The Scepter of Zavandor | BoardGameGeek

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Sessions:: Re: Witchy Diamonds

doubtofbuddha — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:31:18 +0000

I want to try Emeralds again (I came in second with them during my first game), but the Witch didn't seem like the one to do that with. I really think that the Witch is the second most constrainted character of the starting six, because of how much less useful Knowledge of Gems is for gems under Diamonds.

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Sessions:: Re: Witchy Diamonds

JohnRayJr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:24:46 +0000

by JohnRayJr

Wow, I've never seen a player eliminate themselves like that!

Rubies are effective and certainly fun to play, but not "best" by any means. Just about the only consensus I've seen on the gems is that emeralds are the "worst." I know some skilled players who have Emerald wins to their credit, though.

Session: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Witchy Diamonds

doubtofbuddha — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:43:38 +0000

by doubtofbuddha

After we finished our game of Automobile( http://boardgamegeek.com/article/3667077) at Coolstuff Games ( http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/44109), Bryan, Mike D, Mike R, Will and I decided to play a game of the Scepter of Zavandor. Mike D, Mike R, Will, and I had learned the game the week before. I had taught Bryan the game on Sunday. So we all had at least some experience with the game, and were able to just sit down and go.

Random draws gave me the Witch, Mike D the Mage, Mike R the Kobold, Will the Druid, and Bryan the Elf. Bryan had played the Elf the last time we played, so he asked to switch out for the Fairy, which he did.
Openings were mostly standard. Mike R., Will, and I all improved our knowledge tracks and bought a gemstone. I was able to take advantage of my knowledge track to get a Sapphire, and Mike R got a good enough draw to do so as well, but Will was not as lucky and purchased an Opal. Mike D put a pair of spellbooks up for auction. Bryan won the first won, and Mike D won the second. He revealed later that he thought that the Spellbook worked like the Elixir and gave you an Emerald for winning it. This was not the last misconception of this type during the game.

The next few turns were uneventful, as everyone worked to build up their collections of gemstones and artifacts. I purchased a runestone (to get a discount later on the Chalice of Fire) and a crystal ball (to deal with my abysmal hand size); Mike R also got a crystal ball and a runestone (he joked about how we were copying each other’s moves in the early game); Will got a spellbook, a runestone, and a crystal ball; Mike and Bryan both just ended up with their spellbooks.

Bryan and Will were already making their strategies apparent. Will, playing the Druid, had to go with Rubies, and so he went over the Knowledge of Gems in order to be able to get them at a reduced rate. Bryan, having purchased a spellbook first round, worked towards building up his emerald supply. I thought that Mike D was also going to go for emeralds, but he did not end up spending his money on them at all.

When the group started to hit 10 victory points I was at the back of the turn order. I had avoided maxing out any knowledge tracks (idling at 3 on the Gems track), and thus did not have any of the extra victory point bumps that the others had. I had started to move into Knowledge of Artifacts, and was at level 2 by the time that situation changed. I had been saving up money in order to get an Elixir, but had lost the first won in a bidding war against Mike R. However, I did see both a Crystal of Protection and a Magic Available so I jumped on those. This pushed me to the top of the VP track but also resulted in a big jump in my income (I had two extra gems sitting in my inactive gems spot.) Missing out on the Elixir ended up being inconsequential anyway, as I was able to get another one a couple of turns later.

Mike R and I started in on the lucrative diamonds market, while Bryan continued to build up his emerald collection and Will started to work on getting rubies. Mike D also started moving up the Rubies track, but I was confused why he would do so at the time. Of the B artifacts, Mike D had acquired the Magic Belt and a Crystal of Protection, Mike R had acquired a Crystal of Protection and two Elixirs, I had acquired a Magic Belt, a Crystal of Protection, and an Elixir, and Bryan had acquired a Magic Belt. The Magic Mirrors did not get purchased until much later.

