Czech Games Edition Tash-Kalar: Arena of Legends

Somewhere between board gaming and the recurring nightmare of getting only green pieces in Tetris lies Tash Kalar: Arena of Legends. While I have yet to play an abstract game in this style, I am all about murdering my friends across some cardboard. There are 2 main ways to play the game, and this review will focus on the Deathmatch version.Deathmatch melee involves basically 2 actions, which make up your turn: Putting rocks on a board, or, if the pattern on your card matches what you have on the board, summoning new rocks and doing cool things with them. These new rocks can be used to kill other rocks, or give you an advantage, and there’s lots of variety with the cards. Super-complex patterns can grant you more powerful rocks and victory points. The fun comes from beating other players’ rocks to death which scores you points.But the thing is, every round is all about making the most out of a situation you’ve been thrown into, and stretching your mind to see patterns and possibilities. The best laid plans can be ruined by an enemy rock, or them killing one of your rocks. I literally spent a game unable to play a high-powered, game changing card, because every turn someone would mess up one thing for me and I cursed their name. You’ll either love this kind of game, or hate it all. I love it.To keep things fair, there are cards called flares which can be played when an opponent has X more pieces than you. It creates a rubber band effect to give a weak player some extra pieces or moves (outside of the regular 2 actions).It also takes 10 minutes to learn the game, and the colored “full rules” insert they give you is possibly the most concise, clear way I’ve ever seen a board game explained. It makes the game super easy to teach.Closing thoughtsAs a bloodthirsty board game player, Tash Kalar is a lot of fun, doesn't take too long, and it's worthy of a purchase if you think you can handle abstract pattern matching. It’s one of the rare games where I played it once and needed to immediately buy a copy.{I've played 5 games of Tash Kalar so far using the yellow and green decks}

Holy wow!! This game is amazing!!! I think of this game as a very exciting new spin on chess. Although it isn't quite the same thing (at all), it plays similarly in the way of strategically placing pieces in order to knock out your opponent or position yourself in a way that will complete objectives earning you points. This game is very quick to learn and teach to others. It can take a while to get through sometimes, but it's very well balanced and thought out. If you like chess and enjoy a quality fantasy setting, this game is for you!

Among my biggest disappointments in gaming. There was NOTHING fun about this game. They hid a boring abstract in a beautiful box and tricked me. I should have looked more into the game play itself so that is my fault. That being said I would not bother playing this game every again. The box art is far away the best things about it. It's a complete &$*% show after that.

Nice looking game and the idea sounds good but actual play is a bit too thinky and fun factor is missing. Too bad, was really looking forward to playing it.

Easy to learn, hard to master, great theming and excellent instruction manual - Vlaada's done it again. A great 2 player game.Complaints: board and pieces are a little flimsy and not particularly high quality. Given how simple all the pieces are I would have loved to have seen them done as wood or thick plastic rather than cheap cardboard. The cards are very nice though and the art is great.