Overall Mage Knight design discussion

I've played the game enough now, I feel competent in discussing what's really going on.

Mage Knight is a light deck-building game. You'll add cards to your deck, but not every turn. Getting rid of cards in your deck is very rare - you'll add more luck to your deck with more powerful cards. (Mostly an innate balancing factor, you are more powerful, but at the cost of your deck tipping to one side or the other.)

Adding more cards is kind of like winning - you'll get more points for them. You'll also be gambling on big turns more often. If things come together, it will be AMAZING. If it doesn't come together, you'll be stuck imagining what could have been, and hope for it next game.


Sadly, you'll generally need a big turn to take on multiple monsters at a site, or even just a Draconum. What does it tell you when you're an experienced adventurer, but you still choke on turns? Tough love.

Allies are a guaranteed use, once per round. It means you don't need to draw them, or take up precious hand-size. They're even victory points. The silver units are roughly on par with a basic card from your deck...is it worth spending a couple of turns to get them? Maybe not.

Realistically, you'll probably lose a turn or two every round due to a bad hand. Don't have any move? Feel like pitching a hand of combat cards to move one space? Maybe you drew your influence cards after you left civilized areas. Honestly, the move actions are probably the most painful to appreciate. Much like the movement dice in Runebound, it can end your turn immediately.

I think there's a key element of spectatorship in most games. In a game like Carcassonne, another player is placing a tile, there's two elements of interest for you - what you could do with that tile if you had it, and maybe cheering them on for how it can help them. In Mage Knight, there's none of that. Maybe you can offer some critiques on how they can be more efficient, but you won't have knowledge of their entire hand. It's possible you can talk about their options on where to go next. In Vlaada's Through the Ages, it was sometimes entertaining to watch opponent's actions - what are they really valuing? What motives do they have for doing X as opposed to Y?

Overall, the game is pretty solid. The movement issues are mostly okay - it added some design options for extra abilities/spells/advanced actions. I'm frequently sad on other player's turns...nothing to really spectate, and their turn can last 5 minutes or so if they are optimizing.  (And if they are optimizing, they might need silence at the table.)