Kickstarter Review #3: Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods

On this review we return to Books and Brews for another Kickstarter release called Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods which can currently be found here.  We would like to thank Excalibre Games for sending us a copy of their prototype for review.  On this visit Claire had the Ace Perry Pear Cider which carried a pronounced pear flavor, sweet and tart with a dry finish, while I had the Grinch That Stole Thanksgiving which was a gingerbread spiced ale with a warm, tasty finish.  Come with us as we compete in battles of mythic proportions!

Somewhere at the edge the universe, the gods gather for battle...

The old divisions of the pantheons have been shattered, and new factions are forming. Soon, the gods and goddesses will wage war amongst each other. But to do so, they will need advocates: fearless mortals who can empower them to fight. And so the call has gone out across the infinite realms, seeking mortals with the strength and skill to lead their factions to victory.

Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods is a card game designed for 2-8 players, ages 12 to adult. In the game, each player takes on the role of an advocate, supporting a faction of four deities (gods and/or goddesses). Each round, the advocate chooses which god or goddess to invoke and bring into the battle, and what attacks (or other actions) the active deities should perform. After each god and goddess in play has been empowered with a chance to perform an action, the round ends. This continues until only one faction remains. In order to play Mythic Wars, each player needs a deck of 4 cards, representing their faction of deities (gods and goddesses); at least one six-sided die for resolving rolls; and enough tokens (or assorted dice) to clearly represent each entity’s current energy point total and various other effects.

Setup begins with each player setting their 4 cards from their faction deck lying face down (uninvoked) in front of them. The players determine which player’s faction will invoke first. This faction is referred to the “Prime Faction” (for the first round). The game is divided into rounds, with each round lasting until all entities in the battle have been empowered. One round consists of up to 4 phases: 1) The start of the round phase which is starting with the prime faction, and continuing clockwise, players resolve any abilities on active (face up) entities that occur at the start of a round. 2) If there is at least 1 uninvoked deity in any faction deck, there is an Invocation Phase. When this happens the player declares which of the uninvoked deities in their faction they will invoke, flip over the card for that entity, read the chosen entity’s scores and abilities aloud and put a number of energy points on that entity’s card equal to it’s power score. 3) Once the Invocation Phase is complete, the Empowerment Phase begins. The advocate player for the prime faction must empower one entity from within that faction. When the entity is empowered it may either attack another entity, activate their energy ability (if they have one) or do nothing. The entity is then turned sideways to indicate that it has been empowered. 4) Finally, the round ends with the End of Round Phase. Starting with the prime faction, and continuing clockwise, you will resolve any abilities on entities that occur at the end of a round. In a nutshell, that’s the basics of how a players round are handled.

Looking at the artwork on some of the various cards, some appear to be actual pictures and others are drawings so there’s an inconsistency there that we aren’t crazy about. We like the idea of combining lots of different mythologies, but we would have liked to have seen original artwork because this does feel a little sloppy, but I believe they did credit the sources that they used. It was nice how the inner casing inside of the box also acted as a dice tray. However, for this prototype there were two sections for components, but only one was holding the main deck of cards, and the other was completely empty. There were no tokens to use as energy point counters, or a six-sided die for rolling during combat. We are guessing that the full version will come with actual tokens and possibly upgraded to a high quality but for now, we had to find our own substitution for the point counters. Luckily for us, we have hundreds of extra dice stored away for situations like this. There was no shortage of D20’s or six-sided dice for us. The instructions seemed to be a little convoluted in different areas like when specifically we would be allowed or if we were to draw more cards from the main deck or not, but most of the explanations seemed to make sense. The game play works pretty well, there’s a lot going on in this game. The printout of the instruction booklet was 20 pages, and there was a lot within that booklet to follow. I’m not an expert in greek mythology, but this game is enjoyable and packs a fairly good amount of detail to keep track of. If you like this type of theme and a more weighted approach to hand to hand combat and player elimination, you should check this one out.

Again, the Kickstarter page for their project can be found here. and to learn more about the game and the company, be sure to visit their website here. We wish Excalibre Games the very best in all of their ambitions and success! 

Mythic Wars: Clash of the Gods is a strategic card game of combat and variable player powers created by Eric Woodward. 

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