Quests of Valeria: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Hand Management, Set Collection, Drafting
Player Age: 14+ Player Count: 1 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 20- 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Isaias Vallejo
Game Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski Publisher: Daily Magic GamesYear Published: 2017BGG Weight: 2.21Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Isaias Vallejo
Rundown:
In Quests of Valeria you are trying to complete five quests and gain the most points, as detailed on the quest cards and each players guild master card, by the end of the game. To do this you will be recruiting citizens by discarding the required amount of cards from your hand. From this, quests are completed by discarding the recruited citizens that have the required amount of magic, strength, gold and matching guilds. You only have two actions on your turn that can be used to draw new cards, recruit citizens, complete a quest or reserve quests. As you complete quests and recruit citizens they may give you bonus free actions to be used that turn.
Alteration:
There is a large deck of citizens and each citizen card can be used to either pay for recruiting or be recruited. The main part the keeps the game feeling fresh is that it's a quick game. Because of this you aren't focusing too much on what each citizen does. Instead, you are trying to build combos each possible turn for the free actions and be the most efficient you can with your two given actions. This makes the game continue to feel fresh despite seeing the same citizen cards frequently. Players are focusing on gaining the most actions while still building up their citizens to meet the desired quests.
Production:
The iconography and the art are the same as the other Valeria games, this helps create a shared familiarity with the players that helps them easily get into the game. Everything easily fits into the portable box.
Interaction:
The main interaction between players would be hate drafting, but the board state changes so frequently that this isn't a major issue. Some citizens have negative effects to opponents when played, such as stealing or discarding citizens. This doesn't occur too frequently though and can easily be removed if it is an issue for players. If you think an opposing player is going for the same quest as you, as an action you can reserve one quest at a time to keep the quests away from the others.
Determination:
Pros:
- Quick to learn and play.
- Fun to combo the actions on your turn.
Cons:
- One of the only Valeria games without any expansions.
Firstly, this isn't my favourite Valeria game but it is still a good game that is staying in my collection. Secondly, it has less depth than the other Valeria games but it doesn't aim to be a thinking game, instead, it aims to be a quick combo based game and that is exactly what it delivers on. Ultimately, this is a fun quick game that has a different pacing than other Valeria games. If you enjoy fast games with a way to string multiple actions together than this is a game to check out.
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