Epic skirmishes of battle mages all maps. Description of the board game Epic battles of battle mages. Battle of Skullfire Mountain. In terms of components, everything is like that of people

All sorcerers have already received magic pendels, but are you still drawn to a magic fight? It's time to cut into a new batch - the competition for reckless lawlessness and mind-blowing fun is declared open!

Feed the creepy creatures that are breaking their chains in the catacombs of the Sprout Slaughter castle, and cast your battle spells. Furious Serpent Kurinich, indestructible Cubodemon and agile Hamadrantul will turn your enemies into a pool of hairy ectoplasm. And if you yourself played in a box instead of spells - do not wait, rather resurrect, when no one is waiting, and immediately return to the grandiose outrage!

About the game

"Epic Battles of Battle Mages: Outrage at the Castle of the Sprout Slaughterhouse" is an independent continuation of the sensational and insane hit about the inhumanly cruel showdown of tough magicians. Tons of cruelty and sadism, destructive and disgusting spells forbidden to be used all over the world ... But not here! We do not care about bans, all we need is to turn all opponents into dust ... And if it works out, then into something worse! Death is too generous to us and the magicians cannot die to the end ... We are imprisoned in a place like Hell, where we will die thousands of times, only to cast spells more powerful than the one that tore us to shreds the previous time!

From 2 to 6 players will be able to face off in this epic battle. The stunning design and style of the game should already show you what to expect from the game. You have to combine cards to make deadly combinations, collect powerful artifacts, and use dangerous Crazy magic. And even if you were unlucky in the round, and you died a little, then even from the other world you will be able to participate in the party, interfering with the magicians who are still alive!

New mechanics

From the interesting and new, several chips can be distinguished:

• Critters - all parishes from this version of the game are Critters and can sometimes remain on your table from round to round. In addition to the fact that they can block you from the enemy spell, they can also have useful properties!
• Blood is a new resource that is earned by killing opponents and holding a castle. Blood, unlike other resources, goes from batch to batch. Some cards offer to donate a certain amount of liters to apply the effect
• Castle - some maps allow you to capture the Octopus Castle! At the end of the round, he brings 1 liter of blood to his owner. And the sea of ​​pathos, of course! In addition, some cards give bonuses to the owner. But no one bothers you to destroy the owner and take the castle into your own hands!
• Survivors are effects on some cards that are triggered after your death, ensuring that death was not so easy and in vain!

Game process

Each player takes on the role of one of the mages and takes his tablet, which is needed to indicate the remaining hit points. Everyone starts with 20 points. The cards of ringleaders, bells and whistles, parishes and crazy magic are in one deck and are thoroughly mixed. Players take turns, but draw cards and collect spells at the same time. The game consists of several parties, and the game consists of different phases of the turn. Let's figure it out:

1. Draw cards - at the very beginning of the turn, we always draw up to 8 cards into our hand
2. We cast a spell - your spell can include from one to three cards, moreover, the cards are of three types: the ringleader, the beginning of the spell and giving a certain advantage; A twist that offers an extra pinch of uniqueness and pain, and a Coming that completes the deadly chord of your magic. The spell can include only one card of each type, but they can be combined with each other as you like
3. Casting a Spell - Your ready-to-fight spell is laid face down on the table in front of you. We are waiting for the rest of the wizards ...
4. Determine the order of play - it's time to determine the order of our spells. And the first to conjure will be the wizard ... with the shortest spell! After all, this is logical, the shorter it is, the faster you will apply it! If the players have the same number of cards in the spell, then the number of Initiative on the Spell Coming card will help to decide who to go first, the player with the maximum value goes first. What if there is no Parish? Consider that your Initiative is zero ... And if this did not help to decide on the move, then just roll the dice
5. We reveal the spell - when the move finally reached you, it is worth turning over the cards of the prepared spell and reading the resulting name with the most epic-magical expression that you are capable of. You can even come up with a punishment for those who forget to do this and just move on to the card effects. If the spell is missing any card, then well, use your imagination and come up with a name!
6. We apply all the spell effects - the card effects are applied in order, as the cards are laid out - first the Ringleader, then the Twist and then the Coming. If a card requires you to make a Mighty Roll, then you will need to roll one die for each card in a spell with this sign. In total, there are five signs, that is, schools of magic: Corruption, Darkness, Ugar, Kumar, Grass. All mages in their order apply card effects and inflict damage to each other
7. The beginning of a new round, provided that at least two mages are still alive

Who has won?

The winner is the player who was the first to collect two medals of the "Undead Sorcerer". To get such a medal, you need to successfully destroy your enemies and remain the last surviving magician in this wild mess.

Features of the game

• This is a completely independent game with exciting new mechanics, which can be mixed with another set of "Epic Combat Magicians" and get pure madness on your gaming table!
• Mind-blowing and addictive battle for 2-6 sorcerers!
• Basic rules to master and endless replay value!
• Crazy combinations of 128 new spell cards and even crazier artwork! You have never seen anything like this!
• As many as 8 new sorcerers - and they have serious intentions!
• Cool innovations: terrible creatures, liters of blood, the Castle and wonderful surprises!
• A variant of the game "Short Tournament" - for those who prefer to distribute bream to enemies quickly and fervently!

There is an established image of wizards in the world. If you are asked to introduce the wizard, then you will most likely think of Gandalf. The typical image of the magician is a gray-haired bearded man in a mantle, who holds a long wooden staff in his hand. Instead of a staff, there can also be a book with spells. A magician may have magic rings on his fingers. The magician can curb the elements. Cause rain, hail, drought. A magician can tame a dragon, a golem, and most likely he knows the language of animals. Of course, there are good and bad wizards, and not only in skill, but also in their sociotype. Good wizards love to create and help. They build cities, build bridges, pour rain on dry fields, give bread to the hungry, heal the wounded, save the army from a million arrows, stones and various misfortunes. Bad wizards are more commonly referred to as sorcerers. They destroy and spoil everything. Demolishing cities, drying up the land, turning people into frogs and stones, stealing princesses and much more.

