USAopoly, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, Box of Monsters Expansion, Board Game

I'm big into deck building games and have a few favourites but this has catapulted to the top of them. It is a great game for families, couples, friends or if you prefer there is a solo player mode. I'm not a big Harry Potter fan but I bought this for my partner who is, unlike a lot of brand specific games the gameplay does not require a prior knowledge of the subject (but merely adds to it via nostalgia). For any deck building game fans, I would best describe this as a mix of Dominion and Marvel Legend. You essentially start off with a basic hand for your character (Harry, Ron, Hermione or Neville) and then buy cards to get more spells, items or allies to go into your Discard Pile. Everytime your Draw Pile runs out you shuffle your Discard Pile to create a new Draw Pile, so you are constantly refreshing with the new cards you have bought. Using your cards you have to defeat the Villains from that film (and all previous) before they capture locations, with each Villain having a special power it requires you to be tactical with which order you defeat them. What makes this game particularly stand out is how much the gameplay and added features adapts throughout the seven years (levels), it keeps it interesting and eager to try the next level. For me though the best part is that it is PvE, meaning that all players are working together to beat the Villains and teamwork is essential to succeeding. I have played this with experienced board gamers and complete newbies (including my Mum) and everyone has picked it up extremely quickly as it is so easy to follow the turn order. I would highly recommend to any board game fan but especially any Harry Potter fans, a great family game!

My friends and I were already both Harry Potter fans and board game players so the combination of these two things was bound to be considered good to us, but that said this is still a beautifully designed game. Those unfamiliar with card deck building games may take a short while to get used to the playing style as you're not moving a piece around the board as instead you are strengthening your set of cards in order to defeat the various villains that appear throughout the game. The game play is straightforward as there's only a couple of different things to do each turn. It's also beautifully tiered and gets progressively difficult as you move through the games. There are seven games in total (one for each book) and contain no spoilers within each year, just additional characters or items that are added in the books at that point. When I introduced this to my non board game playing 'Harry Potter fan' friends the first game is simple enough that they could pick it up easily and were left wanting to continue the game - this is an incredibly moorish game and once you've completed one game/book you immediately want to move onto the next. Game 7 is very difficult and a real challenge every time and has great replay-ability as so many variables can change from the order villains arrive to which cards you can add to your hand. We have made up one additional rule when you play it as when attacking a villain you have to verbally cast a spell - slaying the Basilisk with 'wingardium leviosa' has never been such fun! We usually start with Game 5 after lunch on a Sunday afternoon and hopefully, if we've played well enough, we're defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Game 7 by dinner! I cannot recommend this game highly enough.

The main HP Battle of Hogwarts games is one of our absolute favourites and we love the expansion pack too! Once you have a good handle on the main game this expansion adds another element with potions and we enjoy playing the new characters to shake up game play. Hours of fun on a weekend! My boyfriend loves the strategy of the game and I love the Potter references and storyline.

Love this game, would’ve given 5 star but I was missing one of the “players deck”.

