Our Review

When In the Atlantean Empire,

Mage Knight

Do As the Atlanteans Do … And Conquer ’em!

Thirty-two years ago the Atlantean Empire was ripped apart due to a magic-accident, caused by unwary treasure hunters. Terrible magical powers were released, permeated all parts of this ravaged world, and to top it all hostile forces such as the evil orcs and the even more dangerous Draconum (that's pidgin Latin and means probably "extreme magical dragons") took the opportunity to overrun the countries of the destroyed empire. But now awe-inspiring warriors are coming through magic portals in order to restore some order. Since they command witchcraft as well as less mysterious martial arts, they were called "Mage Knights" by the ignorant peasants, but in fact they were sent here by the alien Council of the Void. This Council of allegedly divine beings pursues their own devious plans, and sometimes even play off Mage Knight against Mage Knight. Does this really bide well for the inhabitants of the formerly Atlantean realms?

That's about the background story to the current adventure game of Mage Knight™. Originally released in 2000 as the first successful Collectible Miniatures Game, WizKids ended their support after some time and many expansion sets. By constant demand of avid collectors and players (and, we would guess, investors) now comes a new release as (Collectible) Card Game, RPG and – main concern of this article – as a board game. Jihlava games author Vlaada Chvátil ("Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization", "Galaxy Truckers," "Dungeon Lords" et al.) wrote the rules, renowned artist J. "J-Is-For-Genius" Lonnee is responsible for the illustrations. This test report is based on the English-language edition, a German version has been published by Pegasus.

To invade the world of "Mage Knight™ Board Game", choose one of four characters (with Arythea the Blood Cultist, there is even included a female Mage Knight) and follow the instructions of the "Game Walkthrough". It is in fact advisable to peruse first this more practical introductory manual (which is not shorter, though, than the actual Rulebook – both consist of twenty densely and small printed pages), although it does no harm to study the detailed rules at the same time or immediately afterwards. The "Game Walkthrough" is based on the initial scenario, "First Reconnaissance", in which, apart from combat of hero against hero (you still may fight one another, if all agree) and the conquest of a city, all game moves are present. Each further game may confidently be played using a different scenario out of eleven given adventures. Since this is essentially a strategy game that just happens to be located in a fantasy world, the mechanisms may be explained quite without using magic. Depending on the chosen scenario, the initial playing field is either three or four (cardboard, approximately star-shaped) Map Tiles showing seven different landscapes in hexagonal fields. While the Mage Knights explore the continent of Atlantis and fulfill certain sub-tasks, the board is constantly growing as well (reveal and place more Map Tiles). Upon successfully completing these tasks, the heroes gain rewards of various kinds. They earn Fame points, increase (or decrease) their reputation, get spells and mana(-crystals), recruit troops and gain new skills. There are slightly different winning conditions for each. There is even one quest where it is enough to win for the Mage Knight to be on the correct hex-field at the end of the last turn. In principle, though, at the end of the last turn you count points of several disciplines (fame track, greatest knowledge, greatest leader, greatest conqueror and the like; negative, on the other hand, will be the greatest beating, meaning having received the highest number of wounds), and who accumulates most points for his character is the winner.

The game is played in rounds named Day and Night. Within these larger units, the players take turns, the length of which depends on the number of cards played from their hand. At the start of the game, each Mage Knight has 16 Action Cards – 15 are identical for all characters, one card shows a unique skill or quality of the according Mage Knight. With increasing fame (marked on the Fame And Reputation Board) you gain new Deed Cards (action cards, spells and artifacts, but also, less pleasant, Wound cards) for your Character’s deck, and thus gradually increase the duration of the rounds (day and night). The round ends, if any character no longer can (or does not want to) play out Deed Cards. In order to make that not too predictable there are some special alterations (as when reaching a higher level) making it possible to exceed the general hand limit of five cards.

A Character’s turn, if he does not pass or uses a special card-independent feature of certain hex-fields, consists of – in that order – movement (which can also be omitted), and one action. Action Cards give the Characters movement and on the other hand actions of various kinds. Moving from space to space (hex-fields) costs movement points varying by each type of terrain shown on the Map Tiles (there are sometimes even differences between expenditure during day or night). Each card (except for Wound Cards, which only serve to clog up the players’ hands) gives at least one movement point, even if no movement point number is printed onto it. The choice of actions is rather small: attack, block an attack, heal or interact with the populace on some fields (for which influence points are needed, basically provided by action cards, optionally increased by reputation, skills and other cards).

There are Mana-Dice as well (the number of which depends on the number of participating characters) in up to six colors (white, blue, green and red for elemental magic powers, black and yellow or gold with special features at night or day). At the start of their turn each Mage Knight may choose one die (skills or cards may increase this number), use the powers provided by its face-up color (mainly to activate or amplify played cards), and then roll the die and put it back again into the dice pool. It is not uncommon that by the re-rolling of the di(c)e a color appears, which renders the die to no more use in that round (black by day, yellow / gold at night).

