Game Daze Arizona Mills Mall Employee Recommendation, October 2011

Brock -

Ascension is one of the younger deck building games, based around the idea that you start with 10 cards in your deck and build it up from there. Of all the deck building games out there I would have to say this is my favorite, being faster than some of the others both in setup and in play this game gets you into the action faster and rewards you for playing against other players much more than some other deck builders. Unlike other deck builders the field of cards available to build from is not static and will change from player to player depending on what the last player took. All and all this Deck Builder is more tactical than other deck builders, while being just as strategic.

Paradise Valley Mall Employeee Recommendation, June 2011

Nathan -

For all the fans of deck building games such as Dominion, Resident Evil, Nightfall or Thuderstone He’s a game that has been on the back seat longer than it should be. The mechanics are the same simple buy and use actions originally implemented in Dominion just with out a limit as to the number of things you can do the other amazing part is how rather than blending your victory points into your deck they’re actually purchased in the forms of gems so your stack of cards never gets bogged down. And rather than having preset stacks of cards there’s just a single deck that you flip 6 random cards from and those are the cards than can be purchased or fought against. This is a great game based more around tactical turns than strategic planning which is what I like about it so much.

Game Daze Park Place Mall Assistant Mgr. Recommendation, November 2010

Ben -

The last couple of years have brought about a new game mechanic: deck-building. Dominion, the 2009 Spiel des Jahres winner, was the first. Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer is the most recent, and is a lot of fun, as well as being simple to learn.

The premise of deck-building games is just that: build the best deck possible. In Ascension, you start with a small deck of ten cards, eight Apprentices and two Militia. The Apprentices each give you one Rune, while the Militia each add one to your Power. Runes are used to hire Heroes and Constructs, which will help you in some way, such as defeating a monster or getting rid of a card you don’t want an opponent to get. They also give you Honor Points, which is how you win the game. Power is how you defeat monsters; you must have at least equal power to that of a monster in order to defeat it. Some monsters will give you an extra action of some sort to take when you defeat it, in addition to the Honor Points that all monsters give you.

Each player shuffles their ten starting cards and draw a hand of five cards. The monster, hero, and construct cards are shuffled together, and six will be dealt face up onto the playing board. There are also two stacks of Mystic and Heavy Infantry cards that are always available to get. The Mystics add two Runes and the Infantry add two Power. With your hand of five cards, you see what you are able to “purchase”. There might be a nice hero you can hire to help you defeat a certain type of monster, or you might want to increase your Power by hiring two Infantry. Maybe you can get a Hero and an Infantry. The nice thing about Ascension is that as long as you still have cards in your hand, you get more cards. Any new cards you get, the cards you bought them with, and any remaining cards in your hand and then discarded into your own discard pile. As soon as your draw deck runs out, you shuffle your discard pile, and you can start using the new cards you just got.

Ascension is a great, easy to learn game that plays fairly fast for two to four players. The box states it is for ages thirteen and up, but I think that slightly younger kids can easily learn the game. Have fun playing!