The Game of the Month series highlights one of the many games in our libraries at Ravenwood Castle and The Malted Meeple. We will briefly describe the game, how to play it, and why we like it.

Game: Fantahzee

The town of Devil’s Burden is under attack! Gather your party of heroes and come to the town’s defense. In Fantahzee, you are a commander of a party of heroes. Recruit valiant warriors, powerful mages, and crafty dwarven artificers, each with their own unique talents. Stand against hordes of monsters and their terrible lords.  Gain glory by slaying monsters before they reach the town. At the end of the day how much of the town will remain unspoiled and who will be named the champion of Devil’s Burden?!

A game of Fantahzee begins by creating five horde decks – each with their own boss monster. These five decks are placed in a row with the top card revealed.  The right most horde deck is referred to as the vanguard. Next, players shuffle the treasures, town, and hero decks separately. The town deck is placed to the right of the vanguard. Each player is given five cards and five dice. The game can now begin.

Fantahzee is broken into four phases: The Action Phase, The Dice Phase, the Horde Phase, and the End Phase. In the Action Phase, players can recruit up to two heroes from their hand and play up to two action cards. In the Dice Phase, players will roll dice and use the dice to activate their heroes to fight monsters. Some heroes allow players to roll additional dice, activate additional heroes, or activate other special abilities. In the Attack Phase, players will combine the strength values of their heroes to defeat monsters. Some monsters have special abilities or give treasure cards as a reward in addition to experience points. During the Horde Phase, players will reveal new monsters and resolve their effects, which usually means dealing damage to active heroes. If the player did not defeat the monster in the vanguard position it will destroy part of the town, leaving the player with a penalty. Finally, during the End Phase, the player will draw four cards and pass the turn. The game ends after three of the five bosses have been defeated. The player with the most experience points is declared the winner!

One of the things I love about Fantahzee is that there are several strategies to achieving victory. The Warriors allow you to reduce activation cost of other heroes. The Mages allow you roll additional dice, gain additional rerolls, or further manipulate the dice. Finally, the Artificers allow you to gain protection from monsters and activate their steam powered monstrosities without using dice!

AEG was kind enough to donate a preview copy of Fantahzee to the Malted Meeple library for you to enjoy, and we will be acquiring a copy for the Ravenwood Castle library shortly. The next time you visit Ravenwood or the Malted Meeple be sure to give this unique dice game a try!

Jim Reed

Jim Reed is a lifelong gamer who started with the original red box Dungeons & Dragons. After spending 20 years in the corporate world, he decided it was high time that work be fun and struck out on his own. Jim now owns and operates Ravenwood Castle, and spends his days ensuring his guests have as much fun as he does.