Combat is regulated in a simple way, but often requires lengthy calculations and experimenting. Fighting monsters or the conquest of fortresses and Wizard Towers is managed, no surprise here, by playing cards. If you succeed in overcoming the opponent’s defenses in the first phase of combat, the ranged combat (or assault) phase, all is over. However, this requires exactly matching Action Cards (ranged or, respectively, siege attack). Moreover, their points value may not be increased by random cards as usual, only by previously recruited units, and only if they provide the matching attack skill. Fellow players are encouraged to watch closely, because it is easy, even without ill intent, to miscalculate when adding and subtracting the various bonuses (Fortified Bonus, Double Bonus gain, resistance to fire or ice, and quite a few more). When skipping the ranged combat phase, either because no matching cards or only too few points are available, the enemies make their attack. Depending on the location, antagonists may range from marauding Orcs (green cardboard markers) to magic golems (purple) or even Draconum (red or – oh dear – white markers). Now the Mage Knight has to defend against the attack (block action; points may be increased by means of random cards; of course there are loads of possible bonuses for either side, magical and otherwise), and take in any injuries. Then follows the close combat phase (attack cards of all types as well as the usual bonuses and penalties). If the Mage Knight wins, there are rewards (always more fame, sometimes reputation gain or loss, occasionally something else, such as artifacts or spells), if he loses, he must retire to his starting space before the combat. Special forms of combat are the exploration of monster dens or dungeons, other adventurous places – draw more, in most cases stronger enemies (markers) according to the location markers placed there – or cities, the biggest challenge, because they are the most heavily fortified places.

Further actions are healing and interacting with the population or with garrisons of fortresses and Wizard Towers to recruit troops, buy healing and spells, or raiding the odd village or monastery (which brings considerable loss of reputation, but you can get hold of great treasures).

Although pointed out in the rules several times that the player whose turn comes next may well plan his actions during the turn of the current player, the game often comes to a halt. Fellow players have to be watched closely and, moreover, in the first and usually in the second round also, the Mage Knights keep together quite close on the playing field, so that, unless you want to have your Mage Knights beat up one another on every turn, your actions during your turn are influenced very much by the actions of the others.

The rule books are rich in detail, but rather poorly structured and, unfortunately, not entirely free from complicated or ambiguous formulations. The "Game Walkthrough" has been written in accordance with the development of events and encounters in the basic scenario (the Map Tiles are numbered, in "First Reconnaissance" they are not to be shuffled), but it is hard to quickly find the right answer to simple questions ("Whoever is to attack now – the Orcs or I ?"). Unfortunately, there is not any kind of index in the rulebook(s). Games publishers by now apparently expect from players to have on-line rules always available on their computers while playing, and therefore can easily browse through them any time. Well, there are still people around who do not like playing that way.

The biggest drawback for us was, though, the surprisingly large random factor, given "Mage Knight™ Board Game" is promoted as a strategy game. Not only the new Map Tiles to be explored in almost all scenarios are to be drawn from the tile deck and placed relatively arbitrarily (just text and some symbols must be aligned) – that's fine and makes it possible to play an adventure several times, each under slightly different conditions. Even newly-to-be-acquired action cards, spells, and Mage Knights’ skills are drawn at random. This is particularly disturbing when planning for one's own hand of cards. Instead of choosing a card hand for the round (day or night) – still a lot may go out of plan there –, one must fear and hope that in the next turn the matching card pops up to enable an attack on the stupid monsters on the neighboring space, while the more fortunate fellow player is recruiting Super Ninja Warrior Monks for the third time. Considered by itself, the rule-consistent option to change your mind and take back any cards or actions "as long as no new information was revealed" (for example, placing a new Map Tile) seems rather friendly, but leads in any case in the first few games to almost endless playing time. Three hours seems to be the absolute minimum, even for the simplest scenario.

The game components (including over 450 cards, cardboard marker chips and Map Tiles, 54 beautiful and colorful crystals that you’d better never put next to the jar of jelly-babies, and four pretty and pre-painted hero miniature figures, and as many rather big city models) are quite nice, not over-done but detailed enough. The printing, though, even on the markers and inside the rule booklets is way too small. Even important icons are most of the time hard to distinguish from each other.

Whoever is not into long nights with short phases of action and longer periods of brooding about each and every purchase of equipment or travelling slowly to nondescript locations of no individuality at all, half-heartedly flavored with some fantasy elements, may safely skip this game. On the other hand, whoever is intrigued by constantly thinking and re-thinking meticulously different tactics, is not deterred by the sudden and unpredictable emergence of action cards in his own hand, and is more than willing to try this out in a world inhabited by magic monsters and monk warriors (and at least without magma eruptions or mutants), will love "Mage Knight™ Board Game" for sure.

Martina & Martin Lhotzky, Marcus Steinwender

Players: 1-4

Age: 14+

Time: 180+

Designer: Vlaada Chvátil

Art: J. Lonnee, Milan Vavroň

Price: ca. 60 Euro

Publisher: WizKids 2011

Web: www.pegasus.de

Genre: Strategic fantasy game

Users: For experts

Special: 1 player

Version: en

Rules: de en

In-game text: yes

Comments:

High element of chance

Copious rules

Beautiful components

Long duration

Compares to:

Runebound, Warrior Knights

Other editions:

Mage Knight, Pegasus

My rating: 3

Martina, Martin und Markus:

Drawn-out but very attractively made strategy game in a fantasy setting, unfortunately governed by too many chance elements.

Chance (pink): 3

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0