Most often, the wizard specializes in global spells. Those. he is not very interested in mending a broken clock or hammering a nail into a wall without a hammer to hang bookshelf... Sorcerers often like to say - “ Don't go to me here, because I know one very harmful and dangerous spell that I can use on you ...". But what can a magician do to a person? Can turn into stone, into wood, into an animal. Can make it invisible. It can freeze. But this is a magician! He can do anything. What should he mentally tear off a limb to a person? Blow it up from the inside into billions of particles? Cut in half with an invisible sword? After all, sorcerers can do everything, just writers, directors and other creative people do not want to frighten people with a dismembered woman. It is easier to turn a person into a moth than to behead him with the power of thought. So more romantic or something ...

Today we will talk about very tough battles of battle mages. In this game, all magicians fight very brutally, using the most evil and cynical spells. This game is a real test for the psyche. You are ready? Then I open the box.

Opening the skull

Although, let's hold off on removing the lid from the box for now and just look at the picture on the lid. The logo of the game is very similar to the logos of American cool programs about racing / brawl / competition. When you read the name of the game, the powerful voice of a commentator announcing an important NHL match immediately rushes through your head. " And now… EPIC SPELL WARS !!!“, And a vigorous heavy metal gash sounds.

On the box are painted wizards gathered around an artifact. The picture is pretty good, because all the art that you find on the cards will be much tougher.

We open the box. The filling is typical for a mid-weight game. When there is one deck of cards in the box, this is a lightweight game. When there are several decks, a bunch of sheets with tokens, a large playing field, then this is a heavyweight game. Epic skirmishes - this is something in between - two decks of cards, a set of D6 dice, one sheet with tokens, hero boards and two small stands.

There are quite a lot of cards in the game (190 pieces). If you put them together, you get a decent stack. The quality of the cards is typical for Hobby world (and today I am analyzing the localized version from HW).

Hero tablets are a normal life counter. All heroes are the same, no one has special properties. They differ only in name and picture.

In the box you will find a rather large cardboard Skullfire Mountain. It is for her that two stands are needed. I could not reveal the essence of this component. Apparently this is just a decorative element that makes the game more epic and spectacular.

Crazy magic

Epic skirmishes not a new game. It came out in 2012, and I kind of even followed this game for a while. Acquaintance with the board (reading the rules) was like a clear instruction on how to survive in the harsh world of magicians. On the second page of the rules, you will find a detailed story about what "epic wizard battles" are and what they can lead to. This story is made as if the rules were talking to us. Moreover, this conversation does not take place in a pompous tone, but with the use of simple slang words. As if a friend with whom you grew up in the same residential area is talking to you. He tells you - " Friend, you just have to become a sorcerer. You can experience this adrenaline madness for yourself«.

If you agreed to play the game, then you have nowhere to go - you will have to become a fighting sorcerer. Note - a sorcerer! And they, as I wrote above, are sometimes very angry and nasty.

The goal of this game is to conquer 2 tokens of the unbroken sorcerer. To win the token, you need to be the only surviving sorcerer in one of the battles.

This game can be played from 2 to 6 players.

Several games / fights take place in one game. In each game, one surviving sorcerer remains, who receives a victory token, after which a new game begins with the restoration of the conditions of all sorcerers and a new distribution of cards.

Each individual game is split into rounds. At the beginning of each round, sorcerers collect cards from a deck of up to 8 pieces. Regardless of how much health you lost in the last round and how much damage you caused to other sorcerers, all players at the beginning of the round will have the same 8 cards.

Maps are the main engine of the game. They are all powerful spells with different effects. Spells are divided into 3 types: ringleaders, bells and whistles and parishes(cards are distinguished by a frame and a letter in the lower right corner). Splitting spells is an important gameplay element. After the cards are dealt at the beginning of the round, players begin collecting spells. The number of cards used in a spell varies from 1 to 3. The more cards you collect in a spell, the stronger it will turn out. One important rule to remember is that a spell should not contain two or more of the same types of cards. Ideally, you should have a spell that is a set of cheerleaders + bells and whistles + arrival.

Of course, when the cards are dealt, you may not be lucky, and you will not have some type of cards in your hand. Or it will not be profitable for you to compose a spell from three types of cards. In such cases, the spell can consist of two or even one card.

All the cards of the collected spell lie face down in front of the players, so none of the players knows what their rival sorcerers have collected. Who, then, will go first? The one who has fewer cards in the spell. In case of equality, the numbers on the parish cards are compared (whoever has a higher number, he goes first).

When opening spells, you can arrange a real verbal performance - just read out loud the name of your spell. You should get something like “ Appetizing self-drink from Bukhoy Walker". If your game company reacts cheerfully to such things, then you can happily read out all the resulting spells. But then you will most likely get tired of doing it.

All spells work from left to right. Those. first the property of the ringleader is played out, then the bells and whistles, then the arrival. Sometimes, some cards in a spell (most often wards) require the player to make a mighty roll. For this you need cubes. It is very important for a mighty throw that your cards in a spell are of the same type. The types are spoilage, darkness, waste, kumar and grass. If the card with the mighty roll is of the corruption type, you draw one die for each corruption card in the spell. The higher the number on the dice falls, the stronger the effect of the card will be. For example, with a dropped one, you will deal 1 damage to the sorcerer, and with 10+ - 7 damage. Agree, the difference is significant. Especially if you consider that the starting value of the sorcerer's life is only 20.

