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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated High Noon in Tabletop Games
Mar 1, 2021
Howdy partners, and welcome to the (fictional) state of Saratoga. There’s 4 main posses ’round these parts, and they’re all willing to fight to the bitter end to settle scores and collect gold. Who will y’all side with in this cut-throat town, and who will come out victorious? Only time will tell, and I reckon that time to be High Noon.
Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of the game for the purposes of this preview. This is a finalized production copy, and the components you see pictured are those you will receive in your own game! Also, we were provided the 4-player starter set – the game is playable with more people when expansions are included. -L
High Noon is a game of action points, grid movement, and fighting, played over a series of 12 rounds, in which players take on the roles of various posses in the Wild West who are battling to collect the most gold in town. To setup for the game, each player selects a posse and receives their corresponding deck of cards, character sheets, and minis. Character sheets are placed in front of each player, and a red Poker Chip is placed on each to track the Health of each character. Setup the map tiles as shown in the rulebook, or players may create their own map layout using at least 7 of the map tiles. Shuffle the Loot decks and place them to the side within reach of all players, and create a pool of Gold tokens and Poker Chips. The Loot Crate tokens are shuffled and randomly placed on the green squares of the board, and then players will take turns each placing 3 more Loot Crates following certain placement restrictions. All minis are placed on their starting squares on the map tiles, players draw 6 cards from their own posse decks, a starting player is selected, and the game is ready to begin!
Each turn is broken into 3 phases: Movement, Action, and Draw Cards. During the Movement phase, players may move any/all of their minis on the map up to the Speed value listed on their respective Character Sheets. Movement is always in straight lines, or can be diagonal. Diagonal movement costs 2 squares of movement though, so keep that in mind! The map tiles have various obstacles as well, and navigating over obstacles costs 2 squares of movement as well. After a player has moved their minis, they now move to the Action phase. In this phase, each individual character of your posse is allowed one action: Play a Card, Loot a Crate, Loot a Body, Equip an Item, Pass an Item, or Drop an Item. To Play a Card, select a card from your hand, perform the action listed on it (either an Attack or Special Action), and discard it. It is important to note that a character may only ‘Play a Card’ if you have one of their cards in your hand! Each posse deck is made up of action cards for the various posse members – so you might not always have a card in hand for every character. In order to Loot a Crate or Loot a Body, your mini must be in an adjacent square to the item to pick it up. Any Loot that is picked up is placed with the corresponding character’s Character Sheet – each character may only hold a specific amount of Loot! Certain Loot items need to be equipped, and thus you may make that character equip an item in lieu of any other actions this turn. Loot cards have various uses: Weapons, Consumables, or Ammunition. These can provide extra Attack damage, Healing powers, or Defense bonuses to characters. Loot is highly coveted!
Passing an Item allows you to hand off Loot between posse members, or Dropping an Item (a free action) removes that Loot from your Character and is discarded. After all of your characters have acted (if possible), your turn then moves to the Draw Cards phase. You will draw 3 cards from your posse deck. Once you have 12 cards in hand, you must discard 3 cards in order to draw 3 cards. You must always draw 3 cards at the end of your turn. The game then proceeds to the next player, and continues as such until the end of 12 rounds. So how do you win? By collecting Gold, of course! And the way to do that is by attacking your rival posses. Any time one of your characters deals at least 1 point of damage to an opponent, you collect 1 Gold token. Any time you kill an opposing character (reducing their Health on their Character Sheet to 0), you collect the amount of Gold listed on the deceased character’s Character Sheet. At the end of 12 rounds, the player/posse that has amassed the most Gold is the winner!
Ok, so I know that seems like a lot, but I promise that the gameplay is pretty streamlined once you actually get going. The Movement phase is very straightforward and simple to perform. The Action phase is logical, and the options are clear. Drawing cards is a no-brainer at the end of your turn. The real nitty-gritty part of play is in the strategy. You earn Gold by dealing damage or killing opponents, so naturally Combat is where the crux of the gameplay is centered. All characters are armed with weapons that have finite range. You may only ever attack opponents who are in direct Line-of-Sight – in a straight line away from you, or diagonally, each square costing 2 squares of range. If an opponent is not in either of those 2 directions from your character, you may not attack them! So movement and character placement becomes a lot more strategic and important in gameplay. There is also the concept of obstacles impeding the attacks of players. It makes logical sense, and I feel like the damage adjustments to incorporate obstacles feel realistic. When a player is attacked, they may choose to play a card from their hand to defend against some of the damage being dealt. As mentioned above, though, a character may only ever play a card that is specified for him! (Ex. Col. Rodgers cannot defend if you have no Col. Rodgers cards in hand) Are you willing to risk your only Leroy Gang card to defend 2 points of damage instead of using it to attack for 3 points of damage on your turn? You have to figure out exactly how to play the combat, and that strategy can turn in the blink of an eye.
