Whirling Witchcraft: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Drafting, Engine Building, Variable Player Powers
Player Age: 14+ Player Count: 2 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 15 - 30 Minutes
Game Designer: Erik Andersson Sundén
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Erik Andersson Sundén
Rundown:
Welcome witches and wiccans to Whirling Witchcraft where you are trying to brew numerous recipes to then overflow your opponent’s workbench. Players can only hold a certain amount of ingredients of each type on their workbench. If any ingredient overflows, the opponent that sent them the ingredients will gain that overflow as a point in their circle. When a player has overfilled the workbench of their nemesis (player on the right) by a minimum of five ingredients they have won the game.
During each turn, players will simultaneously choose a recipe to play. This recipe can increase the arcana value, special effects that occur on even numbers (2, 4 and 6). The effects which have their own depictions, one will remove ingredients from your work bench (crow), add any ingredient into the cauldron (cauldron), or substitute all of one ingredient on your recipes for free (spell book).
The recipes are completed using a players own ingredients from their workbench which then products other ingredients onto the workbench of their nemesis. These recipes will stay on each players tableau every turn to then create an engine for each player to exploit to best condense their workbench while creating the largest cauldron to pass on.
Alteration:
This is the kind of game that will feel different every time due to the large recipe deck. The deck contains different resource manipulations in the form of recipes.
There are also numerous recipes that can have the input and output of ingredients switched around each turn. The main form of alteration from game to game will be the personality cards. These cards have unique abilities or recipes that gives the player a different start to the game, they also have different starting ingredients on the back of their card so that workbenches don’t have to start out the same.
Production:
The production is perfect for such a quick game. The only downside is that the cauldrons are easily broken as they are only cardboard. A positive for production is the introductory character that is used in any game that has new players, this gives the players a perfect chance to learn the game mechanisms before having to understand optimal timing for their individual abilities or recipes.
Interaction:
Whirling Witchcraft is a highly interactive game as it works on the mechanism of manipulating an opponents board. This is done by receiving ingredients from the player on the left and dishing out ingredients to your player on the right. This is the kind of mechanic that shines at two players as you are directly trying to manage which ingredients you are giving to cause an overflow, while trying not to give them ones that will hinder you.
In the game players are also drafting their hand of recipes each turn. This creating a cycle of questions such as what does this opportunity cost you, is it worth passing the card that could help your opponent or do you use the recipe instead and possibly damaging your own recipe engine you have been developing the whole game.
Determination:
Key Points:
- Easy to learn game, with lots of depth in the decision making.
- Challenging to focus on your engine while also creating difficulties for your opponent.
- The cauldrons can be easily broken when first setting them up.
Reading the rules for Whirling Witchcraft, I was mistaken to think that this game would be too simple. The game is filled with depth in deciding how you want to build your engine, making sure you have the resources to properly channel your engine and making sure you keep giving the player on your right a potent cauldron filled with the ingredients they already have too much of. All of this is wrapped in a package of a quick game with easy to learn rules. Don't let the rules mislead you on it’s depth, this is a great game with puzzling turns and has earnt a Silver Seal of Approval.
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