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“Merry meet, fellow Witches! I’m glad that so many of you have answered my call. Hear my words…”. Too much as a review intro? Probably. But a good one for Septima!
In the 1-4 player game Septima, you are the leader of a small witch coven, competing against up to three other covens to be chosen as the next Septima of Noctenburg- the High Witch of the town, grand leader of the covens. You can collect resources, brew potions, attempt to influence witch trials, learn and cast spells, and heal citizens, but be wary of how much suspicion you’re raising! The more suspicious you are, the easier it will be for witch hunters to find you. The coven who has earned the most wisdom at the end of the game wins, with their leader becoming the new Septima!
Gameplay
The gameplay in Septima is divided into four seasons, each of which is five lunar phases. Each of those lunar phases effectively corresponds to one turn for all players. On your turn, you will select one from the cards showing which actions you have available to you from a defined set of nine which range from simply moving to healing a patient or putting your loyal citizens in the jury for a trial.
Once each player has selected their action, all players simultaneously reveal their action choice. If you match with another player or the Septima (whose actions are rotated throughout the season), you get the bonus listed on the action card! Matching does, however, raise your suspicion level as it’s more conspicuous if more witches are doing the same thing. Following this, the players carry out their actions one at a time.
After all player actions are completed, the hunters come out! If you raised suspicion during your turn, they will search the area around their huts for you, and the more suspicious you have been, the further they can move towards you. If they catch you, one of the witches from your coven is sent to the second trial chamber, to await judgement on their fate. Once this has been resolved, the lunar phase ends and a new one starts. As the lunar phases and seasons progress, different resources will cycle through availability, patients will come and go as they’re healed, and different witches will be judged in the chambers. Trials are resolved at the end of each season, and give you the chance to increase the size of your coven (or rebuild if the hunters reduced it!). Angry citizens from the town may also join the trial, so you need enough loyal ones to acquit the witch, who will then join a coven. Witches are generally useful to have, as each gives different powers and benefits which will aid you in gameplay. Throughout the game, you will also be working towards a set of personal goals in your Book of Divinations, dealt to you at the beginning of the game. These will be kept secret from other players, and are definitely something to aim for as the game progresses. This is one mechanism that introduces a strong level of replayability to the game; depending on your secret goals, your strategy will vary on different plays. You also gain points (Wisdom) at the end of the game for how many patients from each ailment category you have healed, how many loyal citizens you have in the crowd/chambers, and remaining resources and potions. There are various ways to earn points throughout the game too, which are of course counted towards your total.
The player with the highest amount of Wisdom at the end is the choice for the next Septima of Noctenburg!
Action Selection - a simple but great addition to the mechanics
The action selection giving both a bonus and raised suspicion is a really nice extra mechanism. It feels very thematic (since multiple witches doing the same thing would definitely be more suspicious than spreading them around!) and adds a layer of player interaction that I definitely enjoy. A lot of the time in games I find myself largely ignoring what other players are doing, but the constant reminders during action selection in Septima mean I’m more involved, which increases immersion in the game as a whole. I also like that it’s not a conflict type of player interaction; while this is great in some games, in something like Septima where there’s a good amount of complexity and a relatively tight turn limit for what you want to do I prefer this over another player being able to totally mess up your turn!
I’m less sure how well it fits into the theme that only matching action with the Septima raises your suspicion more than matching with both her and other players, but maybe it means there’s enough people doing the same thing to keep an eye out for suspicious townsfolk or hunters? Either way, the risk/reward balance and the additional interaction really makes it a strong mechanism for me.
Full Game - if it weren’t already enough!
The game as described above is the basic game, which is still plenty to get your head around for the first couple of playthroughs! Early 3-4 player games can be expected to take about two hours, plus set-up and teach, but would definitely speed up with practice. The turns themselves are pretty simple once you get used to the turn structure, but there are a lot of things to consider to optimise your turns. I know I always feel like there’s more I want to get done than I could possibly have time for!
Once you feel like your group has got to grips with the basic game, you can add in spells, rituals and different buildings in the town which offer their own actions and benefits. A Ritual Track follows each coven’s mastery of the different elements (Earth, Air and Fire- not sure what happened to Water!). Choosing how you want to progress on the Ritual Track is another major element of strategy. When you advance onto a ribbon on the track, you gain a spell! To use a spell you must cast it, exhausting it. There are ways of readying your spell to use again though, don’t worry! Spell effects include things such as healing a patient, avoiding a hunter for a round, or increasing your citizens’ influence in a witch trial.
There is also a solo mode where the Black Widow and her trio of spider servants are trying to beat you to become the new Septima through evil means, but I have yet to try this out so will leave that for you to discover.