Honestly, for me, the trickiest part of the gameplay was keeping track of which character acted each turn. I ended up grabbing some of the extra Poker Chips and placing them on a Character Sheet once he had acted each turn. Not necessarily a knock on the game, just on my inability to control multiple characters I guess! Let me touch on components for a minute. The copy of the game that I received is a finalized production copy. There may be some updates to the rulebook, but component-wise, what you see is what you get. And what you get is pretty great. The posse and Loot decks are nice sturdy cards, and the cardboard chits (Poker Chips, Loot tokens, and Gold) are thick, if not a little too small for my taste. The Character Sheets are big, easy to read, and clear in their iconography. The map tiles are some nice thick card stock-like material that definitely will hold up to numerous plays. And the minis. They are so cool! Each posse has a designated color, and they are just fun to play with and move around the board. At first, I found it difficult to tell certain posse members apart, since some of the minis look alike. But then I realized that each mini has a number of nicks in the base to help players identify which mini corresponds to which character. That was definitely a lifesaver for me in my plays. The components make this feel like a luxury game, and that helps make it more exciting to play!
So all in all, how does High Noon fare? In my opinion, pretty well! The map grid and combat are reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons, but with a Wild West theme that feels novel and unique. And according to the box, it can be played with more than 4 players if you incorporate expansions into the base game. So you can really turn this into an all-out Western showdown! The gameplay is smooth, the strategy ever-changing, and the concept and rules are fairly simple to learn and teach. High Noon definitely gets some high marks from me!
Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of the game for the purposes of this preview. This is a finalized production copy, and the components you see pictured are those you will receive in your own game! Also, we were provided the 4-player starter set – the game is playable with more people when expansions are included. -L
High Noon is a game of action points, grid movement, and fighting, played over a series of 12 rounds, in which players take on the roles of various posses in the Wild West who are battling to collect the most gold in town. To setup for the game, each player selects a posse and receives their corresponding deck of cards, character sheets, and minis. Character sheets are placed in front of each player, and a red Poker Chip is placed on each to track the Health of each character. Setup the map tiles as shown in the rulebook, or players may create their own map layout using at least 7 of the map tiles. Shuffle the Loot decks and place them to the side within reach of all players, and create a pool of Gold tokens and Poker Chips. The Loot Crate tokens are shuffled and randomly placed on the green squares of the board, and then players will take turns each placing 3 more Loot Crates following certain placement restrictions. All minis are placed on their starting squares on the map tiles, players draw 6 cards from their own posse decks, a starting player is selected, and the game is ready to begin!
Each turn is broken into 3 phases: Movement, Action, and Draw Cards. During the Movement phase, players may move any/all of their minis on the map up to the Speed value listed on their respective Character Sheets. Movement is always in straight lines, or can be diagonal. Diagonal movement costs 2 squares of movement though, so keep that in mind! The map tiles have various obstacles as well, and navigating over obstacles costs 2 squares of movement as well. After a player has moved their minis, they now move to the Action phase. In this phase, each individual character of your posse is allowed one action: Play a Card, Loot a Crate, Loot a Body, Equip an Item, Pass an Item, or Drop an Item. To Play a Card, select a card from your hand, perform the action listed on it (either an Attack or Special Action), and discard it. It is important to note that a character may only ‘Play a Card’ if you have one of their cards in your hand! Each posse deck is made up of action cards for the various posse members – so you might not always have a card in hand for every character. In order to Loot a Crate or Loot a Body, your mini must be in an adjacent square to the item to pick it up. Any Loot that is picked up is placed with the corresponding character’s Character Sheet – each character may only hold a specific amount of Loot! Certain Loot items need to be equipped, and thus you may make that character equip an item in lieu of any other actions this turn. Loot cards have various uses: Weapons, Consumables, or Ammunition. These can provide extra Attack damage, Healing powers, or Defense bonuses to characters. Loot is highly coveted!
Passing an Item allows you to hand off Loot between posse members, or Dropping an Item (a free action) removes that Loot from your Character and is discarded. After all of your characters have acted (if possible), your turn then moves to the Draw Cards phase. You will draw 3 cards from your posse deck. Once you have 12 cards in hand, you must discard 3 cards in order to draw 3 cards. You must always draw 3 cards at the end of your turn. The game then proceeds to the next player, and continues as such until the end of 12 rounds. So how do you win? By collecting Gold, of course! And the way to do that is by attacking your rival posses. Any time one of your characters deals at least 1 point of damage to an opponent, you collect 1 Gold token. Any time you kill an opposing character (reducing their Health on their Character Sheet to 0), you collect the amount of Gold listed on the deceased character’s Character Sheet. At the end of 12 rounds, the player/posse that has amassed the most Gold is the winner!
Ok, so I know that seems like a lot, but I promise that the gameplay is pretty streamlined once you actually get going. The Movement phase is very straightforward and simple to perform. The Action phase is logical, and the options are clear. Drawing cards is a no-brainer at the end of your turn. The real nitty-gritty part of play is in the strategy. You earn Gold by dealing damage or killing opponents, so naturally Combat is where the crux of the gameplay is centered. All characters are armed with weapons that have finite range. You may only ever attack opponents who are in direct Line-of-Sight – in a straight line away from you, or diagonally, each square costing 2 squares of range. If an opponent is not in either of those 2 directions from your character, you may not attack them! So movement and character placement becomes a lot more strategic and important in gameplay. There is also the concept of obstacles impeding the attacks of players. It makes logical sense, and I feel like the damage adjustments to incorporate obstacles feel realistic. When a player is attacked, they may choose to play a card from their hand to defend against some of the damage being dealt. As mentioned above, though, a character may only ever play a card that is specified for him! (Ex. Col. Rodgers cannot defend if you have no Col. Rodgers cards in hand) Are you willing to risk your only Leroy Gang card to defend 2 points of damage instead of using it to attack for 3 points of damage on your turn? You have to figure out exactly how to play the combat, and that strategy can turn in the blink of an eye.
