Enchanters Darklands: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Head to Head, Drafting, Modular, Engine Building
Player Age: 12+ Player Count: 1 - 4 Players Time to Play: 30 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Rafał Cywicki, Jacek GołębiowskiPublisher: Mythic GamesYear Published: 2022BGG Weight: 1.89Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.
Player Age: 12+
Game Designer: Rafał Cywicki, Jacek Gołębiowski
Introduction:
Enchanters have returned for a supernatural expansion that brings with it the frightening kingdoms of Ghosts, Trolls, Vampires, Witches, Werewolves, and Woodfolk.
Villages, Overlords, Classes and Banners:
New banners and classes have been included to give new starting abilities for their matching kingdoms.
Both villages and overlords are added so players can enjoy the kingdom's particular differentiation when playing.
One of my favourites would be Stinkhorn Swamp, which gives an interesting way to heal during the game by passing monsters on the journey track.
Kingdoms:
Ghosts:
Ghosts have a strong favour for enhancements over items, with all the monsters ignoring all printed attacks and defence on items. The larger monsters give you a fighting chance by counting your printed value on enhancements one more time or with the dragon, its attack and health are decreased by the amount of weapons the player has.
Ghost items and enhancements re-use an old mechanic that shouldn't surprise anyone. The large majority of their items and enhancements have an ability that can be activated once the card is buried.
Trolls:
Trolls are focused on the journey track. The monsters will often give negatives like losing crystals or gaining wounds if you purchase something and pass them on the track.
The items and enhancements make it easier for the adventurers to go on a perilous journey by gaining crystals and life by passing certain card types on the tracks (often monsters).
Vampires:
The vampires items and enhancements are cursed and will give out wounds. This development of wounds will then translate to give the vampire monsters stronger attack and health.
Even though the dragon in this kingdom will give you another 10 wounds, it is worth it because they are worth a large amount of points. Plus, you can always heal wounds after the fact.
Werewolves:
The cards in this kingdom work off the new token, gaining the chosen favour of either a new moon or a full moon. All monsters except the dragon immediately flip the token when they enter.
This is much more challenging for the player to control the moon state though as they have to flip with one item and enhancement and the card will immediately be buried in their stack afterwards. So players have to be very considerate about when to flip the token in their favour. They don't want to be too reliant on these bonuses as the Moon Dragon cancels the token while on the track.
Witches:
Witches have strong minor abilities on their items, however, it has a large cost of discarding one of your defeated monsters into the graveyard. This is remedied by the frog enhancement that buries a frog under the player's monster pile every time they defeat a monster, allowing for a growing pool of sacrificial frogs for witch brew.
The easier monsters give you either a crystal or health at the start of your turn, whereas the stronger monsters will turn at least two player’s (always including you) top monster into a frog.
Woodfolk:
The Woodfolk is an interesting kingdom. The abilities are activated by being the player with the most or least of certain properties such as wounds, shields, crystals, and items.
The dragon of the kingdom can help with your aim for the most as they will count as two monsters, two items, and two enhancements.
Final Thoughts:
- Fun new kingdoms.
- The dividers are only vertically matching the new big box, not the original large box that came with overlords.
- Hard to differentiate the new moon and the full moon on the token during play.
- The card quality of the villages and overlords doesn't match the original core set quality.
- Interesting mechanical themes.
- Same great art.
Enchanters Darklands is a great addition to the modular drafting game with six new kingdoms that encompass the supernatural side of the world. Besides possibly the vampire kingdom, none of these kingdoms are heavily take-that which is how I preferred the game. Instead, they each focus on their unique puzzle. My particular favourite would be the Trolls that give reasons to either pass a card on the track or make players focus on earlier cards if there are monsters they can't or don't want to pass. The Werewolves are also a favourite as they have bonuses for both the new moon and full moon, and players have to determine which side of the moon they want to favour. If you are looking for an expansion to make Enchanters an instant hit over any spooky alternative, this is a fun and refreshing addition to an already great game.
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