Faeries & Magical Creatures is a fantastical board game from Glenn Drover, designer of Raccoon Tycoon and Mosaic. Utilizing five unique actions and a hand of magical creatures, players will gain influence with the creatures of the forest while building their own faerie garden. Let’s check out how all these pieces come together in this upcoming release from Forbidden Games.
Making Friends with Faeries
Faeries immediately draws you in with gorgeous fantasy artwork from artist Annie Stegg-Gerard. Each card in this deck builder features creatures from the five classes; Beasts, Nature, Fae, Trolls, and Earth. Starting with 4 common cards, players will add more powerful cards with various affects throughout the game. Deck building is only a small part of this game, as it also includes area control and tile placement.
On a turn, the active player will choose an action from the central board. All other players follow this same action. The active player may also play a card from their hand, which the other players don’t get an opportunity to do. Each of the Faerie Folk Areas are located on the central board below the available actions. In these areas, players will add kinship tokens when the “Gain Trust” action is taken, or when a card gives a player that action.
Controlling these areas with kinship tokens will lead to victory points for the top two players, while the 3rd and 4th place players get shut out. Being the first to add 10 kinship tokens to an area will earn a player a faerie home to add to their garden board.
Building a Faerie Garden
Players are also building out a personal Faerie Garden with a stone pathway and plants. Drafting just the right polyominos during the game will maximize your scoring at the end of the game. Earning a faerie house will double the scores of all plants that are touching an edge of this square tile.
Faeries uses player boards to keep track of your score as your pawn travels through the garden. When a tile covers up an action space, players earn these bonuses immediately. Players can make satisfying combos even when they aren’t the active player.
Each of the classes of faeries and creatures have a unique feel. I especially liked how cutthroat the troll cards are as they move around kinship tokens, shifting control in the different areas of the board.
A Gateway to Fantasy
Faeries & Magical Creatures is quick to pick up, and the different actions are easy to teach. The game moves quick with just 2-players, while 4-players offers more competition with area control mechanics. The game mashes up familiar game mechanics with great results. This is a game that will engage gamers and is still accessible for a younger audience.
Faeries serves up solid mechanics with beautiful fantasy artwork. With plenty of point scoring opportunities, there’s a little something for everyone in this game.
Faeries & Magical Creatures is being funded through on Kickstarter starting on June 13, 2023.
A prototype of the game was provided for this coverage. Components and rules covered in this preview are not finalized. Read more about our preview policies at One Board Family.
