Players: 2
Play Time: 10-15 minutes
Designer: Ash Maczko
Publisher: Cold War Inc
Price: $15.00 US
“Fight Your Friends” is the brainchild of Ash Maczko, designer of “Squarriors: The Card Game” and Lady Death Last Stand. Originally launched on Kickstarter in the summer of 2019 it is now available for purchase through the Cold War website. “Fight Your Friends” is a fast paced, two-player game that takes about 15 minutes to play. The core set comes with 60 cards depicting various independent comic characters along with characters created just for the game.
Before the battle royal can begin we have to, “Get Ready to Rumble!” Wait I’m not sure I can say that,,,,,shifty eyes….shrug…..it’s probably fine.
Each Friend has a gold value assigned to them from 1-5. Your team needs to consist of 10 Friends and their combined value has to be 30 gold or less. Why would you spend less than the max you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you, you did ask after all. Each Friend has a “friend bonus” that they can apply that will modify their stats once you have other friends in play. That can lead to some pretty cool power combinations if you play your cards right. Play your cards right…..you get it.
Once you’ve compiled all of the stats, formulated some cool combos and spent your gold, your Friends are ready to fight. Well almost, lets set some ground rules. Each game is going to take place over four rounds. During the first round your Friends will square up one on one. Each player will select one card to play and place it face down on the table. When both players are ready, flip the cards and compare their stats. There are three stats in the game, Attack, Defense and Magic. The player who has higher value in two out of three stats wins. In case of a tie both Friends remain standing and the subsequent fights will determine the outcome.
Hold on, the referee has his arm up. The first Friend played in each round will not get their Friend bonus, since there aren’t any other friends in play. So in the first round just compare the numbers on the cards.
In round two, two Friends will fight, in round three, three Friends and four in round four. Now once you have a Friend in the ring things get interesting. Starting with the second Friend in play you can add their Friend bonus, potentially modifying their stats and making their attacks or defense that much stronger.
At the end of each round, friends that have “fallen”, signified by turning the card sideways during the round, are placed in your loser pile. The winners, well they go to the winner pile. After the fourth round add up the gold value of the Friends in your winner pile. Whoever has the most gold wins!
Thoughts:
First the Pros: The art is awesome! It’s a testament to Ash that he could bring together so many diverse artists and properties together for a single game. Another cool feature is that at the bottom of each card is information detailing the characters name, the artist and where they can be found. That way if something really sticks out to you it’s easy to look it up.
I love Halloween so I love the logo. It’s what the kids would call Spoopy and it’s just Spoopy enough. Good color palate, tentacles and pumpkins……I’m in.
The cards are standard 350gsm and have a nice feel. On the back of the cards is a spider web pattern that’s treated with spot UV that really makes them pop. It’s a really nice touch.
The game play is quick and after the first few rounds it’s easy to run through all of the bonuses and powers. Some people might consider the fact that it’s a filler game a negative but I like having the option of lighter weight games to play. Sometimes you may just have half an hour to play something.
As far as Cons go there’s not much. The rulebook was not quite as clear as I would have liked. I wound up having to go through it a few times before it hit me. I will note however that generally speaking I am terrible at learning new games, so there’s that.
Also there’s no drafting rules other than you have 30 gold to spend. It’s not a Con per se but it left me wanting a bit. It’s easy enough to remedy, you can just shuffle and split the deck or separate the cards by value and draft that way. It adds a bit of time on the front end for set up but honestly every game has some set up time.
All and all, “Fight Your Friends” is a fun, solid filler game with great production value. It’s only 15 bucks at Cold War and I suggest you pick it up!
Quick play through video with Ash and Matt