Hi, today I'm representing to you the review of the excellent boardgame Shattercaster: New Kingdom by Egsa Press! A mad combination of chess, go and magic!
As the legend goes, long ago, when Nabta Playa was not yet a distant memory, nomadic traders stumbled on a half buried rough-hewn box. In the course of time and many hands the contents of the contest within live on!ShatterCaster: New Kingdom is the original game of strategy and sorcery. Egsa Press and Egsa Softworks team up for the first time ever to provide a cult sensation that delivers fast, compelling battles between rival factions destined to rule the world!
Boardgame content
In order to play the game you need two startersets which each include a rules booklet, your game tokens, a deck of craft cards and some necessary dices. The content of each of these starterboxes is identical with the sole difference of color which can be blue, red or green.
As said the starterbox contains everything you need to play except for thje Alchameth or the theatre of battle which can be bought individually. Such a battle mat can be seen in the first picture of this post. Now that we have seen the content we move on to the actual gameplay and a sunmary of the core rules of this magical game.
Gameplay
As said the starterbox contains everything you need but to understand the rules I will give you a list with the items and what their purpose is in the game:
- Fracture Gem Tokens: These tokens represent your physical presence on the theatre of battle and are used to capture and destroy enemy tokens or hold the three fracture points on the map to entirly defeat the enemy.
- Spectral Gem Token: This token also refered to as the hand is also represents your physical presence but is also your link with your set of powerful craft cards. When this token is lost you can no longer play any craft cards
- Bone Six-Sided Die: This dice is used to determine the movement of your Fracture Gem Tokens.
- Spectral Six-Sided Die: This dice is used to determine how many craft points you earn that you can spend on casting craft cards.
- Craft cards: these 13 cards are linked with the presence of the hand and can be used to change the course of battle in a brink of an eye.
Movement & Craft
When all your tokens are placed on the theatre of battle according to the rules shown in the rules booklet, each player must throw his two dices. The highest player wins and may rethrow his dices in order to see of his tokens may be moved or not. The result of the bone die:
- 1: no movement
- 3,5: you may move two tokens
- 4,6: you may move one token
Each token also has an own value which determine the number of squares it may move and in which direction. Each player starts with four +1 token, two +2 token, one +3 token and the precious hand token. In order to rise the level of your tokens you can upgrade them through your craftcards or to move them to upgrade zones on the theatre of battle.
The result of the spectral die shows you if you craft cards or not. These craft cards are as pages of a book and cannot have the same number as other cards in the deck. A player may not have more than 3 active cards on the table or 13 in his hand (full deck). Each of these craft cards has an own cost which must be paid to be played, to add a card to your hand you must spend one craft point. Some of these cards are so powerful that they can end a battle in a one turn when played well!
Destroy your enemy
In order to destroy enemy tokens you must move on their square with one of your own tokens. If this happens the enemy taken is captured and destroyed. So make sure you defend your hand well as level +1 tokens can even capture your hand or +3 tokens as there's no level limitation in battle!
When you have destroyed your target you must now move one square up, down or sideways. When another enemy token is present there he's also destroyed, when he's destoryed you may move another square and so on! This deadly series of attacks is called the chaining method and can really turn the tide of battle in a matter of seconds.
How to win a game?
A game of Shattercaster is won when a player occupies three of the four Fracture Points that are present on the map corners (occupy). Another way to win is to destroy all the enemy tokens using your cards and tokens (vanquish). The last way is when the enemy player is unable to move his tokens or cast cards (bind). Now that we know the winning condition we can go further with the core rules.
I hope you enjoyed this review as much as I did and hopefully you enjoy this baordgame as much as I did and I have played it quite a bit lately! Stay tuned as I have recieved a nice parcel from Leven Miniatures containing some excellent 6mm houses and received an email that my Wargames Factory box with artillery has been shipped!
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