Arcane Alley: Core + Expansion Bundle (Kickstarter)

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 5 out of 10

   CheapSheepNZ

   I have seen this game played in playthroughs and was fascinated so I got the retail version. The rulebook is a pain to read and feels like no one has done blind playtesting. Also, some cards are seriously confusing such as the boomerang. The turn tracker in the 2-player variant is no fun (we constantly forgot to move it) and it appears the game is good to play with 3 players and more, not just 2. We always sold our storehouses before the turn tracker reached its limit of 15 (maybe luck, maybe just badly balanced). Whether you win or lose is less dependent on your deck building skills, but more a chance of luck. We had one player being faaar behind who won by a crazy last round. Quality material and great artwork, yet fun are destroyed by randomness. I will try again and tweak my rating if the game dramatically improves.

2. elvis82566

   Welcome to the black magic market. In Arcane Alley, each player is a merchant wizard, competing to sell items for gold while minimizing the infamy gained from their leftover unsold items during a round’s inspection. Each player starts with a full storehouse of nine items. On your turn, you’ll try to make sets (three identical items in a row) in your storehouse, which awards you gold for the sale and removes those infamous items from your storehouse so you won’t get caught with them in the upcoming inspection. You’ll continue selling until a player triggers the inspection and ends the round. Then, each player gains infamy for any items remaining in their storehouse. If those items gain you too much infamy, you’ll fail the inspection and be forced to spend your precious gold on fines. To win the game, be the first player to make it through an inspection with at least 100 Gold.

3. 7 out of 10

   HikaruKaze

   Very Interesting luck based set collection game. The artwork from Janette Ramos really lures me in, she really have a knack for drawing magic curios. really shines after using the expansion (Moonstruck Market) too bad the setup time for building the deck kind of annoying and troublesome.