Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 1-1.5 hours
Difficulty: 3 (of 10)
The Components
The base HeroCard: Champion game comes with:
- 9 city tiles
- 2 figures
- 110 cards
- 20 tokens
- 1 rule book
Each expansion comes with:
- 1 figure
- 33 cards
City Tiles: The board is made up of 9 cruciform tiles which go together to form a roughly diagonal city. Each tile is printed on cardboard depicting a city, including individual city spaces, buildings, and contacts. The buildings are pretty clear, but some players had to look closely to make out the city spaces.
I actually found the tiles pretty puzzling to put together, because they're not entirely symmetrical. However the benefit is that you can create a more sprawling random city if you want.
Figures: Each player gets their own plastic figure, printed in their own player color, which shows their hero. They're well-detailed and brightly colored.
Cards: The game comes with a variety of cards including: 3 attribute cards and 30 action cards for each hero; 20 power cards (which share many attributes with action cards, but are often better); and 24 plot cards. Each player also gets a pair of reference cards: 1 for the HeroCard system, and 1 specifically for HeroCard: Champion of New Olympia. They're all printed full-color on medium-weight cardstock.
The cards all include cartoon art by Gregor Benedetti which is generally fair, but also very appropriate for the genre. There's a good amount of unique artwork in each deck, though some cards are closeups of details on different cards which some players found annoying (and which I didn't notice in the least).
There's a lot of good utility work on the cards that makes them easier to use. For example each player has attribute cards which limit how many action cards he can play. The three different attribute types are clearly color-coded , with the limits shown to the rights of the attribute cards and the costs to the left of the action cards, so that they can line up when played to the table. The action cards also make great use of icons at the top left of each card which show you the general power of every card in your hand when you fan them.
Some of the power cards match this general methodology, while others have unique abilities; the latter generally keep their text very brief to maintain the core simplicity of the cards.
Finally the plot cards show where things are happening. Again, they're very basic. The back of each shows a location (allowing you to know what you're getting before you draw). The fronts show a combat value, in large text, and a reward value.
Rulebook: A 28-page full-color glossy rulebook. As with the other HeroCard games, the rulebook is a bit awkward because of its arrangement into a quickstart for the HeroCard dueling system (which isn't actually that useful), then a full description of the HeroCard: Champion game, then a full description of the HeroCard dueling system. Another continuing problem with these games is the use of awkward turns like "restricted", "fast", and "exclusive" (and indeed, our players were confused by them again).
We also had some problems with the specific rules for Champion, which required us to go to the online errata twice. Overall, the rules could have used improvement.
On the whole, Hero Card: Champion of New Olympia has average quality components, fair beauty, and good utility. As such I've given it a "3" out of "5"--average (though thematically appropriate).
The Gameplay
The object of HeroCard: Champion of New Olympia is to gain 3 fame medals by completing "plots".
The HeroCard System: HeroCard is a card dueling system that's intended as a general mechanic for board games. TableStar Games currently has four games in production using the system: Galaxy, Champion of New Olympia, Rise of the Shogun, and Cyberspace.
The basic mechanics center on each player playing a "Hero" who is defined by three attribute cards, then playing action cards throughout the game and especially in duels.
Attributes. Each Hero has three attributes: Mind, Body, and X, where X is a system specific attribute. In HeroCard: Champion it's the super-heroic X-Factor. Each attribute has a value. For example the three attributes for the brawler To'a King are: 10 Body, 3 Mind, and 7 X. These act as limits for cards played.
Actions. Actions cards each have a Body, Mind, or X value. When they're played they're placed next to the appropriate attribute. The value of all action cards next to an attribute can never exceed the attribute. It's thus a limit (or if you prefer a resource) for card play.
Cards are either "fast" (play at any time), "restricted" (play only on your turn), or "exclusive" (play only on your turn, and only once per turn). Most have to do with combat, but there are some cards that can have general good effects on you or bad effects on your opponents, and that you can play outside of combat. For example, To'a King has "Punishing Blow!" [3B], which forces an opponent to discard two cards while mentalist Deva has "Precognition" [3M], which lets her draw additional cards.
Dueling. In a duel an attacking player plays a Base Attack card, potentially followed by Attack Mods. Base Attacks are almost always Exclusive, meaning that only one can be played a turn. His opponent will play Base Blocks and Block Mods. Every one of these cards (attack and block) has a value. Some have special powers as well. A duel will go back and forth wth each player playing cards until they're both done. This could be due to card exhaustion or due to resource limitation. Then whoever has the higher value of cards played is the winner of the duel.
Order of Play. The core HeroCard game has a simple order of play: discard and draw; clear up to three cards from your attributes (meaning that you free up those resources for reuse); and take actions (usually combat) or refresh your hand. However, each individual game can slightly change those base actions.
Champion Decks: There are four decks of cards for HeroCard: Champion. To'a King and Deva come with the base game, while Ferrion and Talon are each available as booster sets, either to change up play or to allow for more players.
Here's some notes on each:
Deva. B3/M9/X8. The more "clever" of the core decks, a little low on base attacks and blocks, and thus depends more on careful hand management. In some cases can quickly add hands to deck and clear M cards for extra-special turns.
To'A King. B10/M3/X7. A relatively simple deck with a variety of good numbers. Very good in a fight, but not likely to do anything truly surprising.
Ferrion. B8/M4/X8. A versatile combat deck with an 8 and a 9 both for offense and defense. Also uniquely has a few "restricted" attacks, which means they don't take up your turn's normal combat action. The deck contains absolutely nothing but the combat cards.
Talon. B7/M7/X7. A balanced deck, also made up entirely of combat cards.
