Critter Cards Preview

Have you ever felt like you could run a business better than the owner or boss currently does? I’m sure we have all been there before, especially when employed at such a place. I’ve never really been a boss before so I don’t have personal experience, but in Critter Cards you can do just that: take command of an entire unit of fantasy personnel in an attempt to prove your mettle.

Critter Cards is a head to head battle card game where players pose as human adventurers in charge of deploying either Merfolk or Gnomes (in this prototype set) to battles of wits in order to gain the most loot.

DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, as there are just too many. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T

Prior to setup, players will decide whether or not Spell cards are used, thus adjusting setup. Each player will choose a clan to represent (Merfolk or Gnomes here) and take the associated Hero card, placing it to the left of their tableau on the table. The Spell cards are also shuffled and placed in a deck below the Hero. The remaining Critter cards are then shuffled, placed in a pile to the right of the Hero and a hand of four Critters are drawn for the starting hand. To determine the starting player, each will draw their highest-value card (in terms of total sum of numbers/pips shown on the top of the card) and play it to the table. The highest total value, called “Wisdom,” wins the opening play and will go first on the next round. The winner takes their played cards, turns them horizontally and places them to the right of their tableau to begin their Loot pile. The loser, conversely, plays their cards face-up to begin their Discard pile, scoring no points. Players then will draw one Critter card to their and one Spell card (if used for this game) as well. Players will always have four Critters and one Spell card in their hand to start a round.

The game may now officially begin with the starting player.

On a turn, the starting player will choose and play one of their Critters to the table for their opening. The second player then plays one of their Critters to the table. Play passes back to the first player who may choose to Activate their Hero, Play a Spell card, or Pass. When the first player has taken their action, the second player may then choose to Activate their Hero, Play a Spell card, and/or End the Round.

To Activate a Hero, the player will rotate/spin/move/whateverwon’tgetmeintrouble their clan’s Hero to gain the benefits of its once-per-game ability. Alternatively, the player may choose to Play a Spell card (shown below) in order to affect the results of a current Wisdom battle on the table. Spell cards and Hero abilities usually cause the Wisdom results to be adjusted, cards to be exchanged from play and the Discard pile, or even force the current battle to result in a tie instead of a victory/loss.

The game continues in this fashion of playing cards to the table to overwhelm the opponent and using Spells and Heroes at the most opportune moments until both players have no more cards to play. The player with the most number of cards in their Loot pile is the winner! There are rules for determining the winner if the score is tied at the end of a normal game, as well as variant rules that can be played in the rule book.

Components. Again, this is a prototype copy of the game, and I do not know if anything will be different as a result of a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, this is a deck of cards in a tuckbox. The cards are all fine, and the artwork is unique and cartoony. In fact, the artwork gives me a weird Disney/Pixar Luca vibe. Pretty decent, and each character type has its own artwork. The iconography is minimal, and this is where I see a weak spot. In the game, the icon on the upper left of the card is called the Wits, and the upper right the Focus. When combined, the total is called the Wisdom value. Now, I certainly understand that this was originally designed to be an educational game of mathmagic, but perhaps a different icon could be made slightly different-looking to give it its own life force or something. Or incorporate differences between the two with Spell or Hero cards. Again, I do not know what is in store for this game, so perhaps these are already being considered.

All in all this is an easy game to pull out for young children just learning math and honing their skills. By using addition/subtraction/multiplication of the two values, or greater than/less than, this game works beautifully for young students. Throwing on a Spell or Hero card ability on top also reinforces the order of operations, and I appreciate it for these functions. This certainly is not a gamer’s game, but rather gamer’s child’s game, and that’s not a bad thing.

How often do I think I will pull it out? I am still deciding, but right now, in our lives, my eldest child is learning the basics of math, so using this with him to help teach addition and subtraction is great. My daughter will soon be here as well, so I will definitely use it with her. After they have grasped the mathematical concepts, I am not sure how often Critter Cards will hit the table. However, by then it will have done its job and can retire on that sweet sweet teacher pension. Or it may be passed along to other young people to be enjoyed by them.

Should you require an educational (gross, I know, but it’s for the children) game to grow math skills, then check out Critter Cards. The art is cute, the rules are very light and adaptable, and different factions are coming as well. Props to the designers for the addition of the Hero Finn Longtail – my son loves the name!