Board Game Break Time: Seasons

Board Game Break Time is a new feature we're bringing in, where we play board games and review them.

Title: Seasons
Publisher: Asmodee

Release Date: 2012
Designer: Régis Bonnessée

Game Mechanisms: Hand Management, Take That, Card Drafting, Dice Rolling 

# of Players: 2-4   Best: 2

Ages: 14+

Play Time: 60 Minutes

  

Average Rating: 7.4

Average Rating: 4.3

Assuming the role of one of the greatest sorcerers of the time, you will be participating in the legendary tournament of the 12 Seasons. Your goal is to raise the most victory points by gathering energy, summoning familiars and magic items. If you amass enough crystals and symbols of prestige, you will become the kingdom's most illustrious mage. Optimize the cards through skillful combinations, using the seasons wisely to access the energies of crystals and become the the new Archmage of the kingdom of Xidit. In a first phase, select 9 power cards at the same time as your opponents. Do the right choices, because they will determine the rest of the game. Acclimatize to the season to make the most of the actions proposed by each roll of the dice. Collect energies, invoke magical and familiar objects, and collect enough crystals, symbols of prestige. The time is now magician.

 

I had a lot of fun with this game. We tried to play it the first time and  found it a bit hard to understand. I am not sure why because the second time we seemed to understand a bit more. I feel that the learn-ability is a bit harder but this is a layered game for sure. There is a lot going on and a good amount of strategy. It's not the heaviest game by far, but it has some heft to it and it is a lot of fun. 

The look of the game is just amazing. I do love the colors and the artwork. Its a bright fun vibrant type of look and I enjoyed looking at it as much as playing it. 

There is a bit of take that mechanism in the game but not too much. I found I could play the game quite well without having to be too mean. It is a bit hard to keep up with all you have in play too. These are my only complaints really. 

We played with just two players which is where Board Game Geek has it best with. I think 3 players could be fun but 4 players would be too much and the game would take a very long time to play through. I do like that it is good with two players since most of the time... it's just Michael and me playing game. 

I really did enjoy this game, it had a multitude of game mechanisms that made the game play interesting and exciting. I had to use my brain quite a bit and really had to think forward, which I do like. So for a strategy game with a light and fun theme... this game rocks. 

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What Michael Thought: 

This game we have had for awhile but never played all the way through until just recently. At first the rule book and all the cards overwhelmed us. We watched some videos that explained game and then we played it. It's a really fun and different strategy game with lots of different elements.

The game is a mix of game Strategy as you start by drafting cards. You and your opponents have 9 cards but you can only pick one and then pass it to pick from your opponents hand, and it goes on until all cards are selected. After that then you select 3 cards to start with. Then 3 cards that get opened up in year 2 and then 3 cards for the final year. Each year consists of all 4 seasons. Each season you pick the matching dice for that season and roll and draft a die that you can use to get victory points, a card, an elemental. So it mixes card drafting, dice drafting, and hand management. The game goes pretty quickly with 2 players and never feels like you have downtime. You are always thinking or rolling dice or playing cards.

The game is pretty heavy strategy and I would recommend this to players who are fairly familiar with dice drafting games and card management games. Newer game players may want to play some other games first before taking on this beautifully constructed game.

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