Codex: Card-Time Strategy – Starter Set

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 7 out of 10

   crashcrosby

   I like the back and forth in this game. Wish more content was available as all I could get was the starter set.

2. JacobCStephens13

   This offers a lot of heuristic growth it seems to me, which excites me, and offers various strategic paths to go down.

3. Oppo28

   Not enough plays to rate; sold. Some observations below: PROS: -Extremely interesting deckbuilding mechanic, one I was excited about pre-launch and enjoyed in game (best part of the game). However, will take some time to really get good at it. -Captures some of the spirit of RTS games. I love War 3, and it's clear that the creators loved it too (and SC). -Some interesting factions, heroes, etc. -Resource system is awesome; simple and elegant. AND, it doesn't take several turns to build up to play stuff. The designers solved mana screw, thinning deck fat, and removing those pointless early turns in one stroke. -Massive amounts of strategic potential. For someone who has the time or playgroup to deep dive into this, I can imagine it providing countless hours of fun for years. CONS: -Definitely complex, sometimes a bit too much. There are just so many moving parts each turn, it's hard to imagine keeping up with everything while still being able to play/think strategically. Maybe after a significant number of plays it would come easily and I could enjoy the game itself more, rather than worrying about all of these upkeep steps, but after early plays it's just a lot. I don't want to have to play a game 10x + in order to really appreciate it. For some this could definitely be a PRO, but for someone with limited time and many games, it detracts. -Some rules can be clunky or hard to understand. There is fortunately a lot of online resources to clarify things, but I wish it was a little more smooth/intuitive from the get go -Games take long. Part of that has to do with the upkeep/base rules complexity, but a lot of it has to do with the fact that there are so many options, players can face analysis paralysis. I feel like you could maintain the same strategic depth while eliminating at least some of the complexities (spells requiring heroes vs creatures, flying, heroes can't be immediately resummoned, building/tiers, # of cards drawn each turn, etc.) In an effort to capture the RTS feeling, I think maybe a bit too much was forced in at the cost of elegance. I put the RTS theme as a pro - it certainly is - but I'm wondering if a better balance needed to be struck. Keep some of the familiar RTS elements in, while streamlining and removing some of the others. When I can get more plays in, I will revisit this and add a rating. Really hoping for an online version so I can play more; locally people have been a bit turned off by the complexity.