The C Artifacts is where the game really changed and it became clear which players would be doing well and which would not. Mike D was able to acquire the first Mask of Charisma for a pretty inexpensive price due to spent money on both my and Mike R’s part. After it disappeared a Chalice of Fire was bid upon by both Mike R and I, before I let Mike R have it. The second Mask of Charisma also went to Mike D after an extensive bidding war with me pushed it up above 70. At that point, I decided that the newly arrived Chalice of Fire would be a better buy. On successive turns after that I was able to get the last Mask of Charisma (after a bidding war with Mike R) and the last Chalice of Fire. Bryan acquired one of the Magic Wands, but the others remained unpurchased for the rest of the game.

Around this time Will acquired both the Magic Mirrors. He made the mistake of thinking that the Magic Mirror would allow him to move his skill slider on the rubies track up from 4 to 5, rather than giving him a new chip. This annoyed him enough that he bought another one, seriously injuring Bryan (he lost two emeralds), minorly inconveniencing Mike R and I (we both lost some inexpensive gems), and hurting Mike D quite a bit (he lost some inexpensive gems, but that is all he had.)

With six diamonds, two sapphires, an amulet of protection, and two chalices of fire I was quickly able to get ahead of everyone else in total income. Seeing this Mike R auctioned off the Unicorn on the same round that I acquired my second Chalice of Fire. He got it for its base price. The next turn, I auctioned off, and won, the Toad. Mike D auctioned off the Salamander at this point to spite Will for blowing up his gems, and won it since no one else could afford it. (He was getting 70 off every sentinel thanks to maxed out Knowledge of Artifacts, two Masks of Charisma, and being fifth.)

The next round ended up being the final one of the game. I put the Owl up for auction, and won it, and then used my remaining money to max out Knowledge of Accumulation, which I had been working on ever since I auctioned off the second Mask of Charisma. Mike R, who was second, did not have enough to purchase any of the remaining sentinels so he put the Scarab up for auction to force Bryan to buy it and the game to end. He did. So Mike R spent his remaining money to put a Dark Cloak up for auction. H won it and that ended his turn. Bryan ended up buying a few more gems with his remaining cash, Will bought a Cloak of Protection, and Mike D put the Raven up for auction. No one else was willing to bid on it, so he won it. Unfortunately, even with his big discounts and selling his gems he was unable to afford to buy the sentinel so he was eliminated from the game.

It was pretty clear I had won, but 2nd through 4th were all pretty close. The final scores were:

Jesse (60), Mike R (47), Bryan (45), Will (41), Mike D (eliminated)
Before the game, Mike R had expressed concern about how close our scores had been during the Sunday game Bryan, Minerva, and I had played and also during our last play on Wednesday. He was worried that the scores would be very tight EVERY game by design. This game alleviated his concern.

Mike D also shared that the reason he had started working his way down the Rubies line was because that he had become convinced after our last game (which Will won with a Rubies strategy) that Rubies was the BEST strategy. This is why he ended up moving down that track. He was happy that this game had proven that there were other viable strategies besides the Rubies strategy.

I wonder if we will play this again next week?

Session: The Scepter of Zavandor:: The Scepter of Zavandor (Coolstuff Games 07/02/09)

doubtofbuddha — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:55:59 +0000

by doubtofbuddha

Last night Mike D, Mike R, Will, and I played our first game of "The Scepter of Zavandor" an economic snowball game where players seek to be able to build an energy producing engine that is sufficient to buy valuable late game victory point items called sentinels. Other artifacts and gemstones that are acquired along the way also serve to provide a point boost, but a large portion of an individual’s points will come from these sentinels.

In first character deal Mike D got the Fairy, Mike R the Elf, Will the Druid, and I the Mage. We all spent the early rounds acquiring gems and moving up our initial tracks, with my focus being on getting my third opal and then my second sapphire. Mike D and Mike R focused mostly on getting sapphires, while Will joined me in acquiring a third opal and a second sapphire. I also went a little bit artifact-crazy, using the power of my Knowledge of Artifacts to acquire a Spellbook, Runestone, AND Crystal Ball. This did allow me to reach level 4 in my knowledge quickly, though this ended up being both a blessing and curse due to the fact that it put me in first place in victory points. I ended up sitting there for most of the rest of the game, effectively negating my artifact bonuses. At the time, I thought, considering how cheap the artifacts were at this point in time, that they were points well spent. Now I am no longer so sure.

