Maybe having the word hero/heroes in your game title is a plus at Dicejunkies game night.  Our latest game night, brought us Hero Realms, a deck-building fantasy-themed card game by Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle and published by White Wizard Games. The price of $19.95 is great for what this game brings to your game night.

One of the best parts of Hero Realms is it is quick to learn to play and only takes about 30 minutes to finish a game. Released in 2016, the game is for 2-to-4 players and for ages 12-plus but to really enjoy the game, having more than two players would be recommended by me.

Each player begins the game with the same 10 cards that includes gold and ruby for buying things and two weapons for attacking other players. The first player begins by drawing three of their 10 cards, second draws four cards and five for any other players.

Whoever goes first is randomly decided in a choosing of the players. At the start, the player chosen to go first plays the cards in their hand to buy from the market and fire gems or attack another player. Any cards used or not used then goes into the discard pile for that player and play continues around the table.

Players can buy a variety of useful cards at the market, including cards for attack, protection, recover health, adding gold and more. The strategy is to get the best cards you can to help you defeat the other players at the table but the randomness of shuffling your deck means you can and will end up with a weak hand at some point during the game. The player left standing with health after all the other players have been defeated wins the game.

The packaging is minimal with a small box to put all the game components. This game won’t take up a lot of room to store. The cards are durable and well made and fit the theme of the game. The artwork by Randy Delven, Vito Gesualdi and Antonis Papantoniou is solid and well done but not the best we’ve seen on a game night.

Once you pick up the game, which shouldn’t take long, the pace of play is quick and enjoyable. You don’t have to wait long for your turn to come around again even in a four player game. There is plenty of player interaction with attacks that leads to some lively conversation at the table. Strategy is key to winning this game as with all deck-building games but it isn’t overly complicated to take the fun out of the game.

Set up for the game doesn’t take much time since all the players begin with the same 10 cards. Then just separating the market cards and fire gem cards. The market cards include action cards and champions that are used for defense and attack or other useful actions. That doesn’t make the game too complex once you pick up what each card in your hand is able to accomplish.  Another plus is the rules are simple and it doesn’t take long to read the rulebook to set up the game or play. That is a plus for a novice game player like myself and should allow experienced players to pick up the game even quicker.

Another plus for this game is it can be played several ways. We played a free-for-all game with each player out for themselves. But you can play as a team or a couple of other game modes that are explained in the rulebook. That adds to the value of this game since you don’t have to play the same way each time you come to the table. There is an expansion available that adds a new way to play the game.

Overall, this is a great game and the price is a plus in my mind. You should enjoy it for your game night with friends and want to break it out again and again. While it isn’t as good as Custom Heroes it has some of the same properties and ranks just below Custom Heroes in my opinion.

If you want a game that doesn’t cost a lot but will give you a good deal of replay value, then Hero Realms is a game you should add to your list. This game should be in your collection if you are a novice or experienced table-top gamer.

Don’t just take my review, check out the review by Tim and Taylor above from YouTube. And while you are there, subscribe to Dicejunkies and get more great videos like this one. Join us each Thursday night at 6:30 CST as we play a new game live on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/dicejunkies

See you next week with an all new game review.

YouTube –https://www.youtube.com/dicejunkies

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/dicejunkies

Twitch – https://www.twitch.tv/dicejunkies

Website – http://www.dicejunkies.com

Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/dicejunkies

Twitter – @DicejunkiesLLC

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/dicejunkies/