Gates of Mara

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. johnorr3

   Looks interesting but just a little too visually cluttered and is also better with 4 than with two and I already have other games like that.

2. 6 out of 10

   garry_rice

   Enjoyable worker placement/area majority game where the workers can be assigned additional powers/abilities. I'm still not sure about the magic items though. I just ignored them and focused on the realms in my one play:)

3. 8 out of 10

   cbazler

   Wow, very pleasantly surprised by this. At first glance it looks like a light worker-placement game, and when you see "WizKids" on the box it's hard to get your hopes up about production quality. But the game is quite more involved and the components much better than I ever expected. I do wish the "mana" crystals were more than just plastic gems, but the art is great and I like the modularity of the boards and powers. The gameplay is where this really shines. You have to be ever-mindful of majorities, all the while powering-up your workers with Enchantments/Banners and keeping round scoring goals in mind. Because of the multiple activations you get both from each board and Elemental Lord, in addition to worker abilities, your turns start to become truly "combotastic," with one action chaining to another in a really satisfying way. On top of this, there are considerations about where each worker is allowed go and how much energy you're spending each turn, and suddenly you'll find the gears of your brain turning quite enjoyably. I like it! I'd love to see some additional content: this seems like an infinitely-expandable game.