The other original artifacts were split among the other players. Mike R got the second Crystal Ball and Spellbook, while Will got a Runestone. Mike D was avoiding the artifacts at this point, spending most of his cash on advancing along his knowledge track and buying bigger and better gems. When the B artifacts hit this changed as Mike was able to acquire a Magic Belt and, after a hotly contested auction with me, an Elixir. After this he went almost entirely into Diamonds, only keeping a couple of extra sapphires around for protection against items that cause gemstones to explode.

Will realized that he would need a discount to be able to efficiently move up to Rubies so he jumped over to the Gem Knowledge track so he could get them at a discounted rate. Mike R stayed diversified. He bought some emeralds, got an elixir and acquired a diamond, and ended up with a generally diverse set of different gemstones. Both of us bought Crystals of Protection.

At this point, my emerald engine was already getting a bit of steam, so I won a Magic Belt to avoid having to go down the Knowledge of Accumulation track. I had also used the bonus from a Magic Mirror to get into Knowledge of Gems track in order to get a decent discount on my gem buying. Unfortunately, Mike D was able to generate diamonds as fast as I was generating emeralds, and was able to surpass me in income. I was staying ahead of him in victory points (mostly), but I knew that would mean little in face of end-game victory points.

Everyone ended up working on multiple Knowledge tracks. I started on Knowledge of Artifacts (as noted above), got up to level 3 in Knowledge of Gems fairly quickly, and eventually moved down Knowledge of Accumulation when I started to reach my slot limits. I delayed going into level of Accumulation until I actually needed the extra slot, however. Mike R moved from his Knowledge of Energy Accumulation into Knowledge of Artifacts and, after maxing it out, moved into Accumulation. He ended up getting more use out of Knowledge of Artifacts than I. As he was a bit farther down in the victory point track, he was able to get the full discount. Mike D moved from Knowledge of the Nine Sages to Knowledge of Accumulation. After that he moved down Knowledge of Artifacts, in order to get some of the discounts for late-game artifacts and sentinels that the track provided. Will ended up going down the most tracks, moving onto the Knowledge of the Nine Sages and Knowledge of Accumulation after he maxed out the Knowledge of Gems and the Knowledge of Fire.

Entering into the late game, we had a diverse set of economic engines. Will had finally gotten 5 rubies (with a few opals on the side) on-line, even after undergoing an unfortunate setback involving a Magic Mirror earlier on, and was bringing in quite a bit of cash. Mike D was working his diamonds, and was steadily increasing his quantities every round to the point where he had nine or ten. He also had a Chalice of Fire. I was going straight emeralds and had eleven of the suckers on top of my Crystal of Protection. Mike R had the most diverse engine, combining Knowledge of Energy Accumulation 4 with a mixture of all different gemstones except for rubies, a Crystal of Protection and a Chalice of Fire. So we all had a decent income, though it appeared that Mike D and Will had definite income leads. Will and I had acquired the Masks of Charisma, one of which had seen the most intense bidding in the game, before I got it for 70.

So since I was in first I auctioned up the first Sentinel and was able to get the Scarab for list price. No one else bought sentinels this turn, but people started saving money. The following turn I put the Toad up for auction (I had three Toad artifacts and three Raven), but let Mike R get it after he bit it up. I then put up the Raven up for auction and got it for list price. At this point Mike D got his Unicorn and Mike R has to pass. Will also did some other things, but kept his amount of money high. During the last round of Sentinel auctioning I passed, because I lacked money, but did pay the points to finally top out on the Knowledge of Gems so that I could get the 2 points offered.
At this point, Mike D was 6 points and we were both mostly concerned with each other as far as competition went. Mike D was second and auctioned off both the Talismans (winning one, while Mike R got the other), before auctioning off the Salamander, hoping that Will would end the game. He took the bait and bought it (for obvious reasons.) Mike R spent some of his remaining money to buy a few gems to maximize his score and then Will, who was in last), auctioned off the Owl, winning it because none of us had the money to compete. He used his remaining money to buy a few cheap Opals.

