Reviewed by Andrea “Liga” Ligabue
WITCHSTONE (R&R Games/HUCH!, 2 to 4 players, ages 12 and up, 60-90 minutes; $49.99)
Martino Chiacchiera is probably best known in the World of Games for his contribution to the Deckscape and Similio series and for the innovative, recently published, Wonder Book. Witchstone differs from the previous productions of this Italian author, often strongly imbued with narrative elements, placing itself fully in the category of the so-called “German” or “Euro” Games, an area where the prolific Reiner Knizia, the c0-designer of this release, excels.
What the rules state in the beginning “As learned adepts of your guild, you gather around an ancient sacred stone. Each player occupies one of the four towers around the Witchstone and starts from there. Create your Magic Spells with the help of your Cauldron and grow a network of Magic Energy around the stone. Send out your Witches, scoop the Magic Crystals from your Cauldron, and make good use of the Pentagram and the Magic Wand. But don’t forget to keep an eye on the Prophecies in order to ensure victory. Not all options are always available to you, so cleverly make the most of your opportunities. Only then shall you have the chance of accumulating the most victory points over the 11 rounds and claim victory as the Master of the Witchstone.” is just flavor.
The game is in effect driven by a beautiful mechanism to which the setting is only the background. The core of the game is the brilliant combination of placing tiles with a series of races on different tracks.
Each player has a hexagonal cauldron divided into small hexagons. The 6 symbols that correspond to the 6 possible actions and / or paths are arranged in the vertices. In his/her turn, the player must select a tile, among the five at his disposal, representing two of the possible symbols and place it in his/her cauldron trying to create contiguous areas of symbols of the maximum possible size. At the end of the turn, he/she will draw a new tile.
Then, the two actions shown on the symbols will be performed in any order. The number of adjacent symbols will, in a sense, indicate the power with which the action is carried out: the higher the number, the better the effect. What actually happens is that the player performs the action a number of times equal to the number of adjacent symbols in their cauldron.
From the point of view of the game, what you will actually try to do will be to optimize your tiles in order to carry out the actions in the most advantageous order possible, trying to create effective combinations in your cauldron. During the game, a player will only use 11 of the 15 tiles at his disposal: the order in which the tiles appear and the actions of the other players have a strong impact on the choice of the optimal strategy that will vary from game to game.
Let’s examine in detail the 6 possible actions and the relative paths.
The pentagram is, in fact, a circular path made up of 12 spaces, three of which occupied by tokens that provide victory points of decreasing value. To excel in this track means to obtain a considerable amount of victory points. Three other squares of the track are occupied by special tiles which, once obtained, can be used to perform one of the two actions depicted twice or placed in your cauldron as additional squares. The value that these actions can give should not be overlooked, also because they sometimes allow you to perform different actions in your turn than the two shown on the chosen tile.
The Magic Wand path is a linear path that allows you, upon reaching some squares, to perform an action on another path or to obtain victory points. When you reach the boxes that allow you to perform actions if, at that moment, you are in the lead on the Magic Wand track, you can perform the action twice. This is also an advantage that should not be neglected. The Magic Wand track can give you many victory points but to optimize it, you must first have performed a certain number of actions related to other symbols/tracks.
The Energy action and the Witch action are closely related. In fact, at the center of the game board, there is a territory characterized by areas of different colors connected to each other by long paths from one to three spaces. These paths can be claimed by a player with the energy action. The paths are worth respectively 1, 3 and 6 victory points and allow you to move your witches to claim new territories and, if you were the first to reach them, gain special tokens that confers a bonus action. The witch action allows you to place new witches on the board and move them along your own energy lines. It is also possible, at the cost of additional witch actions, to travel the energy lines created by other players.
Occupying particular areas of the map can result in victory points in combination with scrolls. The Scroll action allows you to draw scroll cards that can actually award victory points at the end of the game. VPs are earned based on the achievement of certain objectives mainly deriving from particular configurations of tiles in your cauldron or witches on the board. If in a first analysis the scroll action may seem uninteresting, in reality the points that can be obtained at the end of the game are many and must be taken into account.
The last action has to do with Crystals. At the beginning of the game there are 6 colored crystals and a black crystal in your cauldron. The presence of the crystals prevents you from placing your tiles freely. Moving the crystals out of the cauldron allows you to access the laboratory and obtain additional actions in one of the 6 paths. Which action is related to the square from which the crystal exits the cauldron.
Playing Witchstone is not easy because you need to keep several closely related factors under control: how to build the pattern of tiles in the cauldron to optimize the actions, knowing that in principle certain tiles will come out but without being sure of when. It is necessary to advance on the paths of the pentacle and the Magic Wand, but do it in synergy with the other advances to maximize their effects. Making the most of opportunities, such as those given by crystals or witches, to be able to perform additional actions is essential. Finally, understand when and which scrolls to take and then have the opportunity to set up a strategy that allows you to optimize the score.
Surely a simple and effective strategy, having the right tiles at the beginning of the game, is to bet on the pentacle and on the crystals, which immediately give important advantages without the need to unlock other actions. Focusing on energy can also be an effective choice because it gives points in any case and then allows you to do fruitful actions with witches.
What fascinates and amuses me the most about this game is how the different actions combine with each other. The timing with which to carry them out can be decisive and can be affected based on what the other players do. Despite being a classically German-style game, interaction between players is very high. Preceding opponents on the pentacle or magic wand track is as important as occupying some connections on the central board first or arriving first with a witch at the castle. Competition for scrolls is also important. Another intriguing aspect is the many possibilities to perform actions outside of the two selected with the tile at the beginning of the turn thanks to special markers or to the achievement of specific goals.
I have played many games of Witchstone now and enjoyed it every time. There are so many possible and viable strategies. You can win by focusing on some of the tracks or trying to balance the different actions. Witchstone is a game that deserves to be played and replayed for those who appreciate products of this genre. – – – – Andrea “Liga” Ligabue
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