Game(s) Played:
Mage Knight
Session – Mage Knight
Player(s):
Justin
Mage Knight belongs in the category of titanesque boardgames, notably due to its length, complexity & space required. Vlaada Chvátil has always been famous for the meticulousness of the rules in his crafted products (to the point of ridiculousness in order to conform to a theme) & Mage Knight is perhaps the most rules heavy creation of his thus far.
Having gone through both the walkthrough & rulebook more than a dozen times as preparation, I was still not sufficiently prepared for the scope of this monster I was about to unleash. Taking advantage of the long weekend & the dining table being free of use, I decided to give the first scenario a solo run through on my own.
Whilst I was doing my reading, Padawan Minigeek enjoys playing with the coloured minis
Set up in itself took some time as any savvy boardgamer knows, it is one thing to read the rulebook & quite another to identify all the components the rulebook is talking about. To be fair, the arrangement of the components when first opened is purely for packing & shipping purposes. You really do need to rearrange the components by Player to shorten the set up time.
Half the space required is just stuff to keep track of your progress, the other half is the ever expanding map
On a whim, I chose Norowas as my starting Mage Knight & discovered that his forte lies in the area of influence (which helps in interactions with NPCs to buy healing / units). By the end of the first round, I had managed to influence a crossbowman to join my Mage Knight although I only ended up using him once to snipe a Cursed Hag.
Here in Round 2, I took out my second rampaging monster & decided to cross the desert in the cool of the night. You will notice that my Mage Knight is now Goldyx because…
Padawan Minigeek decided it was her turn to play with Norowas, the not so "greatest" of the Elf Lords
I opted to stay away from the keeps & mage towers to stay in the spirit of the scenario which is simple exploration. The Fire Mages & Crossbowmen in the mage tower & keep respectively provided plenty of reason to dissuade me with their special abilities especially as I felt that my Mage Knight didn’t have much in the way of cards that provided strong blocking (In Mage Knight, the baddies always attack first which you block & then riposte).
I decided to avoid the Wolf Riders (I really hate the swift ability which requires double block) to take out the Cursed Hag on the right
I thought about grabbing the Red Cape Monks but decided to wait and see if any Ice attribute units came up in the next round so I could take on the Fire Mages
I kinda got stuck in the swamplands for a while because I had forgotten you could discard cards in your hand at the end of turn. By the time I had the necessary movement cards, it was already the next round.
I snuck on to this grassland between the forest with ruins & the mountains and lo and behold… it is the city I’ve been looking for!
Since the objective of this scenario was to explore for the city, the game kinda ends right here.
Time Taken: 150 minutes
I’m skipping the results & the rating for two reasons. One, results seem a little meaningless in a solo game of Mage Knight. Secondly, I’m reserving my rating because all I really did was avoid all the heavy combat and explore around the map. Kind of the equivalent of finding the treasure cave of the dragon then going home.
I picked up Mage Knight purely for the solo experience and my first play through was a very positive experience. The only drawback for me is the space & time needed to play a scenario. Even this simple exploration scenario took me two sittings & our entire dining table. I’m definitely looking forward to giving it another scenario a go, but I probably need to get a designated boardgame table first.
Oh the opulence of having cup holders!
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