Martial Art: Review

Martial Art Review

Information:

Mechanics: Hand Management, Simultaneous Selection
Player Age: 10+
Player Count: 2 to 4 Players (3 and 4 only with two decks)
Time to Play: 20 Minutes
Publisher: Spider-Goat Games
Game Designer: Adrian Marrs, Jonathan Ruland
Game Artist: Danielle Barnett
BGG Weight: 2.00
Year Published: 2016

The Game:

Objective:

The objective of martial art is to win a total of 12 points (displayed by the amount of samurai masks on each land) from the land deck or to gain 3 bridges (see right side of image below).

Card Anatomy:

In the base game there are four types of cards; battle cards, legend cards, supplies cards and land cards.

Legend Cards: These battle cards have the highest value strength at 13, that are identifiable by the yellow banner and they sit aside until a player uses an ability on a different card to draw this card into their hand.

Supplies Cards: This battle card has a strength of 0, identifiable by the purple banner (see below). This card will be playable as a battle card and allow the player to draw a extra card at the end of the turn. Unlike any other card, the supplies card will always return to your hand rather than being discarded in the aftermath phase.

Battle cards: These have a strength value and a name on the top of the card. They also have rule text at the bottom of the card that will either have “when revealed” effects or supporting effects that can be used in battle (discussed later).
There will be cards that can be used as support to add value to your combatant when played at the specific time. These cards are identifiable by a white banner (see below). When played in a supportive fashion you ignore the strength value. However, they can also be played as a normal combatant in which case the ability text is ignored.

Land Cards: These will have the name of the card on the upper left hand corner; icons on the bottom of the cards illustrating effects of the land; the value of points signified by the samurai mask on the right hand side of the card. The bridge is identifiable by a bridge icon on the upper right corner. (Shown above in objective section)

Setup:

The game has a simple set up whereby each player receives one supplies card, the legend cards are placed aside in a face up position, and then each player is dealt four cards from the battle deck. Simple yes, but this way you get to the good stuff sooner. For a 2 player game you will only require one deck but for a 3-4 player game you will need two combined.

How to Play:

Martial Art is a simultaneous selection game, which means that players choose their cards at the same time and there is no active player.
There are six phases to a round:
1. Reveal land cards
2. Play battle cards
3. Reveal battle cards
4. Resolve battle
5. Aftermath
6. Draw

Reveal Land:
This is when you will determine what the players are fighting for. In a 2 player game only one card will be drawn from the land deck and is placed face up, if 3 or 4 people are playing then two card will be drawn.
When the land enters the battlefield it will play out any ‘enter battlefield’ effects (not all lands have these and some effects will resolve during the other phases).
If you are using two lands due to player count, only the second land's ability will be used every round.
Before moving on to the next phase if you have any support cards that say "before battle" this so when they need to be played.

Play Battle Cards:
 Each player will now choose a card from their hand to compete for land dominance. When choosing, things to consider will be strength value, revealed effects, and supporting effects you have in your hand. The card is then played face down.

Reveal Battle Cards:
Since everyone has now placed down their combatants, it is time to reveal the cards and do any "when revealed" actions. This is also your chance to play any "After cards are revealed" support cards.

Resolve Battle:
Now that any support cards have been played and early effects have been resolved, it’s time to add the strength of the original combatant with all the modifications caused by support cards. The player with the most strength wins the battle.

Aftermath:
This phase begins by resolving all text from battle cards and land cards that say "after the battle". The winner will then gain the land card, if playing with more than 2 players then the winner gets their choice of the two cards and second highest strength will gain the other.

If one player has now collected a total of 12 points or 3 bridges, they are the victor of the game. If not then all played battle cards are discarded and play continues.

Draw:
Each player draws one card, then these six phases repeat until there is a victor.

Expansion:

Now that you have mastered the base game it is time to explore the expansion "Martial Art: Battlefields". The expansion adds two new card types (weather and terrain) and a couple more battle and support cards.

Terrain cards:
Terrain cards are identifiable by the green banner (see below) and are shuffled into the battle deck. (Due to the expansion this deck is now referred to as the war deck). Before battle each round you can play one of these cards face up to give your combatant a bonus for that round.

Weather cards:
These cards are shuffled into the land deck and are identifiable as they are orientated in portrait view instead of landscape like the rest of the land cards (see below). These cards will have ongoing battlefield effects starting once revealed. Land cards will continue to be drawn until a normal land card is displayed for the warriors to fight over. The weather cards are present between rounds until a new weather card is drawn to replace the former weather card.

Final Thoughts:

Let's first discuss the pros and cons:
Pros
- Quick, easy and fun
- Clear card separation based on the colour of the banners

Cons
- May be too competitive for some people as the score is close

Martial Art takes a characteristic from the card game "War" whereby comparing the highest value of cards  although it is done in a way that makes the game solid and fun. This game is very simple to play but don't let that fool you, it is deceptively strategic without bogging down the player with convoluted rules. The game does get a bit more complex with the added expansion but it doesn't make it fiddly. If your looking for a filler game, this is spot on what your looking for. However, be warned that the expansion makes the game longer due to the negative conditions that the weather creates.

Click...feed the addiction:

Martial Art Expansion/ Reprint on Kickstarter

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