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G@mebox author Ralf Togler writes about the game:
Attila and his Huns once ruled over half of the world. In 452 they even invaded Italy and reached their biggest expansion. But soon after Attila was suffering, and so he was looking for a successor. Of course, this person had to be the bravest and most glorious of his generals. And thus a heavy competition among the candidates had begun...
This is the starting time of Huns from LA BOITE DE JEU / BLACKROCK. And it was definitely a time of devastating raids, bloody invasions and heavy battles. But those of you, who now expect a heavy area control and fighting game, are wrong. Instead Huns is a light card drafting and dice rolling game. And it is already a great success in France, so let us see what the hype is about:
Five different colours play a major role in the game. Each colour belongs to a deck of cards and at the same to a supply of valuable cubes. The cards are separated by colour at setup, shuffled and placed next to the corresponding valuables. Each card deck stands for its own discipline: equipment, raid, mercenary, curse and treasure.
And then we have five dice, also in the five colours of the cubes and cards. And these dice are rolled at the beginning of each round, and placed in front of the supply of the same colour. Then the players one by one take one of the dice and perform one of the two possible actions: either she or he draws as many cards from the corresponding deck equal to the value of the die and chooses one of it. Or she or he takes as many valuables of the same colour as the value of the die chosen. And that's already all you have to do in your turn. Doesn't explain the success of the game in France, does it? No, of course it does not. You still have to learn what to do with all the cubes and the cards... Let's start with the cards. Firstly, all cards are played face in front of the players. From now on, they are part of the player's personal camp and can be used to improve his or her abilities. What they do exactly depends on the type of the card and its text. But – with exception of the curse cards - they are all good for the players, some has a permanent effect, some may be activated once in a turn and still others have to be prepared before they can be used. The last type of cards all come from the mercenary deck and must be prepared by filling up the free spaces on the card with valuables. This brings us to the one function of the valuables. But if you wanna score with the valuables the more important function is to use them to fill up wagons on the players' personal boards. Two wagons are placed there at setup, and whenever a wagon is entirely full, it is dispatched and scores at the end of the game. Immediately the player draws a new wagon again. As you can see, the mechanics of Huns are easy, and therefore the game is also quickly explained. The way to win the game is to acquire the right cards and use their effects. Or give some curse cards to your opponents. For this is the function of the curse cards: choose the die of the black curse deck, take one or more cards from the deck (depending on the value of the die), place the card directly in the opponent's camp, and do your opponents some harm. Curse cards have negative effects as long as they are active, and the only way to get rid of them is to take some minus victory points when receiving them, or to fill them up with valuables in the same way like the mercenary cards. So you can see that there are a lot of different cards to be discovered, and this is definitely a lot of fun. I must say that I really liked the game despite of its simplicity. The one reason is that it plays really fast, but still you build up a mighty camp with a lot of new abilities in the end. And then there is the great artwork. Both sides of the cards are illustrated in awesome details, and so the game is full of atmosphere, and you are prepared to find the one and only worthy successor of the Khan. |
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Copyright © 2018 Ralf Togler & Frank Schulte-Kulkmann, Essen, Germany |