WizKids Mage Knight Board Game (Standard Edition)

There are several reviews on here that discuss pros and cons already, and my review will be no different. However, I would like to use some analogies to give prospective buyers a little more perspective and clarity. I want to concisely break this game down into sections for easier reading. Here I go!Packaging: The box is thick and sturdy and was nowhere near as big as I thought it would be (for storage purposes) when it arrived. The inserts are not nearly the quality of the box, but they do the job. You could very easily replace the inserts with some deck boxes and small containers or baggies for all different types of game pieces. That would actually speed up your game set up as well.Pieces: The hero and city figures are very nice. The game counters, used for the random areas on the game tiles, are perfect for what they are - randomly placed tokens to count as locations or enemies. They are not as pretty as miniature figures would be, but they don't need to be. They do their job perfectly. The mana crystals are pretty cool and very durable. The dice are the only weakness but, again, they do their job. The cards are fantastic and are different from any other card I have experienced. I can't speak as to whether they are more or less durable, because I haven't played enough games yet. They are very nice, though. The card art is not that impressive, but you really don't focus on the look of cards, only the game mechanic text.Rules: This is an area that I see many mixed reviews about, so let me be clear. This is not the game you bring home to the family, with age ranges of 8-14 plus spouse, bust out of the box and expect to sit down and play this game right then and there. If you can't handle a boardgame ruleset that exceeds 8 pages and has no real depth, this game is not for you. It doesn't make it a bad game. It simply is not a game for you.With that said, it is nowhere near the comprehensive task some make it out to be. I have played RPG and miniatures games that require 200-400 pages of reading, prior to playing your first game. This game is NOWHERE near that type of complexity. The game walkthrough manual is brilliant and laid out in a manner that flows properly with the game sequence. It basically is explaining what things are as you are setting them up for your very first game.After the setup, there is no possible way to perfectly lay out the walkthrough, because the enemies, locations and interactions with terrain tiles are random and were designed that way. You will have to decide what to do next, and then seek the rules out for your next action. It is not hard at all, though, as several pages are waiting there for you to look up the rule. For example, if the first thing you wanted to do was fight an orc enemy, you could search the 4-5 pages of following instructions until you find the section about combat. The sections are clearly marked and easy to reference. I don't blame the game designer for this. Unless he scripted your every move in the walkthrough, there would be no way to do it linearly for you. As I said, the game isn't designed to do that, and it would take the enjoyment out of the random experience. I played two walkthrough games, had to reference rules about 10 times, and I feel like I am ready to play the game confidently. The rules manual is only like 20 pages, with very clear section headers, so it is very easy to look something up.Gameplay: You start the game as a basic hero with 0 fame and 0 reputation. Fame allows you to level up your hero, while reputation allows you to gain bonuses when interacting with terrain features like monastaries and villages. The interactions include things like recruiting units to join you, purchasing spells and advanced actions, and healing. You can also land on tiles that provide mana crystals (for using powerful actions or casting spells) or healing effects. Your initial action card hand is only 5, which limits the things you can do. In fact, I would say your card draw dictates what the best course of action would be for a particular turn. The great thing is that you can always play action cards on their sides for 1 basic action (i.e., move, attack, influence, and block). That means that there are no useless cards in your hand, ever. You can always find a way to play your cards.As you level up, your card draw increases, which gives you more options each turn. You also add cards that you earn or purchase (with influence), which usually remain in your deed deck for the rest of the game. In essence, your deck is increasing, which is making you stronger all the time.Combat takes a little getting used to, but once you get down the three phases (i.e., ranged/siege attack, block/damage, and attack), it is so simple after that. Some overland enemies are automatically revealed, so you know what you are up against. However, most are not. Combat is an easy, yet challenging mechanic in that you must develop a strategy to be successful. The damage effects to your hero is brilliant in that you don't play for 2 hours and suddenly die...game over. No, you add Wound cards to your hand, that clutter your card's max draw and limits your actions until you heal the wounds. It's a great mechanic!You explore new terrain tiles by using 2 movement, while on an appropriate tile edge. When the new tile is placed, a random new area opens up to you each time, with plenty of locations to explore and enemies to defeat for rewards. It's all random and brilliantly done. Once you know how to play, you honestly could toss the scenarios and just keep adventuring until your little heart was content.Overall: This is one of the best games I have ever played. Personally, I think the game shines more in a solo game version. It is fantastic, either way, but solo is very cool. I can play a scenario in 1-2 hours. The fact that you can sit down, by yourself, and feel so immersed in a board game is uniquely gratifying. I love playing it with my 13 y/o son too, but if he isn't available, I am just as satisfied playing by myself. It is perfect for being in the same room with my wife for multiple hours while she is watching reality shows that I could care less about. LOL