Most often, the effect of cards in a spell allows you to inflict damage on all sorcerers, left or right, the weakest or the strongest. Sometimes the effects allow you to restore several points of life.

If you are unlucky and you do not get a certain type of cards in your hand, then you can replace it with Crazy Magic if you come across it. This is a joker card that allows, during the disclosure of the spell, to replace the Crazy Magic card with the first card from the deck of this type. This is a pretty cool help if you are out of luck with the distribution.

Sooner or later, the health of one of the sorcerers will drop to zero. In this case, he receives the status of a dead sorcerer. What does it mean? This means that he discards all of his cards, receives one Dead Sorcerer card, and will receive one such card each time other surviving players begin a new round. Let the name "dead sorcerer" sound somehow not very pleasant, but in fact, each such card in the next game will bring the player one good bun. For example, you can start the game with more cards in your hand, get guaranteed Crazy Magic, start the game with more health, etc. Those. it is like supporting the loser so that he can win the next battle.

Some cards allow the player to draw a treasure card. These types of cards give the player different game bonuses. For example, it gives +1 die to the mighty roll, one additional symbol of corruption, kumar, or other types, +10 to the number on the ward card to go first, and much more. Treasure is a very cool thing, you can use it to make super cool magic tricks.

The last mage who survived in a battle receives a token of an unfinished sorcerer and is one step away from victory. Next, a new game begins, which is completely identical to the first. The only difference is that dead sorcerers will give advantages to some players.

Collected 2 tokens of the unfinished sorcerer? Congratulations - you won!

I give him a pysch, he gives me a thousand!

At first sight Epic skirmishes - this is very, very correct Munchkin ... By no means do I want to say that ESBM (I will abbreviate the name of the game for convenience to four letters) is a copy of Steve Jackson's annoying game. The games are still different, but they have a common spirit. V Machkine you had in your hands quite funny, sometimes dastardly cards, which were most often spent on some neutral monster, and you really want to charge with a sledgehammer for another player, and not for a plutonium dragon. In ESBM there are no neutral monsters, there are only you and other players-sorcerers, which you can shoot with a fireball. And it's much more fun to do than to dunk a monster in Munchkin .

In general, to be honest, I would like to start talking about the impressions of the game from its most controversial side. I would call this side the cornerstone - this is its theme and design. You can discuss the mechanics of the game for a long time, share your impressions of different tactics and strategies, but the very first thing you have to step over is the topic. The game is replete with the most real black humor. Sorcerers don't just flip fireballs with each other, but ... Let's just look at the pictures - dismemberment, trepanation, blood from the ears and eyes, intestines, total rupture of parts of the human body, etc. Fortunately, these are all pictures, not photographs (as a grindcore fan and doctor's brother, I have seen quite a few "pretty" pictures). Drawn flying guts - this, of course, softens the perception a little, but still only a little. Before buying a game, I strongly recommend that you study the pictures in my article or on other specialized sites, and if you do not feel absolutely any negative emotions from what you see, then you can safely read the review further and find out what is good in the game. If the theme of the game shocks you, then I'm afraid that this is not your game.

As for me, I want to say that I'm not exactly puritanical, but still some of the art for the game I find disgusting. Before writing the article, I ran through various sites, looked at who wrote what about the game, and accidentally stumbled upon my comment left back in 2012. I wrote in it that I followed the game, but when it came out, I saw the pictures and decided that after all, this art was not for me, so I stopped following the game and deleted my wishlist from the list. It's very funny to read 4 years later, when the box lies right in front of me and I'm playing this game with might and main =) Despite the fact that the theme is still on the verge of good and evil (well, or it still goes into evil with one foot) , the view of the game does not cause rejection for me. I find some pictures amusing and funny. The names of the cards are pretty cool too. Of course, if you look at all the nuances that the artist painted, maybe I will find something completely unpleasant, but I looked at the cards only in the first game, in the second I already paid attention only to the text, which in the game easily fits into the framework of decency.

Do you digest pictures of furious magicians? Yes? Then we move on!

ESBM I can refer to the group of quite simple card games, in which you do not need to collect individual decks and suffer from collecting combinations. This is, let's say, a "situational" game - you get cards in your hands and try here and now to collect something sensible from them. Those. everything is like in card games, not for geeks, but for ordinary people.

Jokingly, I call this board not one game, but two at a time. It's like it's a game within a game. The first game is to collect the spell from what came into your hand. You will almost always have something to think about when putting together powerful magic tricks. I really like that there are a lot of card options in the game. Each of the three types of cards has 20 unique ones, which are repeated exactly once. Those. 20 pieces of 2. When I unpacked the decks and saw duplicate cards, I decided that they would often come across, but in fact nothing like that happened. At our table, we constantly gathered some new types of spells with different actions. Yes, after 3-4 games you will already know the cards almost by heart, but there is still plenty of variety, as it seems to me.

Collecting spells is quite fun because your decision depends on various factors. For example, you are trying to assemble a spell from three cards to get the best possible effect. But all three types are not always at hand, and the cards do not always interact well with each other. For example, you have a great arrival with the type of "darkness", and there is also the ringleader-darkness and bells and whistles-darkness. It seems that everything fits together perfectly, but then you read that the ringleader effect can damage you, and you have only 1 point of health left and you risk immediately dying from your own effect. Therefore, you need to come up with something else. Or you desperately need to go first, so you choose the ward with the highest number possible. Over collecting spells can really get stuck. Sometimes the optimal spell is easy to draw and you lay it out right away, and sometimes it takes 1-2 minutes to collect it.

