Seriously pleased fans of Terry Pratchett's fairy-tale universe and pleasantly shook our flat tabletop world;) However, we will not dwell on the past, but will turn our attention to the distant and mysterious Lancre, whose chief doctors, police officers, psychologists, veterinarians and agronomists are witches, that is, you, since you have decided to become interested in this mysterious and very beautiful game. :)
Even if you have never held a single Pratchett book in your hands, then you certainly know who the classic witches are. They have pointed hats on their heads, a high-speed broom between their legs (sorry), some pink mushrooms in their pockets, a pinch of strange flowers and body parts of unpleasant animals, and absolutely no idea what is on their minds. Although in this case we can try to guess what is going on in the minds of the unfortunate trainees of the Witch Rescue Service of all Lancre - in Devil's Oak a farmer's sheep died, in Fish Streams a young peasant woman is about to give birth, and in Dancers Elves in tight leggings have appeared again.
All these problems need to be solved, and solved urgently, but, alas, the level of development of science and technology does not allow suffering citizens to resort to any other methods of improving their standard of living, except for magical help. So, except for the four of you (and this is the maximum), no one is able to make the inhabitants of Lancre happy!
So what should you do? - you ask, putting on an apron and lighting a burner under an enamel ladle, ready to cook strange potions from oregano and garlic. Not so fast! All you need is your personal tablet (it shows your portrait, the color of your game piece, your special skill and eight square fields, on each of which you have to add two solved problem tokens).
The playing field is a detailed map of Lancre, which has a lot of settlements, connected by narrow and bumpy paths. During your turn, you can either pick up skirts and go on a walking journey (in one turn you can walk two steps forward maximum), or tie your hair in a tight knot, ride a broom and go to any location at your discretion (although for this you will need to play card that gives you the right to air travel). And hurry, without sparing your legs, arms and broom, you will go to where unresolved problems await you!
Problems affecting peasants and their families fall into two categories: simple (such as an outbreak of influenza) and complex (such as the visit of the Comte de Sorocula). You have to solve problems by throwing two pairs of dice so that their total result is equal to the face value of the problem you have chosen. However, even if you have a very light hand in life, you can immediately deal with complex problems in Witches will be almost impossible. For example, in order to expel the Elf King from the village, you will need to roll as many as 22 points (and this is with a maximum of 24!). But you should still try.
With the first throw, you throw two dice made from the bones of your enemies and look at the result. If you get an unpleasant witch face, it means that with this die you rolled a zero (and not a one, as in classic hexagons), and you also take yourself a giggle token, which we will talk about later. After such a crushing and unpleasant failure, you have two options: run (move your piece to any neighboring village that is not in trouble or has another witch) or use the cards from your hand (of which you only have three at the beginning of the game), which can give you +1 or +2 bonuses to die rolls. True, if you use magic (it will be considered the use of certain bonus cards), then you will have to take another giggle token!
Accumulating a large number of giggle tokens is not something to laugh about, but rather the opposite, because, if unfortunate, owning a large number of these tokens can lead to receiving a Black Alyssia token, which will give you a minus one point in the final scoring.
The good news here is that when two or more witches meet in the same village, they immediately have a tea party where they discuss the latest pointy hats, the fastest brooms and the latest recipes for wart growth creams. Oh yeah, we almost forgot - they also get rid of three or two giggle tokens at a time, depending on which of them organized the giggle hen party. In general, a lot of benefit for the players, but no benefit for the alarmed townspeople...
At the beginning of her turn, the first thing the witch does is place another problem in the city she was given. If there is already a problem in that city, then a crisis token is sent there, which adds two points to the value of the problem and, naturally, increases the unrest among the people (after all, a dead sheep has been lying in the square for the third week and no one is doing anything!) .
If you place all the crisis tokens on the board, or if three Elves appear on the board at the same time (they are regarded as difficult problems), then the game immediately ends in universal defeat. Otherwise, the game will end when you run out of problem tokens. Then it's time to count the points and find out whose nose is longer, whose voice is shriller, and whose hat is pointier!
To summarize, I would like to note that Flat world. Witches remarkable not only for its stunning fabulous design and quality of components, not only for its simple, exciting and multifaceted game mechanics, not only the family and comfort of a good fairy-tale world, but also the opportunity to play it in different ways.
Not only that in Witches you can even play alone, but you can also play it both against each other and cooperatively, as a result of which the game begins to slightly resemble a simplified Pandemic. All these methods and small changes in the rules, depending on the mode you choose, are described in detail in the brochure with the rules of the game, which also offers you ways to complicate the game if you are no longer new to the world of witchcraft and piloting wooden household items :)
Family board gameWitches It features simple rules and very fun and exciting gameplay. The game is semi-cooperative. Players are invited to play the role of witches who, as expected, have magical powers. These forces will need to be used to fight various dirty tricks and problems that the inhabitants of the valley are making for themselves. The winner is the player who completes all the tasks faster than the rest.
Due to the fact that players will have to unite to achieve a common goal, there is practically no competition here, and therefore the game party will definitely not cause disagreements. This board game is best choice for all fans of the English writer Terry Pratchett, who gave us a series of satirical fantasy stories about Flat world.
Preparing for the game
Before starting the game, you need to decide which hero this or that player will play for. Regardless of the chosen character, they are all candidates, or rather, candidates for future witches. Each witch has its own characteristics. For example, the blue witch has the superpower of turning invisible, although this can only be used once during the game. The red witch has additional magic and so on. After choosing a character, the player is given a tablet of the corresponding color, a special token, and three game cards.
