Fantasy Realms: The Cursed Hoard

THIS WAS A GIFT THAT WAS REQUESTED BY THE RECEIVER. tHEY WERE ALREADY FAMILIEAR WITH IT AND WERE HAPPY TO GET IT

Summary: Fantasy Realms by Bruce Glassco and produced by WizKids is a resource replacement card game for the entry-level crowd. The game seats three – six players, ages 14+, and the typical game runs about 20 minutes. While the rules say 14+, I believe that with a little adult help you could get down to 8+ for the age category for the game.On to the Dr Games’ Criteria …GO/NO GO Criterion• Complexity: (GO) it is the perfect level of complexity. Cards are combinations of: suit, bonuses, and penalties. Every player has seven cards. He or she has to decide to draw, take a faceup card, or discard one card.• Balanced: (GO ) . The game is perfectly balanced. The cards are randomly distributed.• Chance (GO) the chance level is appropriate. Anybody has a chance to win. The cards are randomly distributed, but logic and experience are helpful.• Clarity: (GO) the rules are very clear with nice examples, and there are two completes goring examples.• Reasonable Time: (GO) . The game ends. As soon as there are 10 cards face up. With six players, could be in less than five minutes. However, in 10 run-throughs of the game, the average game did last about 20 minutes.Bonus Criteria• Social: the game is lighthearted, and, although there are no special rules for socialization, the spirit of the game encourages it.• Unique/Interesting Mechanics: the combination of suits, events, bonuses, penalties is very innovative and encourages storytelling.• Informed: not so much with this game.• Rewards Throughout: return you potentially get closer to that killer hand, but scoring occurs at the end.

So for reference, my gaming group will play games like Terraforming Mars, Gloomhaven, Camel-Up and Scythe, and enjoy it. This is just such a great addition to the cycle though, as it is simple enough to play, strategic enough to get everyone engaged, and changes up enough where it doesn't feel too repetitive. When it comes to complexity, the age on it is probably correct due to understanding and pursuit of combos to get a lot of points. While I think slightly younger individuals or even slower adults could understand the game, I think they would feel a little overwhelmed or intimidated when put up against a group that is just really going out the gate ready to combo and shift strategies. It's not difficult to learn though. I loved it~!

This slightly complicated game of pass-the-card and count-the-score seems pretty polarizing. On the one hand you are basically drawing cards, passing them around, keeping the ones you want, and counting up your score. And if you are a person who loves theme and you just concentrate on score, well that's going to seem pretty bland. IF on the other hand, you get really into the theme (my princess was eaten by a dragon, the storm put out the fire, my wizard found the wand) you might get REALLY into the fun combos of cards which are the life blood of this game. At any rate, I suggest telling your card values like you are telling a fantasy story, because that's a lot more interesting than saying "My 80 got reduced to 20, my 100 got reduced to zero, I comboed my 20's into a 50 and got a bonus of 15".All that said, there's a lot of (basic) math at the end of the "game" at which point you are going to get confused/frustrated/a headache if you aren't good at algebra. And by that I mean a new player (who hated the game after one play) said "I have 80 for these three and then I subtract for this card and then-" and just when they THOUGHT they had it figured out I pointed out that their creature card ate their army/princess and all those cards were worth nothing. Talk about frustration. You MUST get your order of operations straight while adding up the numbers and calculating combos with this game. If that's fun to you and you like fantasy stuff this is a must-own. If you despise basic math and passing around and choosing cards to keep, avoid this one like the plague.It's a keeper for me and my wife because basic math doesn't scare us and two player games are hard to find. My only wish is that it was "Space Opera Galaxy" instead of "Fantasy Realms" as I'm more of a scifi/space opera kinda guy. I'm also torn between four and five stars so my four and half gets rounded down to four.

I have been waiting patiently for this game for a while after seeing it very positively reviewed on Dice Tower a few months back. It was well worth the wait. In many ways the game reminds me of a mini-Dominion. In that the game is about making combinations that score the most points. The game plays very quickly and to be honest the scoring takes as long if not longer than the game. It takes a couple of play throughs to get the hang of the game and to catch on what cards do what. Just a couple games in my son figured out a 100pt. combination on me. It is a filler game that packs a lot of punch. Simple to learn, the card quality is ok, the art is ok, but more importantly the game is fun. Trying to figure out what card to take from the discard pile or what card to discard from your hand becomes more interesting as you continue to play games. They also give you a nice score pad to keep track of everything. The directions are pretty easy to follow but I recommend watching the Man vs. Meeple for the best review and online explanation. There is also a nice two player variant to the game. I enjoy this type of game very much, small, easy to learn, but tons of replayability I highly recommend this game.

I really like this game. There is not too much to it. Good for people who are not the best sports. No stealing or trickery- just try to build your best hand. Cards interact in unique ways. Great ice breaker for the beginning of a game night.