Fantasy Realms
Fantasy Realms is a card game where players form the best possible realm to score points. Each card has unique abilities, and players must balance their hand to maximize their score.
How Complex is Fantasy Realms?
Fantasy Realms is easy to learn and play, with straightforward rules and mechanics, making it accessible to both casual and experienced gamers.
How much Luck is involved in the gameplay of Fantasy Realms?
Luck plays a significant role in Fantasy Realms as players draw & are dealt cards randomly, but strategic card selection and hand management are more important factors in winning the game.
How much Player Interaction does Fantasy Realms offer?
Fantasy Realms has limited player interaction as players focus on building their own hands. However, you can draft a card from the discard area to block other players.
How much Replayability does Fantasy Realms offer?
Fantasy Realms offers moderate replayability due to the large variety of cards and the different combinations that can be created, making each game unique and challenging.
Why you should play Fantasy Realms
Easy to Learn
Fantasy Realms is a simple game to learn, with straightforward rules that can be understood in just a few minutes.
Strategic Gameplay
Despite its simplicity, Fantasy Realms offers a lot of strategic depth. Players must carefully choose which cards to play and when to play them in order to maximize their score.
Replayability
With over 53 unique cards, each game will be different, as players have to adapt to the cards they are dealt.
Quick Gameplay
Fantasy Realms is a fast-paced game that can be played in just 20-30 minutes. This makes it a great choice for a quick game night or as a filler game between longer games.
Beautiful Artwork
The artwork in Fantasy Realms is stunning, with each card featuring detailed illustrations that bring the game's fantasy world to life.
Score guide
The game creators have developed a web app to score points for the cards in hand at the end game. It makes the scoring easy.
Why you should avoid Fantasy Realms
Limited Player Interaction
While Fantasy Realms is a fun game, it doesn't offer a lot of player interaction. Players are mostly focused on building their own hands and scoring points, rather than directly interacting with each other.
Luck-Based
While there is some strategy involved in Fantasy Realms, luck plays a big role in the game. The cards you draw can heavily impact your ability to score points, which can be frustrating for some players.
Lack of Theme
While the artwork in Fantasy Realms is beautiful, the game doesn't have a strong theme. The cards are loosely based on fantasy tropes, but there isn't a cohesive story or world-building to tie them together.
Limited Depth
While Fantasy Realms offers some strategic depth, it may not be enough for more experienced gamers who are looking for a more complex game.
Where to play Fantasy Realms online?
Where to find the Rules of Fantasy Realms
Check the rules of Fantasy Realms in a PDF file.
You can also find the community-driven rules summary, player aid, etc., in the Fantasy Realms files section on the BoardGameGeek website. You need an account on BGG to download files.
Beginner Strategies for Fantasy Realms
These strategies are for players who have either not played or played one or two games of Fantasy Realms.
Get to know the cards
Fantasy Realms have 53 cards with 11 different suits with 5 cards each except the Wild suit which only has 3 cards. Go through each card and know its abilities and penalties.
Pay attention to card synergies
Many cards in Fantasy Realms have special abilities that work well with other cards. Look for cards that have synergies with each other and try to build a hand that takes advantage of these synergies. Below are the best synergies in the game.
| Cards with synergy | Least potential points |
|---|---|
| Candle, Book of Changes, Bell Tower, Any wizard (Can also use BoC ability instead) | 128 |
| Mountain, Smoke, Wildfire | 126 |
| Great Flood, Whirlwind, Rainstorm | 103 |
| Shield of Keth, Sword of Keth and a leader | 91 |
| King, Queen, Army cards (Any number) | 14 + (40 * no of Army cards) |
Use the discard area to your advantage
The discard area can be a great source of the cards you may need. Keep an eye on the cards that are being discarded. Also, pay attention to what other players are taking from the discard area. It will give you an idea of what type of cards others are looking for so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
Don't hesitate to discard
Sometimes it's better to discard a card than to keep it in your hand. If a card isn't working well with the rest of your hand, don't hesitate to discard it and look for something better.
Advanced Strategies for Fantasy Realms
Hold on to some cards till the end
There are some cards with no penalty and great scoring potential. Don't discard these cards early in the game as other players may build their hand around those cards. Those cards can also be your great backup plan. Those cards: Candle, Bell Tower, Book of Changes, King, Queen, Sword of Keith, Shielf of Keith, Gem of Order, World Tree, Smoke.
Keep an eye on your opponents
Pay attention to what your opponents are collecting from the discard area and try to disrupt their strategy by keeping cards that they need or if you're ahead of them in player turn take the cards they want when possible.
Use the wild cards wisely
If you are missing a suit or a particular card to complete a synergy, One of Mirage or Shapeshifter cards can substitute what you need.
Take cards from the draw pile strategically
When you complete the synergy you need and are confident that you will win, it is wise to try to end the game quickly by drawing cards from the pile as the game ends as soon as there are 10 cards or 12 cards (in case of a 2 player game) in the discard area. This is to prevent other players from building a stronger hand than you.
