Mercenaries Wanted

Mercenaries Wanted Deep Dive

What the Community Thinks About Mercenaries Wanted

Mercenaries Wanted represents a striking departure for Cephalofair Games, the publisher behind the sprawling, component-heavy Gloomhaven and Frosthaven campaigns. This drafting game inhabits the same fantasy universe as those heavy campaign games, featuring characters players recognize from the Gloomhaven world, yet it strips away the setup time and complexity to deliver something completely different: a tight, accessible card game that plays in 45 minutes. Reviewers were universally surprised by this shift in design philosophy, and pleasantly so. The Board Game Garden's Jenna noted they had never really engaged with Cephalofair's big campaign games, but Mercenaries Wanted's smaller, leaner approach won them over immediately. Across board game communities, this game is being celebrated as a proof that beloved intellectual property does not require 200 components and three hours to shine; sometimes, elegant drafting mechanics and clever card synergies tell a more compelling story in less time.

Core Mechanics That Define Mercenaries Wanted

Closed Drafting with Mercenary Selection

Each round of Mercenaries Wanted begins with a drafting phase where players take turns selecting mercenary cards from a shared pool. Unlike open drafting where everyone sees all available choices simultaneously, closed drafting creates tension and information asymmetry: you must commit to cards without knowing exactly what your opponents will grab. As players build their teams over three main rounds, they are simultaneously recruiting their mercenary squad and managing limited roster slots. The Board Game Garden's Jenna described the mechanical elegance: you are close-drafting different workers or people to add to a group that you then use to go out on jobs, which are these objectives in the middle of the table. This creates constant negotiation between immediate reward and future positioning, making each draft pick a small tactical puzzle.

Synergy and Card Combination

The heart of Mercenaries Wanted lies in recognizing and exploiting synergies between mercenary cards. Each card carries different tags and abilities that interact in unexpected ways. When you pair cards cleverly, they generate buffs, additional stats, and synergistic combos that amplify your power. Grant Lyon emphasized that in every round, you are looking for cards that combo well together and have synergies, while also managing the interesting system where you have to cut some cards and keep others. This tension between retention and refresh forces strategic thinking: holding onto a mercenary might feel safe, but discarding them opens room for new synergies. Going Analog's Christina described using cards to boost and make awesome combos, buffing up stats based on objectives, creating the satisfying moment when a planned team finally comes together and amplifies its collective strength through thoughtful composition.

The Mercenaries Wanted Experience

Accessible Yet Tactical

Reviewers consistently praised Mercenaries Wanted as approachable while remaining strategically rich. This is a light game in the best sense: easy to learn, quick to teach, minimal fiddling with components, yet offering genuine decision space. Going Analog's reviewers called it very light, very different for Cephalofair, and a great addition to the universe precisely because it democratizes access to the Gloomhaven setting. You do not need to clear a whole day or manage a campaign notebook; you can get this to the table in minutes and resolve it in less than an hour. This accessibility extends to the mercenary flavor itself: you are not commanding an epic dungeon crawl, but rather playing as HR, hiring contractors for short-term jobs over a long weekend. The framing is clever and thematic, grounding the mechanical abstraction of drafting in a believable narrative moment.

Escalating Pressure and Final Showdown

The game's structure creates narrative momentum across four distinct phases. The first three rounds are more exploratory: you draft, fulfill job contracts, and earn gold while testing mercenary combinations. But as BoardGameCo's Alex noted, the fourth round is a final competition, a tournament showdown that serves as the climax. Board Stupid's Wayne and Matt described it memorably: the final showdown is in the arena against all the other teams. This escalation transforms the game from a steady drafting experience into a climactic payoff. Every synergy you built, every mercenary you kept, every combo you cultivated comes together for one last test. The psychological weight shifts as the tournament approaches; whereas earlier rounds feel exploratory, the final arena battle distills everything into a single, meaningful outcome.