Next, you need to prepare the playing field: you need to lay out cards on it with problems that the witches will have to solve. Fascinating board gameWitches proposes to arrange the cards into two decks: green cards contain simple problems, and purple cards contain complex ones. In addition, the game involves gameplay add new cards with problems to the playing field.
The main tool for dealing with problems is game cubes. After the playing field is prepared and the character chips are placed in the appropriate game cells, it’s time to roll the dice and set off with your heroes towards new adventures.
How to play?
Each player will need to go through three phases:
- Cards with problems. The player will need to take a token from the general pile and move it to the appropriate space on open map. If the player already has a token at this moment, then he will have to move the crisis token to that zone;
- Moving around the playing field. You can move your character one or two areas, or fly to any area on the map if you are lucky enough to pull out a card with a broom. During the gameplay, players will face both simple and complex problems. They are solved by throwing dice. For each solved problem, players are awarded bonus points. When two or more witches are in the same area, you can have a tea party (a favorite activity of witches... after magic, of course). Drinking tea allows players to get rid of "giggle" tokens, which do not have the best effect on players' points. And during the game you can simply do nothing if you land on the appropriate cell playing field;
- Finding missing cards. Players need to get enough cards to have three again. In addition, one more card is required, which are issued for every two solved problem tokens.
The game is over when all tokens are on the board, or the player needs to place a crisis token but does not have one in the reserve. Also, the game is considered to be over if at the end of the player’s turn there are at least three elf tokens on the playing field. It is worth noting that the solo mode is not the most interesting, so it is best to play with a group (from 2 to 4 people). In this case, the gameplay becomes very entertaining, and time flies incredibly quickly.
Description of cards
This board game offers a huge number of cards, each of which has something special. The advantage is that during the gameplay, players can play any cards, which means they can get to know each of them better.
Here are some of the most interesting cards that players should definitely play:
- Invisibility. Such a card allows the player to pass through areas of the playing field and not have to deal with related problems, as well as tea drinking. In addition, when a player finds himself on a cell with a difficult problem, he himself decides whether to ignore the task or stop and complete it;
- Transmutation. This card allows you to discard all your cards and take new ones in return, in the same quantity;
- Favor. This card allows players to view two challenging task cards in secret and return them to the deck.
It's not easy at all to be an apprentice witch. Get up early, go to bed late, receive a small salary (or not receive it at all) - and, of course, no free medicine or safety measures. Today you spend the whole day trying to cure farmer Gorokur’s sick pig, tomorrow you have to fight off the invasion of elves. Luckily, you're not alone, and just when you think things can't get any worse, Granny Weatherwax is there to lend you a helping hand.
Now let's talk about the board game Discworld: Witches, authored by the eminent Martin Wallace. Localization – Zvezda, for which many thanks to them. I’ll say right away that this game will be slightly overrated by me, because... I am a fan of Terry Pratchett's work, and this game is based on his books. I’ll say right away that comparing this game with its predecessor – Discworld: Ankh-Morpork – is wrong! Witches are much easier and faster to play! Therefore, there will be no comparisons between these two board games here.
Let's start with an image of the components. Everything here is beautiful and there is a lot: a large playing field, 55 cards, 90 game tokens, 4 witch tablets, 4 wooden chips, 4 special cubes, a memo and rules of the game. To be honest, squeezing out the tokens made me a little tired, although the tokens were easy to squeeze out (probably due to the quantity).
The rules of this board game are explained quickly. The only thing I would like to note is that for the explanation of some game cards you have to look in the rule book.
So, first we place the difficult problem tokens face down on the playing field. Now place the tokens face up simple problems. The remaining tokens are placed next to the field. Players receive a witch tablet, which they will play for. Everyone takes a chip of their own color and places it on the playing field. Everyone receives three cards per hand.
Purpose of the game: solve more problems than other witches. The winner will graduate with honors in the witchcraft, while the losers will remain farm wives for the rest of their lives.
Each player takes turns going through the following three phases:
1) Place a problem token. You need to take a token from the stack and place it in the area according to the open card. If there is already a token there, a crisis token is placed in that area.
2) Movement of the witch. You need to move the witch to one or two adjacent areas, or you can play a card with a broom and fly to any area. Problems are solved by rolling the dice and adding points on the cards to the value (optional). During the game, a “tea party” is possible - this is if several witches are in the same area. When you have a tea party, you can discard giggle tokens, which have a bad effect on players' victory points. And here you can be lazy and do “nothing” - in an empty area you need to do nothing.
3) Adding cards. You must add enough cards to your hand so that you again have three cards in your hand, plus one card for every two solved simple problem tokens (simple problem tokens on your witch’s board).
The game ends when all problem tokens have been placed on the board, or if you must place a crisis token and there are none in the reserve, or if there are three or more elf tokens on the board at the end of a player's turn .
Board game Discworld: Witches- very simple (I don’t know if this is a plus or a minus). The solo mode is quite boring, only solving complex problems is of interest, because... the result can be anything, so I didn’t like playing alone.
The advantages for me were simple rules and an excellent hint sheet - it contains all the information for a quick start (except for the arrangement). The game introduces us to another wonderful place - Lancre. Overall, playing with four players is fun and the time flies by. I believe, that this game strictly family-friendly and suitable for almost any inexperienced board gamer. That's all, actually!
