Ascension deck building game 3rd edition unboxing and review

You may recall a while back I looked at one of the stand alone sets for Ascension.  It was Ascension, Realms unraveled.  today we are looking at the "main core" starter for the Ascension game.  It plays the same, so head on over here to take a look and get the ideas down on how its played.

Ascension is a deck-building game in which players spend Runes to acquire more powerful cards for their deck. It offers a dynamic play experience where players have to react and adjust their strategy accordingly. Each player starts with a small deck of cards, and uses those cards to acquire more and better cards for their deck, with the goal of earning the most Honor Points by gaining cards and defeating monsters.

It does say on the back 2-4 players, but the manual, which is fantastically laid out and easy to read by the way, does also include a SOLO mode!

30 min play time, seems about right from games I have played, they can go quicker or about that, rarely longer though.  Ages 13 and up again seems ok, Olivia isn't so interested in the card games, it means she has to read a lot, though she does enjoy watching them and helping where she can.

So what comes in the box? lets see.......

 As you would expect with a card game.... cards.... 200 of them, some nice plastic honour tokens, a rulebook and fold out game board too.

 The box itself also has some nifty storage solutions built in, but one was a little dinged in transit, but it does not effect its ability to store the cards nicely.

This is a deck builder game, where you start with a limited pool of cards, and purchase ones to add to your deck as you go on.  You begin with generic Apprentice cards, and Militia cards, Militia give you an attack value, that can be used to defeat creatures to add to gain honour and any effects from them, whilst the Apprentice gives you purchasing power that lets you buy more expensive cards that ad more power to your own deck, then you draw again, so eventually you will have more powerful cards that let you buy and defeat more powerful things and so on....

The art style is very distinct, and may not be to everyone's taste, but is consistent in the set, and the other Ascension games I have played, and the more time I spend with it the more I like it, and the more I see the vision for their world. it reminds of the 90s, not in a bad way, just the sort of games we would see then, and its art style, really nostalgic. Its a simple in approach game, but there is a huge amount of depth with the deck building combinations, and constructs you can have out on the table, so there is a lot of replay value, and a lot of choices to make, so no game should be the same of it.  Its one of the easier games as well to introduce to a new gamer. 

 The Rulebook is well laid out easy to follow and has large colour pictures detailing what the different icons on cards mean, and how they work.

 Once set up you have a set of generic cards on the top you can buy, or attack for honour gains in the case of the cultist, and then the main deck row... these get added to as cards are defeated and purchased.  Each turn you draw up to 5 cards, and play them, there is no limit to how many you play, presuming you can afford things, or fight that is so you could strong together a long turn.

 Here I used my 3 apprentices to purchase kor, who gives me some more attack

 And here I used 2 apprentice to buy a heavy infantry from the top, and with my 2 attack since it was less than all the creatures in the row attacked the cultist for 1 honour.

 Gathering up my hand I attacjed to destroy he Mistake of Creation, and gain 4 honour.

It looks really nice all set up on the board, and the old school art style really works well with the soft colours of the board, of course you do not even need a board to play this really, but it does look cooler with it for sure.

Its a good game, its fun to play, doesn't take too long, , and has plenty of expandability in the future should you wish to having played this combined with the other sets I have it works great. The art is lovely old school style and something you do not really see in most games with its line drawing style and really adds a lot to the charm of it.

If you are a card game fan, its well worth picking up, and if you are a solo gamer grab it.

You can pick up your own copy from your local game store and give it a try! with an RRP of  £31.99 it shall provide you a good amount of expandable entertainment.

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