Harry Potter A Hogwarts Battle is a deck builder that brings you through all seven books of the J.K. Rowling series. You can choose to be Neville, Hermione, Ron, or Harry. With your choice of character you enable specific abilities that will grow and change as you progress through the books. Luckily, the game is not built on just these innate character abilities, but through the fun item, spell, or ally cards that you can purchase with what we called "potter bucks." The firebolt (item), Hogwarts a History (item), expecto patronum (spell), wingardium leviosa (spell), Fred Weasley(ally), Dobby (ally) are just a small number of the fun and exciting additions that you can make to your deck.
You start with 10 cards, some standard, some specific to your character. You follow the the playthrough:
Resolve the Dark Arts card(s).
Resolve the Villain card(s).
Resolve the player's hand (lightening, potter bucks, health, etc).
Purchase cards and dole out the punishment to the villains.
Be mindful of how damaged your location is, this will be important to manage. If you lose all of your locations, you're done. TOM RIDDLE wins! However, if you beat down the villains and maintain control of at least the last location, HEROES win!
We played this as mostly a two player game, but we also had some Potter friends join in for a couple of rounds. After completing the seventh book, we sat down and talked about our experiences playing this game.
How did this game make you feel after you played through all seven books?
Spider: I left off with an urge to get expansions in the future. The first thing I thought was to look for expansions. I just wanted to play more. I wanted to try different player counts, different characters. I would want to start over, but you'd have to resort by book all of the different cards. They are labeled, so it's possible. It's sort of a legacy game, but there is replay value. By game seven the deck was giant and we couldn't even encounter everything that we had unlocked.
Cat: I absolutely loved this game. I'm a huge Potter nerd so I had high expectations. I loved the deck, the artwork and the benefits of the all the cards were so true to the stories. I loved the progressive nature of working through each of the seven books. It was so much fun how everything built. I felt the designers really understood what people love so much about Harry Potter. I would love to get an expansion just about as much as I would love there to be more Harry Potter books.
What were your first impressions of the game?
Spider: It was positive because of the components. It felt very authentic. I like the world anyway, but the flavor of the game matched the flavor of the movies and the book. It didn't feel tacked on. It felt like the stories, not just a game with face covering.
One of my first impressions was nostalgia. It hit the right Potter notes. It's not like Harry Potter connect four. It was characters, allies, abilities, items, spells. The allies had benefits that made sense. So, if you knew the characters from the books or movies, their benefits/abilities seemed to match up.
Cat: My first feelings when we opened the box were excitement and confusion. When we started this game, I was really new to gaming and I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the moving parts. Following the turn order was REALLY important and it contributed to feeling more comfortable in the game. I LOVED the art and the components. I was so excited each time we finished a book because I couldn't wait to see what new components, whether friend or foe, were added in.
What did you like about the game?
Spider: I liked that you kept layering throughout the games. When you sit and watch through the series of movies there is a growth and reintroduction of characters as they got older and their abilities and circumstances changed.
Cat: I think they did a really great job of building the world. By the end of the game if felt like we were battling Voldemort. There were multiple dark arts events, three villains, layering of penalties, horcruxes and we had to manage all of the restrictions and mitigate what we could with what was left of our abilities. I felt the tension and didn't expect to win. I had a couple turns where I just got slammed with reveal another dark arts card and then ended up stunned. It was actually kind of fun though in retrospect because in our final few turns I (Harry) got stunned, but you (Neville) saved the day and defeated the final horcrux and blasted Voldemort with enough lightening.
What do you think are key points to remember for people new to the game?
Spider: If they're new to gaming in general, don't be overwhelmed by the mechanics. The engine that drives it is very basic. Just take each turn in the phases listed and be disciplined. Don't rush it. Resolve everything in the appropriate order.
Don't worry if you get stunned, it's a pain, but it doesn't mean game over.
Cat: My biggest suggestion is to follow the turn order no matter what. Even if you have the most amazing cards in your active hand, you have to wait. You might just get stunned and then have to make the difficult choices of which cards to discard.
How did you feel about the game mechanics?
Spider: I thought it was a really basic deck builder. If they would have made it more complicated it would have been unnecessary. The complexity was there, but if you had the discipline to follow the in-turn order, it was really manageable. I didn't like the market because there were a couple of times we got stuck because we couldn't generate enough potter bucks to buy the cards. There were some cards that weren't very beneficial. There was no way to purge your deck or wipe the market. There were multiple times I went ahead and bought cards just to clear the space for a potentially better card.
I think kids could understand this game because of the simplicity of the mechanics, but they would lack the discipline to follow the turn order.
Cat: At first I thought it was overwhelming, but that was probably because of how new to gaming I was. In retrospect after playing this out over several months periodically, the simplicity of the mechanics are apparent. There's just a lot to keep track of, but it is manageable if you're working as a team. Communication between players and awareness of what's going on in the game are important. Some players' abilities can be activated even when they're not the active hero.
I did love the market aspect and I didn't mind that sometimes we got stuck. I felt like it added to the tension that is inherent to the stories.
Overall
Pros:
Simple
Streamlined
Easy to understand and teach
Relaxing
Fun
Cons:
The market
A little too easy to beat
Ratings:
Spider
Cat
Rating Scale
Would not buy or play again
Would not buy but would play again
Would buy and play again, but only occasionally
Would buy and play again in normal rotation