We visit the village of cute dragons, or the review of the game "Flamecraft".

At the end of March, Brain Games came out with loud and hot news about the fact that one of the biggest board game hits of last year - "Flamecraft" - will be translated into Latvian. What exactly is this game, what to expect from it and is it a game that would fit into your game collection?

in short

• Number of players: 1-5
• Game duration: 60 min.
• Recommended age: 10+
• Mechanics: worker placement, resource management, endgame bonuses
• BoardGameGeek (BGG) rating: 7.6/10
• BGG game difficulty rating: 2.19/5
• Author: Manny Vega
• Original Publisher: Cardboard Alchemy
• Awards: 2023 Gra Roku nomination for Family Game of the Year, 2022 Golden Geek nomination for Medium Game of the Year, 2022 Golden Geek Award for Best Board Game Visual Design and presentation"

Price and components

The game is already available in all Brain Games stores and its price is 39.95 euros.

The game itself comes in a standard sized box like those used for Catan or Ticket to Ride . But what's in the bear's belly, or what's hiding under the hood? The first thing that catches your eye and sets this game apart from the vast majority is the playing field. Unlike the usual folding or collapsible cardboard courts, this game uses a bright neoprene mat. Usually, these types of pitches are a luxury component that can be purchased separately.

The game also includes six printed wooden dragon figures, six wooden reputation tokens, a total of 234 cardboard resources and coins, 78 dragon cards, 36 spell cards, 34 oversized shop cards, seven companion cards for advanced players, and reminder cards for each player. In other words, inside the game there are a lot of cardboard tokens and cards with very beautiful illustrations.

Rules at a glance

"You are the Keeper of the Flame - you master the art of talking to dragons, placing them in the most suitable homes, and casting spells that entice them to create wondrous things."

Each player takes on the role of this Guardian of the Flame and works to improve the dragon village - moving from one shop to another, playing dragon cards, activating their effects, collecting resources, casting spells and gaining reputation or victory points.

At its core, the game is uncomplicated, as the player must move to a new booth on his turn and perform one of two actions: collect items or cast a spell. Collecting items allows you to get resources, add a new dragon to the shop with one of the bonuses, and activate the ability of a dragon. Casting spells, on the other hand, allows you to exchange resources for one of the spell cards and activate all the dragons working in the particular booth.

Collecting items will be the most popular type of move, but casting spells will get you the most points.

In a sense, in terms of difficulty, this game can be placed somewhere in the middle between "Ticket to Ride" or "Carcassonne" and "Winged" or so-called "family +" category games. The moves themselves aren't complicated, as you ultimately only have to choose one of two actions - gather resources or cast spells - but behind each move there are countless strategic options that make the game challenging even for experienced players, but can be a headache for those new to the tabletop. gaming hobby.

The charming dragon village

Undoubtedly, one of the main successes of the game is this delightfully beautiful dragon village and dragon cards, as well as the creative names. This is not to say that the art somehow makes up for or covers up the game's flaws. Today, thousands of games are released every year, and in order for a game to stand out and stand out from the rest, it has to have everything – polished mechanics, an engaging theme, and fantastic visuals. Flamecraft has hit the nail on the head in all of these categories.

Every shop, every dragon is unique and no two illustrations in this game are the same!

Dragons are divided into six categories by profession. All dragons of the same profession do the same thing, but the game's publishers decided that each of them needed its own unique illustration and name.

As for the words, a lot of thought has been put into them here, and their translation was a big challenge - countless hours were spent, several meetings were held, so that in the end all the dragons and booths got the right words. Cielaviņa, Shašlik, Vizbulīte, Cigoriņš, Sidrabiņš, Uzkūkotava, Miega Miga, Pūķi and Stūķi are just some of the names that can be found in this game.

The dragon and the shop all have very carefully thought out names and titles that will appeal to anyone who likes puns.

Multiplayer

A very important factor in games nowadays is multiplayer, that is, can't you learn to predict this game and it won't be the same every time? The answer is very short and simple - no!

Yes, the games always have the same starting layout, but new booths are opened as the game progresses and are randomly selected from the 28 total cards before each game. Around eight new shops will appear over the course of the game, each with a unique ability. These abilities are often very powerful and can completely change strategies, so you must always be ready to adapt to new developments.