Going into the final scoring, I thought it would be a tie between me and Mike D with everyone else having a lower score. I was wrong on multiple counts. Will ended up winning it with 62. I was in a close second with 61. Mike R and Mike D tied with 58. The gambit Mike D made in trying to end the game before I bought another Sentinel did not work out quite like he wanted it to do, and he ended up tying for last.
We still all though it was a great game and felt that the 3 and a half hours we spent playing it flew by. We will likely take even less time playing it the second time, and are all looking forward to trying it again (maybe next week.) I suspect it might even make it into my Top 20, though I am not sure if it is quite Top 10 material.

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Selling gems to cover winning bids

swgod98 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:00:28 +0000

by swgod98

Ok...That sets me straight. Gems are worth points and those are lost when sold. I overlooked that...

Thanks!

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Selling gems to cover winning bids

jhagen1908 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:11:46 +0000

by jhagen1908

This tactic is legal, even on another player's turn. It's not as broken as you think though, since players who sell gems are sacrificing points and future income (if any) in order to do so.

It is sometimes worth doing for an important artifact (an early Elixir, a Mask) or a high-value sentinel. If I'm playing experienced opponents I expect they will be willing to sell even active gems if the item is valuable enough, especially if it gives positional advantages - like buying the fifth sentinel at a time which is awkward for the opponents.

Thread: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Selling gems to cover winning bids

swgod98 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:57:18 +0000

by swgod98

This weekend was my first attempt at this game. Only a month ago I played Phoenecia for the first time and enjoyed it, which led me to SoZ. The rules were relatively easy to read over and the "jist" of the game understood (perhaps because I knew how similar it was to Phoenecia beforehand). We came across a few, what I could consider, "concerns". But, one rule I want to clarify in particular...

When a player starts bidding on an item, can he choose to overbid assuming he'll be able to sell any inactive or active gem to make the sale? This became a game changing rule which we allowed, because we weren't sure it was mentioned in the rules otherwise...

The player in question bid on one of the sentinels on his own turn...since he had enough (and was the last player to take his turn), he bought one relatively uncontested. Well, he was then nearly out of energy, but decided to bid on a second sentinel (which was to be the 5th one purchased). To be able to afford the sentinel, he had to sell a bunch of his active gems.

Is this legal? I feel it's a terrible flaw in the endgame to be able to do this. If it is legal, can people who are not currently taking their turn (yet who win a bid on an item) sell their active and inactive gems to complete a sale as well? Based on the rules, this all seems legal.

But, I'm hoping I simply missed something in the rules...

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Can you buy Chalice of Fire if you don't have Knowledge of Fire?

GoPanthers — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:54:18 +0000

by GoPanthers

Yes

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Reviews:: Re: Goa-ish with a fantasy/magical theme

GoPanthers — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:44:44 +0000

by GoPanthers

Fine review, Dan. Your recommendation as a 2 player game is what made me crack this one open. I'm intrigued and look forward to trying it out this week.

I can't speak to your 3 variants but it might be easiest to play with the lowest two turn order markers.

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Another Chalice of Fire question

BFoy — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:21:18 +0000

by BFoy

We believe it!

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Another Chalice of Fire question

WhiteKong — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:04:19 +0000

by WhiteKong

David Grabiner wrote:
Bankler wrote:
1) Yes, you can buy a chalice of fire w/o Level 4 in Knowledge of Fire.
2) You get the ruby card no matter what your level of fire is.
3) You don't have to convert it.

The only time you have to convert cards to dust are when you use the fairies track (which gives you two cards). Not when you get cards from any other method. I think that's the source of your confusion.