Honestly, for me, the trickiest part of the gameplay was keeping track of which character acted each turn. I ended up grabbing some of the extra Poker Chips and placing them on a Character Sheet once he had acted each turn. Not necessarily a knock on the game, just on my inability to control multiple characters I guess! Let me touch on components for a minute. The copy of the game that I received is a finalized production copy. There may be some updates to the rulebook, but component-wise, what you see is what you get. And what you get is pretty great. The posse and Loot decks are nice sturdy cards, and the cardboard chits (Poker Chips, Loot tokens, and Gold) are thick, if not a little too small for my taste. The Character Sheets are big, easy to read, and clear in their iconography. The map tiles are some nice thick card stock-like material that definitely will hold up to numerous plays. And the minis. They are so cool! Each posse has a designated color, and they are just fun to play with and move around the board. At first, I found it difficult to tell certain posse members apart, since some of the minis look alike. But then I realized that each mini has a number of nicks in the base to help players identify which mini corresponds to which character. That was definitely a lifesaver for me in my plays. The components make this feel like a luxury game, and that helps make it more exciting to play!
So all in all, how does High Noon fare? In my opinion, pretty well! The map grid and combat are reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons, but with a Wild West theme that feels novel and unique. And according to the box, it can be played with more than 4 players if you incorporate expansions into the base game. So you can really turn this into an all-out Western showdown! The gameplay is smooth, the strategy ever-changing, and the concept and rules are fairly simple to learn and teach. High Noon definitely gets some high marks from me!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Whirling Witchcraft in Tabletop Games
Nov 9, 2021
What is the thing that first draws you into a game? Is it talk of the gameplay and mechanics? Maybe you’ve had a good experience with the designer? Or perhaps the artwork is what catches your eye? For me, I’ve gotta say it’s not only the artwork, but the components as well. Obviously, we’re no strangers to board games, so scrolling through our feeds we see countless pictures of cards, boards, meeples, etc. It’s when a game has an interesting new component that it really pops out to me. Enter Whirling Witchcraft and its 3D cardboard cauldrons! It certainly got my attention, but does the game itself deserve a place on my shelves? Spoiler – it does, but keep reading to find out why!
Whirling Witchcraft is a game of simultaneous action selection and variable powers in which players take on the roles of witches creating various ingredients to be used in future potions. The neighboring witches are always on the lookout for new recipes, so of course you’ll share those secrets and even some ingredients with them!…….BUT these ingredients can be volatile, and having too many on your workbench could cause an explosion! Which witch is sly enough to not only manage their ingredients wisely, but also overflow opponents with extra ingredients?
Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a finalized retail copy of the game, and what is described and pictured below is what you will get when you purchase this game. -L
To setup for a game, each player receives a player board, cauldron, and Arcana tracker with corresponding tokens. Players are randomly dealt 2 Personality Cards, and choose one to use for the game. Personality Cards offer unique powers or recipes for use during the game. All recipe cards are shuffled, and 4 cards are dealt to each player. Players receive a number of starting ingredients (cubes) to their workbench (player board), as stated on their Personality card, and the remaining ingredients go into a general supply. Choose a starting player and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the setup for a 3-player game.
This game is played over a series of rounds, and the turns in each round are performed simultaneously. Each round is broken down into two phases: the Study Phase and the Brewing Phase. The first step of the Study Phase is to Play recipes. Players look at the 4 recipe cards in hand and select one to play this round. Cards are placed face-down below the player boards. The next step, Reveal recipes, is pretty straightforward – all players reveal their chosen recipe and add it to their other recipes already in play. The final step of this phase is to resolve Arcana. Certain recipe cards have Arcana icons on the top that are collected when the recipe is played. Arcana comes in three different types (Book, Potion, and Raven), and is tracked on your Arcana tracker. When you have reached a certain amount of Arcana, you have the opportunity to trigger a special effect for the current round. For example, triggering the Raven Arcana allows you to immediately remove up to 2 ingredients from your workbench. Arcana can play into your strategy, so keep an eye on which recipes offer certain types of Arcana! Players check to see if any Arcana has been triggered, and perform the effects if they so choose, and the round then continues to the next phase.
