Valeria Card Kingdoms
Recruit citizens and slay monsters
- Designer: Isaias Vallejo
- Publisher: Daily Magic Games
- Players: 1 to 5
- Ages: 13+
- Time: 30 to 45 mins
Valeria Card Kingdoms by Daily Magic Games is located within the Valeria universe and sits alongside other titles such as Villages of Valeria and Corsairs of Valeria. This is a dice-driven tableau-building card game for two to five players and comfortably plays in less than an hour.
The kingdom of Valeria is beset by marauding monsters, can you save the day?
Gold
Strength
Magic
Components
The game comes with four decks of cards: Citizens, Monsters, Domains, and Dukes. These all bear the sumptuous artwork of The Mico, aka Mihajlo Dimitrievski. The card designs are incredibly evocative and add a definite charm. In addition, the game includes two d6 dice, victory point tokens and resource tokens for gold, magic, and strength. In general, gold is used to recruit citizens or acquire domains, while strength is used to slay monsters. Magic typically acts as a joker, but is sometimes required to slay certain monsters.
Victory point tokens
citizen cards
d6 dice
Set up
Four rows of cards are placed in the middle of the table. Each row contains five stacks of cards.
The top row contains the Monster cards. Each of the five stacks represents a different type of Monster, with the topmost card being the easiest Monster to slay. The middle two rows are the Citizen cards. Each stack contains one type of Citizen. Finally, the bottom row displays random Domain cards. First one card is dealt, face-down, into each space and then a second card is dealt face-up on top of the first card.
Player set up: peasant, knight and 3 resources
Each player now receives their two start cards (a peasant and a knight) and two gold and one magic. Finally, players are each dealt two Duke cards, one of which has to be discarded. The Duke cards provide secret goals for each player.
An example Duke card is pictured below.
Gameplay
Each player’s turn consists of four simple phases. First, the active player rolls the two dice. This is now the end of the first phase. All players participate in the second ‘harvest’ phase. To do this, players look at the two dice that have just been rolled; for example, a ‘3’ and a ‘5’. Then, the players look at the cards in their own tableau. If players have either a number 3 card or a number 5 card or a number 8 card (i.e. the sum of the two dice), then the players may simultaneously activate these cards in any order. See below for a description of the card anatomy. In phase 3, the active player may take two actions: either draft a card or take one resource.
Draft a card
A player may recruit a citizen by paying the appropriate amount in gold, or a combination of gold and magic. The recruitment cost increases for each subsequent citizen of the same type. So, the first citizen of a given type may cost 2 gold, but the second will cost 3, and so on. Each citizen has a different number and provides different activation abilities. These abilities are cumulative. If a player has two peasant cards (number 5), this will generate 2 gold each time 5 is rolled: either a single ‘5’ or any combination equalling 5.
Domains are acquired in a similar manner; however, a player will additionally need to satisfy the citizen-type requirement specified on the domain card. Domains may provide a one-off bonus or a continuing one.
To slay a monster, a player has to pay the appropriate cost in strength and magic to the common supply and then receives the bonus shown on the bottom of the card.
As a player has two actions, two cards can be drafted.
Take a resource
Instead of one or both the card draft actions, a player may take one resource: gold, strength or magic. So, two resources could be taken or one resource and one card. These actions can be taken in any order.
The final phase (phase 4) is to check if the game end conditions have been met. If they haven’t, the next player takes the dice and becomes the active player.
Card anatomy
Citizens
Top-right: The two symbols are used in scoring at the end of the game. The Duke card shows how these symbols will translate into victory points. Also, symbols are required to allow Domain cards to be acquired.
Top-left: This is the card number. Each time a six is rolled (either on one die or as a combination of the two die) this card is activated.
Bottom-left, top row: Here we have the name of the Citizen and the cost of recruiting this Citizen; in this case, 3+ gold. This means that the first Knight we acquire costs 3 gold, then a second Knight will cost 4 gold, and so on.
Bottom-left, bottom row, left side: This is the activation benefit for the active player; here, the active player gains either 1 strength or 1 gold. The player chooses.
Bottom-left, bottom row, right side: This is the activation benefit for all other players; here, 1 strength.
Monsters
Top-right: These symbols denote the type of monster. Sometimes there are bonus victory points for slaying monsters of a given type.
Bottom, top row: Here we have the name of the monster. On the left is the cost of slaying this monster. Remember that magic can be substituted for strength to help slay a monster. On the right is the benefit for slaying this monster: 2 victory points at the end of the game.
Bottom, bottom row: Immediate benefit for slaying this monster.
Domains
Top-right: A player’s tableau must include these symbols before the player can acquire this Domain.
Bottom, top row: Here is the name of the Domain, together with the cost in gold of acquiring the Domain and the endgame benefit in victory points.
Bottom, bottom row: This is the in-game benefit of acquiring this Domain. In this case, the benefit is immediate and one-time. On other occasions, the benefit may last for the rest of the game.
Dukes
Each player is dealt (face-down) 2 Duke cards at the start of the game. One is discarded (face-down).
The Duke card provides secret scoring objectives/possibilities for each player. These are in addition to the victory points acquired in-game by slaying Monsters and acquiring Domains.
Gurira the Guardian allows the player to score victory points as follows:
- 1 VP for each Monster slain and 1 VP for each of the given symbol on Citizen cards in the player’s tableau and one any acquired Domain cards.
- 1 VP for every set of 3 gold/magic/strength. So, if the player has 3 gold, 5 magic and 9 strength at the end of the game, the player receives 1 VP for gold, 1 VP for magic (5 = 1 set of 3, plus 2), and 3 VP for strength.
Endgame conditions and scoring
Scoring
At the end of the game, players receive victory points from 3 sources. First, players need to count up any victory point tokens accumulated during the game. Then, players count the victory points displayed on cards drafted during the game. Finally, players gain victory points based on the conditions listed on their Duke card.
Impressions
Valeria Card Kingdoms is an engaging and fun game to play. Its components have been designed and produced to a high standard: from the wooden resource tokens to the fabulous artwork on the cards and box. The rulebook is well laid out and clearly explains the game and the game’s crisp iconography avoids the need for reading text on all but the Domain cards. Even here, the text is short and to the point.
The gameplay is easy to grasp, making the game accessible to a wide range of people: young and old, gamers and non-gamers. I enjoy the dice rolling for two reasons. Firstly, I enjoy the tactile experience of actually holding the dice and rolling them, and then listening to sound they make on the table. Even when they manage to end up on the floor, that just adds to the whole ambiance of the game. Secondly, the element of luck brings with it a degree of tension. Players cannot plan everything to the nth degree. And the fact that the dice roll affects all the players evens out any feeling of being hard-done by when the ‘wrong’ numbers appear. This does mean though that there is sense in aiming to draft at least one card for each number as soon as possible. But in doing so, maybe you’ll miss out on that monster that will give you victory points at the end of the game with your Duke.