Witch of Salem:
brave Arkham detectives battle the elder evil you say? Surely this is yet
another ludic tribute to the master of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft! Apparently
not. For you see, this is based on a number of novels by Wolfgang Hohlbein, a
German writer of fantasy and horror tales. Given the fact that HPL receives not
a mention in the game, evidently Arkham, Miskatonic University, Deep Ones, the
Necronomicon and the varied other elements of the Cthulhu mythos mentioned in Witch of Salem are all Hohlbein's
inventions! The title also seems a little misleading, as the game is set in
Arkham not Salem (this is somewhat pedantic, as the Witch of Salem - a character
in Hohlbein's work - plays a key part in the game). The complete lack of
mention of Lovecraft or Cthulhu is odd, though: given the proensity of various
game manufacturers to push out Lovecraft/Cthulhu themed products - see for
example the expansion for the Smash Up! card game, the amusingly titled The Obligatory Cthulhu Set - it
is a surprise that these aren't plastered all over the box as a selling point.
I can only imagine this may relate to some kind of contractual issue with
regard to Mayfair Game's using Hohlbein's 'original' setting.
Such pettiness aside, Witch
of Salem has a reputation of being a Eurofied Arkham Horror lite, which may
prove to be a positive given how long Arkham Horror takes to play. I've had
this game unplayed in my collection now for a couple of years, so it is time to
get it to the table.
On opening, we are presented with a sight that is likely to
lead to ludic arousal in any Lovecraftian. In brief, the game looks lovely (re:
the image of the board from my previous post). The components are all of
extremely high quality, beautifully illustrated, and includes quaint Victorian
style meeples which act as player markers in the game. The rules are nicely condensed
and concise. Thence to the game itself.
Witch of Salem is
broken down into rounds during which the players take it in turns to travel to
various locations in Arkham, encounter mythos beasties, collect items to help
them to defeat the insidious Necron, close dimensional portals, and finally battle
Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Nyarlathotep or some other Great Old One. In this they
may be occasionally aided by Robert Carver, the eponymous Witch of Salem, whose actions are governed by the game's AI. All
the while, they have to ensure that Necron (represented on the board by a
token) does not reach the end of the doom track (located along the bottom and
left edges of the board). If at any point this happens, the portals to the
Outside open and the Great Old Ones return to devour the world. Yay!
At the start of each round, a monster is revealed - these
include the usual mythos suspects (shoggoths, deep ones and ghouls), as well as
creatures which are presumably unique to Hohlbein's work such as lava worms (probably supposed to by Chthonians
as I think these have been copyrighted by Brian Lumley), Ice Witches and Fire
Witches (shades of Derleth here). Counting the numbered locations clockwise, if
a space for a monster card is available at a location - and assuming that a
monster card of the same type is not already on the board - said monster is placed on that space.
Player's visiting a location where a monster is lurking have to role a die,
usually causing them to lose sanity points (a player is removed from the game
if these reach zero), lose an item, or push the Necron token a space further
along the doom track. Various other game effects - such as event cards (see
below) - also advance the doom track. In addition to which, if a monster card
is drawn and another copy of the same card is in play, this activates special
abilities (usually meaning that players collectively have to discard a specific
number of item types, otherwise the Necron counter further advances to the end
of the track).
Once the monster card is revealed, players take it in turn
to move and take actions. Each player has a deck of cards corresponding to the
locations on the board, and to move to a location they must play the relevant
card (each player has to move during their turn). Once at a location, they encounter
a monster if any is in play at the location, following which they any: attempt
to defeat the monster (by having a specific set of items in their possession
corresponding to those on the monster card); play an item they already possess
(which allows them to complete various of the winning conditions); pick up an
item or sigil (used to close portals) at the location if they are able (each
player can only carry three items and one sigil at any time). 3 items/sigils
are randomly placed at each location at the start of the game, and new ones are
placed if all three items at a location have been collected. Picking up an item
may have an associated cost (indicated by icons on the board), which again cause
players to lose sanity, or move the Necron marker further along the doom track.
Players can only move to locations whose cards they still have in hand, otherwise
they must move to the Miskatonic University location in order to refresh their
location deck.
Once each player has acted, an event card is drawn. This
causes an number of effects - both positive and negative - one of which is to
move the Witch of Salem clockwise around the board a number of locations. This
can be useful to players: if they visit a location containing the Witch of
Salem, defeating monsters at that location becomes easier, or it enables a
player to regain additional sanity if they are able to play a particular item.