The second phase of the round, the Brewing Phase, is broken down into 4 steps: Produce ingredients, Pass cauldrons, Check for winners, and Pass recipe cards. The Produce ingredients step is performed by all players simultaneously. Players will choose which recipe cards they have in play to be used this round. To use a recipe, you place ingredients (cubes) from your workbench on the ‘input’ spaces of the recipe card – all input spaces on a recipe card must be filled for the recipe to be completed. When you complete a recipe, take the corresponding ingredients shown on the ‘output’ spaces of that recipe card from the general supply. Players can decide how many/few of their recipe cards to be used each round (one, a few, or all of them), and each recipe card can only be used once per round. When all players are finished using their recipe cards, the ingredients are distributed. Ingredients from the ‘input’ spaces of a recipe go back to the general supply, and ingredients left on the ‘output’ spaces go into your cauldron.
This leads us to the next step – Pass cauldrons. All players will pass their cauldron (and the ingredients on it) to the player on their right. The ingredients from your new cauldron are now added to your workbench. Each type of ingredient has a finite number of spaces on your workbench, though. If these new ingredients cause you to completely fill up a row, any excess ingredients of that type are given back to the player who passed you the cauldron. Any ingredients you get back from an opponent go at the top of your player board, into your Witch’s Circle. When all players have resolved their new ingredients, the next step is to check for winners. If any player has 5 or more ingredients in their Witch’s Circle, they are declared the winner and the game ends! If nobody has at least 5 ingredients in their Witch’s Circle, players will pass their hand of remaining recipe cards to the player on their left, draw back up to 4 cards, and a new round begins. The game continues in this fashion until a player has at least 5 ingredients in their Witch’s Circle by the end of the round.
As you can tell from my intro, as well as the rating graphic, I really love this game. I came into it expecting something light, cutesy, and fun, and what I got was so much more than that. Yes, the components (more on that later) and artwork are colorful and eye-catching, but the gameplay is what really surprised me. For a game that literally only has 2 mechanics listed on BGG (simultaneous action selection and variable player powers), the amount of strategy in this game blew me away. Is it the most strategic game I’ve ever played? No. But it was one that kept me engaged and thinking the whole time. There are 3 major elements that you have to consider: recipes, ingredients, and your opponents. For recipe cards, you have to strategize which recipe to add to your tableau, as well as which recipes to use each round. You are allowed to use as many recipes in a round as you wish, so which ones are the best use of your resources? The next element: ingredients. Aside from strategizing about your recipe cards, you have to figure out how to best manage your ingredients. Which recipes offer the output you want? Which ones eat up large numbers of ingredients? These are all things you have to be considering during the Brewing Phase. And finally, you have to keep an eye on your opponents. You ultimately win by causing your neighbor to have an ‘overflow’ of ingredients – so which recipes can produce ingredients that they don’t need more of? Everyone can see each others’ player boards, which gives you a little insight into perhaps which recipe cards you want to activate this round. Add the fact that pretty much all of this is happening simultaneously?! That just is another layer to the strategy you need for this game! Even just describing this gameplay and strategic implications has me psyched to play again! There is much more to Whirling Witchcraft than meets the eye, and that makes it an awesome game to me.
Ok, so the part we’ve all be waiting for – components! The player boards, cards, and Arcana tokens are all great quality, and vibrant in color. The artwork itself is a unique style that really catches the eye and fits the theme extremely well. The iconography/color-coded ingredients are clear to differentiate, and help streamline the gameplay. The ingredient cubes are your standard wooden cubes, and they are nice and sturdy for their small size. The 3D cauldrons are sooooo cool! Are they necessary to the gameplay? Wellllll not entirely – you could easily just use a simple cardboard circle on which to place ingredients. BUT they make the game feel more immersive, exciting, and fun to play! AEG could have as easily not gone with the 3D idea, but the inclusion of this unique component helps elevate the engagement and gameplay to me. Having physical 3D cauldrons adds so much to the overall table presence of this game, and it makes it feel like you’re playing a deluxe/upgraded game. Add in the fact that the box is made to house the assembled cauldrons, so you don’t have to be continually assembling/disassembling them every time you play. Great forethought and execution! So all in all, excellent production quality overall!
If you’re in the market for a game with ‘simple’ mechanics but elevated strategy, I highly recommend Whirling Witchcraft. This game truly is a gem, and it plays relatively quickly for a ‘heavier’ game. I’ll be the first to admit that I was drawn to this game by the components, but the stellar gameplay is what makes me keep playing it. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a whirling 5 / 6. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed!
Whirling Witchcraft is a game of simultaneous action selection and variable powers in which players take on the roles of witches creating various ingredients to be used in future potions. The neighboring witches are always on the lookout for new recipes, so of course you’ll share those secrets and even some ingredients with them!…….BUT these ingredients can be volatile, and having too many on your workbench could cause an explosion! Which witch is sly enough to not only manage their ingredients wisely, but also overflow opponents with extra ingredients?
Disclaimer: We were provided with a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a finalized retail copy of the game, and what is described and pictured below is what you will get when you purchase this game. -L
To setup for a game, each player receives a player board, cauldron, and Arcana tracker with corresponding tokens. Players are randomly dealt 2 Personality Cards, and choose one to use for the game. Personality Cards offer unique powers or recipes for use during the game. All recipe cards are shuffled, and 4 cards are dealt to each player. Players receive a number of starting ingredients (cubes) to their workbench (player board), as stated on their Personality card, and the remaining ingredients go into a general supply. Choose a starting player and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the setup for a 3-player game.
