Challengers Game

Kids and adults will have a blast with this interactive deck building card game that gives players the chance to use strategy to build on their starting decks by drawing new cards each round to have the best chance of winning successive battles with other players.  Each time a player wins a round, they collect a trophy token, which has a score on its back, based on how many fans that trophy collects.  After seven rounds, the two players with the most trophy fans enter a final head-to-head battle to secure the final victory!

When the game begins, each player receives a tournament plan card that determines which of four different parks they will compete in each round as well as which of three decks to draw from and how many cards players may add to their decks each round.  The card decks are labelled A, B & C with each consecutive deck containing cards that are more powerful.   After players draw cards and shuffle their decks, the match phase of the game beings.  There are trophies representing rounds 1 through 7, which are awarded to the winner of each round, and they are placed next to the park in sequential order.

The flag token contains an icon representing both sides of the park.  The players’ tournament plan cards show which side of the park they will battle on.  In round one, the battle flag token is tossed up to determine which player starts with flag possession and that player puts the first card on their deck under the flag token.  In rounds 2 through 7, the player who has the trophy with the highest round number starts.  The other player begins their attack by drawing their first card.  If the card drawn has an equal or higher number on it, they take the flag, and the defending player puts their card(s) in one of six bench seat slots under their side of the park.  If the first card draw is not equal or higher, the attacking player continues to draw cards until the total is equal or higher than their opponent’s top card.  Some cards have bonuses or powers that trigger when the card is played, goes to, leaves the bench, or meets a specific criterion.  Once the attacker can claim the flag, their top card becomes the total to match or beat and the defending player moves their cards to their bench.  Duplicate cards may share a bench slot. 

The round ends when a player runs out of cards, or their bench slots are too full to place cards when they lose the flag.  The winner gains the trophy token for that round and the next round is set up according to their tournament plan.  After round 7 ends, all players add up the number of fans depicted on their collected trophy tokens.  In a two-player game, the player with the most fans wins.  In games with more than two players, the top two scoring players face off in the final battle for victory!  For solo games, there is an automa deck included.

Although Challengers! is a game for 1-8 players, in my opinion, this action-packed deck building battle adventure provides gamers with their best experiences at an even number of players and is really at its optimum amount of action and fun at the full 8 player count!  Game play usually takes around 45 minutes.  ~ Marsha