Valeria: Card Kingdoms Review

Monster slaying, city building goodness.

Valeria Card Kingdoms has players competing against each other to add new citizens to their cities and to slay monsters that are terrorizing the region. This is done by rolling dice and activating cards (think Machi Koro). You can activate any dice that are rolled even when you add them together. If you roll doubles, they activate twice so if they're stacked then it can create some super powerful combinations. Other players also get a chance to capitalize on your rolls. Each card has a side for what you gain and what others will gain assuming they have that card. You'll then get to complete 2 actions to either add more cards, fight monsters, purchase a domain, or gather a resource. Then you pass the dice. The game will end when one of three end game conditions are met. The player with the most points wins.

The Good: The art. Man, the art is fantastic. Anyone familiar with the North Sea games will immediately recognize The Mico's art style. I really liked the gameplay loop as well. Roll and collect games aren't always something that I've really enjoyed. Maybe it's the additional levels of violence with this that I liked so much. The game recommends a set of cards for the first game but after that you can mix and match as you please. There are a lot of different sets of cards you can use so the games will never be the same.

The Okay: With any game like this, I feel like you'll hit a certain point where money is no longer an issue. Usually right around the halfway point or sooner I'll have more money than I know what to do with. Good problems? I would have liked to see a tighter economy.

The Not So Good: I'm glad that there was a solo game implemented but when I played solo, it definitely dragged a lot more than I was expecting. A turn goes quickly but it still took me a long time to play through without that player interaction. The general randomness of dice rolls will turn some players off to this game as well.

Final Thoughts: Overall, Valeria Card Kingdoms was a really solid game. I would much prefer this to Machi Koro if given the choice. I love the variability and there's even more that can be added in with expansion content. It's not a perfect game by any means but it's a lot of fun to pull out and spend an hour with.

Thanks to Daily Magic Games for sending me a copy to review.