Game Info
Year
2020
Players
2-5
Age
14+
Playtime
75 min
Complexity
2.9/5
Collection
Your Tier
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Description
As the many planes of existence turn and churn, occasionally worlds come into alignment. For brief moments in the multiverse's timescale, these Conjunctions allow objects to slip from one world to another, sometimes unnoticed, sometimes causing chaos.
One such Conjunction occurred between Earth and Neemoss, during the Dark Ages. Two dimensions could not be more different. Physics in this alternate plane is more akin to magic and its corrupting effects create worlds of monsters and cruelty. When items from Neemoss appear on Earth they are still imbued with their magical essence, which is soon discovered by healers, alchemists, fakirs and all manner of snake-oil peddlers. But things become decidedly worse when the Conjunction strengthens and the first Witches from Neemoss cross into our plane of existence.
Help the Heroes master their newfound magical powers as they defend their lands from the malevolent Witches and the disciples they summon. Or control the Witches as they complete their rituals to ravage the Earth!
Dark Rituals: Malleus Maleficarum is an asymmetric “One vs Many” miniatures board game for 2 to 5 players with an expansion for a solo mode where one player controls the Witch Master. In "one vs many", a team of people control a small band of Heroes defending villagers from a single player controlling the vile Forces of Evil. All players manage a pool of stamina that is used to pay for their character’s actions. Game play is dynamic with little downtime: turns alternate between the two forces with a player on each side taking one or two actions each turn, so long as they still have stamina.
Play is organized around scenarios with unique objectives. The scenarios can be linked into a longer campaign or played individually if your group is more casual. Story driven scenarios, game mechanics, detailed miniatures and lush modular boards bring the game world to life.
Can you use the magic of Neemoss to defeat the invading horde? Or will you complete your Dark Rituals to summon the ultimate evil?
—description from designer
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 2
This page: 2
Sentiment:
pos 1 ·
mix 1 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–2 of 2
Video obnUNIOZLa0
Board Games UnLocked Playthrough at 0:16 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 115775 · mention_pk 328249
Click to watch at 0:16 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- The artwork is praised.
- The characters and their abilities are interesting, drawing comparisons to other media like The Witcher.
- The game presents a challenging and engaging experience with thematic elements.
- The 'one versus many' dynamic is enjoyed.
- The artwork for the demon and other components is considered cool and detailed.
Cons
- The game can be complex and rules-heavy, leading to players needing to re-read rules.
- The pacing can sometimes feel slow due to complex turns and rule checks.
- The 'demon summoning' mechanic can feel like a timer that pressures players.
- Some players found the gameplay loop of attacking and defending tedious at times.
- The game's ending felt somewhat anticlimactic with the demon being summoned but not immediately defeated or posing an overwhelming threat.
Thematic elements
- A one versus many game involving heroes and a dark legion battling against demonic forces and witches.
- A tower, implied to be on Earth, with connections to other realms.
- The game uses flavor text and character roles to establish a narrative.
Comparison games
- The Witcher (for character inspiration)
- Hocus Pocus (for character inspiration)
- Bloodborne (for component comparison)
- Kingdom Death (for component/designer comparison)
- Super Smash Bros. (for character crossover discussion)
- Final Fantasy VII (for character crossover discussion)
- Haunting of Hill House (for horror genre discussion)
- The Haunting of Bly Manor (for horror genre discussion)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action Point Allowance — Players spend stamina to perform actions like moving, attacking, and searching, managing their available actions per turn.
- Card Play — Players use cards for abilities, spells, and reactions, adding a layer of strategy and unpredictability.
- character abilities — Each character has unique stats and abilities, influencing their role and effectiveness in the game.
- Cooperative Play (Heroes) — The hero players must coordinate their actions and strategies to overcome the challenges presented by the game.
- Dice Rolling — Combat and some actions involve rolling dice to determine success or failure, with various defense and attack rolls discussed.
- Objective Completion — The game has specific win conditions for both sides, such as defeating specific enemies or achieving objectives like collecting parchments.
- One versus Many — The game is structured as one player (or team) against another, with the host playing as the 'Witch Master' or 'Dark Legion' and the others as 'Heroes'.
