STUDIO H Vaalbara | Card Game for Teens and Adults | Ages 10+ | 2 to 5 Players | 20 Minutes

Vaalbara was the sleeper hit for me this year. Had I not seen video reviews of the game, I probably would have overlooked it. The box art doesn't look like something I would typically gravitate to. I'm glad I picked it up, and it's become one of my favorite "small box" games of the year.The Good: The gameplay. Flat out, I love this game. Other reviewers have gone into great detail on the gameplay, so I won't do that here, other than to say that I extremely enjoy it. I love the idea of everyone having the same cards at their disposal, though you don't know what they have drawn. This creates strategy and tension as you try to play your hand aggressively to get cards you want, and less so if you want to save those actions for later. The artwork on the cards is beautiful, the "Lands" cards are easily discernible, the iconography is easy to understand after a couple of games, and the cardboard tokens are solid. This is also a really quick game to teach to new players.The Bad: I don't really have anything to add here.The Indifferent: This is a fairly lightweight game, so if you're looking for super in-depth strategy, you'll need to look elsewhere. As others have mentioned, the box has no internal dividers, so items shift around a bit. I added Ziploc bags to organize things - which I do for most of my games - so this really isn't a problem for me. Honestly, I like the fact there is very little in the way of wasted packaging or space, which seems to be an ongoing problem in the hobby.Overall, as I've mentioned I love this game. It looks great on the table, it's easy to teach & easy to play, and for the money it packs a lot of fun into a small package. 5 out of 5.

This is a relatively easy game to learn and doesn’t take forever to play. Good game to play with family or friends .

Love the feature of higher cards technically being weaker, but having game-changing powers.Great replay-ability

This is a great game. Easy to get to the table. Amazing artwork, every character is card is beautiful. In terms of value, the price aligns with the complexity. We took this game on holiday with us since it takea up very little space. Not that versatile as it was designed with specific mechanics in mind and will cater for that. I will also say given how quick it is i have played this more than some other games on my shelf. The only reason it gets 4 stars is the box design is a bit wierd as it slides out and the box is not the best quality

Took less than 2 minutes to teach, within 20min for a game

This was a fun game.

Got this for my roommates and I to play, we've run it a few times. It's a card game, pretty simple but seems to have some depth. Can't say it's an easy game to play if you're unfamiliar with board game theory or card gaming but since we play Magic really frequently it was actually really easy and fun to get in to. We thought that it may have a little bit of a balance issue but we haven't played enough to find cracks in the design nor do we plan to ever play it that seriously to begin with. All in all we really enjoyed it for what it was.

This is a great and amusing game. The box is high quality and the cards are relatively thick and high quality as well. The game is about five clans (players) competing to expand their territories with more valuable land cards and get more victory points than the other clans. The concept is interesting, and the game is simple and easy to learn plus it doesn’t take that much time so you can play more rounds if you want to.Game play:The game is simple and easy to learn which is a big plus. It is played over nine rounds with each round divided into three phases, assignment, resolution and end of round. Each clan has 12 identical character cards (numbered 1-12) and on each turn, players secretly choose one of their character cards to play, simultaneously. The cards are then revealed in order of their initiative, with the player who played the card with the lowest value going first (assignment phase). Each character card also has a unique ability that is resolved at the beginning of the resolution phase. The players then get to select from the land cards in their initiative order and get points based on the victory point value that the land cards provide them.Territories (land cards) can be of different types, each with its own scoring system. For example, some territories score points for the number of different land types players have, while others score points for the number of matching lands types they have. At the end of the game, players could also get some victory points if they have at least five or six different territory types.The game needs 5-10 minutes to read and can be played in 15-45 minutes depending on the number of players and how overthinking they are lol.Overall, the game is so much fun. It is very easy to learn and a short game to play with up to five players. It certainly offers some strategy you can enjoy but also has some luck in the assignment phase sometimes. I would recommend it as both a family game and more of a competitive game for adults.