Haven Rapid Review:
Information:
Mechanics: Area Control, Set Collection, Hand Management, Push Your Luck
Player Age: 12+ Player Count: 2 PlayersTime to Play: 30 - 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Alf Seegert
Player Age: 12+
Game Designer: Alf Seegert
Rundown:
Haven is an area control game where players are either fighting as a representation of the city or the forest. The goal is to gain the most shrines and control the majority of the area to gain that section as a safe haven. This is done largely by battling over lore tokens that match the three game elementals.
Throughout these battles, players have seekers that have a numerical value. These seeker values cannot exceed the number on the lore token. Otherwise, they will be instantly discarded when combat begins. During combat, there are two values that are compared; weapons and lore. A victory in either of these areas will have different benefits. Weapons will give your control of locations on the map and lore value will let you gain the lore token.
Alteration:
The main alteration comes from who you are versing as this is a highly tactical game that involves keeping the majority in four different possible end scoring bonuses. Each of these majorities can easily change in the blink of an eye. There is also a variant mode with hidden artifacts that will have an effect revealed at the end of the game. Players gain these artifacts by having the same value seeker in each of the three battles. There are five opportunities to get these hidden artifacts, one for each number 0-4 (inclusive).
Production:
The game is filled with the gorgeous art that Red Raven Games is known for thanks to the skills of the artist Ryan Laukat. This art even expands into wonderful scenes on the inside of the box. The rest of the production includes standard cards and tokens and nicer wooden tokens for each faction’s havens.
Interaction:
This is a directly interactive game between two players. You are constantly trying to gain majority control over the map, as well as gain the highest value of lore tokens. This intensity between players comes to a head directly during the combat. Most turns, you are adding or removing your own seekers onto the three lore tokens. Balancing between not exceeding the value on the token while still hold the majority of cards. This majority is battled on two fronts. The first one is simply the lore value where the highest total number gains the lore token, and the highest total strength of each lore element will gain 3 points at the end of the game.
The other part you are fighting for is the shrines on the map. You gain a shrine directly where the elemental is currently standing in if you have the most weapons when the lore token is resolved. Each shrine is worth one point, and if you have the majority of one section, then you gain that haven.
The player with the most havens at the end of the game gains another five points. The flip side with this is that you may want to lose on the weapons because the losing player gets to move the elemental to a new location and plan for a future success.
Determination:
Key Points:
- Easy to set up and tear-down.
- Tense back and forth with constant ties in battle.
- Multiple layers involved in the purpose of each battle.
- Great art and atmosphere.
Haven is a fun back and forth area control game between two players, with the area control not simply being limited to the map. This is one of the games that are easy to play again with months/years in between as the rule-set is easy, but all the challenges come from the combat. Different game strategies will emerge from different players depending on if they are vying for shrines on the map, havens, or the majority in each element. Haven is a game with a memorable rule-set but challenging decision space. If you enjoy two player games with consistent back and forth, then this is an easy recommendation that is elevated by the great art.
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