With the combat cards being so powerful, there is a very real decision to make as to when you stop buying cards and start doing everything you can to get your opponent to zero. I enjoy the interesting (though admittedly, light) strategy of Hero Realms. Its pace makes it very easy to play two or three games in one sitting, with the random market row giving you a different experience each time. The cards are generally more powerful in Hero Realms, making games quicker and more explosive. If, like me, you love Star Realms and you love fantasy themes, you should pick it up without a moment's hesitation. Hero Realms is a brilliant game, but it's essentially a re-skin of Star Realms. This is a further reason why it's a good idea to have champions who can stick around for a turn or two, as that's an easy way to turn on allied bonuses. The final key mechanic is the allied bonuses, which are additional effects that some cards have when played alongside another card from the same faction. Some champions can be ignored if you don't have the combat to stun them, but guards must be stunned before you can damage your opponent. As long as they're on the field, they can continue to use their effects every turn. If 'stunned' in this way, they go to the discard pile. Every champion has a defence value, and they stay on the battlefield until an opponent can deal damage equal to that value to them in one turn. This is how new cards get into your deck.Ĭhampions are the exception to the discard rule. When you don't have enough cards in your deck to draw a hand of five, you shuffle your discard pile and draw from it. All cards played go to the discard pile at the end of the turn (except champions, which we'll come to). Combat is straightforward: a point of combat equals a point of damage to an opponent, and health is the reverse, allowing you to recoup your own health.Ĭards are mostly divided into actions and champions, both of which are played out of a hand of five cards refilled at the end of every turn. These cards go into your discard pile, and will be shuffled back into your deck in a few turns. Gold is the trading resource of the game, used to purchase cards from a central market row of five cards that is replenished from an 80 card market deck as soon as one is taken. The game's cards can generate any of three resources: gold, combat and health. The ultimate goal is to reduce your opponents ' health points to 0 (from 50). Hero Realms is a deck-building game, so players start with an identical, basic deck of weak cards which they use to acquire more powerful cards throughout the game. The base game of Hero Realms plays identically to Star Realms, but for those who are unfamiliar, I'll run through it quickly. In their character pack expansions the designers explored this theme even later, but that's a topic for another article! These champions have recurring abilities and a defence stat that has to be overcome if they're to be removed from the board, but they're much more compelling in terms of the game's narrative than the faceless bases that served a similar mechanical function in Star Realms. Unlike Star Realms, the game is thematically carried by characters, called champions in the rules of the game. Imperial and Necros are more or less typical fantasy empire and evil death cult type groups, but the Wild is a great blend of primal, aggressive elves, orcs and wolves. The Guild is very cool, featuring human merchants and wizards who pay ogres and other uglies to do their bidding. Some of the factions, situated in the cosmopolitan trading post-cum-city of Thandar, are more innovative than others. These creatures are also divided among four coloured factions that will be familiar to Star Realms fans: yellow (Imperial) blue (Guild) red (Necros) and green (Wild). However, the theme tends to fit the cards really well, and Hero Realms' bold, colourful art does a great job of bringing the classic tropes to life without making them seem overused. Pretty much every creature in this game has been seen elsewhere many times before. I'll be honest, it's not the most original fantasy theme you're ever going to see. You've got elves, orcs, dragons and vampires all featured prominently on the cards. Hero Realms is dripping with classic fantasy tropes. We're here to review the game on its own merits. With the support of the existing Star Realms fan base the game was pretty much an instant hit, but let's not assume that Hero Realms is good because it's predecessor was such a hit. White Wizard Games released the core set, designed by Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle, in 2016. Hero Realms is a 2-4 player fantasy deck-building game from the masterminds behind the immensely popular Star Realms.
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