In particular, you only have to convert cards to dust from the Knowledge of the 9 Sages if you have no way of holding that type of energy. If you get ruby cards from Knowledge of the 9 Sages and you have a Chalice of Fire, you can keep them as ruby cards even if you don't have any rubies.

Believe it or not, I got an even further clarification on the Knowledge of the 9 Sages. You don't have to convert tthe cards to dust if you have the ABILITY to make that kind of gem, but haven't yet made it. In other words, if you own a spellbook, but haven't enchanted any emeralds, you still wouldn't have to convert the 9 sages emerald cards to dust. Just being able to create the gem is enough to be able to hold the cards.

So, the only tim you are forced to convert 9 sages cards to dust is if you don't have the ability to enchant the type of gem the card comes from, AND you're not be able to receive the card from another source (crystal of protection or chalice of fire).

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Another Chalice of Fire question

David Grabiner — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:11:04 +0000

by David Grabiner

Bankler wrote:
1) Yes, you can buy a chalice of fire w/o Level 4 in Knowledge of Fire.
2) You get the ruby card no matter what your level of fire is.
3) You don't have to convert it.

The only time you have to convert cards to dust are when you use the fairies track (which gives you two cards). Not when you get cards from any other method. I think that's the source of your confusion.

In particular, you only have to convert cards to dust from the Knowledge of the 9 Sages if you have no way of holding that type of energy. If you get ruby cards from Knowledge of the 9 Sages and you have a Chalice of Fire, you can keep them as ruby cards even if you don't have any rubies.

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Another Chalice of Fire question

Bankler — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:13:41 +0000

by Bankler

1) Yes, you can buy a chalice of fire w/o Level 4 in Knowledge of Fire.
2) You get the ruby card no matter what your level of fire is.
3) You don't have to convert it.

The only time you have to convert cards to dust are when you use the fairies track (which gives you two cards). Not when you get cards from any other method. I think that's the source of your confusion.

Thread: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Another Chalice of Fire question

howaa — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:58:07 +0000

by howaa

The Chalice of Fire artifact allows you to receive one ruby card each round. It is treated as an active Ruby, so can be combined with 3 other active Rubies to gain a Ruby concentrated energy card each round. The questions are, and they really weren't completely answered in previous posts:

1) Can you even buy the Chalice of Fire if you haven't gotten to the fourth level of Knowledge of Fire?

2) If you can, can you gain the Ruby card each round before getting to the fourth level of Knowledge of Fire?

3) Is it possible that you would have to immediately convert that Ruby card to magic dust prior to getting to the fourth level of Knowledge of Fire, or do you get to keep the card no matter what? I seem to remember reading about this situation with another artifact.

Great game!!! Thanks!

Reply: The Scepter of Zavandor:: Rules:: Re: Huh?

VanVeen — Sun, 17 May 2009 01:56:23 +0000

by VanVeen

I said I read all the files here already. Hence my questions. I find that file far from complete. Are the original German rules as bad as the translation?

They are. My German is still good enough that I can follow along with an English translation, if that translation is accurate (that is, I can tell whether they don't "match," and if they do I can cross-check them). The English translation looks fairly faithful to me. The problem is that the rule set is lacking examples of play, descriptions of components, and other basics. It's also occasionally just wrong, as when the rules say each character board indicates that character's starting knowledge track. This is just incorrect; you can find out the answer, but it's in the rules, not on the character boards. There's other stuff that doesn't make sense either. What's the 2 and 4 in circles on the bottom right of the character boards, along with "knowledge of [i can't remember]"? I suspect that text was supposed to be the individual character's starting knowledge, not all the same thing, but I dunno. What are the circles on the gem track about? (Not the stone icons, but the rounded "pits" appearing on the spirals.) Little things like that. There needs to be more diagramming and illustration of the rules. In my business, we'd say the information design needs to be improved. The information is all there, it's just not presented in a way that makes sense to the first-time viewer.

New Image for The Scepter of Zavandor

thoia — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:33:59 +0000

by thoia

Round 2 or 3 of our first 6 player game. We still had a long ways to g...

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