The second game is to play a ready-made spell. It really is a game because you often have to roll the dice, the result of which can lead to unexpected consequences. It happens that you go first and during your turn manage to take out one or two opponents who instantly lose their turn and are eliminated before the end of this battle. Sometimes, for your own or someone else's move, you dial interesting maps treasures that give you special properties. In general, any casting of spells, yours or someone else's, is always unexpected and fun.

The game struck me with its recklessness. It is somewhat reminiscent of a crazy obstacle race without rules. In one round, your health can be reduced from 20 to 0. And maybe in four rounds no one can do anything to you. Actually, one more "Munchkin" legs grow from here. This game is not about strategy and tactics, this is a game about chance and luck. Yes, unsuccessful cards may come to you corny, with which it will be difficult to collect something sensible. Yes, cubes can show strictly ones. But ... But this is fun! I experienced tremendous pleasure while playing. It's actually funny when your opponent has twice as much health, and he teases that the victory is in his pocket, and then you knock him out of the game with just one or two cards. In this game, more often than ever, when throwing dice, people are wailing “ please roll 10!". Only in this game you are constantly promised to take revenge next time.

The theme of the game is so well attached to the mechanic that the author of the game wants to shout "Bravo!" I already thought about what it would be like if the game had a different theme. For example, the battle of robots with dinosaurs or Pokemon with Teletubbies, but without blood. And I came to the conclusion that all this would be wrong. Of course, a vanilla-cute theme would expand the circle of fans of the game, but I'm not sure if it would have delayed them for long. Epic wizards with a gore component set the game apart from hundreds of others similar games... It's good that this is not just another fantasy.

What I also like is that there are many different aspects of the game that give the game a fresh look. Starting from determining the order of the move, ending with dead sorcerers and treasures. At the same time, it seemed to me that all these elements do not overload the game. For example, in the card Kneading , especially in Kneading. Munchkin , you can miss something and regret it. In ESBM, you can only forget about the property of the treasure, and I also often forgot that one card of bells and whistles is guaranteed to give the right to the first move. While playing ESBM it is difficult to forget to inflict damage on someone, because this action is always obvious. There are no sly reactions and unexpected turns played from the hand in this game. And that's a plus for me.

In my first games, for some reason I decided that the most best spells collected from the same types. For example, if you collect 3 herbs, you get a super fucking woman. And this idea is always not very to my liking in any board, as it makes the player highly dependent on what comes into his hand. But when I played with almost all the cards in this board, I realized that 3 of the same types in a spell are good only for a powerful throw, and even then with bonuses you can get all 4 dice without matching card types. Cool spells can be made in different ways. This discovery calmed my soul and added another plus to the game =)

But enough of the pros and let's talk about the cons. They certainly are in this board too.

And I will again mention the bloody, albeit cartoonish, theme of the game. Still, in all honesty, for me it is still more a minus than a plus. Such a small minus, but still a minus. I am sure that there are people who categorically will not play ESBM. For example, on BGG, I did not find reviews of this game from very famous reviewers who always reviewed any games, and then suddenly there was silence. Although, of course, the "Christian" badge of these comrades hints that the Brawls have little chance that these reviewers will turn their attention to this game. Actually, on Tesera, I also don't see a heap of reviews on Fights, although I found it a very tasty toy for myself. But okay, this is a matter of taste, of course ...

The catastrophic failure of cards in the hand is a more obvious disadvantage, which is rare, but occurs. As I already wrote, if you have cards of different types, this is a perfectly good situation. But if you do not have a ringleader, arrival or bells and whistles, and even worse, if all 8 cards in your hand are of the same type, then this is much, much worse. The only advantage of a spell consisting of two cards is that you will most likely be the very first to play. During this turn, you can try to knock one or more players out of the game in order to take less damage later. If you survived and start a new round, then draw 2 cards up to 8 cards in your hand. And again you will not get caught the third type of cards. You will again have a spell with only two cards. In my experience, I played one whole battle like this until I finally flew out of it. The Crazy Magic card helps a lot when not coming, but you should be lucky too to get it in your hand. Such sad situations are rare, and they are the result of a badly shuffled deck. The deck, by the way, is large, during the game you will have to shuffle it more than once, so it is best to do this carefully and with the help of other players. On the other hand, the randomness of cards in hand is the scourge of all card games.

The next disadvantage is the protractedness of the games. I will tell you about the very first experience with the game, which was decomposed into 4 players. The first three battles were won by three different players. And at this stage it was fun and fun for everyone to play War Mages. In the fourth battle, everyone started joking that now the player without the token of the unfinished sorcerer would definitely win, although three players were already one step away from victory. We've played the same game three times already, and it took us over an hour. And yes, in the fourth battle, the fourth player really won. The fifth battle was decisive, but nevertheless, almost all the players had a feeling of being drawn out. If you think about it, it becomes obvious that the player is more likely to win the battle without a victory token. In any fight, the first step is to knock out of the game a player who already has a victory token, because if he receives a second token, he will win the game. It is better to let the player who does not have it get the token, but you still have a chance to win. Players without tokens are less affected, more often “fat” players with tokens are chosen as targets. For all 6 games that I played on this moment, almost always all players had one token. 1 or 2 times the games ended in such a way that one player was left without tokens, because he was simply unlucky and he picked up fatal damage in advance. For myself, I decided that 4 players are the best option... No, not even optimal, but maximum. Five, and even more so six, I would not play this game. 3-4 players is quite good. Four players are just enough to fill up the game in one evening and leave it for tomorrow. Threesome is the minimum option to play it fun and enjoyable. Because together ... You can play together, but it's not fun, because many cards stop playing as well as the authors of the game intended. For example, there are spells that target the right and left players. In a two-player game, one person plays the role of the right and left player. Exactly the same situation with the weakest or strongest enemy, tk. it will also be the same person. And the trick of the game is to vary the goals so that they randomly switch without your knowledge. For example, you want to finish off one player, since he is the weakest, but until the move comes to you, the other player becomes the weakest, and this is a fun feature of the game that I like. In a two-player game, this chip simply stops working.