This game is played over a series of rounds, and the turns in each round are performed simultaneously. Each round is broken down into two phases: the Study Phase and the Brewing Phase. The first step of the Study Phase is to Play recipes. Players look at the 4 recipe cards in hand and select one to play this round. Cards are placed face-down below the player boards. The next step, Reveal recipes, is pretty straightforward – all players reveal their chosen recipe and add it to their other recipes already in play. The final step of this phase is to resolve Arcana. Certain recipe cards have Arcana icons on the top that are collected when the recipe is played. Arcana comes in three different types (Book, Potion, and Raven), and is tracked on your Arcana tracker. When you have reached a certain amount of Arcana, you have the opportunity to trigger a special effect for the current round. For example, triggering the Raven Arcana allows you to immediately remove up to 2 ingredients from your workbench. Arcana can play into your strategy, so keep an eye on which recipes offer certain types of Arcana! Players check to see if any Arcana has been triggered, and perform the effects if they so choose, and the round then continues to the next phase.
The second phase of the round, the Brewing Phase, is broken down into 4 steps: Produce ingredients, Pass cauldrons, Check for winners, and Pass recipe cards. The Produce ingredients step is performed by all players simultaneously. Players will choose which recipe cards they have in play to be used this round. To use a recipe, you place ingredients (cubes) from your workbench on the ‘input’ spaces of the recipe card – all input spaces on a recipe card must be filled for the recipe to be completed. When you complete a recipe, take the corresponding ingredients shown on the ‘output’ spaces of that recipe card from the general supply. Players can decide how many/few of their recipe cards to be used each round (one, a few, or all of them), and each recipe card can only be used once per round. When all players are finished using their recipe cards, the ingredients are distributed. Ingredients from the ‘input’ spaces of a recipe go back to the general supply, and ingredients left on the ‘output’ spaces go into your cauldron.
This leads us to the next step – Pass cauldrons. All players will pass their cauldron (and the ingredients on it) to the player on their right. The ingredients from your new cauldron are now added to your workbench. Each type of ingredient has a finite number of spaces on your workbench, though. If these new ingredients cause you to completely fill up a row, any excess ingredients of that type are given back to the player who passed you the cauldron. Any ingredients you get back from an opponent go at the top of your player board, into your Witch’s Circle. When all players have resolved their new ingredients, the next step is to check for winners. If any player has 5 or more ingredients in their Witch’s Circle, they are declared the winner and the game ends! If nobody has at least 5 ingredients in their Witch’s Circle, players will pass their hand of remaining recipe cards to the player on their left, draw back up to 4 cards, and a new round begins. The game continues in this fashion until a player has at least 5 ingredients in their Witch’s Circle by the end of the round.
As you can tell from my intro, as well as the rating graphic, I really love this game. I came into it expecting something light, cutesy, and fun, and what I got was so much more than that. Yes, the components (more on that later) and artwork are colorful and eye-catching, but the gameplay is what really surprised me. For a game that literally only has 2 mechanics listed on BGG (simultaneous action selection and variable player powers), the amount of strategy in this game blew me away. Is it the most strategic game I’ve ever played? No. But it was one that kept me engaged and thinking the whole time. There are 3 major elements that you have to consider: recipes, ingredients, and your opponents. For recipe cards, you have to strategize which recipe to add to your tableau, as well as which recipes to use each round. You are allowed to use as many recipes in a round as you wish, so which ones are the best use of your resources? The next element: ingredients. Aside from strategizing about your recipe cards, you have to figure out how to best manage your ingredients. Which recipes offer the output you want? Which ones eat up large numbers of ingredients? These are all things you have to be considering during the Brewing Phase. And finally, you have to keep an eye on your opponents. You ultimately win by causing your neighbor to have an ‘overflow’ of ingredients – so which recipes can produce ingredients that they don’t need more of? Everyone can see each others’ player boards, which gives you a little insight into perhaps which recipe cards you want to activate this round. Add the fact that pretty much all of this is happening simultaneously?! That just is another layer to the strategy you need for this game! Even just describing this gameplay and strategic implications has me psyched to play again! There is much more to Whirling Witchcraft than meets the eye, and that makes it an awesome game to me.
Ok, so the part we’ve all be waiting for – components! The player boards, cards, and Arcana tokens are all great quality, and vibrant in color. The artwork itself is a unique style that really catches the eye and fits the theme extremely well. The iconography/color-coded ingredients are clear to differentiate, and help streamline the gameplay. The ingredient cubes are your standard wooden cubes, and they are nice and sturdy for their small size. The 3D cauldrons are sooooo cool! Are they necessary to the gameplay? Wellllll not entirely – you could easily just use a simple cardboard circle on which to place ingredients. BUT they make the game feel more immersive, exciting, and fun to play! AEG could have as easily not gone with the 3D idea, but the inclusion of this unique component helps elevate the engagement and gameplay to me. Having physical 3D cauldrons adds so much to the overall table presence of this game, and it makes it feel like you’re playing a deluxe/upgraded game. Add in the fact that the box is made to house the assembled cauldrons, so you don’t have to be continually assembling/disassembling them every time you play. Great forethought and execution! So all in all, excellent production quality overall!
