Disclaimer: I purchased the game myself, and the opinions expressed in the review are completely my own.
Overview: (From BGG)
Using worker placement and simultaneous action selection mechanisms, the Illusionists and their teams of helpers — the Engineer, the Assistant, the Manager, and a handful of Apprentices – obtain blueprints and components for increasingly complex magic tricks, expand the team and set up performances by visiting the Downtown, Dark Alley, Market Row and Theater locations on the main game board depicting a late 19th century cityscape.
The tricks are stored and prepared on the Magician's own Workshop game board, while the performances themselves take place at the Theater in the form of a tile placement mini-game with lots of player interaction. The performances yield Fame points and Coins to their owners based on the tricks they consist of. Fame points have multiple uses, but they also serve as a win condition - After turn 7, when the last Performance card is revealed, the game ends and the illusionist with the most Fame points wins.
The game offers 48 different Tricks to be learned from the Optical, Spiritual, Mechanical and Escape categories, over 90 character abilities, and 40 Special Assignment cards that influence the actions taken at the various game locations. The base game can be expanded with two optional rule modules to add further strategic depth to the game.
The "Dark Alley" expansion included in the base game adds a new location to the game. It also comes with 48 new Special Assignment cards, a new tier of Tricks, and 27 Prophecy tokens that can alter certain game rules turn by turn, giving the game additional variety.
Rules & Setup:
Set up does take a fair few minutes depending on player count, and whether you play with the included Dark Alley expansion, but it’s not excessively long and there are plenty of games that take longer to set up the general board area.
Player set up includes picking your Magician and the school of magic / tricks you want and then adding stuff to your board based on what you get from those choices.
Each player then gets a set amount of cards, again depending on if you’ve included the Dark Alley or not.
Theme:
Trickerion is a competitive Euro-style strategy game set in a fictional world inspired by the late 19th century urban life and culture, spiced with a pinch of supernatural.
Players take on the roles of rival stage illusionists, each with their own strengths and characteristics. They are striving for fortune and fame in a competition hosted by a legendary magician, looking for a successor worthy of the mighty Trickerion Stone, which is fabled to grant supernatural power to its owner.
Gameplay:
For me, it took me a couple of read throughs of the rules to get the basic grasp of gameplay, and I also watched some excellent ‘how to play’ videos on YouTube to assist in this, as it became much clearer to read the section of the rules whilst listening to that are of the video as there is a lot going on in the game once you start to play, not only for yourself but you need to keep track of who is going to the Theatre to do a ‘Performance’ as tricks you place will also be performed if the active Magician choose that particular performance card, and you may even ‘lose’ tricks you were hoping to perform yourself or by others if the performance card moves round and off the board during this part of the turn clean up phase.
There are a set number of turns to the game, and the winner is the illusionist with the most Fame points after the last turn is completed.
The Dark Alley ‘expansion’ adds a new location for you to go to with your people, and adds Special Assignment cards and Prophecy tokens. It is recommended to play without the Dark Alley for your first game I believe, but seasoned gamers should be able to cope with this as it is just an added space to consider each turn, as all areas of the board have limited spaces for players to go to, so you must choose wisely and carefully as you may miss out on an area should you choose to go somewhere else in an earlier turn.
Each player places one of their people pawns onto a space and takes the available action there depending on how many points they have to spend which is worked out by the person who goes to the space and any plus or minus points the space may have assigned to it.
You decide which person is going to do each action by placing the relevant space card under the persons token on your board, i.e. the Magician, Apprentice(s), Assistant, Engineer, Manager, and the all have a set number of action points depending on their level of importance with the Magician being the top dog.
Artwork and Components:
The artwork is very thematic to both the time period the game is played in, and the people associated with the world of illusionary entertainment, it’s all very Houdini and Dorian Gray-esque and really does transport you into the setting as you play the game.
As a Sherlock Holmes fan this era really appeals to me, and was one reason I checked out the game in the first place.
All the components in the game are of a very high standard, something synonymous with Mindclash, who are definitely one of my favourite publishers (Anachrony is the number 1 game in my collection), with their attention to detail and value for money coming through once again with Trickerion.
The Good:
As mentioned above, the quality of the game components, the great gameplay and the theme all mean that for me this is a definite stayer in my collection.
The Other:
The only small downside / gripe for me was I had to buy a separate expansion (not overly pricey) to get a solo mode for the game, when it would have been good to have that in the main game box from the outset as with other Mindclash titles.
Final Thoughts:
If like me the time period and / or theme is one that interests or intrigues you then you should definitely check out Trickerion as although it is more involved than some games, once you start to play the actions really do become clear and each action is taking you towards a Theatre performance where you can thrill the crowds and increase your own personal fame.
In conclusion, if you haven’t already come across Trickerion, then you really are ‘missing a trick’.
