Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn First Impressions

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn is a card and dice fighting game.

This is a quick video overview.

Players take on the roles of Phoenixborns, demi-gods and protectors of this world. These characters are the great saviors of their civilizations. Before they came into existence, the humans were plagued by monsters like chimeras that took away their lands and forced them to live in walled-off cities. When the Phoenixborns came, they fought off the chimeras and freed the lands for humans to take over once again.

But the time of peace was short-lived. A prophecy arose that if one Phoenixborn was able to absorb enough Ashes of others, they would ascend into full gods and take mastery over this world. This, as well as humans’ greed for land, fueled the War of Ashes. The great cities now fight among each other, each one of them with a Phoenixborn at its helm, and you will decide who will rise and who will fall to ashes.

This is a brief overview of the rules then I give my thoughts on them.

0:30 – Overview
0:58 – Game Play
9:33 – Summary

TL:DR Players have a deck of cards and will play spells and allies to defeat their opponent while using the ability of their unique Phoenixborn all using dice as a resource.

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn Update July 2018

I really enjoyed this game and the artwork. I love that expansion decks are available and as far as I’m aware they’re pretty balanced. So you can skip the deck building and move on to get the game played. I do prefer games like this, especially if the decks are shown to be balanced.

Also, the artwork is phenomenal! It’s what really attracted me to the game. I like the nice art on a white background. I don’t know how much this costs to have made but I’d love to see it in a euro-style game.

The game is pretty fun…

But it’s fairly complex and fiddly. Also, with so many cards it’s a tough teach. You can teach how the mechanisms of the game but the minutia of each card, not so much. It’s expected for any CCG/TCG/LCG etc

With games like Hero Realms around if I want to play a 2-4 player card game, I’ll play that. It’s easier, quicker, and simpler to play but just as fun. (and cheaper?)

So, it was with sadness that I sold this game. I really wanted to collect all the decks, kept them sleeved and bagged up and whip them out every so often.

But alas, this is another game labelled “I just don’t have the time to dedicate to it that it deserves”

It’s really good though 🙂

Jesta ThaRogue