The mighty dragon Golianth is on his way to your village lead by some of the most aggressive orcs raiding and destroying everything in their path. As a Guardian of your realm, you and 4 other heroes are charged to defend your home and work together to find the items you need to win along with keeping your villagers safe. Which of you will be the Guardian of the Realm, the leader to keep us all safe? Save the villagers, accumulate the most resources and you will be the Commander!
Skybound Games/Druid City Games and designer James Hudson bring us a new game titled Guardian’s Call that tells that very story. It plays 2-5 players with art by Mr Cuddington and Damien Mammolti. The game plays in 30-45 mins with our experience of play time of approx 45-90 mins.
Guardian’s Call is a bluffing game in the lines of Sheriff of Nottingham or other deduction games of the same style. Each play is a Guardian and must gather different resources and offer to aid other players with them. Each turn the players will decide if the offer is genuine or not. Bluffing another player will help you but if they catch you on a bluff, the other Guardians are the ones to benefit!
Gameplay:
You will set-up a deck and row of Guardian cards forming a Market in the middle of the table along with the Castle Track, stack of Treasure Cards and 3 Quest cards. Each player will get 3 Guardian Cards and a token for each other player to start.
Each turn plays out like so:
1-Fill the Market of Guardian cards back to 5 total
2-Do any or all of these actions:
a. Draw cards from the Guardian deck to a hand size of 6
b. Buy a card from the deck or Market right to your tableau for 3 Coins
c. Remove a curse from the Market for 5 Coins
3-Offer cards to another player
When you offer cards to another player, you will take any number of matching cards from your hand and place them face down in front of you. You will place another player’s character tile face-down to select that player. Those cards will an “Offer” which will be made up of the same amount of one type of card. You can bluff or tell the truth as to what items they are and the other player must determine if you are telling the truth or not. If a player guesses correctly, they keep the cards. If the player guesses incorrectly, the original player keeps the cards. The losing side gains 1 coin in the process.
Each Guardian has a special ability you use on an Offer to gain extra coins for a specific card type that you gain. When you gain cards, you add them to your personal tableau in front of you with 1 stack of cards for each type. Each Guardian card type gives different bonuses in victory points, ability to buy Treasure cards, move Villagers or Curse other players to lose cards.
Approximately 3/4th into the deck you will see the Council card come up. This will signal scoring the Castle Track and any Quests that have the Council on it. Near the end of the deck you will eventually see the War card come up. This will signal game end and give another score of the Castle Track and any Quests that say War on them.
Impressions:
What could be better:
Items. A little variety in the items available would be good. I would love to see some differences in how they score or even ones that could be switched out from game to game. The Treasures definitely seem to be the way to go and ones we kept going after.
What I liked:
Player count. This game is legit with any number of players. Even at two players it worked well which is tough with any type of bluffing game. We had fun playing it back and forth with two players wrestling to get to the top. The group count of up to 5 is great also, because turns can involve anyone you needed to be able to react and pay attention all throughout the game.
Art. You cannot go wrong with Mr. Cuddington. I love their art and the style and warmth of these characters really shines in the design and artwork here. I love the items and how great those cards look on the table among everything else. It has a great table presence when you lay it all out.
Gametrayz. Gotta love a good Gametrayz and this one is simple but it gets the job done. Storage is just right and doesn’t need to be all bells and whistles-it is a good storage unit and I can see this one being kept in the box instead of tossed aside for baggies.
Speed. This game is just right when it comes to the amount of time it takes to play. It doesn’t play too fast and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It is quick and easy to jump into and the rhythm pops as you play so players get engaged into the gameplay rather quickly. I really like how quick player turns move so it doesn’t ever feel stagnant.
Overall:
Guardian’s Call is the newest in a line of titles coming out of Skybound Games/Druid City Games that checks all the boxes us gamers really like. Solid game theme and design? Check. Amazing art? Check. Great Gameplay? Check. Easy to play and understand? Check. Replayability? Check. Guardian’s Call really checks all the boxes for me and the board gamers we have played this with-it has been a hit across the board! Casual and more experienced gamers alike have enjoyed this bluffing and deception battle across the table in our house and I expect it to be the most played bluffing game in our collection very soon. Make sure to grab a copy and try your best to be the Commander of the Guardians!
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