Simon Lundström
Sweden
Örbyhus
Now who are these five?
Come, come, all children who love fairy tales.
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Introduction
As it's obvious to anyone reading the text on the box back, I might as well start by saying that I'm not completely un-associated with this game – I volunteered to translate the rules into (a somewhat shabby) English. I have, however, no reason to promote this game (apart from the mere fact that I actually like it, and beacause I appreciate small-press stuff that's well made) – I earn no money from the translation, althugh I got some free copies of the game, and the sales don't affect me the least.
With that out of the way…
Cheaty Mages! (or 'Ikasamage!') is the second off-set printed game from Kanai Factory (the first being The Thorn Princess and the Four Knights) and could be bought on the market for fan-made stuff, Comics Market 74, in August 2008 in Tokyo. The game will also be released (together with 'Thorn Princess') under the Japon Brand mark on Essen 08.
Components
Cheaty Mages! comes in a little box, packed with 120 cards and some cardboard coin chips. The cards are nice and glossy, the paper perhaps a bit too stiff, making them a little hard to shuffle. The illustrations are quite unique, wood block print-style illustrations that I've come to grow quite fond of.
The cardboard coins are OK, but nothing special.
Game comes with 2 rulebooks, one in Japanese and one in English. Cards are bilingual.
Brief game overview
Cheaty Mages! is a game about amassing money by placing closed bets on one or more of five monsters, each with a different strength. The players then proceed by playing cards (casting spells), some face up, some face down, onto the combatant monsters, either weakening or empowering them. When all players are done casting spells, the monster with the highest total in strength is declared the winner, and all players who bet on that combatant get their money. The player with the most money after three rounds is the winner.
Rules summary
First of all, players are dealt a number of spell cards (depending on the number of players). Then five out of ten monsters are drawn at random from the monster deck and placed in a vertical row. These are the combatants. All combatants have an inherent strength (the Dragon being the strongest with 10, and the Goblin the weakest with 1) and a 'prize money', which is the amount paid to the players who bet on that combatant should he win. The Dragon naturally is the lowest (3), and the Goblin the highest (10)
Lastly, the judge for the current round is drawn from the judge deck. All (well, most) judges have a maximum tolerance level for the amount ot spells played on the combatants - if that amount is exceeded, they either eject the combatant or dispell all the spells.
When combatant monsters and judge have been drawn, the players place their bets - which isn't done by using money, you just place a card face down before you with the number of the combatant you expect to win. You can bet on one, two or three combatants. Naturally, if you bet on three combatants, you'll only get half the prize money, and if you bet on only one combatant, you'll get double the prize if he wins.
Then it's time for spells. There are three types of spells: Direct spells, Enchants and Support spells (the most powerful of all spells are also marked as "Forbidden"). The Direct spells and Enchants are the most common types, they are played onto one of the combatants (placed beside them), either weakening or empowering the monster. The difference is that the Enchants are placed face down whereas the Direct spells are placed face up so all can see what you're doing. The Support Spells are special spells, not targeting the combatant monsters, but other players (for example, forcing them to discard cards) or the judge (disabling or changing the judge) or yourself (for example, allowing you to play Direct spells face down).
Some of the most severe judges, though, tend to completely forbid certain types of spells, mostly the Forbidden spells and Support spells.
Players play one card or declare 'pass', and the turn goes around the table until all players have passed. Then the round is finished, and all face down cards are turned face up and each combatant's total strength is added up.
However, there's a catch, as the judge is watching. Each spell card (except the Support spells) has a magical power (mana), and most judges have a limit as to how much mana they will allow on each combatant before they decide that someone just broke the rules a bit too much. So, you might sit there feeling all nice because you cast a meteo storm on the Dragon, reducing its strength to smithereens, but end up realising, as the Enchant cards are turned face up, that some idiot cast the Mana Boost, which was the straw to break the donkey's back, and the judge dispells all spells cast on the Dragon, causing it to win.
When the judges have done their job, either dispelling all spells from the combatants who exceeded the mana limit, or more harshly, ejecting them from the game, the combatant with the highest strength wins and the prize money is dealt out. Players then get to draw a number of new cards and the next round begins, the combatants are shuffled into the monster deck again, five new monsters are selected, a new judge is appointed, bets are placed et cetera.
The player with the most money after three rounds is declared the winner.
Verdict
To be honest, I didn't expect much from this game to begin with. Theme-wise it was quite similar to Colossal Arena, a game I felt was a bit bland, and card-only games tend to never really get me. I'm more fond of moving pawns on a board, really.
However, after the first play, I realised I enjoyed the game greatly and wanted to play again and again. It was a combination of "what the hell's he up to"-factor, the trying to outsmart the others, the screams of "Yess!" and "No, you idiot! Who the hell played a shrink on the goddamn goblin!" when the Enchants were turned up, and the cool idea with the judges' mana limit. It was fun to try to work out a plan as you sat there with your spells, saw the monsters and the judge and trying to figure out how to place your bets. All eggs in one basket or play it safe? And although there was a rather big random factor (much depended on where the other players placed their bets, which in turn was largely affected by their spells, of which you naturally didn't have the slightest clue), it was a player-induced chaos instead of the kind of "roll a die"-randomness. It was more the fun-way of randomness. The laughing randomness.
But I think the largest reason this game was so fun was the interesting special cards that actually could really flip the game. Two of the combatant monsters were 'undead', causing all weakening cards to empower them, and vice versa, and some Support cards could really change the flow of the game. Some caused the judge to look the other way, some could completely dispell all spells on a monster, or change location of one spell card, or allow you to look at all face down cards for one monster, or even change your bet. Some felt game-breaking, but then again, there were enough of them so you always sat with some sort of sneaky card up your sleeve. The problem (or the best part) was that so did everyone else, and the combined effect of all weird cards was sometimes hilarious.
All in all, I found I had much more fun with this game than with Colossal Arena, probably because I like the "try to think what the others think" mechanism and the moment of surprise and anticipation. The game's quick (about 30 minutes) and doesn't overstay its welcome. Kanai's other games tend to have a somewhat home-made 'cosy yet something left to be wished for' feel about them, but this one didn't. It's not for those who want a tactical game with all open information, but it's professional quality design. A solid 8 for me.
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All Hail Knucklebeard!
Australia
Wodonga
Victoria
Thanks International SS for A Few Acres of Snow!
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Nice work Simon.
 for the title alone! 
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Jon Y.
United States
Fredericksburg
Virginia
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Great, informative review that really makes me want to pick it up and give it a go. The art however... dunno about that.
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We played this for the first time this evening, and all four players really enjoyed it. I'm going to take it to our games club, and play it all afternoon I suspect.
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