These are placed above the player board. As with the original game, this expansion brings a lot of new stuff that looks absolutely amazing. Now let me explain how setup works with these new additions. This basic deck contains ten cards, of which you’ll draw an initial five, work through your turn by playing those, discard them all them all and draw a new hand of five, remembering to shuffle your discard pile to form your new deck when needed. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle Cooperative Deck Building Card Game | Official Harry Potter Licensed Merchandise | Harry Potter Board Game | Great Gift for Harry Potter Fans | Harry Potter Movie artwork at Amazon.com. The other two cards define the role that hero is to play in the game. One side of the board is even printed as the Marauder’s Map, which doesn’t impact the game, but adds some cool flavor. Just know that there are several new card types that will be introduced as well as some new tokens and a few other items of interest. https://jlnelson73.wordpress.com/2016/11/01/harry-potter-hogwarts-battle-review/. It sounds simple, but each villain is tailored to make the heroes’ lives difficult. At the same time, this is the first time the players will have to take on 3 Villains at a time (before Voldemort comes out). I am thoroughly enjoying it and look forward to many more games in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. In Hogwarts Battle, between 2 and 4 players will take on the roles of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and/or Neville to face up against the various villains from the books and film. If I use all 7 decks, do I also include Horcruxes, or do events replace them? You want to beat this game so you can see the next one. Also, it'll give me your soul. I like how the new cards work with the game. Just kidding! Ron gets Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans (gain 1 Influence, gain 1 damage token for each Ally played that turn). All of the Hero cards get an upgrade to their abilities in Game 7, making them much more powerful. Yes, each character has 10 health points, and while death is impossible getting reduced to zero stuns the player, forcing them to add a token to the current location, discard half their hand and then get rid of any Influence or Attack tokens they have. Published by: USAopoly In Hogwarts Battle, all of the cards are printed with which Game they originate in, so it is possible to walk back the game to its original state should you so choose or if you find a group that would like to try it at an easier state. But let’s get back to the gameplay, specifically the actual act of deck building. Next the player resolves the villains and creature abilities by following each card’s text. As the players progress through the Games, they’ll unlock even more devious Events to make the game harder. 10/10 for the rule book? Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. ( Log Out /  It can result in a downward spiral really early on that is difficult to recover from. Needless to say, with all the great pieces and components included with this, fans of Harry Potter will love the look and designs of this expansion. They then discard any unused tokens and draw up to 5 cards. It is possible the Dark Arts Event or villain will not cause anything negative to happen to you. That life tracker starts on the 10. If you’ve beaten the base game and really want a challenge, you can also try the Monster’s Book of Monsters expansion. For everyone else, the difficulty may be a bit too much. Set the dark mark, damage, and influence tokens within reach of the players. Unlike Dominion, there are no restrictions to the number of card plays (actions) or purchases, so long as you meet the basic requirements. For Game 1, a single villain is turned over and placed in one of the three slots on the bottom of the board. For example, a player with a hand of five Alohamora spells (granting 1 influence each) can then acquire a single card with an influence cost of 5, two cards with a total influence cost of 5 or less, and so on. ), the downside is that if you specialize too deeply, you will lose the game. It’s a rock solid deck-builder that makes great use of popular IP. They are then able to move on to the next box. If you thought that the original game was easy, then you’ll be excited for the challenge of this one. It is for 2-4 players. The available spells, allies, and items are shuffled and placed in the appointed Hogwarts cards location in the market. By the time you’ve opened the last box the stack of Hogwarts cards is huge, and there is some nice discussion to be had about what cards each player should grab and where that extra Influence token should go. Questions tagged [harry-potter-hogwarts-battle] Ask Question The harry-potter-hogwarts-battle tag has no usage guidance. As far as I know, this mechanic is unique among the cooperative deck-building games on the market and I’m hoping more will come out that innovate upon this mechanic in their own unique ways. The game plays much like it did with the original game, except with a few minor changes. For those of us that may have struggled a bit with the original, then you’ll really have some moments of frustration with this one. ( Log Out /  After all, only 2 players are splitting the damage from the villains and Dark Arts Events, so they should stun more often. For the most part, you can resolve these villain abilities at the same time, but every now and then, you’ll find yourself having to pay close attention to what happens first. But… really? Speaking of which, if she’s used as a player character, her ally card is removed from the Hogwarts deck. Once the inevitable argument over who gets to play as what character has been resolved via good old-fashioned violence you can sit down to the game proper. