For a cooperative deckbuilding game based on a children’s book franchise, the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle game is impressively vicious. While gameplay begins rather simply, the challenge quickly ramps up and, over the seven-game course of the campaign, becomes a worthwhile endeavor for even hardboiled, experienced gamers like yours truly. And Lucius Malfoy really needs to die, like, right now! The basics of the game should be familiar to anybody who’s played common-pool deckbuilding games like Ascension or Tyrants of the Underdark. Each player takes on the role of a hero of the Harry Potter series: Harry, Ron, Hermione, or Neville Longbottom. They get a starting deck of 10 cards, which are pretty similar, but vary slightly among the different heroes – Ron is slightly better on offense, Neville is a healer, Hermione is able to use more spells, and Harry takes on a leadership/support role. Cards generally offer one of two different currencies: ‘influence’ (money), used to buy new cards in the Hogwarts pool to add to your deck, and ‘attack’, used to damage the villains on the board. You usually play all of your cards that you can from your hand, using the influence or attack tokens they generate to buy whatever new cards you can afford from the common pool and attack a villain, then empty your currency pools and draw a new hand. If your deck runs out, you reshuffle your discard to use it. If this mechanic doesn’t sound familiar, then you should familiarize yourself with it by starting on Game 1. If it does, then congratulations – you’re one of the people the rulebook suggests start with Game 3, and I second that suggestion. One important note is that while a player’s influence and attack pool empties at the end of their own turn, it does not during other players’ turns, and it’s important to coordinate giving bonuses to your allies for maximum effect. Each game has a deck of locations, placed in order, that our villains are trying to control. At the beginning of the turn, the villain(s) in play will cause a card to be revealed from the Dark Arts deck, doing some manner of harm to the game state – forcing discards, doing damage to the heroes, or (most commonly) adding a control token to the current location, bringing it one step closer to doom. After that, each villain will resolve his or her card effect, which will do some form of additional mischief. Once the villains have all resolved their effects, the hero whose turn it is will play their cards, generating influence and attack tokens, buy any of the six cards available in the Hogwarts pool with their influence, and place attack tokens on a villain in play. If the damage to a villain equals its hit points, the villain is discarded (usually giving the heroes a bonus of some kind) and the next one is revealed. If the heroes manage to defeat all of the villains before they can take control of all the locations, the heroes win. Otherwise, the game is a loss and you’ll have to try again. Those are the basics of the game. However, where Hogwarts Battle really shines is in the progression of the campaign – once you beat a game, you open up the box for the next one, adding additional cards and mechanics as the villains grow stronger and the heroes improve at magic. Experienced versions of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville each have their own special powers that reward teamwork and careful strategizing, and you will need to take full advantage of them if you want to defeat the more powerful villains that come in the later sets. Each box reveals new twists and wrinkles, so the game stays fresh and interesting with repeat play. The production value of the game from USAopoly is quite impressive. When you first open the box, it resembles one of Harry Potter’s magic chests of holding, containing more stuff than could possibly actually fit in it. Each box for each game is clearly indicated and has instructions for how that game is setup differently from the last. The control tokens, rather than being generic cardboard, are beautiful metal Death Eater skulls. After play, the game smartly includes dividers for keeping each set separate so that it can be recreated in the future. There’s no question, the main draw to this game is the theme, and it’s dripping with it – the villains are appropriately easy to hate, the locations are familiar, and it’s great fun watching the heroes gain power and allies over the course of the campaign. But there’s still definitely a game here, and even experienced players will find moments of tension battling the forces of the Dark Arts. Fast Facts:
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