Players: 2-4
Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: 2-4 (of 10)
The Components
Anathema comes in a small, double card box containing 52 cards and one rulebook.
The Cards: These are regular sized cards, printed on medium weight, glossy cardstock. There are four suits: spells, witches, villages, and familiars, each marked by an icon in the corner (personally, I would have preferred a bit more differentiation between the suits, say with different colored backgrounds). There are 13 cards in each suit, numbered 1-13, also labeled in the top, left corner.
The majority of the face of each card is taken up by original artwork by Drew Tucker. The artwork runs the gamut from realistic to muddled, from intriguing to grotesque. Overall, the artwork is evocative and the type of thing that makes me want to play this game on Halloween. Some of the art is repeated, but I'd guess there are between 25-30 pieces of original art on the 52 cards. A title, related to the card, appears at the bottom of the artwork (e.g., the 8 of Witches is "Witch Coven" while the 12 of familiars is "Owl").
A small box at the bottom of each card features text. Most of it is just color: appropriate quotes from Salem Witch Trial primary sources. Most cards also have a special power which is listed or else is worth 1 or 2 victory points, in which case a "1" or "2" is printed extremely large in the box so that you won't miss it.
Overall, the cards are nicely done: appropriate to the thematic genre and easy to use.
The Rules: The rules are printed in black and white on glossy paper. They're 13 pages long in English, plus another 16 in German. They were fairly easy to follow, mainly thanks to the copious examples. The main part of the rules describe the "basic game"; the "advanced game" follows, containing capture rewards, multiple builds, and partnership play.
The Box: The box is a thin double-card box, meaning that the cards fit into the box in two stacks. I tend to find these boxes a pain, as the cards slide all over, and it's usually hard to get the cards and rules into the box without banging into the flap at the bottom. This double-box has the typical problems. (The use of such boxes is, nonetheless, understandable. It keeps the cards in a compact tuckbox, but also gives them more presence on a store shelf than a single-card tuckbox would.) The cardstock on the box is also a little thinner than I'd like; it's pretty standard for a tuckbox, but I think that double-card tuckboxes need a little more weight to stand up.
Overall, mainly based on the quality, layout, and artwork on the cards, Anathema earns an above-average "4" out of "5" for Style (slightly heavier cardstock on the cards, full color rules, and/or a sturdier box might have won me over to a full "5" rating, though I don't have actual complaints with any of the items as they stand).
To emphasize: these cards are pretty.
The Game Play
As with most "card fishing" games, the goal of Anathema is to capture cards from a face-up pool in the middle of the table, using cards from your hand.
Setup: The game begins with each player being dealt four cards, and four cards being placed face-up in the middle of the table.
Order of Play: Beginning with the first play, each player may take one of the following three actions each round:
- Capture; or
- Build; or
- Trail
Capture. Play a card from your hand to capture one or more cards on the table. You can capture all cards which total the value of the card being played. Thus, if you played a "10" you could capture another "10" or a "3" and a "7" or even a "10", a "3", and a"7". You place the captured cards (and the card you played) face-down next to you for later scoring.
if you ever capture every face-up card on the table, this is called a "sweep". You instead place the sweeping card face-up in your capture pile for later bonus scoring.
Build. Alternatively, you may choose to build. This means that you take a card from your hand and group it with one or more cards or the table to produce a new sum. For example, you could take a "4" from your hand and group it with a "5" on the table, to produce a build of "9". Or, you could take a "4" from your hand and group it with a "2" and a "3" on the table to produce a build of "9". (Technically, this is called a "single build".)
You must have a card in your hand which could be used to capture the build you make (in both of my examples, a "9").
You can build on other players builds, if you like, doubtless causing them annoyance and consternation.
Trail. If you can't capture or build, you must trail. You take one of your cards and place it face-up in the middle of the table. (You may also choose to trail, if you think you'll be able to capture the card on a future turn.)
Ending a Hand. Each turn a player will play one of his 4 cards. When all players have played all of their cards, each player is dealt 4 more cards. No additional cards are placed face-up, though there will almost always be a few out from forced trails.
Ending a Round. When he entire deck is expended, each player then goes through his capture pile and scores. Scores are as follows:
Player with most cards: 3 points
Player with most familiars: 1 point
Each sweep: 1 point
Certain marked cards: 1 or 2 points
Ending the Game: The game ends at the end of a round where one or more players exceed 21 points. The player with the most points is the winner.
Advanced Rules: There are a few advanced rules which may be played: capture rewards, multiple builds, and partnership play.
Capture Rewards. The majority of the cards in the spell, witch, and village suits list a capture reward. If you take the matching card of a specific suit you get to take a specific action.
Vllages must capture the matching witch and allow you to "peek" (look at a player's hand).
Witches must capture the matching spell and allow you to "steal" (take a random card from a player's capture pile, sweep markers excluded).
Spells must capture the matching village and allow you to "swap" (take a face-up card and replace it with a card from your hand).
(What must capture what is very cleraly noted on each card.)
Multiple Builds. If playing with advanced rules, you can do this second type of build where the build's total is equal to a fraction of the total, rather than its sum. For example, if you added a "5" from your hand to a "5" on the table you could call it a multiple build of "5" rather than a single build of "10". Clearly, the build is then captured with a "5", not a "10". I personally found this excessively confusing, especially without a good way to mark them, but can see that it could add strategy.
Partnership Play. Simply, in a four-player game, you have a partner. Theoretically there's some room for interesting play with making builds for each other and using the "peek" action to look at each other's hands, but without a more regular signalling system, it's limited.
Relationships to Other Game
As already mentioned, Anathema is a "card fishing" game. This is a genre of card games that's pretty rare in English-speaking countries. Casino is the only one that's received any widespread play (primarily in the 19th century). Various other fishing games are found throughout the world, especially in Italy, China, and Spain.
Anathema, including the advanced rules for multiple builds and partnership play, is nearly identical in play to the "Royal Casino" variant of Casino (wherein face cards are numbered 11-13). The addition of special capture rules for three of the suits, along with some modifying of exactly which cards are worth bonus points, are the only notable changes.
The Game Design
Anathema is generally a solidly designed card game. The basic game is easy to play and fast, but there's also genuine strategy in figuring out what to trail, what to play for capture, and what to build--based on your own hand and your assessments of other players'. There is a high random factor created by the fact that you only get to see four cards at a time, but it doesn't undercut the underlying strategy too badly.
The Advanced Rules each further the strategy present in the basic game. The idea of multiple builds, though confusing, simply gives you that many more potential actions each turn. The matching captures come up pretty rarely, but the results again add to the strategy of the game. In particular, by Peeking you can better figure out what to play and by Swapping you can create real differences in your ability to capture cards.
Overall, Anathema's balance of strategy with ease of play is sufficiently high that I've rated its Substance above average: "4" out of "5".
Conclusion
Anathema is a solid new incarnation of Casino, a card game (and a card genre) that not too well known nowadays. The high-quality Drew Tucker artwork makes the cards attractive and evocative, and generally sells the game, especially based on the low price point. If you like card games, this is worth picking up for some variety.
