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Witches

Witches against witches against mages

The game simulates the power struggle between witches, enacted with cards and for the Fire Points on some of the cards. You take tricks and want to avoid Fire Points if possible; but if you manage to collect all Fire Points of a round, you can assign them to other players. If someone collects 70 or more Fire Points you win with fewest of them.

The game features character cards with four symbols for four people, colors and landscapes, each suit with values 1 to 14, some of the cards are Fire cards and are worth 1 Fire  Point each; there are also four mages of value 0 and no color. All witches of value 11 and the Queen of Pygmies, value 12, have special abilities.

All cards are dealt evenly to players and you hand cards to another player, in different numbers and to different players, depending on the number of players.

Then you play a card in turn, you must follow suit and there are special rules for mages. When all cards of a round are played, you score Fire Points in your tricks. Witches give or take away Fire Points. If you cast a Fire Spell, that is, have all Fire Cards plus the Water Witch and/or The Pygmy Queen in your tricks, you transfer those points to all other players. In the last round of the game you can deduct them from your score in order to win. When someone collects 70 fire points, the game ends and you win with fewest Fire Points.

Witches is a standard trick-taking game similar to many others, but interesting due to the special abilities of witches and mages and the necessity to well assess your cards as regards to the chance to collect all fire cards and the Water Witch or Queen of Pygmies.

Players: 3-5

Age: 10+

Time: 45+

Designer: Ken Fisher, Joe Andrews

Artist: Franz Vohwinkel

Price: ca. 8 Euro

Publisher: Amigo Spiele 2014

Web: www.amigo-spiele.de

Genre: Cards, trick taking

Users: For families

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: no

Comments:

Standard mechanisms

Thematically based on Wizard

Good assessment of card hand is essential

As is good knowledge of the special cards

Compares to:

All trick-taking games with additional goals

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0