How To Play – Via Magica

Like I said, Via Magica is a bingo style game. Or maybe more Super Mega Lucky Box style game, though, Via Magica came out first. In this game you are trying to capture animus to open different portals, all very magical. What that means is you have three portals in front of you and as a player draws out tokens, you match the animus type, colored white, blue, red, brown, green, and black, to the animus needed on that card. There are wilds, and when that is drawn, you reset the bag of tokens and draw some more.

However, you only have a limited number of crystals. You put them out and you might have two near completion but no crystals left. Depending on what is drawn, you can move crystals around to get a card completed. When you complete a card, you pick a new card. And once someone has completed seven, the game is over.

But it isn’t just that, each card has a power, or a lot do. It might be that you score two points for each green animus that you have. Or it might give you 12 points but be a hard card to complete. And some might make a color wild or allow you to place animus of a certain type for free. So you try and build up combos that will help you get the most points. Because at the end of the game, most points wins.

What Don’t I Like?

I have played this at two and it plays up to six, so I want to play with more. The reason I want to play it with more is that the market of portal cards is pretty static with two players. I might complete a portal, take a new one, and then complete a second one with only one new portal being available. This isn’t a major issue, but with more players the market would be in flux more. It’s a minor quibble with the game, though.

I also wish that the tiles that you draw were nicer. In my final thoughts I’ll talk about how this gives me a bit of a Splendor vibe. Splendor has great chips in the game, and then fewer other components. I wish this one has Splendor like chips as you do draw them from a bag, so as they are handled they will start to wear out. Not as fast as Quacks of Quedlinburg, the chip here are handled less. But it’s worth noting.

What Do I Like?

Simplicity

I like the simplicity of the mechanics. The game is easy to setup, easy to teach, and easy to play. It says 30 minutes, I think in lower player counts that is a bit long for the game. Two players probably takes 20 minutes, unless you get really poor draws. So it falls easily into that category of from box to teach to table in 10 minutes tops. And if everyone knows how to play, probably five minutes.

The game is also going to scale really well. I draw an animus tile, everyone puts down on their portal, if they can or if they want. So while with more players it’ll take longer because it’ll take more time for people to pick portals. This is not going to be a long game ever. Maybe at the full six players it’d take 40 minutes in a slow group. Goes back to that simplicity of the mechanics.

Strategy

I also think, that while it is simple to play, there is strategy and choice in what you are doing. Not tons of a complex level, but when you finish a card matters. I play down onto a portal that lets me place out two crystals on blue animus immediately. Well, if I don’t have two open blue animus in play, that is a waste of my play. Or in the last game I played, I got three colors to be wilds for me which wasn’t a ton of points, but gave me a ton of flexibility early in the game to then go for bigger points.

I think this is an area that people will overlook. They will see it like Super Mega Lucky Box and see such a simple game but not realize the strategy that you can have. And probably lose their first game because of that. There is a lot of luck in the game, what is pulled out of the bag. But there is strategy or thought that goes into which portals you do and when you try and finish a portal.

Who Is It For?

This is a good filler game for gamers who want something quick while waiting for more people to show up. Or maybe as the game night is winding down. Not some party game, but a game with decisions that is fast to play and get to the table.

But, this is also a good game for when you are with non-gamers. The artwork is cute, the rules are so simple, and it plays fast. I could see pulling this one out with family and playing it twice or three times in a sitting, because the game is that easy to get to the table. And it is that level of a Splendor where the rules are simple, animus is drawn, you place a crystal. But as you play you learn more of the game.

Final Thoughts on Via Magica by Hurrican

I really enjoy this game. In fact, I prefer it to Splendor. There are a few games, Century Golem Edition, and now Via Magica, that I put in the same weight as Splendor, same depth of strategy as it were. And I prefer both of them to Splendor. Both Century Golem Edition and Via Magica have more strategies that you can try. And while I might eventually feel like I’ve played enough of either, it’ll take much longer than it did with Splendor.