Theme
I really love the theme of Septima. There’s something quite intriguing about trying to carry
out these activities in a secret portion of society, without raising suspicion from outsiders. It also makes you think about the historical witch trials- even doing good for the town by healing people can raise suspicion about you, which feels very accurate to the uncompromising view of witches (or unusually good healers!) as evil beings.
All of the actions and mechanisms fit well into the theme. Sneaking your own people into a witch trial with the witch joining the coven with the most influence over their innocent result does give a furtive ‘rigging the jury’ feeling, and you do become more stressed as you raise suspicion and hunters are more likely to catch you. It does have a thematic way to determine the first player which I always appreciate too! The ‘basic’ game does feel like it’s missing a major element of witchcraft with the spells not being included, though they definitely do increase the complexity so it’s an understandable method of making the game more accessible for early plays.
Components
Septima is available as two different editions- retail and deluxe (kickstarter). As is typical for Mindclash games though, either way you’re getting a pretty good set of components!
Retail:
28 silkscreen printed wooden
40 wooden meeples
110+ cards
230+ cardboard tokens
32 character tiles
16 plastic crystals
4 plastic markers
2 unique dice
7 boards
1 cloth bag
Deluxe:
120+ silkscreen printed wooden components
40 silkscreen printed wooden meeples
130+ cards
140+ cardboard tokens
32 character tiles
16 plastic crystals
4 plastic markers
2 unique dice
7 boards
1 printed cloth bag
7 Gametrayz storage trays
Shapeshifters & Omens Expansion
They all feel durable and good quality, as well as being functional for gameplay. While I initially thought the oversized action/divination cards may be annoying, they ended up feeling suitably sized for the importance of declaring your action for the turn. It all seems well thought out and produced, and is a case of the components adding to the game rather than just a neutral presence to enable play.
The player boards do have a slightly irritating lift of one end from where they fold for storage, but I haven’t had issues with components sliding off. Maybe dual layering for these would have been beneficial to save the occasional knock displacing the tokens. Another minor ‘wishlist’ component upgrade for me would be the resources; while the printed wooden tokens are nice, they’re lacking that tactile difference between resources of something like Everdell.
The only real gripe I have with the components is that while the Gametrayz system is great for storage, and really satisfying (I was unreasonably happy when I first punched the potion bottles out and realised how well they fit!), it does get tricky to actually get the potions out of the tray once the top few have gone.
If I hadn’t got this game through the kickstarter campaign, I probably would still go for the deluxe edition. The main thing that swings it for me is the upgrade to printed wooden resources, which are easier to tell apart at a distance than the circular cardboard tokens. Additionally, I do think the price difference is fair for the level of upgrades you’re getting, especially when you consider the price of buying a specific Gametrayz storage system separately.
Aesthetics
The art style and overall aesthetics of Septima really tie in with the theme. On the main board, the darker edge woods have the ominous feel of the hunters’ domain, while the town is brightly lit and relatively safe. The witch tiles all have unique art that gives each witch a sense of personality, and all the components look like they belong with the game. Honestly don’t have much more to say on the aesthetics- it’s all good quality and feels thematic, what more can I ask for?
Although I haven’t tested this, Mindclash may however have fallen short of making Septima fully colour-blind accessible. The meeples are the same shape for angry citizens and loyal citizens, with only colour being the differentiating factor. While most groups are likely to have at least one non colour-blind player, this could be an issue for some people when trying the solo mode.
Replayability
To me, Septima feels like it has a high level of replayability. The variety in the witches dealt and available means different strategies become more viable depending on who’s in your coven, and there are nine different Books of Divination so your personal goals will vary a decent amount too. Once you add in the buildings, spells and ritual track, replayability further increases. There are six different buildings and only two will be available in any given game, so the combination of these can add different options for repeat plays. There can also be variation in the spells of each type available, again further adding to variety!
The main limitation for replaying for me personally is the length, complexity and 4 player maximum, which are factors that don’t always work for my group. However, Septima has become one of the games I’m most eager to play, and I can see myself nagging my game group to get it to the table! The gameplay really implements the theme well, and after a game I find myself thinking what I could change to my strategy for next time.
Final Thoughts
Overall I really enjoy both the gameplay and theme of Septima, and it’s definitely one that I’ll keep coming back to. I’m keen to try the solo mode too! The components are all high quality and the small irritations are really just me nitpicking based on the high standard of the rest. It’s definitely on the higher end of complexity, but the base game especially is still fairly accessible and a lot of the ‘upkeep’ type work can be done by one or two players who are more familiar, giving new players the chance to just focus on their turns and strategy. Septima has become one of my favourite games; the complexity and length are just right for me, and the theme is very appealing and well implemented. If you have any interest in the theme or a fairly complex action-selection game with some well designed twists, definitely give Septima a try!