Event cards can also move the Necron token further along the doom track, or
cause a Great Old One to manifest at the Miskatonic University. This usually
puts into play a rule that negatively effects players until the GOO is removed
(either by another event card, or players going to Miskatonic University and discarding
a number of items specific on the GOO card).
To win the game,
players have to fulfil a number of conditions, which includes closing all of
the hidden portals that are on the board. Each location has a space for a
portal tile, and at the beginning of the game tiles are randomly chosen and placed
face down on these spaces (six in total). The hidden side of the tile reveals
whether or not this is a portal. Items allow players to examine the portal
tiles of the location they are currently in, and sigils (of the type
corresponding to the space upon which the portal tile is placed) allow them to
seal the portal (but a player cannot view and seal a portal tile on the same
round; nor can they remain at a location, so potentially it can take a single
player three rounds to close a portal, assuming they have all of the necessary
items and sigils). Players can seal portal tiles without examining them, but if
they do so and the tile turns out not to contain a portal, they lose the game
and the Great Old One's return to devour the world.
In addition to which, the players also have to reveal the
Great Old One lurking in the R'lyeh space off the coast of Arkham (Arkham is a
coastal town now?) and located at the top right-hand corner of the board. To do
so, they have to work their way through a series of five other Great Old One
cards arrayed around the edge of the R'lyeh space until they reveal the sixth
and final GOO. In order to do this, they need to collect and play specific
items (pages from the Necronomicon) as they travel around the board. If the
players fail to reveal all of the GOO cards before the Necron marker reaches a
particular point on the doom track (about two thirds along), they loose and the
the Great Old Ones return to devour the world.
Once the final Great Old One in R'lyeh has been revealed,
players have to travel there (which involves losing sanity), then defeat the
outer monstrosity by having in their possession items specified on the final Great
Old One card. If they fail to do so, the Great Old Ones return to devour the
world.
Each player also has a named character tile which upon which
items/sigils are placed once collected, and which also contains a track for
marking off sanity lost during gameplay. As mentioned above, players can lose sanity
by encountering monsters, collecting items or through event cards. If all of
the players are reduced to zero sanity, they loose and the Great Old ones
return to...well, you probably get the picture by now.
Given the objectives players have to achieve, and the
multiple ways it is possible to lose the game, this makes Witch of Salem pretty challenging. Added to which, this is somewhat
unusual as a co-op in that it involves hidden information: players who examine
a portal tile are not allowed to tell other players whether it contains a
portal or is blank. Unfortunately, this is the one rule that undermines the
game's solo playability, especially if you are using more than one character
(the game is designed for 2-4 players, so playing with just one character is
not recommended). However, given the difficulty of the game, ignoring this rule
(which I did) doesn't seem to have much of an effect. Indeed, going by Witch of
Salem forums on boardgamegeek, this seems to be common practice amongst
enthusiasts of the game. In any case, the two times I played I lost - in the
first instance very badly, although in the second time I came relatively close
to winning.
Overall, I found this to be a quick and light - but nonetheless
challenging - take on Arkham Horror, so
no points for originality there. That said, whilst Arkham Horror is one of my
all-time favourite games (especially in solitaire mode), it hardly ever hits my
gaming table given the game's significantly large footprint and the time it
takes to play (I've never managed to see to completion in under four hours). As
a consequence, Witch of Salem is a
reasonably good go-to game for a more condensed Arkham Horror experience. That
said, whilst beautifully produced , Witch
of Salem (as its Euro roots attest) is a very abstract game that lacks the
naarative flavour of Arkham Horror: in Arkham Horror, each character has unique
abilities and characteristics, whilst in Witch
of Salem each character is identical; in Arkham Horror, travelling to a
location can result in varied events which push the narrative of the game forward,
whereas visiting locations in Witch of
Salem leads to a very limited number of (usually) predictable possibilities.
On the plus side, Witch of Salem does
as good a job as Arkham Horror of ratcheting up the tension as the Necron
marker is moved inevitably towards the endspace.
In summary, this game looks beautiful, plays well solitaire
(although this requires a minor rules modification) in about 80-90 minutes, has
a reasonably easy rules set (4 pages) and offers a nice, light alternative to
the grandaddy of Lovecraftian boardgames, Arkham Horror. Despite the lack of narrative
engagement (not to mention the failure to mention Lovecraft anywhere in the
game), this is something that I will almost certainly play again for that
always desireable quick fix of Lovecraftian gaming self-love.
On the Gaming Self-Abuse Scale (tm), this clocks in at: 7.5/10
Next up: a new acquisition - The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords.
Marvellous! But can you keep it up?
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