Some cards seem a little cooler than others, but this is inherent in all card games. Therefore, one whole spell can break the entire table, and another spell will only slightly pat the players on the cheeks.

Funny Easter eggs with nicknames

Well, let's summarize. After the first game I had fears that I had already gotten all the best from the game and that it would become sadder afterwards, but after the next games I began to think about the game even better. This is a fairly simple card game with a lot of randomness, but this randomness is a tremendous pleasure (for me personally). I like collecting epic spells, I like giving cuffs to opponents, I like taking them out of the game, I like hoarding cards from dead sorcerers and coming up with a plan for revenge. I don't really like the jargon of the game in the spirit of "kumar", "grass" and others, but it does not affect the gameplay in any way, but creates an atmosphere.

If you are bored Munchkin , but you want something just as vigorous (substitute and rob rivals), then be sure to try playing Epic Brawls .

For me this game is one of the best I've played this year. But at the same time, I cannot recommend it to you. It probably sounds strange, right? I usually recommend games that I really like (like Port Royal or Pandemic: Legacy ), and I am confident that this game will work in almost any company. Epic battles of war mages - the game is specific. And the most important specificity lies in its brutal theme. If you play with children, with moms / dads, grandparents, pregnant women, etc., then this game is most likely not for you. If the sight of the flying brains drawn doesn't make you feel nauseous, then you are getting a ticket to a date with the game right now.

Hobby world has already announced the release of the second part of the game this fall. And I am extremely happy with this news, because in the fall we will continue the hellish crazy bloody battle of extravagant battle mages.

I give the game "class", and you yourself decide how strong your tabletop spirit is.

Board game Epic battles of war mages was provided for review by

Action heroes love to choose the most dangerous places for decisive fights: the edge of a waterfall, a working factory, a sinking ship. But for the coolest wizards in the universe, this is somehow shallow. Therefore, to find out who has the most lumpy fireballs, sorcerers and necromancers prefer on the slopes of the ominous Skullfire volcano. The most terrible spells recorded in ancient tomes are used. By the way, have you ever wondered why magic books are so big and heavy? To finish off losing magicians, of course!

genre: card, patigame
Authors: Rob Henso, Corey Jones
Painter: Nick Edwards
Publisher: Cryptozoic Entertainment
Publisher in Russia: Hobby World
Number of players: 2–6
Age of players: 14 years old
Party duration: 20-40 minutes
Similar to:
series "Munchkin"
Nickelodeon cartoons

There are never enough clones of "Munchkin", thought Cryptozoic Entertainment, hired two designers of card games for Dungeons & Dragons and issued "Epic battles of battle mages". It was not possible to remove the king of toys from the throne, but the attempt was valid.

The catchy design of the box immediately attracts attention. The illustrations on the cards are both attractive and repulsive: this is what Hieronymus Bosch's cartoons on Nickelodeon would look like. Worms, severed limbs and bloodshed are here on almost every map. Children should definitely not give this for their birthday, but adult lovers of black humor may like it. Unless, of course, they are afraid of high-impact games. It will be hot on Skullfire Mountain: the main mechanic of Epic Battles hits hapless wizards on the heads more than traps in Dungeon Raiders and oars in Overboard.

It's fun to be a dark magician. The Spell Constructor allows you to build combinations of three cards - Instigator (the great magician of the past who shares his power), Turn (additional effect) and Parish (final chord). From these three components, you can make any enchantment - to heal yourself at the right time, collect more treasures or show your friends who is the best. Some spells affect only the neighbors, the second - the strongest or weakest character, the third choose the victim at random. There are also treasure maps that add extra lethality to magic, allow you to manipulate initiative and more. To get the Unbroken Warlock Medal, you have to think over effective combinations on the move forward.

The power of the Ward cards depends, among other things, on the die roll. If all parts of the spell include the magic of one school, there will be as many as three (or even four) cubes, the illustrations on the cards will merge together, and the enemies will certainly not be good. There are only five schools, but it is far from always profitable to collect a "one-color" spell. For example, Drunk Walker's shots become even more dangerous in the company of a Twist of Grass magic and a Coming from the spells of Corruption.

The game is spared from many shortcomings of the same "Munchkin". Whereas in Steve Jackson's game, the road to the tenth level was delayed by half a day, on Skullfire Mountain you need only two rounds to be the last living sorcerer. Players lagging behind the leader can close the gap in one play of cards, those who have dropped out of the race will replenish their hit points in 5-10 minutes and fight for the next Medal of the Undead Sorcerer. In addition, defeated mages each turn receive powerful spells from a separate deck that will help them in the next disassembly.

"Epic battles of battle mages" each time forced to choose between speed and lethality. The most powerful spells are distinguished by low initiative, so think about what comes first: your move or meeting the gravedigger. The final moves are often very dramatic and similar to the duels in westerns. Calculation, patience and luck allow them to survive. And the winner is the one who gets the revolver first.

Outcome: This dynamic and very aggressive company game, unlike most other patgames, allows you to plan your actions on the move forward. But the controversial design and the high role of the case can scare off some of the players.

