A witch is hiding amongst the innocent townsfolk of the village. It’s up to the witch hunter to discover her true identity because the witch will use any means of trickery to stay hidden. Will the witch be able to perform her ritual in time, or will the hunter be able to uncover the truth before then?

What Is It?

Asymmetric – The game is the hunter versus the witch. Each side has their own unique deck of cards. Both players can interact with the villagers, but they also have their own boards with unique attributes – allies and locations for the hunter, brews and familiars for the witch – as well as other cards which will interact differently with the game. The witch’s goal is to perform a ritual with the true witch, and the hunter’s goal is to eliminate the true witch.

Deduction / Bluffing – The witch is trying to keep the true witch’s identity a secret, which may affect how they interact with the villager cards throughout the game. The hunter is trying to deduce that identity, either by watching what the witch is doing, or by drawing all of the suspect cards.

Who Is It For?

  • 2 Players – Strictly a head-to-head game
  • Ages 13 & Up / Mid-Weight Gamers – Very strategic in nature. You have to try and be one step ahead of your opponent as much as possible, so it may be difficult for younger or less experienced gamers
  • Fans of asymmetric decks and repeated plays to really get to know the decks
  • Fans of witchy themes

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Nice art, and nice table presence with the multiple boards
  • Components – Good quality cards and tokens
  • Rules – Well-written overall
  • Streamlined game flow, very smooth turn to turn
  • Variety of actions to take and plenty of card variety
  • Fun theme, works well
  • The included scenarios can help you vary gameplay slightly
    • Even without them I think the game plays very differently play to play and there’s a lot of room to strategize depending on what cards you get and when

CONS

  • Text and icons on cards are a bit small
  • Some games can run a bit long, depending on the strategies players take
  • I didn’t love the layout of the rules, it felt a little disjointed for me

Final Thoughts

I thought this game had really good back and forth. There are a lot of different cards in both decks, so you can try out different strategies to see what works. It definitely benefits from playing often because you really get a better feel for all of those cards and can learn how to best utilize some of them, along with managing your influence which can sometimes be tight.

I did feel in my plays that it was trickier to win as the witch because they are doing more of a bluffing, which the hunter doesn’t have to do at all. But I wouldn’t say that the game feel imbalanced. I think it just really comes down to the players and playing to the strengths of your deck.

Overall, a very neat game with a cool theme. Definitely worth checking out if you like asymmetric games for 2!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 7/10

Designers – Kasper Kjær Christiansen, Kåre Storgaard
Artist – Maren Gutt
Publishers – Capstone Games, Wyrmgold GmbH
MSRP – $44.95
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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