WizKids Tournament at Camelot

Tournament at Camelot is a three to six player trick-taking game (two player variant available). Players are attempting to injure one another until one player loses all their health, and the healthiest player is the winner of the jousting tournament.Setup for a four player game requires the distribution of a Protagonist and companion card to each player. The Protagonist card is placed on top of the companion card with that cards requirements shown at the bottom. Players will then receive Health cards, and they will place their starting health at 400 with a health token. The Godsend deck will be shuffled and placed to the side until used. Finally, the weapons deck (80 cards) will be shuffled and twelve cards will be dealt to each player.The player to the left of the dealer always begins the Tourney Round. A Tourney Round lasts for twelve turns as players will have a "melee" with each weapons card they have in hand, 12 cards.Tourney Round:Melee- the player playing the first card will choose a suit to play (Swords, Arrows, Sorcery, & Deception). The cards are numbered 1-15 in each type, and some have a blood symbol on the corners to denote a poison weapon. Whatever suit is on the first card played, the next player to the left must follow with the same suit. If they are unable to, they are allowed to play an Alchemy card. There are 15 Alchemy cards numbered 1-15, and they become the suit of the card it is following. A player may also start a melee with an Alchemy card if they have no other suits in their hand. Another option for not having a suit is playing a Sorcerer card (5 cards). These cards will either be Merlin or the Sorcerer's apprentice card which act as wild cards, and they can be assigned any number and a specific suit. They come with special injury numbers 25 (Merlin) and 5 (Sorcerer's apprentice). If no card can be legally played, players will just play any card in hand into the discard pile. As punishment they will receive an automatic 5 injury.Feint- Before figuring out who lost the melee, all cards that share the same number are now flipped face down. These cards will not be able to win the Melee. The cards flipped will still be taken as injuries by the losing player.Melee Loser- Players will look at cards, or those that remain face up, and the player who played the lowest value weapon card loses the Melee. The player that lost will take the melee cards played, face up or down, as injury cards, and will place these cards in their own personal "weapon hit pile." If all cards were flipped face down, then no one is awarded the loss. These cards will be placed to the side and will be added to the next set of injury cards. The player that lost will start a new Melee.This will continue until all twelve cards in the players' hands are played.End of Tourney Round:Players will look through their "weapon hit pile" to determine how many injuries they received. A standard weapons card inflicts 5 injury points, Poisoned weapons card (blood at the corners) 10 injury points, Merlin 25 injury points, and 5 injury points for Sorcerer's apprentice. Players will move their health token based on their injury points on their Health card.Being injured may activate a player's companion card by reaching its "Threshold of use". Also, the most injured player will begin as dealer in the next Tourney Round.Godsend phase:Players will receive an additional special ability from the Godsend deck for being the most injured. The first round will only have 1 player, second 2 etc. The healthiest player never receives a Godsend card. Two cards are revealed from the deck, and the most injured player may choose one of them. They may also take one from the top of the deck. When one is taken from the revealed cards, another one is revealed to be chosen by any other player (depending on the round). Anyone 100 or 200 health points behind the healthiest player will receive an additional Godsend card. When players are done, the remaining Godsend cards will be discarded.The game ends as soon as one player's health reaches zero, and the healthiest player wins the game.Tournament at Camelot is a good trick-taking game that is easy to teach when it comes to how cards will be played. What complicates the game is the special abilities players receive from their protagonist and companion card. This complication is increased exponentially with the inclusion of Godsend cards. The abilities people are able to obtain are not intuitive and will lead to a lot of "so how does this power work?" The game is quick with only these issues slowing it down when later rounds start. Adding to this is explaining how companion cards are activated when a player loses enough health to reach the "threshold use". Again, the game is fun when just the cards are involved and some of the less complicated abilities. Highly recommend not using protagonists the first time playing as some really break the game, or requires a player to understand why they are doing certain actions. These issues though can be learned and understood with a few plays, or the teacher of the game can really understand how the cards work. The one thing that feels broken though is the health card. Starting with 400 health can make a game overstay its welcome, especially true with a player count above four. It is also lengthened because of Godsend cards. This is a nice trick-taking card game with clever abilities and interesting idea of receiving injuries for not playing the highest card. Some people may be willing to get use to all the abilities, or they can go for other easier trick-taking games.Teaching the game:As mentioned, avoid using some protagonists when playing for the first time. Easiest ones are Arthur, Holy Knights, Tristan, and Sir Gawain. Make it clear to the players that playing the same number card will cause those cards to flip. This is important for playing alchemist, Merlin, and Sorcerer's apprentice cards. Also, Alchemist cards cannot be played unless a player does not have the suit that was played, or has any other suits to start a melee.

