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Witchstone box art

Witchstone

Game ID: GID0390910
Collection Status
Description

As established representatives of your guild, you gather around an ancient sacred stone, the significance and magical powers of which are known to adepts only. Each player occupies one of the four towers around the Witchstone and starts from there. Create your magic spells with the help of your cauldron, and put a network of magic energy around the stone. Send out your witches, scoop the magic crystals out of the cauldron, make use of the pentagram and the magic wand, and keep an eye on the prophecy scrolls in order to ensure victory.

Not all options are always available to you. Only if you cleverly make the most of your opportunities will you have the chance of accumulating the most victory points over the eleven rounds and thereby win Witchstone.

Each player in the game has a personal cauldron that bears seven crystals and six pre-printed magic icons, and they share a larger game board that features a crystal ball that shows the entire landscape. Each player has a set of fifteen domino tiles, with each half of the domino being a hexagon; each domino depicts two different magic icons from the six used in the game.

On a turn, you place one of the five face-up dominos in your reserve onto your cauldron, then you take the action associated with each icon depicted on that domino; if the icon is adjacent to other dominos showing the same icon (or the matching pre-printed icon), then you can take that action as many times as the number of icons in that cluster. You must complete the first type of action completely before taking the second action. With these actions, you can:

Use energy to connect your starting tower to other locations on the game board, scoring 1, 3 or 6 points depending on the length of the connection.
Place witches next to your starting tower on the game board or move them across your energy network to other locations. As you do this, you gain points and possibly additional actions to use the same turn.
Move your token around a pentagram to collect points and to acquire bonus hex tiles; you can use these tiles immediately for actions or place them in your cauldron to make future tile placement more valuable.
Move the crystals in your cauldron, whether to make room for future tile placement or to gain bonus actions by ejecting the crystal completely.
Advance on a magic wand to gain points and take additional actions, with the actions being doubled should you currently be the most advanced player on the wand.
Claim scroll cards that boost future actions or earn you bonus points at game's end depending on how well you've completed the prophecy depicted.

After each player has completed eleven turns — which could equal 40-60 actions depending on how well you've used your cauldron — the game ends and players tally their points from prophecies and other collected scoring markers to see who has the highest score.

Year Published
2021
Transcript Analysis
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 5
This page: 5
Sentiment: pos 4 · mix 0 · neu 0 · neg 0
Mentions per page
Top
Showing 1–5 of 5
Video iYS2l-G-nEg Chairman of the Board top_10_list at 13:11 sentiment: positive
video_pk 10843 · mention_pk 100070
Chairman of the Board - Witchstone video thumbnail
Click to watch at 13:11 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • Strong, punchy entry in the mini-game format
  • Fast play and high engagement per round
Cons
  • Can feel twitchy and potentially punishing if luck dominates
  • Some questions vary greatly in difficulty
Thematic elements
  • Bluffing and strategic selection around niche questions
  • A set of mini-games tied together by a rondelle and tile-placement system
  • Quirky, rapid-fire party-puzzle
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • Betting and bluffing — Players suit responses and vote, with correct or plausible incorrect answers earning points
  • round_robin_mini_games_with_rondelle — A sequence of independent micro-games linked by a central rondelle and tile-placement core
  • voting_and_bluffing — Players suit responses and vote, with correct or plausible incorrect answers earning points
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • I did like the way that two of these mechanisms synergize with each other.
  • the card mechanism did not do it for me and it was enough for me to part with this one
  • it's a very smooth game, very definitely fine-tuned
  • A series of mini games here are held together through that core tile placement system
  • it's a hell of a lot of fun
  • the gimmick and the novelty wore off pretty quickly
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video rokCMY0_nzM Chairman of the Board top_n_list at 25:22 sentiment: positive
video_pk 6897 · mention_pk 20414
Chairman of the Board - Witchstone video thumbnail
Click to watch at 25:22 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • gorgeous production
  • deep but clean action economy
Cons
  • learning curve can be steep for new players
Thematic elements
  • arcane power and tile-based progression
  • fantasy, magical pentagram centerpiece
  • high-concept fantasy with modular action ramping
Comparison games
  • For Sale
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • combo optimization — combine tiles to unlock powerful sequences
  • engine-building — actions chain to improve capabilities over turns
  • hand management — managing slots and actions to maximize returns
  • tile placement — placing action tiles to unlock stronger effects
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • this game is poo
  • it does as i said just take that edge off the randomness
  • one of the best card games i've ever played
  • it's almost like a eurofied Ticket to Ride
  • the ambition of this game is absolutely mind-blowing
  • a game that rewards repeated plays
  • the board is always flux and alive
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video PQ1yU6_Om4U The Brothers Murf top_10_list at 15:16 sentiment: positive
video_pk 6213 · mention_pk 106209
The Brothers Murf - Witchstone video thumbnail
Click to watch at 15:16 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • extremely satisfying turn-cascades
  • highly combo-driven and satisfying to execute
Cons
  • potential for feel-bad turns if combos don’t land
  • steep learning curve for newcomers
Thematic elements
  • combo-driven engine-building with cascading actions
  • cauldron crafting with witches
  • spirited, high-energy fantasy theme
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • combo chaining — actions from a tile can trigger multiple further actions
  • role/board-driven progression — moving around the board to unlock new actions
  • tile/tile-push engine-building — double-sided hexom tiles in a cauldron generate actions
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • There's a lot of games out there that I feel like you do stuff you're like, 'Ooh, I feel like you figured that out.'
  • It just makes you feel clever as you build out this thing and start really cascading finishing those tasks.
  • This is a game where you are going to be doing actions by putting these kind of double-sided hexom tiles into this cauldron.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video gmtraazEwKY game_comparison
video_pk 5860 · mention_pk 17357
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
  • Network building and resource gathering
  • Magical realm
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • network building — Routing witches to gather resources
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • Sometimes there's just something about a game that you just can't explain
  • We're essentially replacing Katan using science
  • We wanted a way to suggest new games that we think do certain mechanics just a little bit better
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video dGP7D829e8U Corporate Cardboard general_discussion at 6:59 sentiment: positive
video_pk 2379 · mention_pk 6971
Corporate Cardboard - Witchstone video thumbnail
Click to watch at 6:59 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • High creativity and potential for combo chains
  • Accessible entry with deep strategic payoff
  • Strong thematic cohesion and visual appeal
Cons
  • Rules may be dense for new players
  • Some players may find it fiddly during setup and teach
Thematic elements
  • Witchcraft, routes, and route-developer bonuses
  • A fantasy world with pentagram routes and witches
  • Point-salad euro with high interactivity and combos
Comparison games
  • Ingenious
  • Trajan
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • Card synergy and bonus chaining — Collect and use cards to trigger follow-on bonuses and actions
  • Multi-mini-games on a shared board — Navigate a central layout to connect routes and spawn witches
  • Token management and route building — Place tokens to unlock bonuses and influence future turns
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • the infinity gauntlet is its own encounter set and i think that makes so much sense
  • the game really is the story and the skill checks
  • it's a real blast to play
  • the rules themselves are easy but it's the potential to string those bonuses together
  • the sandboxy feel is really appealing and addictive
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
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