Mysterious spells are hidden on your game board, will you be able to decipher them before your opponents? Here is the review of Immagica
Immagica is a new dV Giochi for this 2021. The game consists in placing a card in the center of the table, looking for the symbols of the latter on your board and joining them to understand which figure they are going to compose. Vince the match who has earned the most stars at the end of the 8 rounds.
Components and setup | Imagine Review
Inside the box we find:
- 96 double-sided spell cards
- 4 front / back player boards: the front is colored, while the back is black and white
- 4 erasable markers
- 1 hourglass of 30 seconds
Immagica has a very quick setup. Each player should be given a marker and a board (with the colored side up) and the hourglass should be placed in the center of the table, so as to be within reach for all players. During the first few games the 3 tutorial card decks must be used, you recognize them because they have colored gems in the corners of the cards. NB The sets are played in order from 1 to 3 and are not mixed, because each of them introduces a new level of difficulty.
How to play | Imagine Review
First of all, a card is placed in the center of the table so that it is visible to all, then the players must search and connect the symbols present on the card on their board. The aim is to combine all the ingredients on your board, guess what you are drawing and write the name of the object at the top (see photos n ° 2 and n ° 3); the first to complete all these steps must turn the hourglass and from this moment the other players have 30 seconds to guess the object too. The player who turned the hourglass first, in case he guessed the object, in the next round will have to turn the board and play with the black and white side. After each game, the drawing you just made is deleted, but the stars that have been earned are not deleted. For each point made, a star must be colored (see photo n ° 1).
How the ingredients connect
For each open line: you have to start with an ingredient that is at one end of the line and then connect the ingredients in order (see red line in the photo). For each closed line: you can start with any ingredient and you can continue to connect them in any sense. In this case, remember to connect the first and last ingredient together (see green line in the photo). Below is the example photo you find behind tutorial card number 1, in this case the mystery object is an envelope.
Score
For those who turn the hourglass first: if the answer is correct, it earns two stars on the board. If the answer is wrong, delete one star from those earned. On the next turn this player must use the black and white side of the board. For other players: if the answer is right, they earn a star. If the answer is wrong, there is no penalty.
Game over
After the eighth round all players count the stars they have accumulated, vince who has more.
To play with the little ones | Imagine Review
To allow even the little ones to play, there are a couple of tricks that you can put in place:
- the hourglass can be turned a second time to give more time
- if a child recognizes the object he is drawing but cannot speak, have him describe it before telling him if he has guessed right.
Conclusion
Immagica is a game capable of bringing the whole family together around the table and allows you to spend a carefree evening. Both in the components and in the mechanics it is not of many pretensions, overall it is a product that focuses on simplicity. The most interesting thing is the presence of the three tutorial sets that allow you to understand the game perfectly, before starting to seriously challenge each other. The black and white side of the board makes the game more complex, because it is not at all easy to identify the ingredients. However, there are also some cons that I will now go to list:
- price: although the components are of good quality, I find the cost of the game too high
- players: two more boards, so bringing the game to 6 players, in my opinion, would make the games more fun and interesting
- Replayability: I state that it is true that it takes some time to run out of all the papers in the box and that it is impossible to remember all the objects by heart, but I fear that Immagica may lack longevity. This could be remedied by creating additional card decks
- dashboard: it may happen that the stars accumulated during the rounds are canceled from the board. It happened to me when I had to use the black and white side, evidently I rubbed the dashboard against the table and when I turned it to the colored side the marked stars were erased. It may be that this thing is not understood by others, but a separate scoreboard would not have been a bad idea
