Godsforge: Second Edition

To become an elite spellcaster of your house you must battle for the etherium in Godsforge – a game for one to four players, this a fast paced card duelling game where one will stand to be the champion.

LORE BEHIND THE MAGIC OF GODSFORGE

Godsforge has its pretense about you, a mage fighting for survival over the last remaining etherium. Many of the great houses relied on the etherium to end famine to create a peaceful land.

But as all the houses relied upon this magic, the forges who were once abundant all went cold, until only one site remained; the Godsforge. Every year a mighty champion is chosen from the remaining great houses to battle in ritual combat to control the Godsforge. Or so the lore goes.

Atlas games have an awesome video which delves into Godsforge and gives a peak into the art style of the game itself. This where you – the player – fits in, where you must become more than a mage, but a God.

MAGES STANDBY, THE DUEL BEGINS SHORTLY

Well, as all great duels start, the setting up of the board is important too.

You will aim to gather the veilstones which are the small yellow gems in the centre of the board, where every player will be given a colored life tracker token and 4 matching colored dice.

These dice will be important as they will help you cast your spells and summon your creations, but as every mage will be fighting for they lives, the life tracker around the outside of the board is set depending on the amount of players involved. When playing a four player game,everyone was set to 20 life on the tracker, but in a three player it would be 25, and two player is 30.

Then the fate deck is shuffled and everyone is dealt four cards, the remaining fate deck is placed facedown next to the veilstone supply, but as a reminder, at any point a card is discarded, destroyed or sacrificed a pile is formed face down off the board.

Once this is all done the game really begins…

THE RULES TO RITUAL COMBAT

The phases that each mage must follow are done simultaneously. These are:

DISCARD, DRAW AND UPKEEP TRIGGERS

With the hand of four cards that has been dealt to the players, you are able to discard up to two cards and redraw back up to four. So – I had kept my hand of four cards, which in future turns can depend on any factor, for example, you could have cards with high dice rolls needed which you may not want at the start of the game.

Any upkeep triggers on cards are easy to tell as they have a circle with arrows on them on the bottom of the card, these activate, not on the first turn being played, but will trigger from the second turn onwards, these cards normally will help you generate veilstones which is really helpful later on in the game.

THE FORGING OF SPELLS AND CREATIONS

The dice that each mage has must be rolled for spells to be cast and creations made.

The numbers of the cards must reflect  the dice rolled, but each die can only be used once. With some cards wanting odds or evens and many wanting a combination of two or more dice to create a bigger number needed. The dice have 2 symbols that are different, one looks like a star and is treated as a wild, which can count as any number you choose it to be, and the other which is 6, but with a small v shape in the middle which gives you a veilstone from the main pool in addition to counting as a 6.

Talking about veilstones, these little gems are a great way to shift a dice up or down by one which can massively help, but only as long as you have some going spare.

If you are unlucky and your rolls were not that great, you are also allowed 2 single dice rerolls.

After all rolls are done, you may choose one card to play from your hand and put it facedown with any additional veilstones that need to be paid.

REVEAL TO ALL MAGES AND CAST YOUR SPELLS

All mages must now reveal all facedown cards at the same time, and must play the cards normally by placing the correct die next to the card with the relevant veilstones.

Then, all cards with an eye symbol will trigger simultaneously, but once they have activated that is it, before we get onto the last phase of the round. If you have any unused wilds or sixes then you can collect a veilstone from the main pool. Any dice you have remaining that combine to form a 6 also benefit from this.

But most times this happens if you had a bad roll and you couldn’t change any numbers, or had the right cards in hand, then you are still able to benefit from not casting a spell in the round. This yields you up to four veilstones from the main pool instead, so it might come in handy in future rounds.

ATTACK, ATTACK, DEFEND, DEFEND

Any spells or creations with attack damage trigger simultaneously. It is easy to tell your attack damage from the symbol of a number with a sword around it and your defence, to reduce the damage, by any spells or creations that have a number and a shield symbol.

All attack values are added up by the attacking mage, and then the opposing mage defense will reduce by any spell or creation with a defense values, if they have any. BUT this can be changed if a spell or a creation is empowered by veilstones that either increase the attack value or the defense value.

Each mage must attack to the left but defend from the right, which stops you targeting certain players which cross your eye.

After the damage is done, the round is over, and you start from the beginning all over again.

THERE MUST ALWAYS BE ONE LEFT STANDING (IF POSSIBLE)

Throughout the game you will notice that each mage has a certain amount of life at the start, which is really important, even with 20 life in a four player game it can definitely go very quick.

But in a four player game your competition will lose quickly and that will go in your favour.

Like how I eliminated my brother in the first game, for my trouble I gained three veilstones, which was really important for the rest of the game. All mages – that included me – take seven damage in every subsequent attack phase, which quickly gets the result of one mage standing.

There have been cases that all mages will die at the same time and that’s where you check how far negative the mages life totals are, the mage that is closest to zero will win so even in death you are still champion of the Godsforge, or if you are lucky enough, if two mages or all mages have all tied regardless then all players win – but that is a rare case in the many games I have played.

GOING SOLO

This game also has a one player mode which runs with the same mechanics of the game, but with a more challenging theme to it.

The deck that you and your opponent (the NPC) has is made up of twelve cards from the fate deck and each card must be only be in once.

Now, there are many ways to play this, you could either do what I did and the instructions recommend, which is to draft your deck by taking the top twelve from a shuffled fate deck which was a lot of fun, and building your opponents deck which of course I did randomly. I quickly found out my NPC had a lot of defense which meant they were hard to get through.

You can build a certain theme if you wanted. For example you could make them have more creations that attacked, or the complete opposite if want them to destroy, or manipulate your deck in any way. This is where I saw the challenge side for people going crazy on deck builds.

I overall enjoyed playing this mode and would want to do it again, especially with the idea of building a good theme for myself as well as the opponent.

WHEN THE DUST HAS SETTLED, WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME

Overall Godsforge is a game where 4 mages battle it out for the last forge remaining, flinging down cards, rolling dice and teetering with death – if this sounds like something you might enjoy, then this if the game for you!

Games lasted between twenty to forty minutes even when we were learning, so be assured you should be able to get many games in with your friends.

The mechanics of the game were smooth going as well, once myself and my fellow players knew what we were doing, rounds went really quickly.

And the unique art style of the cards really made them pop, and even the most basic of cards having geometric patterns gave it that futuristic feel.