Hero Realms

Hero Realms is a very quick “take that” type of filler game by Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle. Given the simplicity of the game, this review will likely be quite short and sweet, just like the play time. In Hero Realms you are going to market to purchase items, allies, and actions that will either damage the other player or heal yourself. While the game booklet tells a sweet story about a country and all the wild supernaturals/creatures coming together to have a market and trade with each other, the actual objective of the game is to see who can smash the other person’s health sooner.

While the game is quick and gritty there is a bit of strategy to building your deck. Kage managed to grab all the heal cards, so even when he was hit for 18 damage at a time (you start with a max of 50) he was able to stay in the running. One of the great parts of this game is how close it is. From turn to turn we were generally only a couple of points apart, despite having vastly different decks and strategies.

There isn’t much to say about the components of this game. The cards were of decent quality, and the artwork was nice with lots of rich colours. While I did enjoy looking at the artwork, it isn’t a game that takes a very long time to play through, so I don’t feel like it would get boring to stare at. The system for health points was interesting, with two cards that layered for the “main” large number being a jewel card with increments of ten, and the other having 9 down to 0 on it that you can slide it down over to show your overall number. I personally hadn’t seen that before and thought it was pretty nifty, and a neat way to keep the components all cards.

All in all, I recommend this as a quick filler game between games, though I do think this could also be used to get people started in the world of deck builders, especially if you only have a few minutes to play.

This game jumps straight into the action. There is no buildup, you immediately start blasting away at your opponent before you even cycle through your deck once. This is a very fast and furious deckbuilder that barely have time to build much of a deck.

I have played several other “X Realms” games where X= Cthulhu, Star, etc. from the same designer and I have to say this is my favorite. It builds from Star Realms while maintaining the relentless assault of Cthulhu Realms and leaves out the terrible iconography and excessive build up. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a quick competitive filler game, especially if you like deck builders.

The Teal Dear

Game: Hero Realms
Designer: Robert Dougherty and Darwin Kastle
Price: $17
Players: 2-4
2 player Scaling: Quite good
Playtime: 10 minutes per player
Estimated Lifespan: Permanent collection, quick filler game
Average Play Frequency: Every couple of months
Complexity: 2
Components: 4
Bang for Buck: 5
Value for Time: 3
Fun Factor: 3.5
Overall: 4