With just seven cards in our hand and through simple card swapping-mechanics, we can create our own personal fantasy realm. The 53 unique cards, split into eleven categories such as ‚Land’, ‚Wizard’ or ‚Weapon’ can strengthen or block each other or even give minus points. But be careful: you can’t just pay attention to your own hand of cards. You may give your opponent more help than you intended, just by discarding the card they had been waiting for. It is only at the end of the game that the cards’ true power is revealed, when the very different troop formations and card abilities are compared and scored. This power struggle also works particularly well as two-player game, thanks to an effective rules variant.

Despite its simple rules, Fantasy Realms guarantees a captivating playing experience with real depth. The hopes and fears for matching cards packs a lot of emotion into a short playing time. When you count up your impressive collection of point-scoring combinations at the end of the game, you just want to start another round. The high level of interaction means that all players are forced to moderate their plans tactically to react to the constantly changing game situation.