Septima

"Septima" is a pretty mid-range strategy game about building your own witch coven using planning and resource collection to brew potions and develop spells to make yourself the most influential witch in order to take over all the covens as Septima. The imagery in this game is very gothic witch fare and is not grotesque or offending. The themes are not overly dark or deal with anything that associates with dark or evil witchcraft. You are trying to heal townsfolk and be a positive effect on the town while avoiding witch-hunters or angry mobs who don't appreciate your efforts. While there are witch trials (a la Salem), the witches are "banished" rather than burned at the stake and saving witches from these trials is one of the main ways of recruiting more witches into your coven and make you earn more wisdom (points). Collecting ingredients and crystals is your primary focus to make potions which in turn heal townsfolk. Managing your time with brewing potions and learning new spells as part of the Ritual track (nothing to do with any dark forces or Satanism) helps you to gain more wisdom and ultimately win the game. Time management is also extremely important as you only have one year's time (four seasons) to accomplish your goals. Each season has five moon phases for a total of 25 turns total to complete whatever you are trying to do. Once you have the routine down, turns are very quick and before you know it, you are at the next witch trial at the end of the season. The witch trials are a little more time consuming and add more time to playing the game, but the steps are fairly easy and get quicker the more you play the game. Overall, some people comment that the game is too long and that some parts are fiddly and not polished. I would argue that if you are familiar with Mindclash Games, they produce fairly complex decision-making games with high production level and concepts that I and others in my gaming group appreciate. I would recommend this one to anyone who likes resource management and set collection with the understanding that you will not have time to do everything you want or plan as is the hallmark of great Eurogames.

Still learning to play this game but so far I really like it and all the different goals available. Definitely highly recommend!

This was a gift to my sister in law and she loved it and it came in soo fast!