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle - A Cooperative Deck-Building Game. I also really enjoyed the fact that you replace Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville with older versions of themselves. You lose if the villains manage to seize control over all of the locations. The new mechanic in this box is Voldemort, which is a special villain played face up at the bottom of the Villain deck. Better yet are the discussions that come from deciding who to deal with first. Because there are no ways to remove the Dark Mark tokens from the locations in Game 1, players have to invest heavily into their ability to damage villains in order to win the game. Like with most deck builders, the player will play the cards from their hand to gain resources and generate effects. Game 3 introduces hero abilities above and beyond the starting 10 card decks. Review copy supplied free of charge by Asmodee UK. Otherwise they fall prey to a Dark Arts Event of Villain that completely negates their specialization. Game 5 is where things get serious. This mechanic works really well with Hogwarts Battle because of the Harry Potter theme, but I expect to see something similar show up more often, since Legacy style games are all the rage at the moment. It’s that simple. I’d give it a 5, at best. Players: 2-4 I disliked the final couple of boxes because the fun, fairly quick game had disappeared and in its place was this 2-hour long slog through a bunch of villains I had already beaten several times over. Once resources have been gained, they may be used to attack villains with and buy Hogwarts cards with. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter and cooperative board games, you owe it to yourself to try Hogwarts Battle at least once. This slows down setup a bit if you’re like me and like your tokens in their own piles. Good for you. No Nargles were harmed during the writing of this review. So what all does this expansion add to the game? The first box naturally contains all the cards you need to get started on this deck-building adventure, and after that each new box adds more cards into the mix, more villains to fight and even new mechanics. But at the same time, it misleads players in setting priorities for card purchases. This expansion adds 4 new boxes of content to expand the game with, including a new playable character, Luna Lovegood. Everyone I know who has played Hogwarts Battle has fallen in love with it and several have even elected to purchase their own copies to play with their spouses and friends. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. If you’re interested, I’ve put my thoughts on individual Game boxes in spoiler brackets below. Yes, in a 2-player game, there are fewer people to share the damage with. That’s not to say that the expansion is bad. I’m very impressed with everything here. While Hogwarts Battle uses the same basic mechanics of the original deck-builders, there are some key fundamental differences that make them more approachable. Once all Dark Arts and villain abilities are resolved, players can then play the cards in their hand. For example, Gryffindor gets 3 influence (money) faces on it’s die, making it the go-to when you need a little extra cash. The Game 5 Lord Voldemort card is placed face up on the bottom of the stack. Intimidated yet? The Dark Arts event is resolved first, followed by the Encounter. Neville gets an additional healing card that can be played on any hero, and his Rememberall, which gives him additional Influence if it is forced to be discarded. However, while Hogwarts Battle is a largely generic deck-builder we also have to consider exactly who the game is made for, and to me the typical yet very well executed mechanics mean this is firmly intended for Harry Potter fans who have never picked up a board game other than Monopoly or Scrabble. Each player gets a player mat that tracks their life and explains (in very small letters on the bottom) what happens if they get stunned. There are also no mechanics to remove the starter cards from your deck, which people familiar with the deck-building genre will find frustrating, or to clear/wipe the market if it is full of high-cost cards and you only have your starting deck. The Location cards are placed face up, in order on the upper left of the board. In some cases, Encounters will trigger certain effects during this final step.