Meeple on Board Rating
Be the first to review this product.Board Game Geek Reviews
Be the first to review “Approaching Dawn: The Witching Hour”
You must be logged in to post a review.
You must be logged in to post a review.
Enter a brand-new world of witches and demons. In Approaching Dawn: The Witching Hour, players are coven members who are blood bound, meaning that what one witch does affects another member of the coven. Black magic begets corruption, which is given to other members; conversely, White magic can heal your own corruption. But both types of magic are used to bind and banish the demons, imps, fey, possessed animals, and warlocks entering our world.
Each witch starts with spells that they know, but throughout the game can gain corruption to learn new spells and get familiars and artifacts. But how they choose to use these new cards each hour — whether as Black or White magic — will determine the successful completion of the scene (mission).
In this cooperative card game, each scene (mission) determines the goal of the game. If the scenes are played in order, they form a story arc, but you can play any scene in any order.
—description from the publisher
Ages | 12+ |
---|---|
Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players, 5 Players, 6 Players |
Play Time | 120m – 120m |
Designer | Kenneth C. Shannon, III |
Mechanics | Cooperative Game |
Theme | Card Game, Fantasy |
Publisher | WizKids |
bguertin
General Impression: It is super fast after you learn to play. Each turn you have to choose how much to help yourself and how much you need to hurt your friends to stay in the game. The card are is gorgeous. The art really enhances the theme and makes game even better. There are some key words which are printed on the cards but it is often easier to ask the other players to read them off to you. Game Mechanics: Each turn starts with acquiring monsters to fight, gaining new cards, playing cards and fighting off monsters and aiding the other players in the game. As the first player the first round you will have the disadvantage of not being able to be assisted by the other players while fighting monsters, but after that, the first player changes and this is a non-issue. The mechanic of having "portals' opened by the other player to your right, makes for a challenge, you need to manage these when making your plans each turns before playing your cards. The more corrupt magic you use (to help yourself,) the more likely your ally is to be attacked by their own monsters. The turn summary card explains all the things you need to do in a turn. It is straight forward and easy to follow. Pros: This game has the math calculated so that all the characters are unique but balanced. The stating decks carry the theme clearly. I love the spell names, the drafting and the half/half cards being played for one of the two effects. Game play after you have played the training game or have been shown how to play is very fast. I love deck builders and as in many card destruction is an important game mechanic the other is drawing additional cards. Both of these are cleverly implemented in this game. Cons: As mentioned before, the key words for magical triggering could be printed larger and this would make the game easier to play. However, part way through the second game, I realized they the have icons which represent the different key word types. The instructions make this clear but I missed it the first read through. I also wear-bifocals which makes reading smaller print a bit more of a challenge. Final thoughts: Amazingly fast game play coupled with challenging need to balance your own interests with those of your allies.
Kitirat
Game of the Year 2017: Twist Gaming Co-op of the Year: Just Got Played This is a mid to high end game with lots of thinking and long term decision making. Suggest having experienced gamers play dirst if your going to have casual players join in.
origamiuf
Great Demo at GenCon 2017! The game itself is is co-operative but in ways that I really enjoy. You often have actions you want to take on your own against the "groupthink" or the "alpha" in your game. Each character in the game varies highly and it's not all just pin-ups but a wide range of characters, actually the art in the whole game is gorgeous. Bought this one, hope they have more left for those who go looking.