This review is being made in all fairness and as such I will attempt to review this game without bias.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is a table top cooperative game, that means it is all of the players versus the board. The game was released in 2016. Not much is known about the production figures or  who came up with the game concept, but it was created by a team at Forrest-Pruzan Creative in Seattle.

Each turn is the same. You play for the board first, drawing dark arts event cards and activating the villains’ abilities. These actions will cause damage to the players in some form and then you take what is left of you and cast spells, draw cards, and roll dice to try and defeat the various villains on the board. Each player has a health meter. Once it reaches zero, that player is stunned and loses half of their cards and all attacks and influence. A dark mark is also added to a location on the board. The game is lost when all of the dark marks have been added to each location on the board.

You decide to play as Harry, Ron, Hermione or Neville. Each character has their own abilities and skills. Neville heals people; Harry gets to go first; Ron attacks villains; and Hermione helps players collect money (The game calls it “influence,” but let’s face it. If it looks like money and works like money, then it’s money.) As the years progress, the number of abilities increase for all of the characters. All of these characters can do what the other characters can do, only less well.

All the many cards and tokens involved in the playing of Harry Potter: Battle for Hogwarts.

What makes this game interesting is the chance you will lose as a team or win as a team. The key to victory is in making good decisions each turn to slowly overcome the villains. There are multiple years and expansions to this game that can make it a different challenge. While the gameplay on this game is longer (some games can take up to three hours to play, and sometimes you can make it almost to the end and still lose).

Some things we have learned over the years is that you need dark mark removers. The more you have, the more likely you are to be able to win the game. These are hard to come by as they are shuffled randomly into a giant deck. If they come up though, it is good to get them into play. Another thing we have learned is to stick to each character’s strengths.

What a typical setup would be for Harry showing his draw pile, health meter and discard pile. Not that Arthur Weasley was bought for six influences (or money). 

Something that could be considered a downside to this game is the setup and takedown. There are so many different things to remember to set up and they are specific to each year and expansion of the game. You really have to play them in order for the most ease in setup. 

This game has a lot of replayability. The characters get stronger each year and the cards that the character can buy increase their powers. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is currently available on “Amazon” for $49.99 plus tax. 

The box is shaped like a trunk! A fitting motif for a game from the wizarding world of Harry Potter. 

I give this game an 8/10

Pros: 

• Cooperative 
• Unique game play 
• Replayability 

Cons:

• Luck based
• Involved set up and take down
• A large time commitment for later games