If you’re in the market for a game with ‘simple’ mechanics but elevated strategy, I highly recommend Whirling Witchcraft. This game truly is a gem, and it plays relatively quickly for a ‘heavier’ game. I’ll be the first to admit that I was drawn to this game by the components, but the stellar gameplay is what makes me keep playing it. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a whirling 5 / 6. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tiny Epic Western in Tabletop Games
Dec 30, 2021
It’s no secret that we at Purple Phoenix Games are fans of the Tiny Epic series. But one that had evaded our reviews until this point was Tiny Epic Western. Admittedly, this one has been sitting on my shelf of shame for quite some time, so I finally decided it was time to take it off the shelf and bring it to the table! After squaring up with TEW, how does it compare to the rest in the series? Is this the rootinest tootinest of the bunch, or should it be bucked off my shelf?
Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook in this review, as there are just too many details, but will instead provide a more general overview of the rules and gameplay. -L
Tiny Epic Western is a game of worker placement and set collection in which players are trying to amass the most end-game victory points. Played over a series of rounds, players will be placing their Posse (Meeples), collecting Influence and taking actions, dueling opponents (if necessary), playing a bit of poker, and buying buildings in an effort to become the most powerful boss in this wild west town. To setup for a game, place the Location Mats as described in the rules, dealing a Building Card where appropriate. Each player receives a Boss card, 3 Posse tokens (Meeples), and one of each of the Influence trackers (Money, Law, and Force), placed on the 1 space of their card. Shuffle the decks of Building Cards and Poker Cards separately, choose a starting player (who receives the Dealer token), place the Wanted card/Gunslinger dice in the center of the play area, and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the starting setup for a 3-player game.
The game is played over 6 total rounds, each of which is broken into 4 phases: Shuffle and Deal, Posse Placement, Resolution, and Buy. To start a round, the Dealer shuffles the deck of Poker cards, and then deals 1 card face-up to the 6 empty spaces between the Location Mats. One Poker card is dealt face-down to the Rival Space (under the Town Hall Location Mat), and 2 Poker cards are dealt face-down to each player. Players look at both of their cards and pick 1 to keep, discarding the other. The round then moves to phase 2: Posse Placement. Starting with the Dealer, players will take turns placing Posse tokens onto the placement spots on any of the Location mats. All placement spots grant unique benefits (collecting different Influence or performing Building card actions) that are performed either immediately or during later phases of the round. What happens if an opponent took a placement spot that you wanted? Then it’s time for an old-fashioned duel! The dueling players each roll a Gunslinger die, modify it if they so choose, and determine a winner. Players continue taking turns placing Posse tokens until all available Posse tokens have been placed.
When all Posse tokens have been placed, the round moves to phase 3: Resolution. The first step of this phase is to reveal Poker cards – all players reveal their cards, and the card in the Rival Space is also revealed. Moving clockwise from the Town Hall, each Location will be resolved by ‘playing’ three-card poker. Each Location has 2 Poker cards directly adjacent to it (placed between the Locations in phase 1), and those 2 cards plus the one in your hand will form your Poker hand. Any players with Posse tokens on the Location will compare their Poker hands to determine a winner. If you win the hand, you collect the Winner’s Pot (extra benefits) and are able to collect any delayed benefits from placement spots in the Posse Placement phase. Losing the hand earns you nothing *womp womp*. If you are the only Posse on a Location (with no opponents) you will compare your hand to that of the Rival. The Rival’s hand uses the cards adjacent to the Town Hall, plus the revealed card in the Rival Space. If you have a better hand, you win the benefits on your Location. If the Rival wins, though, you do not collect these benefits. All Locations are resolved in this fashion before the last phase of the round, Buy, begins.
To start this phase, all players will compare their three-card Poker hands using the 2 Poker cards adjacent to the Town Hall. The player with the best hand will act first in this phase, followed by the next best hand, and so on. The first player may now choose to buy a Building card from any Location on which they have a Posse token. Pay the requisite amount of Influence to purchase a Building, and add it to the Porch Slot on your color-corresponding Location Mat. The power granted by this Building card is now available for use in future rounds. Once all players have had the option to purchase a Building, the player with the best hand will advance one of the Industry Tokens at Town Hall. The placements of Industry Tokens will affect end-game scoring, so keep that in mind as the game progresses. When all steps of the Buy phase are performed, the round now ends. Players collect all their Posse tokens back to their boss cards, all Poker cards are collected and re-shuffled, new Building cards are dealt to Locations from which they were purchased this round, and the Dealer token is passed to the next clockwise player. If a player did not buy a Building at all during the round, they have gained the Third Posse Benefit for the coming round – granting them an additional Posse token to place during phase 2. Otherwise, all players will only ever have 2 Posse tokens to place.
After a total of 6 complete rounds, the game ends and points are tallied. Victory Points are earned from Building cards bought throughout the game. Building cards have a specified VP amount, and also have a collection of Industry Icons on them. Using the final placement of the Industry Tokens on the board, players will earn points for Industry Icon sets they have collected. And finally, whomever holds the Wanted card (won the last duel) gains an additional 2 VP. Points are all counted, and the player with the highest score is the winner.
