Mage Knight

This week I decided to pick up a game, and I picked up the Mage Knight Board Game.  A close contender for game to buy was Rex, final days of an empire (the FFG Dune reprint).  But Mage Knight could well be my new favourite game ever™ edging out Chaos in the old World from it's throne.

It's an adventure game, you take on a suitably heroic persona, the Mage Knights, and go out in search of fame and treasure and the like.

If I have one complaint it's that the lore of Mage Knight is a little thin.  There is none of it in the game itself.  The biggest flaw is the cities, they there are 4 of them, named Blue City, White City, Green City and Red City.....  The very basic lore is that it's still set in the old Mage Knight Universe of the Atlantean Empire, but it was all reset when all the manastones in the world detonated killing millions.  So now the empire are rebuilding,  Into this steps the Mage Knights.  Working for the mysterious Council of The Void, they were given great power and all the council ask for in return is obedience.

Speaking of the Rulebook, it's very well done.  There are two of them.  The main book is uninspiring book of rules which reads much as the the Magic comprehensive rules does.  But there's a second walkthrough book which is much friendlier and sets up a basic scenario that introduces mechanics one at a time as you play.


The basic flow of the game is you have a deck of cards which have various actions.  And you draw a hand of them, and just have to do your best with that hand.  Moving your miniature round the board, killing enemies and interacting with the locals.  or venturing into dungeons for artifacts, the usual adventuring fare.

There are a variety of scenarios ranging for the full game of conquering all the cities, to others like getting the most keeps or exploring the most dungeons.

At the end you all get scored and whoever has the most fame wins.
Or you can play co-op which adds additional scoring for being completing your scenario objectives.

There are much better reviewers out there than me, but it truly excellent.