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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.

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