Flamecraft also features cute dragons that allow each player to earn points in some unique way by fulfilling a certain condition. Each player starts with one cute dragon, but it is possible to get more of these cards as the game progresses, and they are kept hidden and can only be awarded at the end of the game, so you won't know until the last moment who will become the village's most prestigious Flame Keeper.

The game includes two decks of spell cards - an easier one for the first few games and a bit more challenging once the first games in the dragon city have been played. Players are welcome to choose one kava or the other in each batch, as it is not that the standard kava is much easier or less exciting than the second kava.

That's not all either, as advanced players have the option to include companion cards, each with an asymmetric ability that the player can use once per game.

All this together guarantees that no two batches of Flamecraft will ever be the same!

Reviewers' comments

Various well-known reviewers in the world of board games have spoken very favorably about the game. The Dice Tower's Chief Spokesman Tom Vassell praised the quality of the game and components, as well as the very good rulebook. He also does not hide that one factor strongly contributes to the popularity of this game: "This game sells because of its cuteness."

The Dice Tower's Mike Delisio, who has already included the game in his top 100 games of all time, also spoke highly of Flamecraft for challenging experienced gamers while being simple enough to teach new players. .

BoardGameCo's Alex Radcliffe agrees: "Some of the most delightful illustrations I've seen, along with gameplay that's engaging for new and seasoned players alike."

Other well-known game reviewers also praise this as a stunningly beautiful game that is perfect for players of all skill levels.

The author

The author of the game is Manny Vega, for whom this is the first widely known game. Previously, in 2017, his game "Sparkle*Kitty" was published, but it did not gain much popularity.

The author himself is no stranger to art and games, and he has been working in this field since the end of the last century. He has worked on various illustrations for Dungeons & Dragons books, worked as a designer on various video games and managed projects in the development of game applications, but Flamecraft is perhaps his hottest project to date.

Original publisher

The game initially reached the world's eyes with the help of the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, raising a total of more than two million dollars in funding. The game was developed by Cardboard Alchemy, which is by no means one of the most well-known publishers in the world of board games. Apart from Flamecraft, they have only released Mission Catastrophe, and they plan to release Andromeda's Edge next year.

One of their main mottos is “We create games with fantastic illustrations” . It must be admitted that they really did not lie with this statement.

"Cardboard Alchemy" works in close cooperation with the much better known "Lucky Duck games", which has become one of the flagships of modern games in recent years. It is they who are engaged in the further release of "Flamecraft" in the world, which has certainly helped with the popularity of the game.

Reasons not to buy this game

If it's relatively easy to find a reason to buy Flamecraft, there are actually fewer reasons not to.

Although this game looks very cute, it is not the easiest game. If you have no experience with other games, this might not be the right game to start your collection with. Of course, almost anyone can learn the game, but in order to make it easier and not to be reluctant to put the game on the shelf to collect dust after one game, it is recommended that at least one of the players has experience with board games.

Although almost everyone finds this game delightful and very beautiful, if you are not drawn to dragons and cute illustrations, then Flamecraft will not be the right choice for you.

Flamecraft has a delightfully beautiful play mat, but it's relatively long. Also, all shops, resources and cards take up a relatively large amount of space on the table. If most of the games in your home are played on the coffee table, then this game might not fit on your gaming surface.

My thoughts on the game

Although I myself used to order a game on the Kickstarter platform from time to time, this game had eluded my shopping cart. However, I got my copy of the game last fall during the "Spiel" exhibition. I've played it nine times in half a year, and Flamecraft has already broken into my all-time favorite games.

A fantastic game that I am willing to play again and again.

As soon as I heard that Brain Games might have the opportunity to localize this game, I immediately expressed my support for this idea, believing that it would really fit very well in the collection of every Baltic gamer . I definitely recommend this game to almost anyone who has played at least a couple of board games. This is definitely the game I was most looking forward to.

If I didn't already have the English version of this game, I wouldn't think twice and buy this game right away, but now I have to decide if I want to replace my copy of the game with the Latvian version, because the Latvian translations are really unbeatable.

I will remind you once again that the game "Flamecraft" is already available in stores. If you are not sure if you really want this game, then I recommend you to buy it, because in the worst case it can be an excellent gift for a birthday or Christmas.