Playing Champion: HeroCard: Champion uses the HeroCard duel system as the core of several different super-hero game systems, including meeting informants, completing plots, and (of course) fighting other players.
Setup: The nine tiles are laid out to form a city.Each player chooses a base and puts their base token and Hero there. The contact tiles--which each show a particular player's symbol on them--are shuffled, then each player places 2-4 contacts face down on the board in contact spaces.
Then each player lays out their attributes and take an initial hand of 7 cards. Note that each player has their own deck of cards matching their Hero.
Order of Play: On his turn a player does the following:
- Discard
- Draw
- Clear
- Action
All steps work the same as in the basic HeroCard rules exept that players have a number of specific things which they can do in the action phase.
Discard: The active player discards as many cards as he wants.
Draw: The active player draws up to 3 cards, to a hand max of 7.
Clear: The active player clears up to 3 cards which have been played to his attributes, freeing up resources for him to play new cards.
Actions: On his action phase the active player can move his character from 0-3 spaces. The spaces are weirdly shaped. You can make better time along the roads, and worse when you try and cut through the neighborhoods.
If you want to move through another hero you have to play a single Base Attack and he can choose whether to play a single Base Block. If the mover wins he gets to continue on, else he has to come to a stop. This might lead to a fight. (We think; there was some disagreement among our players upon the timing here.)
(This is one of several places in the game where the HeroCard system is cut down to a limited exchange of cards, which I think is generally to the system's benefit.)
If the player makes it to a contact, to a location depicted on one his plot cards, or to another player more fun stuff can occur.
Contacts. When you arrive on a contact space you flip over the token revealing who the contact belongs to. If it's yours, you immediately take a plot card and discard the contact. (They'll all get refilled when they're all removed from the board.) If it's someone else's contact you have to beat them up to get info.
Again, this is a constrained exchange. The player who owns the contact can choose to protect them with a single Base Block or Special Block. The attacker may then play as many cards, using the standard Base Attack + Mods sequence, to overcome the contact,in order to get that plot card. (Whether the active player has to play an Attack on an undefended contact to beat the base value of "0" was another thing we never entirely agreed upon.)
The plot cards that you receive from contacts each list a location on the back. (You'll get to pick from two piles so you get some choice on where you'll have to go.) They also have a difficulty on the front. They say things like "Robbery" (a "1" at the S&S Bank and Trust) or "Government Coup" (a "3" at the City Hall).
Plots. When you arrive at a plot location you display your plot. You opponent(s) then decides whether to Attack or Block. He then may play Base + Mods cards of that type, while you'll play the converse. He can only play a number of cards up to the value of the plot card (1-3), while you can play as many as your resources allow.
If you win you get from 1-3 power cards, which will dramatically improve your chances of winning future battles. They're mostly one use, but nonetheless you can make good use of them. Powers are things like "Sidekick" (a +6 attack or block mod) and "Phasing" (negate one fast action).
If your plot was difficulty "2" or "3" you also get a fame medal: you need three of those to win.
If you lose you get sent home and the "Crime Wave" track is upped by one. If it reaches 5-7, everyone loses.
Other Players. If you end your turn next to another player you can fight them using the full dueling rules to try and take a fame medal from them.
Ending the Game: A player wins the game if he gets 3 fame medals. Everyone loses if the crime wave track hits 5 (or 6-7 for more players).
Relations to Other Games
HeroCard: Champion of New Olympia is mainly a conflict game with some minor elements of quest management mixed in (though they ultimately come down to conflicts too).
There's a few other games in the superheroic genre, most notably the recent Marvel Heroes, but generally super heroes haven't been touched that much by board games.
It's also a customizable card game very much in the CCG mold. You can change up the attributes of a Hero and you can also mix in other cards to its set. You can even take cards (or Heros) from other HeroCard games. if you want your space aliens and samurai fighting over the fate of the New Olympia, you're welcome to.
The Game Design
HeroCard: Champion of New Olympia ultimately centers around the conflict of the HeroCard dueling system. I think it's a fair system. There's some opportunity for strategic play (mostly centering around using the strengths of your Hero) and some opportunity to decide when to stand and when to fight, but once you get into a duel proper it's often just decided by who has the better cards.
The strong point of the HeroCard system proper is its clever resource management system of attributes and actions, which does add some additional difficulty to core decisions.
However, the success of these HeroCard games ultimately comes down to how well the game that's wrapped around it works.
HeroCard: Champion has some real plusses. I like the super-hero theming, which I think is carried well through the idea of missions and contacts. I also like the various methods by which the normal dueling system is constrained, allowing players to make limited uses of their resources without having to fight a whole duel every time.
On the other hand the game is badly hurt by an unclear rulebook that doesn't properly explain several elements of the game--some of which I noted in my review. In addition though it says that it's for 2-4 players, the 3+ player play seemed poorly thought out. We couldn't figure out how some cards which referred to an "opponent" were supposed to work, particularly in areas where two opponents might be playing cards against you.
Finally, though the everyone-loses mechanic was interesting, I'm not convinced that it fit well with the system. It's too easy for a player who gets behind to purposefully throw the game, making sure that everyone loses. And, though that might be bad sportsmanship, a well-designed game wouldn't allow it.
On whole measuring HeroCard: Champion's good and bad elements, I give it a "3" out of "5" for Substance, with the comment that it'll appeal more to fans of more American game designs.
Conclusion
HeroCard: Champion of New Olympia is a fun romp of an American superhero game with a lot of rough edges. Though it says it's for 2-4 players, it dosen't really live up to play by multiple players at present; a lot of clarification is needed before multiplayer games will work well.
