Power, romance, mystery….. and maybe a knight or two thrown in for good measure. Welcome to the Zatu review for The Legends of King Arthur. A small card game about completing quests and trying to outwit your opponents in a game of Arthurian legend!
The Setup
Setup in this one is a breeze. The only thing you have to do is shuffle a few decks and dish out some starting cards. It’s a small box cared game and the setup time and difficulty certainly reflect that.
After everyone has drafted a character and after you have dealt them 4 journey cards and a special action card, you are about ready to quest.
Questing and Characters
The main crux of The Legends of King Arthur is completing quests. You complete them by first sending a character on the quest, then satisfying all of the symbols on said quest by using journey cards from your hand and the character’s special ability.
Some characters give more symbols, are better for certain quests or offer more points. It’s how you use these characters and what quests you send them on that will govern how well you do.
Taking a Turn
On your turn, you have a few options to play with. Firstly, you either play 2 cards and possibly complete a quest or discard cards from your hand. After that, you can use your special action, more on that shortly, then redraw back up to 5 cards for either the journey or character decks.
This is most of the game, trying to complete quests, redrawing and playing some cards here and there to try and stifle your opponent. There are a few take-that style cards mixed into the deck that make completing quests harder for your adversaries.
Special Actions
4 times throughout the game, you can use a special action. OOoooooooo, I hear you cry, these actions give you little boons and hopefully give you the edge in the game. Things like drawing a legend card, searching the Jouney discard pile and even protecting your cards from attack.
You have a small card that you rotate every time you use one and every one unused at the end of the game is worth a point. I feel the trade-off is normally worth it. Giving up one point to get more in return is normally worth it.
End Game and Scoring
Once a player has completed 3 quests of differing types or 3 of the same type, all other players take one more turn and the game ends. You then work out points from quests, points from bonuses and points from unused special actions. Also, the payer who finished first gets the hero card for a few extra points. Whoever has the most points is the winner and is the best Legend of King Arthur.
Presentation and Components
This game is just cards and while the cards may not be linen-finish, they are very thick and sturdy. The artwork, while not being my cup of tea, certainly has a style that fits the game’s theme. It has a sort of tarot-style that fits the game’s subject matter.
For what it is, the presentation and components are of decent quality, especially for the game’s weight and intended demographic.
Final Thoughts
Legends of King Arthur: A Card Game is a tough one for me to review. While I thought it worked and I did not mind playing it, I think it’s a very crowded genre and there are many better instances of this game style.
Recipe fulfilment and hand management games are rife and while I can think of many more I would play before this one, if you really want another to play, this one does work.
Right, I am off to pull the sword from the stone. See you next time gamers.
