I got this game for my son for Christmas. It has 1,303 ratings on Amazon for an average of 4.5 stars. The game retails for $40-$50 USD.
I've been considering getting it for a while and played our first game this week.
You can play with up to four players with two being the minimum. Unlike many larger games, the game plays really well with only two players. Although four players would likely be more fun. All players work together in a cooperative fashion to defeat Voldemort and his allies.
The game includes seven different missions, each adding cards, items, and rules to the previous box. So far we have only played the first mission which I found fairly easy but enjoyable.
The first mission consists of fighting Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, and finally Quirinus Quirrell. The goal is to defeat the story villains before they capture the missions locations.
For mission one, you set the board up like this. The current locations (2 for story one) go in the top left corner. To the right of them are the Dark Arts cards. Below the location cards are the villains, and below that is the current villain you are fighting. I believe future missions you will be fighting multiple villains at once, for Game 1 you only fight them one at a time. To the far right are the Hogwarts cards which are cards you can purchase to strengthen your deck.
The game starts with each player choosing a hero, there are four available heroes and unfortunately someone is going to be stuck with Neville if you play with four people.
A turn consists of first drawing a Dark Arts card and doing whatever the card says. Some examples you will find below.
Once you have resolved the Dark Arts card you then look at the Villain and see if there are any applicable reactions as a result of the effects from the Dark Arts card. For example there are some Dark Arts cards that require you to put a villain token on a location. If Malfoy is your current villain, you lose 2 health whenever a villain token is added. Crabbe and Goyle you lose health if you are forced to discard a card, and finally Quirinus Quirrell you just lose health every round regardless of what happens.
Each hero starts with their own deck of 10 cards specific to their hero. After resolving the villain's ability, you then can attack the villain and purchase additional Hogwarts cards based on the amount of resources you have. Each player starts their turn with 5 of their cards face up, and you add up the lightning bolts (damage), coins (resource points), and the heals (hearts) and allocate them as you please.
Looking at the cards above, you have a total of two resource points with the potential of three resource points if you are forced to discard a card and choose to discard the Rememberall. You can choose to apply up to two damage tokens on the villain, or heal for up to four hearts. Two of those hearts can be used on any of the heroes in play.
Resource points are used to purchase Hogwart cards on the board. When purchasing a card they are placed in your discard pile and not available until you go through your deck of cards and reshuffle. Some Hogwarts cards you purchase allow you to place new items, allies, or spells on the top of your deck which allow you to use them on your next turn. Once you have purchased cards, applied damage, and healed you discard all the cards you used and draw up cards until you have five cards face up in front of you. The next hero takes their turn with the same chain of events. If you defeat a villain there is a boon for doing so, usually in the form of healing health or removing a villain token from the current location.
Typically location cards support 4 villains before they capture that location and you advance to a new location. For game one you start at Hogwarts station and proceed to the Mirror of Erised if you get defeated at Hogwarts Station. If they claim all four villain spots at Mirror of Erised, then you lose.
The first mission is fairly easy, and the second mission requires you to fight the same villains in addition to three more villains (one I know is the Basilisk). In the movies you continue to go against Malfoy and Crabbe & Goyle so this makes sense, I am not sure how engaging with Quirinus Quirrell again plays out as that is not in line with the books or the movie. I haven't read the rules yet so I am not sure how it plays out, but I know you have to fight all six.
Some of the more expensive Hogwarts cards you can purchase are allies and offer better benefits than the cheaper cards.
Once you have purchased a card and placed it into your deck, you do not need to spend points or anything to use them, you just need to draw them as one of your five faced up cards. There are some situations where you will be able to draw extra cards based on other cards and defeating villains.
The goal is to add powerful cards to your deck so you draw better cards than your starter deck. This is similar how the game Star Realms plays, but in Star Realms there are a lot of cards that allow you to discard cards so you can remove the lower quality cards from your deck increasing your chances of drawing better cards. So far I haven't seen that mechanic yet in this game.
I believe Game 4 (so I hear) includes Dice and other games may include other objects as well.
We will be playing Game 2 this weekend and will see how the game progresses, but so far I really like it and think the additive missions will be a lot more fun than the first mission.
Game 1 only takes about 30 minutes to complete but I suspect the other missions will be around an hour or more as they get larger and more difficult.
If you are a Harry Potter fan, I highly recommend giving this game a go. If you just like good games that involve a lot more, then I highly recommend playing this game.
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All images are from Amazon