I have played three times and enjoyed it every time.Good- If you are a King Arthur nut - like me - then you will love the theme of the game.- Nice twist to the trick taking genre of games. If you are an experienced Spades/Hearts player you will do well in the game.- Each character has their individualized powers adding a nice asynchronous element to the game. Some of the powers are very powerful, in my experience, they are well balanced. For example, Mordred can play a certain suit to avoid taking damage, which seems powerful, but is dependent on him having the correct cards in his hand, balancing the power out.- There is another fun twist in the game is that like numbers cancel each other out. This adds an interesting strategy where you can completely change who takes the trick on the fly and this tends to spread the damage around.- There is a powerful 'catchup' mechanic that means it isn't always good to be in the lead. More wounded characters gain new powers and Godsend bonus cards that can wildly change the game. The first time I played I was WAY ahead and ended up losing because I became the target. Some may not like that, I personally dislike games where early leaders control the game.Not so good- Be sure to read ALL of the rules before you play, this game has a lot of subtle rules that are easy to miss. It took three playings and reading the FAQ before I was confident we were playing correctly. It isn't a hard game, but remembering all of the "when this happens than that happens" sorts of rules can be difficult. One good example is that Godsend cards (bonus cards those falling behind gain) expire at the end of the current hand, i.e. use it or lose it. It is an easy rule to miss in the rules. And, likewise, there is sometimes some interpretation on how the rules work, the FAQ on the game is very long.- One of the hardest parts of the game is remembering to use your character's power. It is not unusual for players completely forget. And, some of the powers are open to interpretation and conflict. For example, I might have a power that doubles your damage, but you have one that negates all my damage... I can see people arguing about the 'order' those things happen.- I can see the game getting long. Each hand is 12 tricks and it usually takes 4-5 hands for someone to die (ending the game). Expect to take an hour at least, especially with rules teaching.- Finally, a small issue. The cards are pretty, but are larger than a standard card. And, it is a deck of almost 90 cards. The combination of large cards and a large number of cards makes shuffling and dealing a little harder than normal. I wish they had used a standard sized deck.

This is one of those gems of a game that at first appears too simplistic to be substantive for seasoned gamers. Don't be fooled. Yes, it is rather easy to learn and it is based on a very old concept (tricks), but there is a catch, you want to gather the LEAST number of tricks, as each card in a trick reduces your health.Basics: There are battle cards of four suits with numbers from 1-15. You have to play the suit that is lead (unless you don't have that suit then there are other options) and the player with the lowest numbered suit collects the pile. At the end of a tournament round each player subtracts (in most cases) either 5 or 10 points on their health card for each battle card they acquired in that round. You keep playing tournament rounds until a player reaches 0 on their health card. At that point, the player with the highest remaining health wins the game.Strategy: There is a unique character system in which you choose one of the characters from the Camelot story and place it in front of you. You then get to use that characters special abilities throughout the game. The people with the lowest health at the end of a round get to draw "God Send" cards, which grant numerous abilities that can be used in the next round of play like heal or passing off damage to other players, etc.There are also "Merlin" and "Apprentice" cards mixed within the battle cards that do more damage and can be used as any number suit.So the concept is pretty simple but it is a fun new take on the traditional trick gathering game. Plus the character and God Send cards greatly increase the strategic element of the game. I really enjoy this game and everyone I have taught it to has enjoyed it as well.

Tournament at Camelot is a neat trick-taking game with a great theme!Tournament is a your typical trick game where a lead player will play a 'suit' and other players must follow or match the suit, or lose. The players are knights who are are fighting each other in a series of 12 round melees The last player standing wins!. In Tournament, if you lose the trick (by playing the lowest suited card) you take all the cards played that round and they count as negative hit points.But Camelot adds a tone of theme! Players are now major figures in the Arthurian legends with special powers, and there's a catch up mechanic in the form of an a 'godsend' deck that gives players even more (temporary) powers! There are also 'wild' cards in the form of alchemy and Merlin cards! There's also a ton of player interaction and ways to screw over your opponents! It's great! This is a MEAN game! The artwork is done in a medieval style that I really love, but others may not.The only flaw (hence the loss of a star) is that the game can go overly long and overstay it's welcome.

The components for this game are very good, with great historic artwork.The only negative point being that because the cellophane wrapped around the card decks is wrapped so tightly, the cards themselves come out slightly bent over - which takes a few reverse bends and shuffles to rectify.However, small point, and unfortunately one that is quite common amongst card game components these days.Good game, though. Recommended.