Last year I got acquainted with the board game Epic War Mage Skirmishes: The Battle of Skullfire Mountain (this game was published in Russian by the publishing house Hobby world ). I can't say that I expected something special from this board, but it turned out that I really liked the game, despite its bloody vulgar theme (hide the game from children). I liked the idea of ​​crazy mages gutting each other with spells, but after a while I wanted to have even more explosive spells. And my wish was destined to come true - a little later, HW released a sequel to the game, which is called ... The name is long, so for convenience I will shorten it to ESBM-2 (nothing to do with BDSM, honestly, honestly! =)).

Have you missed body-rending magic and sorcerers who are stifling from one caste as much as I do? Get ready to hear the scary tale of what is happening in the mysterious castle of the Octopus Slaughterhouse today!

In one black-black castle ...

I love this game for the artistic text at the beginning of the rules. That in ESBM-1, that in ESBM-2 you will find a touching text about the fact that being a sorcerer is karma that cannot be avoided.

« I used to be a farmer“, - says the unknown magician in the preface, -“ I grew this and that. But then Uncle Andy came along, and we had to forget about farming. How could it be otherwise, because I became wildly cool. Uncle Andy told me to go wet the goats and I go and piss the goats«.

In my opinion, once again the rules set a cool tone for the game. Be sure to read the preface, it's worth it.

Surprise

Usually in this part of the review, I write about what I have read interesting in the rules. Before the game appeared in my collection, I did not know anything about it, but for some reason it seemed to me that in Atrocities at Castle Sprout Slaughterhouse there will be additional cards to base game... By the way, my acquaintances told me in secret that in the new box they would finally decipher the secret of the cardboard tower that lies in the base.

So when I unpacked the game and began to read the rules, I was unexpectedly surprised that ESBM-2 is an absolutely independent game. That is why the two does not appear in its name (although I put it in this review). Buying Atrocities at the Castle Sprout Slaughterhouse , you do not need to have Battle of Skullfire Mountain .

Scrolling through the rules, I realized that the game in the second version practically did not change. In it, you still need to collect spells from cards, which are divided into several types. The players take turns casting the collected spells and inflicting damage on mages, i.e. other players. For especially cool spells played, you can get valuable treasure cards. If you bring the magician's health to zero, then he becomes dead and is eliminated from the current round. The last sorcerer who remains on the battlefield receives a valuable token of an unfinished sorcerer. To win the game, you need to get 2 of these tokens.

I see absolutely no need to talk about the basic rules of the game, as I already did in the review on ESBM-1. If you click here, you can read how the right sorcerers play this game.

In the same review, I will tell you how Octopus Slaughterhouse differs from Skullfire .

In the Castle of the Sprout Slaughterhouse, you will find ...

In general, I would describe ESBM-2 as the same as ESBM-1, only with new buns and bells and whistles, which merged into the gameplay quite interestingly.

4 innovations - blood, creatures, castle and surprises. Let's start in order.

Blood

Agree that in such a bloody game like ESBM it was impossible to do without the very blood that gushes from all the game cracks. In ESBM-2, sorcerers have to collect, receive, drain and take blood in liter values. The blood count is measured on the same counter that is used to count lives. Those. on one counter you will have 2 different tokens at once.

All players start the game with zero blood count, but gradually they will gain it, getting blood for casting spells, for killing other sorcerers and for owning a castle.

Blood is an additional resource that can be spent on very useful actions that some cards contain. For example, while playing the next spell, you can find the following phrase on the map: “ Drain so much blood: ...". If you spend as many blood points as it says, then you can do what is indicated after the colon. As a rule, this is some kind of additional action (heal, inflict damage, etc.). But it happens that it can also be a modifier. For example, with a card, you deal 1 damage to all players, but if you drain 2 blood, you will deal 2 damage.

There is never a lot of blood, and the more there is, the cooler spells you can cast.

Creatures

Critters are the type of cards that appear on spell cards (at the very bottom of the card it says - creature). In fact, this is a regular ward card, but some of them contain the word “ STAND! ". And if the player plays the effect with the command "stand!", Then this card after casting the spell does not go to the discard, but remains on the table. The next time you compose a new spell, this creature card can be played again (like additional card parish). But if you don't get the "stand!" once again, then the creature will go into the dump. And if the effect is achieved again, this card will remain on the table again.

In addition to the fact that the creature allows you to play more cards on the next turn, it can also protect its owner from taking damage. If you should take damage, and you have a creature, then you can discard the creature and not receive damage (the creature will take all the damage). This thing is very useful, especially when the sorcerer has little health and every stranger's blow is considered almost fatal.

Lock

So, now the secret of the cardboard thing on the coasters will be revealed to us. In ESBM-2, this thing is called a lock. At the beginning of the game, the castle is drawn and stands next to the deck of cards. Some cards allow you to take possession of the castle, i.e. take it for yourself (you can't just take it). Some other cards give bonuses to the players who own the castle. It will be written on the cards: “ If you own a castle, then ...«.

Also, at the end of each round, the sorcerer who owns the castle receives 1 liter of blood.

In fact, the castle is another condition that is very useful to fulfill in order to have a great bonus to subsequent spells.

The unexpected

Some cards contain the word "unexpected". This is something like revenge of the sorcerers who were killed before they had time to walk. If you are killed (or you cripple yourself with your own spell), and there is an unexpected effect on the cards you have not played, then it immediately works. With such an unexpected effect, you can take several more sorcerers with you to Valhalla, whose health was close to zero.

Undead is a pretty funny element of ESBM, which adds even more fun and fun to the game.

I did not notice any more innovations, so let's go straight to the impressions.

"They want blood-blood!" (c) Climbatics

So, as I said, ESBM-2, to my surprise, does not complement the first game, but is an independent game with the same gameplay. Of course, fans of the first part may have a question - is there any point in buying ESBM-2? I will try to answer this question.

