Enchanters: Rapid Review
Information:
Mechanics: Head to Head, Drafting, Modular, Engine Building
Player Age: 14+ Player Count: 2 - 4 Players Time to Play: 30 - 60 Minutes
Game Designer: Rafał Cywicki, Jacek GołębiowskiGame Artist: Marta Fleter, Tomasz Mroziński, Paweł Niziołek, Bartek RepetowskiPublisher: Mythic Games, GindiYear Published: 2016BGG Weight: 1.9
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Rafał Cywicki, Jacek Gołębiowski
Rundown:
The game of Enchanters has players on a journey to gain the most glory. During the game you will be building an engine consisting of items, enchantment cards and the monsters you have defeated throughout your journey. Each time you purchase/defeat a card, you are covering the previous card of that type and changing the strength, defence and abilities you have. Each card has a small section of abilities or points that will not get covered from this process and is still available for use.
During a turn the player will either rest to activate an ability in the village and discard the oldest card on the journey track or they will journey which has the player spending crystals equal to the distance (and depiction) on the track. These cards consist of an item, enhancement or monster. When monsters are fought on the journey the player requires strength equal to the monsters health in order to be defeated. Damage is gained as wounds equal to any excess damage that the player’s defence doesn't protect. Each wound is worth negative one point at the end of the game.
Whichever player has the most glory at the end of the game from their cards, any possible scoring on the village card and after the wounds are negated is the winner.
Alteration:
In a game players will create the main deck by shuffling kingdoms equal to the player count (four kingdoms with only the cards marked with 2 in the case of two players). These kingdoms will contain 13 monsters of four difficulties with the strongest monster being a dragon, 3 unique items and 3 unique enhancements each appearing twice.
These kingdom decks are where the majority of variability comes from as each deck has its strength/special ability that will aid players in their goals of getting the most glory. Some kingdoms will work off the journey track (Trolls), create new attributes (Slimes and Medusae) or new tokens that will relate to them (Mummies and Werewolves). Other Kingdoms just have specific focuses such as the Unicorns who focus on healing; Troglodytes who unbury cards and return older cards with their abilities to the top of the stack, or Monks who focus on resting.
There are now more than 30 kingdoms over multiple expansions and two base games that will give enough content for the game to remain fresh for a long time.
Process:
As Enchanters is a drafting game there is a high level of interaction between players, this is made even more prominent by the rest action. When players choose to rest, the oldest card on the journey track will be discarded to make way for a new card. Players can purposely rest to remove an opponents desired card. The real core of how interactive the game gets is based on the kingdoms that players chose as some lean heavily into the take-that like the Gladiator which has players directly going against each other in duels.
Improvements:
Every expansion adds more modules that improve the game and give the players more reasons to keep coming back. My two favourite additions are the overlord and the starting banner + class.
An overlord is essentially a boss character with an attack and health value like a normal monster, but who has an ability that activates when a monster or dragon escapes due to a player resting. To fight this overlord players have to take a challenge action which discards the top of the journey deck while also paying a cost. In winning this challenge players gain reward tokens that have activated effects that can stack over multiple tokens and/or score points at the end of the game. Each kingdom has an overlord that matches the theme of the kingdom.
Normally upon starting the game players are given a basic item and enhancement. The Odyssey expansion has added classes and banners that create an asymmetrical starting point/ongoing effect that give players a different focus. These banners and classes are made with each kingdom in the game in mind, so they often have a particular style of play or effect that they lean into.
Determination:
- Amazing Art.
- Players can choose which decks to mix which can determine how the drafting will be.
- The game system keeps expanding the decisions while also expanding the variability.
- The game keeps revealing new drafting options even upon rest.
- The kingdom decks feel unique.
I always enjoy modular games that allow players to choose which mix of abilities or systems they want to include. Drafting is not a game mechanism that often lends itself to this modular nature. Enchanters has broken that mold with this interesting drafting game that at times doesn't even feel like drafting. Each kingdom deck feels unique and presents its own puzzle/theme and the drafting is moving at a constant pace due to the cards becoming cheaper every turn and new cards being presented. Anyone who enjoys engine building games like deck building /hand building games will feel right at home with Enchanters. This is a gem of a game that has its own unique impression of drafting that I can't get enough of. Enchanters is earning a Go-To Golden Seal.
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