That all probably sounds pretty complicated. But I do have to say that verbally explaining/teaching the game (and being able to use components for examples) is waaaaay easier than doing so through a text review. So please do not let the seemingly complex gameplay turn you off from this game. Once you get a basic understanding of the phases of each round, the game moves along pretty seamlessly. Honestly, the biggest learning curve for me to conquer was playing three-card poker. As someone who has never played any form of poker before, this was probably what had me most hesitant about learning TEW. After having played it now, three-card poker really isn’t too complicated, and there are some nice player reference cards to help you figure it out.
Aside from the poker element, this game really comes down to worker placement and strategy. Each Location card only has a finite number of placement spots, and the resources required to buy Buildings are not exactly in abundance. This affects your strategy, as you must decide which resources to collect at what times, as well as deciding whether you need to duel someone for a coveted resource. Another element to your strategy? You may only buy Building cards from Locations on which you have a Posse token. Maybe none of those placement spots really appeal to you this round, but you reaaaaally want that specific Building card. Are you willing to ‘burn’ a Posse token for the chance to buy it? Or is there a different Location that offers a useful resources and a desirable Building card? Also, keep in mind how your poker hand will come into play. Since poker cards are dealt to each Location at the start of a round, you are able to see what your hand will be for each Location. Maybe you have a pretty strong hand at the Bank Location, but at the Courthouse the cards end up being a bust. Are you willing to risk a placement in hopes that you have the best hand of the bunch? Because remember – if you don’t have the best hand at a Location, you get no resources/rewards! There are so many elements to a successful strategy with this game, and it really keeps all players engaged at all times. Be warned though – the variety of strategic options could be difficult for some AP-prone players.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As with all Tiny Epic games, the production quality of TEW is pretty stellar. The cards are nice and sturdy, and the iconography is clear. The Posse tokens are cute Meeples with cowboy hats, and they are nice and chunky. The only thing I don’t really like about this game are the Gunslinger dice. In theory, they are super cool, but in actual execution, they leave much to be desired. The numbers aren’t really clearly define, so they’re a bit tricky to read. Aside from that, a pretty high quality game here.
So all in all, how does Tiny Epic Western stand up in the series? It is definitely one of the heavier games of the bunch, and there is so much more going on than initially meets the eye. It feels daunting for the first few plays, but once you get the phases under your belt, it really flows pretty well. I can’t say that it is my favorite Tiny Epic game, as I just personally feel like there are too many elements going on at the same time. You’re strategizing your worker placement, but also need to consider buying Buildings for VP and to collect sets of Industry Icons and for their specific abilities, as well as figuring out your poker hand for 5 different Locations, and dealing with duels. Some people might really be into that amount of strategic forethought, but it feels a bit cumbersome to me. That being said, Purple Phoenix Games gives this three-card poker game a 3/6. The gameplay is decent, just not really my kind of game.
Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook in this review, as there are just too many details, but will instead provide a more general overview of the rules and gameplay. -L
Tiny Epic Western is a game of worker placement and set collection in which players are trying to amass the most end-game victory points. Played over a series of rounds, players will be placing their Posse (Meeples), collecting Influence and taking actions, dueling opponents (if necessary), playing a bit of poker, and buying buildings in an effort to become the most powerful boss in this wild west town. To setup for a game, place the Location Mats as described in the rules, dealing a Building Card where appropriate. Each player receives a Boss card, 3 Posse tokens (Meeples), and one of each of the Influence trackers (Money, Law, and Force), placed on the 1 space of their card. Shuffle the decks of Building Cards and Poker Cards separately, choose a starting player (who receives the Dealer token), place the Wanted card/Gunslinger dice in the center of the play area, and the game is ready to begin! Pictured below is the starting setup for a 3-player game.
The game is played over 6 total rounds, each of which is broken into 4 phases: Shuffle and Deal, Posse Placement, Resolution, and Buy. To start a round, the Dealer shuffles the deck of Poker cards, and then deals 1 card face-up to the 6 empty spaces between the Location Mats. One Poker card is dealt face-down to the Rival Space (under the Town Hall Location Mat), and 2 Poker cards are dealt face-down to each player. Players look at both of their cards and pick 1 to keep, discarding the other. The round then moves to phase 2: Posse Placement. Starting with the Dealer, players will take turns placing Posse tokens onto the placement spots on any of the Location mats. All placement spots grant unique benefits (collecting different Influence or performing Building card actions) that are performed either immediately or during later phases of the round. What happens if an opponent took a placement spot that you wanted? Then it’s time for an old-fashioned duel! The dueling players each roll a Gunslinger die, modify it if they so choose, and determine a winner. Players continue taking turns placing Posse tokens until all available Posse tokens have been placed.
