Sorcerer: Review
In the dark recesses of the poorly gaslit alleys and streets of 19th century Victorian London creep many unspeakable things that are vying for control of the city. It has become like an ancient battlefield where powerful sorcerers disciplined in different inherited magic lineages and with power over varied domains of dark incantations summon minions and cast spells from their grimoires to lay waste and conquer the city.
In Sorcerer designed by Peter Scholtz (published by White Wizard Games) players create a unique magic practitioner by combining a character deck, a lineage deck, and a domain deck to create their grimoire in this strategy card game for 2 to 4 players.
You’ll be taking turns spending your actions to draw cards, cast spells, and deploy minions on one of three different sections of Victorian London in order to be the first one to lay waste to two battlefields and win supremacy over the city and thereby winning the game.
Players of other strategic games, card based or otherwise, will find this to all sound familiar. What Sorcerer excels at is the sheer amount of variability each game can have, which in turn develops in the game as points of decisions to be made and strategies to test in a turn.
Each combination of character, lineage, and domain will produce decks that play very differently and will absolutely change how you’ll approach your goals.
In addition, at the beginning of each turn the first player will either roll an eight sided die to determine how much energy each player will get to spend actions OR simply decide to have all players gain four energy. This creates a simple strategic point and a bit of randomness that makes a game where you can only plan ahead so far and will have to make important decisions on the fly. This is bolstered by the fact players take alternating actions, meaning you will always be reacting to your opponents.
The game also offers multiple game modes for additional amounts of players, and the game will be endlessly expanded with deck packs and additional game content making Sorcerer an evergreen title.
Meanwhile all of this satisfying strategic gameplay is backed up by gorgeous art, high quality components, and a stylized well-organized rulebook. It’s the kind of quality we’ve all come to expect from White Wizard Games.
Happy Gaming!
James Goff
James Goff is freelance content creator living in the Twin Cities area, which is great because he can live in the “North” but not be so far north that he has to fight bears. (Which is difficult to do while wearing the Power Glove) He’s a filthy casual Nintendo fanboy who recently discovered how much he loves Pokemon in all forms but the game he currently plays 24/7 is Super Fatherhood Explore in which he helped craft two awesome human boys named Enver and Link. His still-growing retro neon soaked brand of content known as Pizza Meeple can be found on all social media and dirty arcade bulletin boards everywhere.