“Midnight. Once a year necrohamsters from across the land gather.” Their aim, to become the greatest summoner, to gain the title of the necrohamster.”
This is the tagline on the back of the box that told me I would be losing an ungodly amount of daylight to this game and potentially a few friends along the way, I can be a little competitive.
Beautifully illustrated by Manchester (UK) artist Kate Mia White, author of the graphic novel ‘A Dark Forest’ and comic ‘Help! My cat is summoning a portal to hell’ the box art and cards within are magical before the game has even begun.
Aim of the game
Earn the most points and become “The Necrohamster” it’s as simple as that!
Scheme and summon weird and wonderful woodland creatures to do your bidding, crush your enemies and earn you points on your journey to the top.
Playability
The Necrohamster is easy to pick up and play with comprehensive rules and set up cards included and players lacking time for long gaming sessions will be happy to hear that a game only lasts around 15 minutes with 8 quick fire rounds.
This charming little card game holds a lot of replayability depending on whatever strategy you choose to win, throw big point cards out carelessly, and you won’t have enough cards to offer in the next round, play an artifact card too early and you could lose it all at the finish line.
It can also be played beautifully between 2-4 players. I’ve played it at a party with friends and around a campfire deep in the woods at night with my other half and had wonderfully different experiences each time. The game scales easily depending on your player count and explains this really easily on the rule cards. Speaking of rule cards, there is a summarised set of rule cards for each player so if you forget how to do something mid round and don’t like to ask, no problem!
Gameplay
Like I said, rounds of the Necrohamster are quick fire!
In short, draw from the deck, pick your chosen creature to summon, reap the rewards
Split into 3 phases;
Phase 1 – The draw phase
Phase 2 – The summoning phase
Phase 3 – The ability phase
The only exception to this being round 1 when the draw phase is skipped
The draw phase is short with each player, starting from the starting player and moving in a clockwise direction drawing 2 cards from the beautiful creature deck.
In the summon phase players choose which creature to summon secretly with all players revealing their creatures together at the end of the round, choose your cards wisely, each creature has a number of cards in top left that you must discard in order to play it, go for the big points too quickly and you’ll soon run out of cards and be forced to sit rounds out.
Lastly comes phase 3, the abilities phase. This is the phase where you reap the rewards of your summons and friendships can be broken.
Abilities can range from drawing extra cards, gaining extra points or attacking other players, there are also special cards called artifact and title cards that you can gain throughout the rounds, Artifact cards can be collected by playing their linked creature and can be stolen by other necrohamsters so be cautious! Title cards offer you additional points to your end total, these can be earned by meeting the requirement on the bottom of each card.
The game comes to a close when any player summons their 8th creature, when this happens play out your phases as normal for the last time and then add up all your points.
The Necrohamster with the most points is declared the greatest in all the lands!
Final thoughts
I love this game! And if you’re anything like me and like charming, quirky and beautifully illustrated games that won’t go on all night I highly recommend this one. The premise is simple and you can take the rounds as quickly or slowly as you feel comfortable.The box isn’t large or bulky and fits nicely in most handbags (or mens pockets).
I also found it to fit a variety of my moods, if I want something chilled out I can play it that way, if I want something to feel more competitive, silly and high stakes I can choose to play it
that way too! With an age recommendation of 7+ this is a game that all of the family can enjoy.
My 1 and only hang up with it was the first time I played it, it did take me a moment to decipher the meaning of some of the cards and how they were supposed to be played. Were they instant use, could I use them again ect. This is only a slight hang up and my second time around everything clicked into place.
There is more good news too! If you try this game out and love it, there is also the ‘Looting Hell’ expansion pack out now for even more woodland weirdness.
Ratings
Artwork 5/5
Complexity ⅖
Replayability ⅘
Player interaction ⅗
Component quality 5/5
You might like
- Beautiful artwork
- Portable
- Plenty of replayability
Might not like
- Short length
- Simplicity of gameplay
About the author
Kellie is a gamer, book lover, and digital artist with a passion for the cute and cosy. When she’s not writing, she can be found sketching, reading or digging into another cute looking indie offering. Her favorite board games usually feature cute critters and lots of laughs.
