Skip to main content

Heart of Crown - Path Before Heaven: Review

Heart of Crown - Path Before Heaven: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Deck Builder, Card Drafting, Variable Player Powers, Hand Management
Player Age: 12+ 
Player Count: 2 - 4 Players
Time to Play: 30 Minutes 
Game Designer: Ginkgo
Publisher: Japanime Games
Artist: Medilore, Yuki Takahata
Year Published: 2015
BGG Weight: 3.0
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

This expansion can be added to either of the base games for 'Heart of Crown' and 'Heart of Crown - Fairy Garden'. It adds one new princess, 10 new types of common cards and a new card type called ‘support cards’.

New Common Cards:

Of the ten new common cards, there are five that help to enhance the variability of the game (two of which have more interactions with calamity cards).

The other five cards introduce a new key term to the game in relation to card abilities, this is the ‘conditional activation ability’. These abilities work like hand activation abilities in the base game, where they are played from your hand but will need a certain action to happen as a prerequisite. For example if you draw an extra card on your turn or place a succession card into your domain. In this instance, each action can only activate one conditional ability.

Support Cards:

Support cards are like a second princess. If you spend an extra two coins when you elect a princess you can gain a support card to add to your domain (only one supporter can be added this way). When you do this you can choose any support card and they will either add succession points, activate immediately, or give you an ability that can be activated each turn.

New Princess:

The new princess Ru Li will help you to gain more supporters in your domain. The amount of supporters is based on how many large cities you place in your domain on the turn you elect her.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- The supporters add a new layer of strategy to ‘Heart of Crown'.
- Conditional effects can create a more optimised deck.

Cons:
- The game may take longer due to players trying to reach eight coins instead of six to elect their princess.

This is a great expansion for 'Heart of Crown' mainly due to the new mechanism that supporters add. Not only do they help  to optimise your strategy after the election, but they also help keep the princess election fresh. If you are looking for unique ways to further enjoy ‘Heart of Crown’, this expansion is a must. The conditional effects add unique choices on how to use some cards while the support cards keep the game refreshing.

Click...feed the addiction: 

Japanime Games
Path Before Heaven on BGG
Expand Your Game Facebook page
Expand Your Game Instagram

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crafting the Cosmos: Review

Crafting the Cosmos: Review Information: Mechanics:  Rondel, Mancala, Point Salad, Tile Placement, Variable Player Powers Player Age:  14+ Player Count:  2 - 4 Players Game Designer:  David Gordon (I), TAM Game Artist:  Greg May, Dann May BGG Weight:  3.00 Publisher:  Office Dog Time to Play:  60 - 90 Minutes  Year Published:  2025 Disclaimer:  A review copy for the game was provided by the VR Distribution Introduction: Crafting the Cosmos is a game where players design and fill their own cosmos. This is achieved by using a clever mancala mechanism on the central board where actions aren't granted by the position of the first or last mancala action. Instead, the benefits/resources are determined by the entire state of the main board after the movements have been made. Game Anatomy: Main Board: During this game, players share a main board that will work as a shared state of mancala. On this board, there w...
2 comments
Read more

Power Hungry Pets: Review

Power Hungry Pets:  Review Information: Mechanics:   Player Elimination, Card Game Player Age:  7+  Player Count:  2  - 6 Players Time to Play:  15  Minutes  Game Designer:   Zwierzaki żądne władzy Game Artist:  Seiji Kanai Publisher : Exploding Kittens Year Published:   2024 Disclaimer:  A review copy for the game was provided by the VR Distribution. Introduction: There have been many variations to the classic microgame Love Letter , and Power Hungry Pets is Exploding Kitten's twist on this classic. In the game, you are aiming to win multiple rounds by having the highest-valued card at the end of the game or by eliminating all the other players.  Game Anatomy: Each card will display a value from 0 to 10. This value determines the card’s strength when comparing against opposition. The deck is made up of 21 cards, the lower cards populate more in the deck such as value 1 has five copies, values 2 and 3 have three copi...
13 comments
Read more

Exit - Adventures on Catan Scenario:

Exit - Aventures onCatan Scenario: Information: Mechanics:  Cooperative, Escape Game Player Age:  10+ Player Count:  1 - 4 Players Game Designer:  Inka Brand, Markus Brand Game Artist:  Martin Hoffmann, Claus Stephan BGG Weight:  2.00 Publisher:  Kosmos, Asmodee Time to Play:  45- 90 Minutes  Year Published:  2025 Disclaimer:  A review copy for the game was provided by Asmodee Introductions: Exit is an escape game franchise with one of the largest catalogues. Players will solve various puzzles that interact with all elements of the game including cards, flyers, the rulebook, and even the game box. Each puzzle will have a symbol linked to it and result in three digits that need to be entered on the decoder disk in a certain order. Once all the riddles have been solved, the players have solved the Exit game. Game Anatomy: Riddle Cards: The game will tell players when to interact with these cards. In doing so, the card...
2 comments
Read more