Now, it isn’t going to be a game that works for everyone. It is a very simple game, but treating it as such should entertain most people. It is a great filler where it isn’t just a lucky party game. And there is no scaling to worry about for the game. So it will never play longer, which I love in games. That way it falls int some of those roll and write categories like Super Mega Lucky Box. But it is also like Sushi Go Party! that way with decisions but not too many.

I want to always have a game like this in my collection. The type of game I play with anyone. It might not get played all the time, but it will get played. It is like Ticket to Ride or Small World in that way. I play those once a year, maybe. But they come off the shelf, and I keep them because they will always find time to get played.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: A

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But for me the combination of the cover and the designers Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva and it being a Horrible Guild game put it over the top. In particular, I’ve found that I enjoy most Hjalmar Hach designs. So pair that with an amazing looking cover and a company that I like, I needed to check it out.

How To Play – The Great Split

The Great Split is not that difficult a game to play, though learning it on the fly there are a number of things to think about. It has a particular cadence to the game that you need to teach. But the main premise of the game is that you have a number of tracks that you want to go up on. Depending on the track(s) they score in different ways or give you different bonuses.

So, how do you go up on the tracks, it’s a simple I split, you choose mechanic. By that I mean that I have a had of cards, between five to seven in the game, and I am creating two groups of cards. Then I pass my wallet to you and you pick one of those groups. I get the other one back. At the same time everyone around the table is doing this, so I get a wallet of cards to pick from and pick one of the two groups.

You do that several turns and then at the end of the game you tally up your points. Whomever has the most points is the winner. And I can go into scoring more, but there is some to learn with that, but not too much.

What Am I Worried About?

So a bit of twist on how I normally do it, closer to the review. But I don’t want to fully dive into it, this is more of a first impressions. There are two things that stand out to me that I am curious about with the Great Split though.

Firstly, I wonder about the viability of this game at lower player counts. I enjoyed what the game does a lot, but I played it at 3. I wonder if 4-7 would be better. The game doesn’t really add much time to it the more people you play with. But at 2-3, you won’t see many cards. It adds a different element of strategy to it with how you can play your opponent, but you are going to get more unbalanced scoring.

I also want to know what it’s like to teach the game. I played at the time we were learning the game as well. And looking back on it, I think that I could make it faster and simpler for teaching. But there are a number of things to teach. There are six different sections you need to teach scoring on. At the same time, I think most of the things are pretty simple once you know them. And I don’t think I need to teach some elements of the game as the game suggests that you have someone “run” the game and turns.

What Have I Enjoyed?

I really enjoy the “I split, you choose” mechanic of the game. The game is really just that mechanic which doesn’t worry me too much because you’ll get variety each time you play in the cards you take. But it’s interesting to look at the board of the player you are passing to, the direction doesn’t change, see what they are picking, and try and create a combination where they pick something that gives you what you want plus just a little bit more.

Or it could be that you create a split where either one will work for you, but you’ve split up what they want in order to slow them down. The game seems simple, but you can really give someone what they don’t want to keep some scoring tracks in check if you split stuff up well.

I also enjoy how the scoring works. Now, I won’t go into everything, but some of them are just how far you are up on the track, another has a sliding market, and another is the lowest of two tracks. But I’m more talking about how the game scores each section twice, minus contracts. So the three main tracks twice, once each mid game and once at the end of the game. But mid game you might score books and gems first and then art and nothing, or it might be books and nothing first and then art and gems. So when you score the first time might determine what you push for.

Final Thoughts – The Great Split

This is a very fun experience and I really enjoyed playing it once so far. I wonder how often I will get it played, though, because it is a game that seems to work better with more. And while I do have game nights, I feel like it isn’t one we’ll play all the time. But it fits into the same category, in my opinion as a game like Sushi Go Party or Seven Wonders.

