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It’s the month of magic and mayhem – just in time for us to get Mandragora from Bruno Cathala to the table!
I love a lot of Bruno Cathala games – Five Tribes is always likely to top the list (although never say never!). But sometimes the brain burn that comes with travelling around those sandy markets is too much for my post-work muddled mind to manage. Sometimes I want a quick-playing card game that has the Bruno touch. And Mandragora has appeared as if by magic! So have we been spellbound? Or are we left cursing our cauldrons? Let’s find out!
W Plates
In Mandragora, we are playing apprentice witches looking for ingredients with which to cast spectacular spells. I have created a separate How to Play guide here so I won’t go too far into the set up now. But the game set up is straightforward. Once the rondel has been assembled from the shop tiles and the spell book/ingredient cards shuffled and placed around the circle it’s time to go shopping! Just don’t forget to collect your wild Mandrake ingredient card as you’ll want to start casting as soon as you can!
Spell Collecting
Mandragora is a set collection game at heart. You are travelling from shop to shop trying to pick up ingredients that match in colour to the spell books which are also on offer. There’s no “buying” per se. You don’t have to pay for the cards you take in terms of money or exchanging resources. But you do need to select cards that are going to earn you spell cards and end game points.
Turns are either (1) moving up to 3 spaces around the rondel and taking the cards from the shop on which you land (“Day” shops have face up cards whereas “Night” shops have face down cards); or (2) casting spells.
The cards you collect could be ingredients from 5 different colours, spell books of those colours (plus a special black card), wild white “Mandrake” card, or cursed scrolls. Obviously, you can see the face up cards, but the face down ones are a gamble – they could be just what you’re looking for. Or they could be cursed scrolls that, if you have the most by end game, will be worth -2 points!
To cast a spell, you need a spell book and at least one colour matching ingredient card (or wild Mandrake). When you cast one, you can choose a spell which has up to the value of the number of ingredients in the set. So, for example, if you use 3 green ingredients with your green spell book, you could choose a 1,2, or 3 value spell. And whilst the value is relevant for end game scoring, the powers on them might be more tempting (depending on what stage of the game you are at!).
The game ends when the deck of cards has run out, and each player has taken 3 final turns (or passed – NB: you can’t pass during normal turns). Then it's scoring time. The scores are based on each of your cast spell card value plus the connected spell book value. Whoever holds the cursed scroll marker by end game suffers a -2 penalty. And for each colour of cards (including white Madrakes!) still in your hand at end game, you’ll have a further -1 deducted from your score.
Final Thoughts
Mandragora is a fun, light set collector with some neat quirks. Choosing between cards you can see and the unknown face down stacks adds a sense of risk to your choice. Especially knowing cursed scrolls could be hiding within the Night piles. The values of the spell books create some interesting choices too. Do you go for a zero value purple book but load it up with ingredients so that you can gain the sole 5 value spell card? Do you cast a lower value spell because the immediate/recurring power granted by it could be more valuable during the game than an extra point or two at end-game time? The cursed scroll token is always with the player with the most scrolls. As such, It changes hands during the game, a little like a flaming hot potato. And that can add a pressure to exile/ offload scrolls to other players (2 of the spell card powers on offer).
The movement around the rondel has consequences too. If you skip around too fast, the deck will deplete before you have had a chance to cast any spells. Likewise, going for prized spots every turn could mean furnishing previous shops with great cards and act as an unintended gift to the next players. To be fair, we each mainly focussed on our own collections rather than stealing cards we expected the other to want. But none of us gave up an opportunity to donate a cursed scroll whenever we could! Not so much because the -2 has any real impact on the final scores. But just because it increased the interaction between players. And giving away something nasty is always better than being lumbered with it at end game!
For a 20 minute game, Mandragora packs in its fair share of decision dilemmas! The components are also really nice – the rondel is randomly arranged which is great for replayability. And the illustrations on the cards are colourful and each one has a lovely design. The only thing I really struggled with is the rule book – the wording and the icons are so small that I struggled to see them, particularly the glossary of Spell powers on the final page.
We played 2p and a 3p game back to back and we both thought that the extra player made the game shine brighter. It brought additional changes to the card compositions each round which made for a less predictable decision-space. It can definitely be played and enjoyed at 2p (there is a scaling by way of removing cards which helps to keep decisions tighter), but it felt more challenging at the higher count. There’s also a team variant which we haven’t tried yet but I am looking forward to doing so when we have 4 around out table.
If you like your set collection well produced and with some fun little twists, Mandragora might be a game for you!
