cost in ants and/or larvae).

Once all players rest, the game proceeds with a combat resolution phase in those locations where there is a conflict, whether in the Great Tunnel or on those tiles where there are more ants than harvest spaces and ants from at least two different factions are present. The main battle occurs on the Great Tunnel tile, where there are significant rewards for the players who fight in it, while in the rest of the locations, the fight will be for positioning.

Once all combats are resolved, the game proceeds to the production phase, where players will obtain the benefits of the harvest zones their ants occupy, feed their colony (being penalized if they do not have enough food), and receive assistance from the queen (obtaining larvae and/or food).

And finally, a scoring phase is resolved where players get victory points for the hexes they control around the Great Tunnel and for how well they meet the criteria of the scoring cards they have active in their play area (which can be two at most).

Combats are resolved in a fairly agile manner, since ants have a standard base strength that will be increased by the number of head cards (the most expensive ones) the player has in play. To this base strength, players can add an extra amount of strength by discarding a card from their hand (which show a ferocity value between 1 and 4). The player with the most strength will win the combat, generating casualties on all sides (the winner must distribute as many casualties as they had ants in combat, while receiving casualties equal to half of the ants present in the combat from the rest of the contenders).

And with this, I think you more or less have more than enough context to start talking about impressions and dynamics. The first thing to confirm is that March of the Ants delivers what it promises, that is, a distilled 4X experience whose games are resolved in less than two hours at maximum player count.

It achieves this, moreover, without leaving behind any basic concept of the genre as designs like Brazil Imperial (here its tocho-review) or Scythe (here its tocho-review) do, leaving exploration to a minimum, which is noteworthy, because I think one of the most exciting aspects of 4X games is precisely exploration.

It is true that there are players who do not enjoy the influence of luck in this type of system, as it can generate imbalances when unequal locations in terms of challenges and/or benefits are revealed. But I believe it is a fundamental part of the experience, and not including it in the design just to try and offer a more balanced layout ends up working against it.

To achieve the necessary fluidity for the game to progress at a good pace, the authors implement a reward system for the active player’s neighbors based on the action chosen, which additionally adds another layer when making decisions, because it will no longer just be about choosing the most interesting option for the active player, but also evaluating whether it is convenient to activate that action at that moment.

For example, if a player performs the explore action, neighbors can introduce a larva to the board, either to the Great Tunnel or to a location they inhabit. The ideal time to explore would be when the active player’s neighbors do not have larvae in their personal reserve, thus losing the benefit of the reaction.

All in all, it’s not that the game allows that much room for maneuver either, since actions are limited by the amount of food each player starts the worker phase with. Food is scarce and hard to get, which is why players face a certain degree of pressure and, in the end, won’t be paying close attention to how their rivals are rewarded when executing certain actions.

I like the game’s technology system—again, more interesting than in simplified 4X (or 3X) games, because here we do have a development factor that is felt in three aspects. On one hand, effects that we can accumulate on our body cards, with players also being rewarded for playing these cards in a balanced way (each trio of head, thorax, and abdomen provides victory points). Then we have the scoring cards, which establish private goals that will guide our game. And then the event cards, which can unleash devastating effects.

The game also includes the typical neutral enemy that will pose a nuisance in some locations, as happens with The Ancients in Eclipse (here its tocho-review). The good thing about the game we are looking at today is that the deck of location tiles is more or less organized, making it harder for a player to encounter an early surprise that brings their development to a sudden halt.

The combat system is perhaps not the most exciting in the world, as it leads to a lot of calculation and little epicness, but it is in line with the game’s tone. It is similar to Scythe’s, where players know a base strength and then a blind bid can be made, in this case through cards. A blind bid that has a maximum, so it is possible to resort to arithmetic to secure a battle. I think it could have been interesting to allow players to use more than one card when resolving combat to generate a higher degree of uncertainty. Spending a card for ferocity is always something that needs to be carefully considered.

All in all, while being a recommendable design, the truth is that it doesn’t quite hit the mark in terms of offering a sufficiently substantial experience. A substitute is a substitute, and lovers of the genre will end up returning to games like Eclipse, Clash of Cultures (here its tocho-review), or Twilight Imperium because, although they require a good number of hours, the enjoyment ends up being worth it. And with these kinds of simplified games, you end up not feeling entirely satisfied.

Independent of this (which is an inherent characteristic of this type of game and cannot be blamed as a design flaw), there is indeed a significant impact of luck regarding the cards. For example, receiving scoring cards in the first round and being able to have one or even two in play and scoring from them can generate a major imbalance. It is true that the game offers enough tools to counter this and rivals should organize to prevent a player from scoring repeatedly. But since time is short, sometimes players cannot attend to so many fronts.

Perhaps it would have been convenient to divide the cards into three types of decks and let players choose from which deck to draw when resolving the corresponding action or bonus. Sometimes it is very frustrating to need a specific type of card (for example, a body part) and, no matter how much you draw, you don’t get any.

As a good 4X game, it is recommended to play at four or five players so that there is interaction and tight spaces. At three players, there is too much free space and combats will be circumstantial more than anything else, plus the fight in the Great Tunnel will force players to participate or, failing that, let one player take control and not contest it, because against unequal forces, a single player will end up systematically annihilated.

As for replayability, thanks to its short duration and agile development, it is a game that can hit the table much more easily than its big brothers. All in all, it’s a design that needs to be rested, as playing it continuously can lead to early burnout, since, at its core, the game isn’t exceptionally deep either.

Let’s move on to the production. We find fairly high-quality components, with wooden elements of good density and original shapes, highlighting the impressive centipedes. The cardboard elements feature appropriate thickness and punch. And the cards show a very good thickness, linen texture, and magnificent snap. The rulebook is quite well structured and leaves no room for doubt.

As for the illustrations, we encounter a colorful microscopic perspective of nature, with saturated greens and warm tones that highlight the lushness of the undergrowth, portraying insects with an almost heroic dynamism. In the cards, a clean and defined stroke with marked outlines can be appreciated, where creatures are stylized with expressive and slightly fantastic traits, moving away from pure anatomical realism to prioritize visual clarity and a sense of wonder. Mind you, it strikes me that there are some clashing styles. I would have liked greater homogeneity.

And let’s wrap this up. March of the Ants is a dynamic design that manages to condense the complexities of a civilization and area control system into agile turns through an ingenious action selection mechanism with reactions for rivals. Managing food scarcity, exploring the meadow, and the evolutionary development of our colony through cards generate dynamics of constant spatial tension, forcing players to gauge the tempo of the round so as not to benefit others. On the negative side, combat turns out to be excessively arithmetical and cold, stripping the clashes of the expected epicness, added to a single draw deck where luck can block progression if the necessary cards do not flow. All in all, its great virtue lies in offering a fluid development and interesting tactical decisions in a fraction of the usual time for the genre. For all these reasons, I give it a…