{"id":3537,"date":"2004-10-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-10-29T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/10\/29\/camelot-legends\/"},"modified":"2004-10-29T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-10-29T10:00:00","slug":"camelot-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/10\/29\/camelot-legends\/","title":{"rendered":"Camelot Legends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camelot Legends<\/a><\/h2>\n

by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n

The legend of King Arthur has been the theme of many games. From the now legendary
\n“role-playing-board-game” “Knights of Camelot” (TSR, Rahman brothers)
\nto the more recent card game “Quests Of The Round Table” (Gamesmiths) there
\nhave been many attempts at creating a worthy gaming representation of the long-gone world
\nof chivalry, damsels in distress and dazzling tourneys. Even Knizia has done his version
\nof “King Arthur”, but it is one of his less successful attempts at an
\nelectronic boardgame hybrid.<\/p>\n

The King Arthur themed boardgames fall into two categories: Either ultra-complicated
\nfantasy simulations like the Rahman game, or rather flimsy affairs with dodgy rules like
\n“Quests Of The Round Table” (a game which we tried to “save” several
\ntimes). Until now there has never been a really satisfying game that does the theme
\njustice without either frying or underestimating your brains. With “Camelot
\nLegends” this gap might have been filled.<\/p>\n

“Camelot Legends” is a card game, with very simply basic rules. There are
\nthree places, represented by larger cards, which form the “adventure areas”:
\nCamelot, Cornwall and the Forest. Players collect knights, ladies and wizards (the
\nplaying cards) and send them to the various places to fulfil quests\/adventures which are
\ndrawn regularly and placed on the adventure areas. These drawn quests can also sometimes
\nform new “areas” which can also be visited (it is for example possible to send
\nknights to Avalon where they can’t do anything but give extra victory points at the
\nend of the game).<\/p>\n

Each player only has two actions each round. An action can be<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. drawing a character card<\/li>\n
  2. moving 1-2 cards from one location to another<\/li>\n
  3. play a character card on a location.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    After a certain number of quests have been drawn a “final” quest appears
    \nwhich ends the game when it is solved. Each quest gives the solving player victory
    \npoints, as do certain titles or items like “High King”, “Excalibur”
    \nor “Love Potion”, which can be acquired by various means (and lost as
    \nwell).<\/p>\n

    Each Knight (or Lady or King or magician) is rated in 6 “skills”, from 0 to
    \n7. These skills are represented by icons which are a bit difficult to get used to, but
    \nthere is a player aid card which helps. To fulfil a quest you need to acquire a certain
    \nnumber of “skill points” in one or more skills at the location where the quest
    \nis to be solved. The random quests appear in equal fashion at each adventuring place, and
    \neach adventuring place has predominant skills that are needed (although you never can be
    \nsure). At the beginning of each player’s turn it is checked if s\/he can fulfil any
    \nquests, but only after the various special character card powers have been used.<\/p>\n

    \"CamelotThese special powers are the meat of the game.
    \nThere are a LOT of character cards, and the game designer has managed to give each of
    \nthese cards a unique set of skills and (always) a special ability that only pertains to
    \nthis very character, and which is also congruent with the “real” character in
    \nthe legends. So “Merlin” has magic powers that protect his party from attacks
    \nof other cards, or “Tristan” is less powerful when “Isolde” is in
    \nanother adventuring group, but more powerful when he is together with her. One can tell
    \nthat a lot of work went into designing these special abilities, and the beautiful
    \ncharacter portraits together with the love for detail apparent throughout the game make
    \nfor a really nice representation of the myth, even though the game is basically quite
    \nabstract. The characters even belong to different heraldic “factions” which
    \nwork better if played in a team. Many abilities influence other players’ characters –
    \nit is possible to discard opponent characters or to charm them to bring them on your
    \nside. In fact there are so many quite different and complex abilities that the game can
    \ncreate analysis paralysis (at least if you make the mistake that we made: arrogantly
    \nstarting with the most advanced game which uses all cards and abilities).<\/p>\n

    Of course the luck of the draw is an important factor. If you continuously draw weak
    \nknights you will certainly be at a disadvantage, as of course characters like
    \n“Lancelot” or “King Arthur” are very powerful cards. It would have
    \nbeen nice to have some kind of victory point\/auctioning mechanism to balance this, but if
    \nyou’re not expecting a deeply tactical game this probably won’t create a problem.
    \nNormally it is quite obvious which special abilities are best to use, but especially
    \nlater in the game there are a LOT of characters around, and keeping track of all their
    \nabilities can be quite difficult. It is therefore good that the designer limited the
    \nnumber of players to 4. The game is playable with 2 players, but works best with 3 or
    \n4.<\/p>\n

    The rulebook is unusually well laid-out, and comes with a glossary of characters,
    \nwhich certainly is a bonus for people interested in Arthurian legends. It also serves its
    \npurpose to GET people interested.<\/p>\n

    As I already mentioned I would strongly recommend to start with the basic game for
    \ninexperienced gamers and with the intermediate game (maximum) for experienced gamers. You
    \nwill understand what I mean when you first play!<\/p>\n

    “Camelot Legends” can be fully recommended for fans of Arthurian myth. It is
    \nreally one of the most beautiful and playable games around that abduct you into Arthurian
    \ntimes. People looking for a good card game will not be disappointed, but they should like
    \ngames with special abilities. Collectors will love it for the great artwork (of high
    \nquality even on the most unimportant cards). Fanatic “Eurogame” enthusiasts
    \nmight have to get used to the game mechanisms.<\/p>\n

    Explaining the game should not take more than 10 minutes, the actual playing time
    \nshould be between 45 and 90 minutes maximum. We liked it!<\/p>\n

    \n
    <\/form>\n<\/div>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Camelot Legends by Moritz Eggert The legend of King Arthur has been the theme of many games. From the now legendary “role-playing-board-game” “Knights of Camelot” (TSR, Rahman brothers) to the more recent card game “Quests Of The Round Table” (Gamesmiths) there have been many attempts at creating a worthy gaming representation of the long-gone world … Camelot Legends<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":6,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}