- Ritual/Summoning Mechanic — The 'sacrifice track' and summoning circles are central to the game's threat escalation, leading to the demon's arrival.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- "Why does every video that we now record just resort to us talking about [ ] up people who..."
- "The demon attacks all targets in its area."
- "The window is horrible. The wendigo is pretty great."
- "I literally have nothing else that I can..."
- "So, the witch master may activate the demon."
- "It's like, what the [ ] do I even do?"
- "So, the witch master may take two actions with the demon without exhausting any stamina."
- "The demon cannot activate this turn."
- "The witch master may activate the demon."
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 1YElpU1ihaI
Board Games UnLocked Review at 0:16 sentiment: positive
video_pk 115776 · mention_pk 328250
Click to watch at 0:16 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Thoroughly enjoyed the game
- Felt close to winning/losing during gameplay
- Objectives made encounters different enough
- Loot items are useful
- Equipping and unequipping is free
- Weight limit mechanic is interesting and well-implemented
- Alchemy is cool and tied to characters
- Theme and artwork are phenomenal
- Production quality is pretty good
- Stamina mechanism is liked and considered interesting
- Enough stamina to do several things but not overpowered
- Stamina replenishes when players run out or choose to halt
- Fantastic stamina mechanism
- Game has enough meat without grinding down in persnickety rules
- Minions are cards in hand, not requiring digging through the box
- Theme of witches bickering is lighthearted
- Campaign has an intro and flavor text based on wins/losses
- Board changes between scenarios
- Competitive victory points in campaign balance progression
- Game is not unbalanced
- Less for the witch player to do as minions dwindle
- Witches have their own spellbooks
- Game is fantastic
Cons
- The end goal of the second encounter started becoming tedious
- Random loot can feel like a wasted turn if requirements aren't met
- Problem with random loot requiring specific attributes (agility, alchemy focus) that weren't anticipated
- If only one banshee mini was included in add-ons but not others (succubus, wendigo), it's a cheap production decision.
- If the lack of certain minis was an active decision, it's a cheap production.
- Setup time could be simpler and take less than 10 minutes.
- The second encounter scenario felt like a tug-of-war that could be prolonged indefinitely.
- Players running away instead of engaging could prolong the game.
- The kickstarter exclusive cauldron thing.
- Controlling two characters when playing with three players could be a lot.
- Four different players might lead to only one person acting per turn.
- Losing the strategy of different players focusing on different aspects (e.g., one player upgrading agility while others attack) when controlling two characters.
- Alchemy cards and managing 16 unique abilities across two characters can be a steep learning curve.
- Characters not having explicit abilities listed on cards can make tracking difficult.
- Trading items can be difficult if characters are on opposite sides of the board.
- Summoning minions can be costly (5 stamina) and minions can be killed in one hit.
- Limited number of minions that can be summoned.
Thematic elements
- Witches and their lore, specifically the Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches)
Comparison games
- Star Wars Imperial Assault
- Descent
- Mansions of Madness
- The Others
- Root
- Folklore
- Arcadia Quest
- Descent Second Edition
- Fury of Dracula
- King Domino
- Calico
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- alchemy — Character-specific abilities that allow for the creation or use of alchemical concoctions, tied to special spellbooks.
- Campaign — A series of linked scenarios with progressive elements, including competitive victory points.
- Combat — A dice-rolling system where higher attack values deal damage, with options to boost rolls through abilities or items.
- loot cards — Random items drawn that can be used to enhance characters, but may have specific requirements (like agility or focus) to be utilized.
- Movement — Actions that cost stamina to move a character, which can be restricted by enemy presence if a character's agility is lower than the enemy's.
- One versus Many — A format where one player (the witch) controls the opposing forces against a team of other players.
- Stamina — A resource used for actions like moving and attacking, which replenishes over time or when players choose to pass.
- Weight Limit — A mechanic that limits the number of cards a player can hold in hand based on a weight value, rather than a simple hand limit.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it's the book of witches it's like their handbook their porn it's their playboys
- this game does something for me I thoroughly enjoy this game
- my problem with random loot is that it is random
- The theme is awesome I love the theme the artwork the artwork is the production phenomenal
- The steepest learning curve for this game are those alchemy cards
- So on a scale of one to ten what would you guys rate it
- We agree but we are all agree average of an eight yeah this is fantastic
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
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