Necromancer: Dig Up a Few Friends
Publisher: Kobold Press
Designers: Wolfgang Baur & Jeff Quick
Artist: Stan!
Number of Players: 3 to 6
Age Rating: 10 and up
MSRP: $29.99
Product #: KOB 6180
ICv2 Rating: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Playing the villain has always been a sort of guilty pleasure. By definition, you must set aside traditional definitions of morality in order to fit the role, “freeing” yourself to perform wicked deeds for wicked ends. And what could be more wicked than that blackest of black magics, dread necromancy itself? The question is, does Necromancer deliver on its promise of wicked guilty pleasure?
Summary: In the game, you are a budding sorcerer determined to prove yourself the mightiest necromancer in the world, either by raising an unstoppable army of the restless dead (and some living minions, perhaps) or by callously sacrificing five of your loyal underlings to the Well of Eternal Life. Your actions in the game are dictated primarily through the cards in your hand, each representing an undead you can raise if you have sufficient “bones,” a minion you can recruit, each with a handy ability, a magical item you can gift to a minion to help them survive and expand their abilities, or a magical spell you or a minion can cast to get an advantage.
On your turn, if you control the aforementioned Well, you may sacrifice any of your minions located there. If this brings your sacrificial total to five, you win immediately. Then you may dispatch some of your undead and/or minions to raid the Well (hopefully taking control of it) or to knock down another necromancer’s horde (an essential task to perform frequently to keep their numbers down). Raid combat is very simple: in essence, each attacker kills one defender and vice versa. Every time one of your own followers is destroyed, it becomes a “bone” that you can later use to raise more undead in the third step of your turn, along with any minions in your hand. Your only limit to recruitment is your cards and the bones you have available, so a player can grab up a huge horde in a single turn. Finally, you end your turn by drawing some new cards for your hand. If at this time you have 15 points worth of followers, you win immediately.
Originality: While there is nothing revolutionary in this design, it does pull together a number of familiar mechanics in an interesting and innovative way. I particularly like the bone mechanism, which encourages players to attack frequently so they can sacrifice their own undead to ensure they have enough bones to raise more undead, and the cycle continues. The mechanic of giving magic items to your minions which then function as a sort of “hit points” to keep them alive is also an interesting twist.
Presentation: The ever-talented Stan! has done a predictably fine job with the artwork for this game, his unique artwork blending seamlessly with the style of humor that the designers intended the game to have, and that humor is a big part of the design’s appeal. Little jokes and clever quips are hidden in the titles and effects of the cards, keeping the game light-hearted and fun despite its gruesome theme. The box tends toward the dark side, which is perfectly suitable to its theme, yet remains clearly readable. The box back shows little of the game components but does offer a very good description of the game theme and concepts.
Quality: Component quality is very good. Nice solid box, minimal but adequate cardboard divider to hold the components, a lot (over 150) of cards printed on nice flexible stock, thick cardboard tokens and Well tile. The rulebook has a lot of the game’s humor in it, which I appreciate, and overall does a good job of explaining the concepts clearly. It is sorely lacking in examples of play, however, which I have always found to be an invaluable tool for learning how gameplay functions.
Marketability: Necromancer has a very high “take that” element that is critical to the game design and balance, which means that it will really only appeal to gamers who enjoy that style of game. Fortunately, that is a broad and sizeable segment of the market, so I don’t see that as a serious obstacle. The box is certainly hefty with all those cards despite its trim profile, and it has a very reasonable price point considering what’s inside the box.
Overall: Raising up an army of undead who eagerly follow your every whim can be a fun exercise, and the whimsy and humor of Necromancer help keep things from getting too heavy. Balancing offensive capability so you can keep your opposition from growing too powerful while simultaneously protecting your own precious resources is surprisingly challenging, especially in games with more players. And the various abilities of the undead and the minions offer a wide variety of amusing and interesting strategies to explore within the game.
However, learning how to be a necromancer may take a few rounds of play. This could have been helped with more examples in the rulebook, perhaps, but the game is unusual enough that less-experienced game-players may take some time getting up to speed. The constant harassment may frustrate some players who are less enthusiastic about the “take that” style. Also, I am concerned by the fact that a player can summon a huge horde all at once. This could mean that it is very easy for a player to “leap” into the win, and since they win instantly if they do so, there is little the other players can do to respond to this strategy.
That’s why I’m giving this game 3.5 out of 5.
Source: ICv2