To be honest, ESBM-2 made me happy with almost everyone. A big plus of the game is that it contains completely different maps, which were not in ESBM-1. True, this does not apply only to cards Crazy magic since this card cannot be replaced by anything else. In the new game you will find completely new spell cards, new treasure cards and even new cards of dead sorcerers. And if game process remained practically the same, then the sensations from the effects and actions that are available to sorcerers are completely fresh. The new cards are really fun to play. They have crazy new art and new wild names that will definitely bring a smile (if you are not a Puritan, of course).

Was it worth changing anything in the gameplay after all? Maybe not. ESBM-1 worked perfectly, so if it was necessary to change something, then only to polish some points, so that it could be done with the help of innovations.

Blood takes the gameplay to a slightly different level of the game, a little higher, because players now have to monitor their blood level and try to finish off the sorcerers faster, capture the castle, defend themselves with creatures, etc. For the most part, the first game asked players to damage each other and heal. The second part expands the capabilities of the players. It seems like the players are doing the same thing, but now there are many different modifiers and surprises.

At the very beginning of the game, it is a little sad that there is always not enough blood, and the cards offer very tasty effects for draining blood. But by the end of the game, the scale reaches its climax, and especially intelligent sorcerers will already be able to spend tens of liters of blood on powerful spells per turn.

In general, I give the game a plus for the blood.

Critters are also a pretty good idea. They are great at helping out when taking fatal damage. In essence, creatures are regular cards parish who have new effect obtained from mighty throws. With a certain number of dice, this card can be left for the next turn, making it a creature. If no one touches you until the next turn, the creature lies quietly on the table and will give you its effect again. And if someone encroaches on your health, then the creature will take all the damage upon itself. One continuous usefulness from them. But you can't leave critters on the table of your own free will, no matter how much you want to. In order for the creature to remain on the table, you need to roll the dice well, which means you are either lucky or not. Hello random!

The main thing is not to forget that the creature can take a hit on itself. In the games I played, players quite often forgot about this rule.

The lock is not very functional, but at the same time it does not interfere at all. With blood, it's a little easier - you can get it for a variety of actions. But the lock must be picked up by the permission of special cards. According to the law of meanness, you will fall into your hand cool cards, giving the effects of owning a castle, then when you do not have this castle. Let's just say that the castle is a nice addition, a kind of cherry on the cake. Do you have a castle? Good. There is not? Well, what can you do. But playing with him is more fun, of course.

The surprises seemed to me the smallest innovation, because in my games I played they were rarely played. In order for the unexpected to work, several conditions must be met - you must have it in the spell (this time), the card with the unexpected must not be played (these are two), you must be banged (these are three). If all the cards had unexpected surprises, then maybe they would have a slightly greater effect. But always when the surprises work, it immediately becomes even more fun at the table. Especially to those who fall from these cards =)

When I played several games in ESBM-2, it seemed to me that this game felt a bit like , which I already reviewed earlier. Of course, these are completely different games in terms of gameplay, but they are similar in that they load the brain a little more than the first games in the series. Though Kneading. Munchkin , of course, loads much more heavily than ESBM-2. The first game about battle mages is a bit simpler in gameplay. ESBM-2 is the same thing, only a few more bells and whistles. These bells and whistles make it difficult for the player to choose when creating spells. It seems to me that everything was simpler in ESBM-1. The main thing was to try to collect a spell from some types of cards, so that a mighty throw was really mighty. Now there is something to think about, because it is not a fact that a spell consisting of one type of cards will be more powerful than if there are different types in it. You can be tempted by cards with a set or drain of blood, with obtaining a castle, with unexpected ones, etc. And sometimes it happens that it is more profitable to save some cards for later, in order to collect a cooler spell next time. For example, if you play a card this turn, you will not receive a bonus from blood (or from a castle that you do not have). But on the next turn, you may have enough blood. and you will own the castle. Therefore, analysis paralysis in ESBM-2 is unambiguously present in a larger size than in ESBM-1.

It seemed to me that the effects of the new cards are a little more powerful, i.e. allow you to deal damage more effectively. Literally on the second turn, sorcerers-losers begin to die. And by the third or fourth round, an unfinished sorcerer may already be determined. Perhaps this compensates for the paralysis of analysis, and I liked this speed.

But do not rush to rejoice that the game has become faster. Nothing like this. It still takes quite a long time. While you choose the cards for the spell, while you laugh at the names of the cards, while you play all the actions, it all takes tens of minutes. A game of five takes about two hours (if not more). The deck still needs to be shuffled a lot, and it is quite large and uncomfortable, which causes a little discomfort.

Since I have already started talking about the inconveniences, let me tell you further about what I did not really like about ESBM-2. I have already said about protracted games (sometimes I want to finish the game as soon as possible, otherwise all the players at the table are already sitting with tokens of unfinished sorcerers, and the game does not end). The element of randomness in the game has become even more. Therefore, if someone did not like this random game, he will not like it even more. Unsuccessful cards may come into your hand, you will not have a castle, there will be not enough blood and unexpected ones will not work - these are all quite ordinary situations. But ESBM is generally a game about fun, and not about strategies, tactics and linearity. In the last review, I said that this game is similar to Munchkin , and I continue to think so to this day. In this game, you will most likely win because you are lucky, not because you are such a smart and experienced sorcerer. This game can’t be taken seriously.

One track for lives and blood is a little awkward. More than once it happened that the player was confused and moved the life token instead of blood, and vice versa. It happens that by moving one token, you accidentally push another, and then try to prove that you have one number of lives, and not another =) As they say, a trifle, but unpleasant.

I can't remember anything else bad, so let's move on to the good one, which is much more in the game.

