My favorite board game designer is hands down: Vlaada Chvatil. Most of Vlaada’s games have a great theme-mechanism integration that makes them special.

The early days

The first Vlaada’s game I played was Prophecy.

This games is similar to Talisman but in a really more strategic feel.

We will see that Vlaada is a master of reworking and iterating on older games to make them better. In Prophecy, players are Adventurers wandering on a map, killing enemies and gathering loot. Contrary to Talisman, you have actual control both on the movements you make on the map as well as on the different events dans adventures that are available on the board.

Trucking in space

One of my favorite games ever is Galaxy Trucker. I like how original and fun that game is. The real time component of the game is like no other and the “adventure part” of a turn where you (almost) just watch your ship gets blown up is hilarious.

There is a SUPERB video game adaptation of Galaxy Trucker. This version is the real deal. It contains a campaign that can be played solo, it accommodates multiplayer real time and it makes the impossible: it provides a “turn-based” implementation of Galaxy Trucker that is really good. It is incredible how the “real time” gameplay is well adapted and works flawlessly. What is more increbiel though: Vlaada himself did the computer version! It appears Vlaada is a great coder as well as an awesome designer.

Civilization

In 2006 Chvatil hit another home run with Through the ages. This is a Civlization like game that does EVERYTHING you can think of Civ game: you manage workers, population happiness, you build marvel and buildings, hire leaders, do some research and make war. The whole thing is a bit abstracted since it is mostly card based but the gameplay is super deep. This is truly a brain burner kind of game. The game has had a V2.0 treatment with Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization and I heard a video game adaptation is on the way.

A kind of Dungeon Keeper

True to his passion for video games, Vlaada did his own take on Dungeon Keeper but as a board game when he created Dungeon Lords. Players are evil overlord trying to setup the nastiest Dungeon where good adventurers will perish. But beware of the Paladin who can wreck all of your evil plans!

This game is good but not great, in my opinion. The theme adaptation is a success but I found the mechanisms to be fiddly. And the game takes a bit too long to play for the experience you get out of it. The art is super great though. The game artist: David Cochard really outdid himself.

Dungeon Petz is another game using the same theming and artist. Players are Imp breeders and sellers and try to acquire the glory points. This is a standard worker placement game that is good but less original than Dungeon Lords (though a bit quicker).

The Master Piece

In 2011 Vlaada created his masterpiece: Mage Knight the Boardgame.

This adventure game has a feeling similar to the old Magic Realm but in a more strategic orientation. While Magic Realm is more about the experience, Mage Knight is all about optimization.

Mage Knight mixes deck building, exploration, dungeon crawling, leveling and resource management in a way that is clever and unique. Each of your card has 2 different uses. This contributes to make each turn a puzzle that you need to unravel.

The game supports a lot of different play modes: multiplayer coop, semi-coop or adversarial, it has great solo play and has multiple scenarios that spice up the base game which is about conquering the cities on the board. This is a long game though. I suggest you play it with 2 or 3 players at maximum. The rules are daunting but everything makes sense when you start playing the game. A good game organizer with proper separators for all the tokens will help in keeping the game flowing more smoothly.

Magi Knight has 3 expansions that add new characters, scenarios and mechanisms to the game. I have only played the base game myself and I found this quite the complete experience!

I found that Mage Knight theme integration is great and is true to its “epic fantasy adventure game” roots. Believe it or not, Andrew Parks has made a total retheming of Mage Knight when he created Star Trek: Frontiers with more or less the same mechanisms! You can choose which thematic experience you prefer: a Mage wandering an untamed Realm or the Captain of a ship exploring the galaxy!