Many of those who pick up the Mage Knight board game will fondly remember the collectible miniatures game, also from WizKids. I know I did (although those memories are tainted by the downward slide into overpowered madness that marked the middle years of the game's history). For what it's worth, the Mage Knight Board Game has nothing in common with the miniatures game, aside from the name and a few select references.For how different this game is from the roots that spawned it, I must start the review by saying this: the Mage Knight Board Game is excellent. Not mediocre, or just good, but excellent. And for a game that's part randomized-tile exploration, part deck-building, part-dice rolling, part fantasy combat sim, that's an amazing accomplishment.For starters, let's look at the quality of the components. Regular board game enthusiasts will understand when I say that they are at the level of Fantasy Flight Games, and even better in many respects. The tiles used to create the game board are on solid card stock, but thin enough that they don't require too much vertical space to store (a problem I had with the tiles included in the D&D adventure games, such as Castle Ravenloft). The four plastic miniatures representing the players are pre-painted, as well as four "city" miniatures that incorporate the click-wheel design that featured so prominently in the miniatures game long ago. A very interesting, but superior, choice was to use a noticeably different playing card stock from what has typically been used for deck-building games. The cards are very flexible, but don't show signs of wear-and-tear as easily as traditional card stock (at least in my experience, I have read contrary opinions from other reviewers), like cards from Magic the Gathering. Serious gamers will likely still default to card sleeves, but to be honest the card stock is flexible and sturdy enough that it doesn't require sleeves to the extent that most other games do (basically, unless you plan for very heavy use of the game, I don't think card sleeves are necessary). The multitude of cardboard tokens are also on good cardboard with attractive, distinctive images on both sides that help illuminate their use during the game. The plastic insert included with the game holds all the components snugly, perhaps a little too snugly in the case of the cards (not enough space is available to definitively separate the types of cards, which is my one complaint on the components).So the components hold up to the standard of quality (excellence) that I set at the beginning of the review, but what about the game itself? If anything, the game system is far superior to the plastic and cardboard products within the game itself, and would be worth purchasing even if the components were of lesser quality.What sets the game apart from many others is how seamlessly and beautifully the separate systems interact with one another. Approaching the game, you will see many different systems: a combat system, deck-building system, and exploration system. The common points of intersection are the board, which is developed by interchangeable tiles that are "explored" during the game and on which monsters are placed, and the player's "deed" deck, the cards from which are used to fight, recruit allies, move, cast spells, etc. The ultimate goal of the game depends on the scenario, but typically the goal is to acquire the most "fame" (victory points). You gain fame by defeating monsters and conquering cities. Additional fame is awarded at the end of the game for certain accomplishments. With that in mind, how do we go about getting as much fame as possible?Since defeating monsters and assaulting cities is the mechanism by which fame is acquired, players need to maximize their ability to complete these two tasks. The game divides the mechanisms by which to accomplish this into "move, influence and [combat actions]." Movement allows you to get where you need to go (with different terrain types dictating the number of movement points required to move to a desired area). Influence allows you to buy units/spells/abilities (all in the form of cards) that will give you increased move/influence/combat ability in subsequent turns. Combat actions are divided into attack/block types, with a multitude of variations that make combat into a mini-puzzle that rewards thought (and without which makes the determination of the combat's true victor highly improbable). The deed deck is the source of your ability to do all these things (plus your units, which are separate), from which you draw cards that give you movement/influence/combat points to spend each turn. To further complicate matters, the game is at an even higher level divided into day/night rounds. So within a round there are multiple turns, and each player takes turns playing their turn, etc. The great thing about all these seemingly mundane (at least from my description) actions is that they take place in an evolving fantasy world (evolving based on how you explore it). You will find monasteries, mage towers, mines, magical sites, ruins, keeps, cities, and more as you explore the world and seek to strengthen your character. The excitement of turning over a tile to see what options I've just uncovered is still a major part of the game, and a major reason why I continue to play this night after night, and will choose to play it over computer games (my typical after-work "decompressant").From the previous description you can already tell that the sheer number of rules and exceptions to those rules becomes an issue when you start playing. This is compounded by the use of two rulebooks, one a walkthrough book designed to get you started, the other the official rulebook (but designed so differently that you will have difficulty clarifying rules when you have a question - this is my main issue with the game, actually). Luckily, the game is simple enough at its core that after just a couple of games you should have the hang of it. What's more, is that once you begin to play the game, you also understand the interactions between the systems and how beautifully cohesive it is. The game experience is truly wonderful, being described by some as solving a puzzle each turn. And, as the use of the word "maximize" in the preceding paragraph should have tipped you off that in many ways it is a puzzle. You are solving the problem of how to maximize the acquisition of fame with a randomized hand of cards. But that probably makes the game sound too much like work, which it most certainly is not. The game is awesome - the systems, once understood, make it well worth the effort to go through the steep learning curve for the first couple of games, and even more impressively, the game is a blast to play both solitaire as well as 2-player. My conclusion? If you like Fantasy-themed games, board games in general, computer RPGs, or are just a straight-up nerd like me, buy this game.