The new treasures are just as cool as ESBM-2. There are, of course, more useful treasures, there are less, but on the whole it is always pleasant to receive them in order to have additional opportunities.

Undoubtedly, dead sorcerers also delighted with their new effects. Many of them bring a bonus at the moment they are received (no need to wait for a new game to apply the properties of these sorcerers).

The bloody scary art remained in the same place. New game she did not change her traditions a bit, and in some moments she even outdid old game... ESBM-2 on the box also has an 18+ badge, and therefore I do not recommend children to play this game. The names of the cards and what is painted on them often cross culturally decent lines, which may intimidate some players. If the sight of the scattering guts and brains is shocking you, then you better bypass this game.

The editors of the MX localizers did a great job translating the names of the maps and gaming slang... In many cards, Easter eggs and allusions are hidden, which try not to cross the fine line of decency, but strongly hint at this very obscenity.

You can play ESBM-2 from 2 to 6 players. It is undesirable to play with two people, because many cards are useful only if there are more players. With six of the players, the game will definitely drag on for a long time, because usually players try to press those who already have an unfinished sorcerer token, so usually at the end of the game, almost all players have these tokens in a single amount. In principle, you can play this game with any amount. If you want to enjoy a long but fun process, then you can play with the maximum lineup.

The owners of ESBM-1 boxes can try mixing the cards of both games together. This will allow you to play even with 12 players (and spend the whole day on it. Just kidding). I was afraid to do this, because shuffling such a huge deck is completely inconvenient, and the cards from the second game will get lost among the cards of the first. Mixing both games together will make it harder for you to get blood, lock, and beast functions. If you want to enjoy what new elements of the second game give you, then it is better to play only ESBM-2.

Well, my dear unfinished sorcerers, so I came to the main point of the review - the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the review. In my opinion ESBM-2 - standing game... She is as funny, crazy, bloody and random as ESBM-1. If you bought the first game, you really liked it and you want something else of the same sale, then I recommend that you buy the second game in the series. Although the second part has a number of cool innovations, I am drawn to put an "equal" sign between the games. ESBM-2 can still be even a little better (by half a point). Therefore, if you have neither the first nor the second game, then if I were you, I would take Octopus Slaughterhouse since it has more buns. But both games are played equally nicely (IMHO).

In order to have fun playing ESBM-2, you do not need to have ESBM-1 in your collection. But if you want epic fun, you can buy both games and mix them together.

Output

Board game Epic War Mage Battles: Rampage at the Castle of the Sprout Slaughterhouse took all the best from the predecessor game and added new interesting features to it. ESBM-2 is even more "meat" spells, hurricane effects and brain-explosive consequences. The game should be hidden from children, grandmothers, impressionable persons and pregnant women. At the same time, the game should be shown to cheerful and sociable friends who are able to translate dark humor into sports witchcraft anger.

You wanted even more gore and dark humor? Then you will definitely find him in the Castle of the Sprout Slaughterhouse!

Page board game on the Hobby World website

Epic Battles of War Mages is a unique board game of its kind. You have to not only learn the true truth about how the battle of magicians goes, but also become a full-fledged participant in the battle.

Forget about the rest of the games that you have, because Mages will enchant and captivate your mind and mind. We guarantee that you have never taken part in such an outrage.

Features of Crazy Game

"Battle on Skullfire Mountain" is special in its kind and has no equal. The style of play, illustrations, black humor, partly sadism - this sets the game apart from other card tables. If you want to experience new, unsurpassed emotions, while having good fun, then you need to get to know the battle mages better.

A storm awaits you ... of emotion. A world filled with forbidden spells that you will learn and use against your enemies. The number of opponents can reach 6 characters, a real mess, where only one can stay alive.

You have to create crushing spells so as not to leave a speck of dust from your rivals. But you will have to try hard, because even after dying in a round, the player can prevent others from reaching the final.

Strange artifacts and insane magic await you!)

One of most interesting features board game Epic battles of war mages: Battle on Skullfire Mountain - unusual and catchy illustrations.

The artwork was developed by Nick Edwards, who eventually created a real masterpiece full of black humor and sarcasm. Perhaps just for the sake of images it is worth playing this "epic" game).

Sorcerers

The first thing worth paying attention to is the characters themselves, the sorcerers. There is a separate deck of cards with these heroes. To take a sorcerer card, you need to wait until the selected main character dies. After that, each turn is one card from the deck, which gives its advantages.

Mage wars is a game with almost no end, when you play the second and subsequent times, dead sorcerers must be played and discarded.

What epic spells are there and how are they composed?

The game Battle of the Magicians is not easy fun. The spells in it are of paramount importance. There are three main types in total, of which, with some luck, powerful and unexpected combinations can be folded.

• Instigators- add power to combat spells
• Twist- brings a spice to the game, you can make original troubles
• Coming- a real explosive mixture

Magic schools

Each card in Mage Wars belongs to a school of magic of a certain type. This is indicated by the signs:

• waste- destruction of opponents by means of total incineration;
• darkness- direct connection with dark rituals that are directed against rivals;
• spoilage- your enemies will not have time to understand what happened to them;
• kumar- direct your anger purposefully;
• grass- heal with magic herbs and poison your enemies with them.

In this game, the winner must receive the maximum score. This is given 3 parties. They can be obtained for a kill or for medals from an unfinished sorcerer.

Winning is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Kill your enemies and don't let them kill you. The task is clear to the point of disgrace.

Apply different tactics, try combinations, come up with the craziest combinations and confidently go to victory. In the end there will be only one sorcerer, who will become the owner of the "Undead" medal. The game can be started over and over again, join the battle and prove your magical power.

V ideological review