The Necrohamster

Necrohamster Card game caught my eye when I went to Comic Con last month, it is by @jackdaw_games and the same artist I purchased my beautiful pin badges and Eevee print from last year.

👥 2-4

⏳10 - 15 minutes

💭 Filler gamer

💀 Necrohamsters is a fun, quick card game full of beautiful art work. Perfect for a quick game or two or that perfect filler game between heavier games.

💀 Players simultaneously take turns discarding cards from their hand to summon a chosen Zombie, spirit, skeleton or devil (also from their hand) animal. The amount of cards discarded is dependent on the coat of your chosen animal depicted in the top left of the card.

⚰️ With a variety of different awards on the 15 unique creatures allows for replayability, depth and some variability in each game despite its easy to learn rules and quick to play time.

💀 Game play is short and easy and runs until a player summons their 8th animal, but ultimately the winner is determined by the highest VP.

⚰️ Game set up ⚰️

Each player is dealt 5 cards from the communal deck, then 3 random Title cards are placed in the centre from the 7 available. The Title cards are an opportunity to gain bonus points by whichever player is first to meet their requirements. If you wish to play with the Artifacts, place these out ready to be claimed in the communal play area, then randomise a starting player and give them the starting player card.

☠️ Game Play ☠️

Start each turn (except the first) by drawing 2 new cards into your hand, this allows for more expensive animals to be summoned at later dates as you build your hand up.

Next is the Summoning phase - All players simultaneously choose a card to summon. Once everyone has chosen, all cards are revealed and paid for. To pay for the card, players must discard cards from their hand equal to the cards summon cost. That players card can then go Into their own personal summoned area. After all cards have been summoned, starting with the first player, all the summoned cards effects are resolved.

The game ends in the round when a player summons their 8th animal.

💭 Thoughts 💭

I really enjoyed the simplicity of this game but also how much thought went into each turn. In some turns you ended up potentially running your hand dry in order to pay the summoning cost of a single card, or you had to make the choice and risk of skipping a Summoning turn altogether.

The artwork in this game, although not my usual style and theme, is beautifully done and drew me straight in.

My biggest dislike was the rules were written on cards exactly like the playing cards so it took a while to find them all in the deck and sort through it, I'd have preferred them to stand out and be different to the rest of the deck.