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The Amazing World of Mage Knight
Welcome to the incredible world of Mage Knight, where every game is a unique adventure! In this fantasy realm, you’ll face different challenges, explore new territories, and encounter powerful enemies. Let me guide you through this thrilling journey.
First, let’s talk about scenarios. You see, every time you play Mage Knight, you’ll embark on a different quest. Each scenario comes with its own set of rules, objectives, maps, and enemies. To get started, I recommend “The First Reconnaissance.” It’s the perfect scenario to get acquainted with the game mechanics and how it all works.
Mage Knight is played in rounds, representing both day and night. During your turn, you’ll have a range of options at your disposal. By using the cards in your hand, you can perform various actions. And here’s the exciting part – as you progress through the game, your Heroes can become even more powerful! How? Well, by accomplishing deeds, recruiting allies, or wielding powerful artifacts and spells!
Getting Started
So, you’re ready to get started? Great! The first thing we need to do is choose a scenario. Let’s go with First Reconnaissance – it’s perfect for beginners like us!
Now, we need to decide on the order in which we’ll select our Heroes. Take your time and think through your strategy. Once you’ve made your decision, go ahead and choose a Hero. Grab all the components that come with that Hero and place your Hero’s Order token on the table. Remember, we’ll line up the tokens in a column, with the player who chose first at the top.
Setting Up the Game
Now, let’s set up the game board just as shown in the image below.
Once the Fame and Reputation board is set up, you begin by putting a Shield token on the starting space of both the board and the Reputation Track. Then, the Enemy Token Piles, Artifact Deck, and Wound Pile are shuffled and placed where they belong.
The Spell Deck is also shuffled and placed in its designated area. To start, reveal the first three cards from the deck to serve as the offer. The Action Deck is prepared in the same way.
For the Regular Unit Deck, shuffle the cards and separate them by color to create two face-down stacks. Then, flip over a number of cards from the Silver deck equal to the number of players, plus two extra cards, to form the Unit Offer.
When we start the game, we need to place the board with the dayside facing up. It’s important to remember that at the beginning of each round, we flip the board again. To set up the Tile Deck, we stack the Countryside Tiles on top of the Core Tiles. For this scenario, we’ll use around eight to eleven Countryside Tiles, along with one Core City Tile and two Core Non-City Tiles.
Setting Up the Player Area
Your area as a player is right in front of you. Take your hero cards and place them on the left side. Put your Level 1 Tokens to the left of your hero cards. Your Deed Deck can be placed under your Hero Card, and the Skill Tokens go on the left side of the Deed Deck.
On the right side of your area, place your Shield Tokens. Right under the Shield Tokens, put the Skill Description Cards.
Gameplay
When we start playing the game, the first thing we need to do is determine the order in which we play and organize the game. Each player will receive a Day Tactic card and look at the number on it. The player with the lowest number will be the first to go, and the player with the highest number will go last. We can also organize the round order tokens in this order.
When it’s your turn, you have a few different actions you can take. Your player will start on the magic portal space on the map. You can play cards from your hand and use the effects described on them. If you have recruited any units, you can activate them. And you can also play cards and move around the board.
To make your actions even stronger, you can use mana throughout the game. You can get mana from the Source, by converting crystals, or by using the effects of other cards.
After you’ve finished your turn, roll the mana dice and return them to the Source. Take note of their new color. If they’re black, put them aside since they’re depleted. You should also discard any cards you played, return all mana tokens to the bank, and keep the crystals you have. Then, draw cards from your deed deck until your hand has five cards. You can have more cards if you earn more fame.
At this point, the next player can start their turn following the same steps. Once everyone has played, the first player goes again.
A player announces the end of the round when they run out of cards in their deed deck or have no cards to play. All other players get one more turn before the round ends completely.
To determine if the game is over and scoring is possible, I need to check the scenario description and see if the conditions have been met.
Deed Cards
Deed Cards come in different types: Action Cards, Spells, Artifacts, and Wounds. I’ll play my Deed Cards to get the desired effect. When I play a Deed Card, I’ll put it in my playing area and announce the effect it has.
Using Units
I can get Units by using Command Tokens during the game. Units that have a Command Token above them are ready to be used. But if there’s a Command Token on a Unit, that means it has already been used. If I run out of Command Tokens, I have to disband a Unit so I can use another one. At the end of each round, all Units automatically become ready again.
Using Skills
When I play Heroes, I earn Skill tokens. These tokens are given to me every time I reach a Fame level that is even. I get to use these tokens to unleash special skills and abilities, which are described on the Skill Token itself. It’s pretty cool to see what each token does!
How to Use Mana
Mana is a super important resource in Heroes. It comes in four colors: red, white, blue, and green. Sometimes, I find mana as pure energy, and other times, it’s in crystal form. But here’s the thing – if I don’t use the mana before my turn ends, it disappears! So I have to be careful.
I can store mana in crystal form, and I can store up to three tokens of each color. This means I can save them up and use them in later turns. It’s great to have a stash of mana ready when I need it!
There are also special types of mana: gold and black. These mana types can be used as any color of mana, but only at certain times. I can use gold mana during the daytime, and black mana during the nighttime. It’s like having the power to bend the rules a little bit!
The Source is like a magic well, full of mana that can be tapped into. Every turn, you can take a mana die from the Source and use it in whatever way the die shows.
Getting Rid of Cards
If you’re told to discard a card, just put it in the discard pile. But if you’re told to throw away a card, that means it’s gone for good. The only cards you can’t throw away are the Wound cards, which have to go back to the Wound Pile.
Taking It Back
You can change your mind and undo any actions or decisions you made during your turn. However, once you’ve learned something new, you can’t take it back. So any moves, played cards, or used cards have to stay where they are once things have changed.