What Makes Mercenaries Wanted Stand Out

A Surprising Design Departure from a Heavyweight Publisher

Cephalofair Games is synonymous with ambitious, complex, component-laden experiences. Seeing them release a 45-minute drafting game surprised reviewers in the best way. Board Stupid's hosts were skeptical at first, recalling that they opened it and thought, "Wait, what, it's a card game?" But after learning more about it, their reaction shifted to genuine enthusiasm for getting a copy. This willingness to do something completely different within an established universe shows confidence in design and trust in players. The Board Game Garden's Jenna, who had avoided Cephalofair's heavier titles, found themselves energized by the studio's willingness to make something accessible, embracing the smaller drafting card game wholeheartedly. It signals that world-building at Cephalofair is not about scale or component count but about exploring interesting mechanical space. That realization alone elevated the game in reviewers' minds.

Clever Inspiration and Thematic Coherence

The design inspiration for Mercenaries Wanted draws from Top Trumps, the 1980s and 1990s children's card game where you compared character stats to win cards. Board Stupid's designers noted that this heritage gives the game a particular flavor: you are holding three cards with different stats, and you want to fulfill objectives that require specific stats. The symmetry is not accidental; it echoes Top Trumps' elegant simplicity while layering on drafting strategy and synergy mechanics that Top Trumps never explored. This homage demonstrates thoughtful design, a willingness to acknowledge game history while innovating forward. Combined with the Gloomhaven universe dressing, it creates a coherent package: characters you recognize, a world you may already love, yet mechanics that feel fresh and deliberately chosen rather than derivative.

Potential Drawbacks

Risk of Feeling Lightweight Compared to Campaign Expectations

Players deeply invested in Gloomhaven's campaign depth may find Mercenaries Wanted anticlimactic in terms of narrative scope. This is not a campaign game; there are no persistent consequences, no character progression between plays, no boss encounters that define a multi-month journey. Each play stands alone, which is liberating for some players but potentially deflating for those seeking the epic narrative arc that Frosthaven delivers. The game is deliberately light and modular, which means it sacrifices the mounting tension and character investment that campaign play enables. For Cephalofair diehards who came for grand storytelling, Mercenaries Wanted trades that for accessibility and replayability, a trade-off some may not welcome.

Solo Mode Depth and Engagement Questions

While The Board Game Garden's Jenna was excited to show off Mercenaries Wanted's solo mode, reviewers did not elaborate extensively on how that mode plays or how satisfying it becomes over repeated plays. Drafting games can feel hollow without opponent interaction to navigate; the tension of closed drafting evaporates when you are playing against a deck rather than players making unexpected choices. The solo mode exists, but reviewers' relative silence on its depth suggests it may not be the standout feature it could be. For players seeking a strong solo experience in this Gloomhaven-universe game, Frosthaven's campaign mode or other dedicated solo titles might scratch that itch more thoroughly.

If You Enjoy Mercenaries Wanted

Players drawn to Mercenaries Wanted's closed drafting and synergy-focused design should explore other works by Cephalofair Games. Gloomhaven, the studio's flagship, offers far deeper world-building and character investment, though at the cost of considerable complexity and table time. Frosthaven, its sequel, refines that formula and introduces new mechanics, but again targets players who welcome a multi-month campaign commitment. For those who want to stay in the Gloomhaven universe without the campaign investment, Mercenaries Wanted becomes the gateway, inviting friends who might otherwise balk at a 100+ minute setup and learning curve.

Beyond Cephalofair's catalog, Mercenaries Wanted shares DNA with card drafting games like 7 Wonders, where you draft cards and build tableau synergies, though Mercenaries Wanted is considerably lighter. Players who enjoy tight synergy play will find satisfaction in games like Res Arcana or Sushi Go, both of which emphasize card combinations and hand management. For those who want the competitive tournament feel at Mercenaries Wanted's heart without the fantasy theme, trick-taking games like The Crew provide similar moments of escalating tension and final payoffs, albeit through different mechanical doors.