• Game: Mage Knight
• Publisher: Wizkids
• Designer: Vlaada Chvatil
• Genre: Fantasy Adventure
• Players: 1-4
• Playtime: 60 minutes per player (respectful, reasonable players)/120 minutes per player (analysis paralysis players)



• What's Hot: Brilliantly complex, orchestrated design; tons of options and variety between games; fantastic solo but with great co-op and competitive games



• What's Not: Slow players can completely sink it; fantasy elements are generic; intimidating first session

by: Michael Barnes

In a year where the best games tended toward simplicity, streamlining, and smaller rules sets, Vlaada Chvatil’s Mage Knight stands as a reminder of the kinds of complexity and depth that set hobby games apart from more mainstream fare. Like most of the Czech designer’s work, it’s a somewhat sprawling, intricate orchestral arrangement of mechanics and subsystems unified under a relatively strong aegis of thematic relevance. It requires two rulebooks (one a very nearly comprehensive walkthrough of the entire system) to describe. It is also a fantasy adventure game that is practically without peer apart from Richard Hamblen’s Magic Realm in that it attempts a very different kind of scope and detail.

Although the fantasy is generic, this is not a Talisman-derived “flip a card” adventure and the bountiful flavor text-based storytelling of Arkham Horror can’t be counted as an antecedent. Unlike most adventure games, this is a hardcore strategy title with immense depth and a host of tactical options at every turn, with an absolutely brilliant implementation of a contextualized deckbuilding mechanic driving the decision matrix.

Out of the box, the game intimidates. It looks inscrutable, and the triple-column rulebooks don’t help. It initially seems like there’s just so much going on, with a night and day cycle to deal with, hiring units each with unique abilities, action cards with a standard effect and a mana-powered enhanced one, both a Fame and a Reputation track, and scads of monster chits with cryptic numbers and symbols. But buckle down and play through the walkthrough one time and you’ll encounter one of the most significant marks of genius that this game exhibits. After one play, it all makes complete, cohesive sense and every piece of the clockwork ticks in time. This is high level hobby game design at its absolute peak, remarkably free from any kind of clutter or bloat despite the density of the rules.

Four characters are provided, each with a stack of unique skill chits that can be earned with experience. Each also issues forth with a slightly different starting deck of 16 basic cards that encompass the core moving, fighting, influencing and healing actions that can be taken. The basic system is that the player uses these cards to generate values for each action often with special abilities powered by Mana from a common pool of dice or crystals gained through play. Cards are never useless despite the current hand, and can always be played sideways for a value of one. Advanced action cards, spells, and artifact cards that can be either drawn or drafted are added to the player’s deck, increasing their ability to perform the core actions. Fighting- including ranged, siege, and elemental combat- is also completely managed through this cardplay system, and it’s satisfyingly puzzly and tactical.

So a player might play movement cards to traverse the hex-based landscape, paying movement points based on terrain. Maybe it’s nighttime, and making it through the woods is more difficult. It’s a good thing they’ve saved a couple of green Mana crystals to enhance their ability to move. Through the darkened woods, they arrive at a village and spend influence point-generating cards to hire units into the hero’s retinue. The villagers have heard of the hero’s good reputation and a rabble of peasants is eager to sign on and offer their skills, adding value or abilities when a hero uses their command points to activate them.

Or maybe you don’t want peasants on the payroll and want to hold out for the Utem Crossbowmen, Herbalists, or Fire Mages. Instead, you might lay siege to a local keep to increase your hand size and increase your score. You can visit a monastery to learn new abilities, see what’s lurking in a monster lair, or rid the countryside of rampaging orcs. Or you can just pillage that village at the cost of your good reputation. For as mechanical as this game is, the degree of narrative that it generates through gameplay rather than card text is phenomenal. What you do in the game tells the story, not the fluff.