With that, I mean that I can see playing it at higher player counts. And with more players, it is not a game that takes longer to play. I play it with three players, it goes as fast as the slowest player. I play it with 7 players and it still plays as fast as the slowest player. Now, the slowest player might be slower, but that is the restriction. So I really like that about the game. And I like it when I find a big group game that isn’t a party game.

Do you like The Great Split? Is it a game that you want to try? Let me know in the comments below.

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This game is split into two parts and six rounds. The first half of each round players are flicking discs onto a board, depending on the number of the disc and where it lands, at the end of the flicking phase, you will get to use it on the second part of the round. That is where you are using the number and location to determine actions on your player/scoring board. The game has you doing a few different things, four in fact, depending on the area where you flicked your discs. The first one, the lizard, is simply filling in areas as fast as you can based off of the total number on the discs that you’ve flipped, the bigger area you fill in, the more points you get when you complete it and the better bonus you get if you’re the first person to complete it. The eagle is a bit trickier, you are using the numbers you flicked into that section to fill in cross out and then circle spots for either bonuses or scoring. Then in the fox, you are tetrising in pieces to get points by covering up cacti, and the more you get of a given type, the more points you get, plus you can circle bonuses as well. Finally with the rabbit, you are totaling up the discs in the area and using them to cross of intersections which will allow you to connect vertices which again gets you points for cacti you’ve surrounded as well as bonuses. After six rounds, the player with the most points wins.

So, we know from my Top 100, which is going on now, I like roll and writes and flip and writes, so how about a flick and write, does the flicking part work for me? I’d say yes, I think I can get better at it, I got good at ICECOOL, but I think that it works for me, it’s a fun randomization aspect of the game. I almost wish there were more ways to lock in a disc once you’ve flicked it, other than hitting the middle wild spot, but there are bonus double spots on the board and I do like trying to knock other people off of them. My flicking was bad enough that I think in two games I only hit the double once. That said, I was always in the games. So while the flicking is important, utilizing the bonuses on the sections most effectively and you can really create massive combos is just as important. So I think that both parts of the game works well.

I think another thing that works well is that this game has little to no downtime. Sure, it might take a minute to get back to flicking again, but the flicking portion of the game goes fast. And then when filling in your board, you are doing that all at the same time, minus the lizard just because with the lizard the first person to complete a section gets a bonus. So everyone can go at the same time and while my scoring, if I don’t do many combos and get bonuses might go faster than yours, generally it isn’t a massive time difference and you’re not waiting for one person to do theirs, then the next, and then you. I think that’s a smart thing we’re seeing in a lot of roll and flip and write games is that they are trying to keep down time between turns to a minimum and Sonora does that as well.

If I had a knock against the game, I do think that the discs you are flicking could be slightly higher quality. They are wooden, which is nice and screen printed, but they are very light, just for me, I wish they had a little bit more heft to them. And the biggest thing, I wish that they had the numbers on both sides. It’s possible for the disc to flip when you shoot it, so you are having to reach in and flip it over so everyone can see, and probably moving it slightly. I think that the extra heft too would keep them from flipping as much or flying off the board as much, but then again, they do give you reflicks for it it does fly off the board, or maybe lands where you don’t want it to stop after you’ve flicked it.

Overall, this is a really fun game. I think that I’d say it’s a bit more complex than some roll and write games, but not too complex. Once you learn what each section does the game really goes fast, and I think playing two rounds for learning rounds is about all that you need before people really start to get it. There is strategy to the game, and I think that any of the different options are going to give you a chance to win. There are a few different ways that you can play it, you can play long, regular, or short games, and you can play basic or advanced rules, and I like the advanced rules where you can’t just flick to the section in front of you, you have to bounce off of something to either stop in that section or bounce back into it, it adds in some more strategy. Really good game and something that feels similar but different in the [blank] and write genre.

Overall Grade: A
Casual Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+

Is this a game that you like, one that sounds interesting to you?

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