Resist! - Solo card game about the Spanish Maquis.

Resist! Game Contents

Resist! (originally published in Spanish as ¡Resistid!) is a fast-paced solo card game set in post-Civil War Spain, where you take on the role of the Spanish Maquis, waging a clandestine guerrilla war against the Francoist regime while undertaking critical missions.

Your objective is to complete dangerous missions, defeat enemy forces, and protect civilians, but every decision carries heavy consequences. You must carefully manage your Maquis fighters, deciding when to reveal their hidden abilities and assessing how far you are willing to push the resistance.

Designed by Trevor Benjamin, Roger Tankersley, and David Thompson, and featuring striking artwork by Albert Monteys, Resist! delivers an intense single-player experience designed for 1 player with games lasting approximately 20 to 40 minutes.

How to Play Resist!

The game unfolds over a series of rounds where you prepare your squad, select a mission, and face the enemy forces guarding it.

Your Maquis fighters are represented by cards that you manage throughout the game. Cards can remain hidden to protect your freedom fighters for future rounds, while revealing them unlocks powerful abilities at the cost of losing them from your deck for the rest of the game.

Every round forces you to balance risk against necessity. You must decide which enemies to target, which Maquis to sacrifice, and when it is time to push forward or call off the fight.

Escalating Missions

The 20 Mission cards feature varying objectives, hazards, and victory point values. Successfully completing a mission earns you victory points and pushes you forward toward higher-value targets.

However, the game is not simply about clearing every single objective. After completing each round, you must decide whether to end the resistance and cash in your current score or risk everything to pursue further missions for a higher total.

Manage Your Maquis Squad

The core strategic heart of Resist! lies in hand and deck management. At the start of the game, you assemble a squad of fighters and must continuously choose how to deploy their skills.

Revealing a Maquis card unleashes potent abilities during a mission, but permanently removes them from your draw deck. This creates constant tension between unleashing your squad's full potential now or saving your veterans to survive upcoming threats.

Spies and Civilians

The resistance must also contend with the threat of infiltrated spies. Spy cards clutter your hand and impair your capabilities, progressively weakening your operational effectiveness if left unchecked.

Civilians also play a pivotal role in every operation. Collateral damage and reckless attacks can lead to civilian casualties, forcing difficult moral and strategic trade-offs during battles.

Push Your Luck or End the Resistance

One of the most agonizing decisions in Resist! comes immediately after completing a mission. You may choose to end the resistance campaign and record your score, or press on into enemy territory.

Pushing forward can yield a legendary victory score, but dramatically increases the risk of total defeat. If your resistance collapses under enemy pressure, you lose the game and fail to preserve your achievements.

Gameplay Impressions

Resist! masterfully blends card management, push-your-luck tension, and tactical decision-making into a dedicated solo design. The constant struggle between burning a character's revealed power for immediate survival or keeping them hidden for the long haul makes every hand compelling.

The push-your-luck end-of-round mechanic elevates the drama. A high-scoring run is not just about defeating enemies, but knowing precisely when your forces have given enough and when to walk away before disaster strikes.

Who Is It For?

Resist! is ideally suited for solo gamers, deck-building and hand-management enthusiasts, and players who enjoy high-stakes risk-and-reward decision-making.

It is also a must-play for strategy gamers interested in historical WWII-era anti-fascist resistance, offering a deeply thematic, highly replayable experience in under an hour.

Resist! Game Components

• 32 Enemy Cards
• 8 Civilian Cards
• 1 Player Aid Card
• 20 Mission Cards
• 6 Spy Cards
• 24 Maquis Cards
• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Scenario Booklet

Related Games

If you enjoy Resist! and love solo card games, deck management, and historical strategy titles, check out these recommendations:

• Pavlov's House – David Thompson's acclaimed solo/cooperative wargame depicting the defense of Pavlov's House during the Battle of Stalingrad.
• Undaunted: Normandy – A tactical WWII deck-building game featuring squad-level combat and scenario-based operations.
• Sniper Elite: The Board Game – A tactical stealth and hidden-movement board game set in WWII featuring a dedicated solo mode.
• Witchcraft! – The direct spiritual successor to Resist! by the same design team, adapting its core card-driven mechanisms into a dark fantasy witch trials setting.
• Maquis – A worker placement solo wargame set in occupied France where you manage resistance cells to strike back against the Nazi occupation.

Conclusion

Resist! delivers an intense, thematic solo card game centered on squad survival, mission tactics, and agonizing decisions under extreme pressure.

If you are looking to buy Resist! by Salt & Pepper Games, this title offers a compact, highly replayable strategy challenge where every card choice matters and knowing when to end the resistance is the ultimate test of command.