Black Rose Wars

BaBalleflassstar6.0

I was initially in love with this game (original rating 9), but after 7-8 games, I felt the randomness in quests, deck building and casting sequence to ruin my feel of control over my actions. Not sure I like programming in my games any more as I feel I cant adjust my plans on the go as I can in most other games compared to this one. If I could choose which side of the spells to use AFTER I reveal them, then it would be better and make me feel more in control. I've played this mostly as a 3-4player and the downtime between turns can be bit much compared to how little is happening. The game could have been streamlined so much more by somewhat merging the evocation round into the action round and then redesigned the first 3 phases of the game to take less amount of time to let people into the action phase sooner which is where the fun stuff is happening. I do like this better than Mage Wars and Summoner Wars tho. It's still one of the better designed games compared to other Kickstarter plastic pushers, but not compared to other free-for-all card based games with a map like Tyrants of the Underdark, Vampire Rivals/Eternal Struggle, Time of Crisis and a bunch of others.

GaGarfieldstar2.0

Holy cow! 3,5 hours lasting game + 45min explanation. Way too many spells, and every spell card has 2 spells on it. Planning your turn with laying down your spells take way too long. And then it's a little bit of random chaos. It would have been very good if it only last 60-90min but almost 4 hours for such a game is just too long. Icons on cards are too small and putting the little roses in the minis is very fiddly. And I don't like the random target cards. Some are very easy and some not. And drawing of them is random. [c] Theme: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Ok --> Gameplay: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Casting spells over and over again --> Interaction: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Deal damage to others, area majority --> Artwork: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Nice --> Luck: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Random card drawing --> Strategy: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Multiple strategies possible --> Components: :star::star::star::star::nostar: <!-- size 7]Nice minis --> Play duration: :star::nostar::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Holy shit, almost 4 hours --> Easy to teach: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Quite a lot to teach (45min) --> Rules quality: <!-- size 7]not read --> Setup time: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]A lot to setup --> No downtime: :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Ok --> Replay value: :star::star::nostar::nostar::nostar: <!-- size 7]Random cards everywhere --> [/c]

anandyctedstar6.9

Thought it worse, instead it's pretty intuitive and enjoyable once you play a turn or two. The nastiness of killing someone is actually a minor setback, you just respawn. I feared the chaos and luck would hurt more, but in the end the game is not too bad… if you take it for what it is. A funny royal rumble without much strategy or depth. Otherwise it has a lot of problems: too much AP for strategies that can go up in smoke instantly given the chaos. The game takes too long in minutes, but too little in decision space, since most time is spent in analysing spells, but not much time to play them. Same with the forgotten spells. It's all a very good idea, pushed too far, without elegance and clumsily loaded with everything they could.