Page 54 - spielbox 03/21 - English

At a Glance. Parks. Nightfall
Harry Potter. Defence Agai
A Walk at Night
By L.U. DIKUS
Parks: Nightfall: Even though you can see more on a walk in the wild during the day, night walks have
their own special appeal. This applies to this game, too: In addition to two dozen (again, artistically designed) Park cards, Nightfall focuses on two new aspects that arouse the wanderlust again – even if Wieland Herold‘s request (in his review of the basic game in spielbox #6/20, rat- ing: 7) to make for more variety by add- ing more trail sites wasn‘t heard.
Instead, this task is taken on by a campsite area that provides three differ- ent special actions, changing with each season. You can get there by using a Tent token from a trail site. But in this case, you don‘t have access to a Weather to- ken on that site, if applicable. What you can do at the campsite in any season is to give up Sunshine tokens in order to gain additional Year cards and even exchange old ones. Different from the basic game, you can accomplish all the goals of the Year cards multiple times and thus score more points in the end.
The new Park cards also noticeably invigorate what‘s going on. Similarly to some of the Gear cards, they trigger an immediate one-time effect, which has an impact on their attractiveness, of course. One of these effects is a side-trip to the campsite; another one lets you acquire more gear or revisit a park. All this speeds the game up. The instructions advise you
to combine new and old Park cards in the same proportion. But if you want to play with the new cards only, you should remove the Year card showing the goal to score one point for each of these spe- cial cards. Besides the variety, all this is also suited to mostly remedy the reserva- tions regarding a major random factor, which I mentioned under „Tweaks and Variations“ (also in spielbox #6/20); in addition, it makes the separation of Gear cards into three piles dispensable that I
suggested there.
(sbw)
Title: Designer: Illustration: Publisher: Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Parks. Nightfall Mattox Shuler 21 Artists Feuerland
1 – 5
about 10+ years about 60 minutes about 20 Euros
Reviewer
L.U. Dikus
Christoph Schlewinski
Playing appeal
8
7
I wouldn‘t play Parks without this expansion anymore.
52
spielbox
Potter
Potter
By UDO BARTSCH
Harry Potter: Hog- warts Battle. Defence Against the Dark
Arts: In the land of the Mug- gles, state-appointed count- er-narcotics officials are busily watching that nobody inhales undesirable substances. Wizards, however, are more chilled about these matters. A bit of pot?
Why not! After all, Har-
ry doesn‘t have his last
name without a reason.
At his school, students
even learn how to stun
each other – through spells. Headmaster Dumbledore has ordered this personally.
For good reason. The world of wizards is heading straight for disaster. While the authorities keep their eyes closed to re- ality, hope is entirely pinned on the kids. In other words, exactly as in life, with the difference that we have the weaker stuff. We won‘t get far with glue sticks and lemon balm spirit. Together with the Hogwarts students, we are going to learn how to do it properly.
Defence Against the Dark Arts is a deck-building duel. You play all your hand cards, which gives you money for buying new cards, flashes for striking your op- ponent, and hearts for making your own ticker beat faster. If you take too much damage, you are stunned: a point to the dealer. Wipe your mouth, shuffle your deck, and start the next round.
Like the cooperative game of the same series, the simplicity of the game procedures lulls players into a pleasant maelstrom that is actually fun. You will rarely feel the need to ponder – but if so, then only about what all this reminds you of. This time, of Star Realms. The low lev- el of originality is halfway compensated for by the fact that the Potter theme suits the game so well. Everything is consistent and atmospheric, and the visual appear- ance is great.
Photos: Bartsch, Becker, Dikus, Kosmos