Black Rose Wars

Black Rose Wars arrived on the table having scored from the dressing room for me: as a big Mage Wars fan, I had been looking forward to it enormously. Thankfully, the first impression is excellent. It is a very attractive production, with respectable miniatures and plenty of material in the box — a hearty, chunky package in the best sense. It is one of those games that looks like it came to spread across the table and make its presence felt.

There is room for strategy in the game, but also for the necessary amount of rough-and-ready nastiness. What it left me with was a sense of carefully considered gameplay, with a good balance between the choices you make and the conflicts that emerge.

Players take part in a more direct, confrontational experience, where interaction is not merely decorative: the tension and the attacks between you are part of the point. That gives it much more of the feel of Wiz-Wars than Mage Wars, and that is important to know before sitting down at the table.

So no, I would not place it next to Mage Wars as a comparable game, however much my initial anticipation began precisely there. That does not mean it is a bad game at all — quite the opposite. It is simply a different thing, with a strong table presence, balance, strategy, and enough nastiness for the group to have a good time. A detailed review will follow.