Do you want something cute, with a great gameplay and puns too? Have you ever thought you want to level up your family gamenight with a game that is about 45 mins long, super fun and complete with awesome artwork and great components? Do you like dragons? Yes to any of these, and I have the game for you – its Flamecraft from Cardboard Alchemy!

How Do You Play?

This is a worker placement game about dragons going shopping. What that means is that you get to place your little coloured dragon character out to one of the shops in the marketplace, and that will allow you to either collect resources or cast a spell. I think it is important to note here that there is not a board in this game but a very decadent feeling play mat to play upon. The components in this game really sing.

Collecting resources means you take from the general supply the items located at that shop, things like meat, iron, toast, potions, leaves and crystals. An obscure mix, but this is the only game I know that has toast as a resource, and I am here for it. You take the small tokens from the general supply into your personal dragon horde, and then you can activate one of the abilities of the dragons at that shop. These can be things like swapping out dragons, drawing new dragon cards or taking special dragons from the deck. These special dragons are personal objectives that you can achieve for more sweet points. Some of them are sun dragons meaning they can be completed during the game on your turn, and some are night dragons and these are saved until the end of the game for scoring.

Alternatively to collecting resources, you can cast a spell to enchant the shop for points and glory. For this you must turn in resources from your collection to the supply and this will grant you the special action of all the dragons at the shop you are visiting. The game will continue until either the dragon deck runs out or the spell deck, meaning you might well feel like you have not managed to get everything you wished done unless you rush towards the end, adding to the excitement of the race!

Who Is It For?

Flamecraft brings together great artwork and a cute theme to create a game that is a delight to look at on the table. The theme is great for families, dragons going shopping is an awesome escapist way to theme a game. Who does not want to play as a purple dragon with a cute name (I will not spoil these, you can enjoy those) off to a pun-themed toast shop?

This is a game that the whole family can enjoy. This is what is termed a gateway game, in that it is easy enough for families to play together, and it teaches you some of the newer mechanics in modern board games so that you can play more and more games. Flamecraft will help you learn worker placement which will open the floodgate for games such as Everdell, Viticulture and Lords of Waterdeep. Not only that though, this is a fantastic game, it is tight in how it plays and has quite honestly universal appeal in my humble opinion.

Round Up

If I have tempted you with tales of shopping dragons, or with promises of cute puns and toast, then perhaps you should give Flamecraft a whirl. I personally thoroughly enjoy this game and will happily get this out to play. The components in the game are utterly brilliant as is the artwork, and I do think it is a staple in my collection, perhaps it is in yours too.

This blog was written by Hannah Blacknell