When all Posse tokens have been placed, the round moves to phase 3: Resolution. The first step of this phase is to reveal Poker cards – all players reveal their cards, and the card in the Rival Space is also revealed. Moving clockwise from the Town Hall, each Location will be resolved by ‘playing’ three-card poker. Each Location has 2 Poker cards directly adjacent to it (placed between the Locations in phase 1), and those 2 cards plus the one in your hand will form your Poker hand. Any players with Posse tokens on the Location will compare their Poker hands to determine a winner. If you win the hand, you collect the Winner’s Pot (extra benefits) and are able to collect any delayed benefits from placement spots in the Posse Placement phase. Losing the hand earns you nothing *womp womp*. If you are the only Posse on a Location (with no opponents) you will compare your hand to that of the Rival. The Rival’s hand uses the cards adjacent to the Town Hall, plus the revealed card in the Rival Space. If you have a better hand, you win the benefits on your Location. If the Rival wins, though, you do not collect these benefits. All Locations are resolved in this fashion before the last phase of the round, Buy, begins.
To start this phase, all players will compare their three-card Poker hands using the 2 Poker cards adjacent to the Town Hall. The player with the best hand will act first in this phase, followed by the next best hand, and so on. The first player may now choose to buy a Building card from any Location on which they have a Posse token. Pay the requisite amount of Influence to purchase a Building, and add it to the Porch Slot on your color-corresponding Location Mat. The power granted by this Building card is now available for use in future rounds. Once all players have had the option to purchase a Building, the player with the best hand will advance one of the Industry Tokens at Town Hall. The placements of Industry Tokens will affect end-game scoring, so keep that in mind as the game progresses. When all steps of the Buy phase are performed, the round now ends. Players collect all their Posse tokens back to their boss cards, all Poker cards are collected and re-shuffled, new Building cards are dealt to Locations from which they were purchased this round, and the Dealer token is passed to the next clockwise player. If a player did not buy a Building at all during the round, they have gained the Third Posse Benefit for the coming round – granting them an additional Posse token to place during phase 2. Otherwise, all players will only ever have 2 Posse tokens to place.
After a total of 6 complete rounds, the game ends and points are tallied. Victory Points are earned from Building cards bought throughout the game. Building cards have a specified VP amount, and also have a collection of Industry Icons on them. Using the final placement of the Industry Tokens on the board, players will earn points for Industry Icon sets they have collected. And finally, whomever holds the Wanted card (won the last duel) gains an additional 2 VP. Points are all counted, and the player with the highest score is the winner.
That all probably sounds pretty complicated. But I do have to say that verbally explaining/teaching the game (and being able to use components for examples) is waaaaay easier than doing so through a text review. So please do not let the seemingly complex gameplay turn you off from this game. Once you get a basic understanding of the phases of each round, the game moves along pretty seamlessly. Honestly, the biggest learning curve for me to conquer was playing three-card poker. As someone who has never played any form of poker before, this was probably what had me most hesitant about learning TEW. After having played it now, three-card poker really isn’t too complicated, and there are some nice player reference cards to help you figure it out.
Aside from the poker element, this game really comes down to worker placement and strategy. Each Location card only has a finite number of placement spots, and the resources required to buy Buildings are not exactly in abundance. This affects your strategy, as you must decide which resources to collect at what times, as well as deciding whether you need to duel someone for a coveted resource. Another element to your strategy? You may only buy Building cards from Locations on which you have a Posse token. Maybe none of those placement spots really appeal to you this round, but you reaaaaally want that specific Building card. Are you willing to ‘burn’ a Posse token for the chance to buy it? Or is there a different Location that offers a useful resources and a desirable Building card? Also, keep in mind how your poker hand will come into play. Since poker cards are dealt to each Location at the start of a round, you are able to see what your hand will be for each Location. Maybe you have a pretty strong hand at the Bank Location, but at the Courthouse the cards end up being a bust. Are you willing to risk a placement in hopes that you have the best hand of the bunch? Because remember – if you don’t have the best hand at a Location, you get no resources/rewards! There are so many elements to a successful strategy with this game, and it really keeps all players engaged at all times. Be warned though – the variety of strategic options could be difficult for some AP-prone players.
Let me touch on components for a minute. As with all Tiny Epic games, the production quality of TEW is pretty stellar. The cards are nice and sturdy, and the iconography is clear. The Posse tokens are cute Meeples with cowboy hats, and they are nice and chunky. The only thing I don’t really like about this game are the Gunslinger dice. In theory, they are super cool, but in actual execution, they leave much to be desired. The numbers aren’t really clearly define, so they’re a bit tricky to read. Aside from that, a pretty high quality game here.
So all in all, how does Tiny Epic Western stand up in the series? It is definitely one of the heavier games of the bunch, and there is so much more going on than initially meets the eye. It feels daunting for the first few plays, but once you get the phases under your belt, it really flows pretty well. I can’t say that it is my favorite Tiny Epic game, as I just personally feel like there are too many elements going on at the same time. You’re strategizing your worker placement, but also need to consider buying Buildings for VP and to collect sets of Industry Icons and for their specific abilities, as well as figuring out your poker hand for 5 different Locations, and dealing with duels. Some people might really be into that amount of strategic forethought, but it feels a bit cumbersome to me. That being said, Purple Phoenix Games gives this three-card poker game a 3/6. The gameplay is decent, just not really my kind of game.
