Antinomy

I just love a small game packed full with strategy and Antinomy fits the bill perfectly.

Antinomy is part of a growing portfolio of small games published by Button Shy games. All these games have one thing in common, they all include only 18 cards, and they come in a little plastic wallet (but also available in PnP version).

In Antinomy each player takes the role of a sorcerer trying to create paradoxes while travelling along the space time continuum. And that is about where the theme stops...you will be worrying more about planning your next few moves than getting immersed in time travel.


The core mechanism is card drafting; you are trying to collect a set of three cards with one attribute in common either colour, symbol or number, by swapping your cards with the ones laid in a line on the table.

Once you achieve this, you'll gain a crystal and you win the game if you collect 5.

Turns are quick and simple, you play a card, move your avatar accordingly and pick up the card you land on, replacing it with the card you played.

Ok, if it was just about that it would be a pretty simple, repetitive and boring game, and it's here that Antinomy uses a couple of concepts that really challenge your strategic thinking.

To move in the future, that means moving your avatar to the right on the line, you use the face value of the card you play. For example playing a 2 will let you move 2 cards to the right.

To move back in time, or to the left, you use the colour or symbol of the card you play. This means you can move to any of the cards to the left of your avatar that matches either the colour or symbol of the card just played.

This leads to planning a couple of turns ahead, trying to get rid of cards you don't need while, at the same time, get closer to the cards you do need. Consider that, if your opponent takes a card you were aiming for, and this happens a lot as the sets available are limited, you will need to completely re-think your strategy.


Additionally, when you set the game up, you leave a card face down at the end of the line and place a crystal on one of the 4 colours depicted on the back of the card that matches the colour of the first card in the line. This indicates which colour cannot be used to form the next paradox or to include in the next clash (explained below). Then once a player gains a crystal, either via a paradox or a clash, the crystal on the face down card is moved one space clockwise indicating the new forbidden colour.




Another way to collect crystals is by stealing them from your opponent, if they have any. This is called a Clash  and it is achieved by moving your avatar to the same card where your opponent's avatar is at. This could end up being a risky way to get ahead of your opponent as a clash is nothing more than comparing the sum of the cards each player has and the highest number wins.
A thing to remember is that any cards matching the current forbidden colour are not included in the sum. So, weigh up your chances and maybe go for a clash if you have high value cards in your hand and no cards matching the current forbidden colour.


You can see that there are a lot of different factors that will define your strategy, keeping you on your toes as you will need to quickly react based on your opponent's most recent move and based on what cards are available on the table.

It's all about understanding which sets are achievable with what is in play, know when to call a clash to steal a crystal or force the progress to the next forbidden colour, or risk it and push to get the cards you need, hoping no paradoxes or clashes are declared before you complete your mission.



Overall a great 2 player game both for the money (£8.00 from Chaos Cards) and more importantly for the entertainment value. As you can deduce, it is perfect for travelling as it fits in a small wallet and you just need to provide 10 tokens to play (coins, popcorn, sweets, etc.)

Remember to check out the other Button Shy games here: https://buttonshygames.com/