Arrived in good time well-packaged (from overseas!) this is a very well-made and presented cooperative deck-building board game which really appeals to Wizarding World fans (Expelliarmus! Accio Triwizard cup!) but the play and strategy is equally appealing to everyone. You don't have to be a mad-keen Potter fan to enjoy this but obviously that's the central theme and attraction. It is very lore-friendly but lore-masters may be concerned about chronological and context concerns when you're shuffling enemies, events and items randomly. I was particularly interested in this as I want to get more games the whole family can play together or for social events, but without the antagonism and angst of a competitive game (Monopoly PTSD...) this one also has the added advantage of modular advancement where you start as new students and work your way through 7 stages to finally face Lord Voldemort in an epic battle. There are also two expansions which add more challenges, features, complexities and strategy. These are not needed at all but add more replayability once you have completed game 7 and can do so reliably. It's a heap of fun! The game leads you into the mechanics gently and even non-CCG or young players will be able to get into it fairly quickly thanks to friendly and well-written instructions, while old hands will appreciate deep strategic play requiring synergistic teamplay and (limited) interrupt actions. Unlike other games there is constant engagement and communication, you don't just 'turn off' during other players turns as you will be affected and need to make decisions/plans during theirs. Eliminating resource management (land/mana) is a fantastic design choice, meaning turns are fast, action-based and exciting as you play out or discard your entire hand each turn. Deck tuning comes though how you expand (and optionally contract) your library which directly affects your capabilities, growth, power level and synergy. Novices can play any card with postive effect, while strategists can construct elaborate 'optimal plays' with rich feature and synergy calculations. The game scales easily to all players at all levels. The game has a strong physicality to it lacking in computer games and you'll soon be flipping cards, amassing tokens and tossing dice like nobody's business while cackling HP lore (Explulsio! Avada Kedavra!). The random nature of deck building and card draw means it is quite possible to wipe out, but that only adds incentive to work together and try harder next time. The staged nature of opening new boxes with new enemies (and treasure!) is like mini Christmas. The whole family gathers around to enjoy the unboxing experience, it's great. Overall build is great with evocative illustrations and design but the tokens are merely paper on cardboard, and the deck card stock is average and will be damaged in rough or long use playing it. (My friends copy has 'marked' cards now simply from picking them up). As these are not replaceable without buying a whole new copy your best bet is to sleeve all of the Hogwarts cards (spells, items and allies) which is easy and inexpensive. The Dark Arts and Enemy cards are a custom size though. There is a sleeve set for them but it is very expensive (~USD$25!). I am thinking of trying to use a craft finishing spray to harden the surface, as they don't need to be shuffled that much or held in hand. Replayability is great, friendly to house rules and the game can be easily scaled up or down for player skill. I do recommend cutting down the game later on as adding ALL the cards can result in both very long games (have played game 7 for 5 hours+ at times) as well as diluting must-have cards in the library. Play vanilla or to suit yourself. The game can be fairly easily 'reset' to any stage once you're experienced but it can be very overwhelming at first working out which cards should be or not be included. The straight line advancement through boxes/'school years' is very simple and well explained. The Monster Box of Monsters expansion adds a new character and a dramatic shift in challenge and systems. We went from clearing game 6-7 reliably to getting slammed 5-6 straight losses. If you think HP:HB is far too easy and for weaklings, try this. You will get pwned. Charms and potions: Owned but not tried yet, have not cleared all games from Monster Box yet. Overall I cannot recommend this highly enough for social and family play, with a strong Harry Potter theme. This is the first tabletop board game we've bought in some 30 years and an excellent example of modern gaming. I look forwards to building a collection of other games like this.

I really enjoyed playing this with my family! The game is very nicely made and it doesn’t get boring!

Deckbuilding coopératif adapté de la licence Harry potter. Les règles ne transpirent pas l'innovation et la prise de risque, mais le jeu est joli, très plaisant pour les fan de la série tout en restant assez agréable pour les autres joueurs également. Les jetons cranes en metal sont très sympa. Malgré que l'on aime bien y jouer et qu'il nous plaise, quelques points négatif (de la part d'un joueur exigeant, donnée à prendre en compte en lisant les remarques) : - jeu est très redondant (chaque année, on cherche a se faire son deck pour coller des éclairs aux mechants) - pas de systeme d'héritage entre les années (on recommence à 0 à chaque fois) - longue mise en place et long rangement, et parties d'autant plus longues que les années avances (on se limite à juste ajouter plus de contenu aux cartes utilisables et méchants à combattre, en réutilisant les anciens) - trop d'aléatoire en début de partie en années avancées (on tombe sur du détraqueur sans avoir de sort pour retirer les cranes = game over) - un jeu paradoxalement plus facile à 2 qu'à 4 (les méchants ont proportionnellement moins le temps de jouer avant que l'on ne récupère et puisse jouer les cartes achetées potentiellement plus efficaces) - La regle de KO nulle (on vire toute la main nous).

Quality: Good component quality, nice box and artwork (9/10) Shipment: Fast shipment, came a week earlier than promised (9/10) Price: Moderately expensive as international shipping makes game tad expensive (5/10) Gameplay: Game is divided into 7 parts just like the books. Game becomes progressively harder and harder as you progress. Involves cooperative element and deck building in the gameplay. However, the game does not include any options to discard cards and running through the hogwards deck is difficult as you end up acquiring cards with limited to no utility. However, the gameplay is fun and certainly will be appreciated by Harry Porter fans. (7/10)

We bought this game for the first time 4 years ago and just bought it again as a present. It is an excellent board game for the whole family. Due to the many levels in the game, there is a lot of variation each time it’s played and adjustments that can be made to fit different levels of players. As you play collectively as a team against Voldemort and his villains, there are few reasons for tears or fights among the players. The box says +11 years, but with adult participation to steer the game, players can easily join from around 5-6 years old. Along with Settlers of Catan, this is the best board game we own. Buy it for all the HP & board game lovers out there! Recently bought the two expansions for the game which add many dimensions. Great for variety but almost too many rules and options to steer through. I would not recommend the expansions before you are very comfortable with the basic game and its seven levels.