In Carnuta, players act as druids attending an annual ritual where they will be competing to brew the best potions by collecting ingredient cards, purchased using Sun and Moon runes. At the end of the game, the Druid who has collected the best sets of ingredients wins and becomes druid of the year.
It’s time to celebrate!
Each player takes on the role of one of four druids and, using their own board, tracks their progress as they collect and purchase cards taken from two different decks, Day or Night.
On their turn, players take two of four possible actions. They can pick up one of the eight cards that have been revealed, four from each deck. This allows them to hold it in their hand, which is limited to three cards at the end of their turn. Once a card is in their hand, they can choose to purchase it, and it is paid for using runes that are stored on their board. The runes will display either a sun or a moon and are the only two resources players have to manage during the game. The other two actions let players manage which runes they have on their board; they can flip all of their runes over to one side, or take runes of the same type from a communal reserve.
When players purchase ingredient cards, they stack them based on their type; each card will have its own way of earning points at the end of the game. In some cases, they're worth a value shown on the card; other cards reward you for certain pairs or groupings of ingredients.
As the game progresses, players track how many cards they have added to their collection using a slider on their board, which also allows them to unlock bonuses such as additional space to store runes and bonus ingredient tokens.
Once a player reaches 11 cards, everyone gets one final turn before the game ends and scores are calculated. Since the game is limited to 11 cards, games are often very short, and force you to focus on making the most of the opportunities you have rather than slowly building towards an elaborate engine.
This game might just “rune” some friendships
For those who have played card-drafting or set-collection games before, you will no doubt recognise familiar mechanics. But that doesn't stop Carnuta from walking its own path.
Being limited to two resources makes the economy easy to understand and keep track of, likewise, the runes themselves make for a great gameplay experience. They’re fairly solid, and physically flipping them as you spend them adds a tactile element that gives the otherwise straightforward resource system a little more character.
There is a slight learning curve, though. Since there are four different actions available on your turn, it can be easy to get ahead of yourself when you first start playing, particularly when there is a risk another player may buy a card before you have the chance to add it to your own hand.
Once it clicks, however, Carntua becomes a refreshing take on set collection. The scoring criteria paired with a limit of 11 cards in your collection (unless you add more during your final turn) means that you are forced to make important decisions every turn, or risk wasting a turn that could cost you the game. The variety of cards means you could choose to concentrate on one or two ways of scoring big (my wife's approach, scoring 16–20 points from a single category), or you could spread yourself across several smaller opportunities and hope they add up to a greater total at the end, which is my preferred method.
Do you need another set collection game?
As mentioned, if you've played set collection and card drafting games before, there will be plenty here that feel familiar. But by adding a few restrictions and limiting resources, Carnuta creates a fresh approach to drafting and scoring.
It can take a little while to get a feel for what you're actually trying to achieve. My wife and I played three games in very quick succession and, by the second playthrough, understood the mechanics and strategy, and were keen to try it out with a larger group to see how that changes the dynamic.
If you're looking for something fresh to add to a collection of card-drafting games, Carnuta is well worth a look. It is also one that I’m excited to show to more groups because I think it could be overlooked in a category that is already full of great options. And if you've somehow managed to avoid card drafting altogether, I’d say it is a fairly approachable place to start.
