Review
countering disappearance
Tainted Grail
THe Fall of Avalaon
Heroes have ridden out to save the world and have left you behind. You, a bunch of inexperienced and accursed, damned adepts. When the heroes are not returning, it is your turn to protect the world and avoid its disappearing.
We find ourselves in a dark and dismal version of Avalon, in which Arthur robbed the gods who were dwelling there of their lands and the grail. To stop the land from disappearing again into Wyrdnis, huge magic statues, menhirs, were set up. But the menhirs‘ powers are dwindling and therefore parts of the land disappear. The task for the heroes - you can choose of four, but you can also acquire additional ones - is to avoid this and, if possible, uncover more mysteries.
The game is separated into chapters, but you can all the same, as in a role playing game, stop at any time and “save” the actual game situation. After 15 chapters and a duration of 30 to 40 hours, the campaign will be finished.
If you are familiar with solo role playing games, you will be familiar with the main mechanism of the game. Heroes move and explore new location, assisted by the text in the Book of Discoveries. Those books are always read differently, depending on your decisions and previously uncovered secrets. It can happen, that you can only make progress at a location if the hero achieves certain fame or has been given a task.
Contrary to the previously mentioned solo role playing games those mechanisms play out on a map that is laid out with cards. In addition to the explorations, those cards offer challenging in the guises of conflict and diplomacy. This conflict/combat system is based on decks and absolutely innovative. As in other deck building games, you can replace cards in the course of the game and thus improve the combat and diplomacy decks to be able to master the by all means formidable challenges. Accordingly, Tainted Grail can be first and foremost recommended to players with a leaning to pondering and a lot of patience, because sometimes heroes are out on their own while also engaging in conflicts, which can take some while to resolve and leave the other players idling. The background story comes across as dense, dismal, and mysterious. As you, contrary to legacy games, do not change components permanently, you can always play a second round - the rules of the game even demand a new start when player characters die; you can, however and of course, restart at a previous, saved stage of the game.
Tainted Grail is an elaborate game with an intense flair of role playing games, suitable for board game players who want to gain some experience in role-playing. The level of difficulty also targets experienced players, as, especially at the beginning, a high potential of frustration awaits the heroes, due to time pressure and some hard, heavy encounters. Excellent components, harmonious graphic design and a plot that offers between 30 and 40 hours of playing time, split into 15 chapters - if you get into it, you get your fill!
René Eichinger
Players: 1-4
Age: 12+
Time: 180
Designer: Krzysztof Piskorski, Marcin Świerkot
Artist: Piotr Foksowicz and others, Ralf Berszuck
Price: ca. 130 Euro
Publisher: Awaken Realms / Pegasus Spiele 2020
Web: www.pegasus.de
Genre: Deck building, confrontation, miniatrues
Users: For experts
Special: 1 player
Version: de
Rules: cz de en es fr it kr pl ru
In-game text: yes
Comments:
Elaborate & complex
Intense role-playing flair
Time pressure
Marvelous components
(c) Image Marcio Ferreira, BGG
Compares to:
Deck-building games with role playing elements
Other editions:
Albi (cz), Awaken Realms (en, pl), CrowD Games (re), Edge (fr), Giochi Uniti (it), Maldito (es), Summon Games (kr),
My rating: 7
Dark, sometimes drawn-out, but with an innovative card deck system - a game for specialists
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 2
Strategy (blue): 0
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 2
Interaction (brown): 1
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0