Matthew BaileyToday we are going to be looking at “Challengers! Beach Cup” the stand-alone sequel and expansion to “Challengers!” a game that I really enjoyed and recommended when I played it back in August of last year.
This review is going to be a bit of a retread of the original review but there are some changes worth mentioning. Before I go into detail however its worth saying that if you are looking to pick up “Challengers!” this new one is the better one to go for.
“Challengers!” is a “card drafting deck management auto battler tournament game” (that’s the best way I can describe it” which is a card game that draws on the recent popular video game genre auto battlers, where you set up your team between rounds but have little control over how those rounds play out. If you are familiar with the game “Hearthstone”, this plays somewhat like how the battlegrounds mode works in that. What “Challengers! Beach Cup” adds that the original did not however is “trainers” that work as “heroes” do in Hearthstone and give each of you a unique overarching power that can in most cases be used once per game. These are a welcome addition and almost alone is the reason why given the choice i’d recommend “Challengers! Beach Cup” over the original.
From a storyline point of view, you are all playing Capture the Flag (and the game has nothing to do with golf despite what I thought the box looked like when I bought it) and competing against all the other players in a tournament. Obviously, with a two-player game, you are playing against the same person over and over again, but with a larger player count, you will be playing in a series of one-on-one matches. If there is an odd number of players, there is also an automated deck that the odd player plays with.
If you join both games together you can play up to 16 players in a giga tournament which I have not played yet (only played with .8.) but am looking forward to trying it out.
You start the game by having a deck of not-very-powerful starter cards and draw five cards from whatever pool is that abs you on that round. In the first round, you pick five “A” cards, moving up to “B” and “C” as the game progresses, with “C” being generally the most powerful cards.
Once you have selected either one or two new cards to add to your deck, you can then also decide if you want to remove any cards from your deck to try and build the best possible deck, ensuring synergy where possible between cards.
You then either toss a coin to see who starts with the flag or in later rounds whoever has the most fans (points). Once your deck is shuffled and placed face down with the player who starts with the flag laying their first card, the attacking player turns over their cards one at a time until they match or beat the point value of the defending card, resolving special powers and abilities as you go. Once you beat that card, the last card that the attacker played then ends up as the defending card, and play then switches, and the other player attacks. Any defeated cards go on your bench, and once your bench is full and you are unable to lay another one, you lose the round. Its worth noting that cards with matching names stack which encourages and rewards you for having multiple copies of one card. You also can lose the round if you run out of cards to lay, which becomes more of a possibility if you try to shred your deck too much later down the line.
This then continues for seven rounds or, in the case of a two-player game, until one player has 11 more fans than the other.
“Challengers! Beach Cup” along with the original is an unusual game in that card drafting is key, and the synergy of the deck you build is essential, but you are still at the mercy of which cards are drawn and when.
This is a game which is fun at 2 but plays a lot better at larger player counts. I have played it with 8 and its great fun and probably my favourite large player count game that isn’t a party game. Looking around, seeing a strong player, and knowing you are going to have to play their deck is great fun. And because of how the card synergy works, even if you have lost two games in a row, your deck might be particularly strong and maybe, with a bit of luck, beat the player who looked the strongest.
Production quality like before is extremely high. The cards are well made and of a nice card stock. The tournament mats that everyone plays on are neoprene and of high quality. The insert hasn’t changed since the first game and it still makes storing the cards a right pain that I wish could have been improved.
We really like “Challengers! Beach Cup.”. Rules are not that complex and the cards explain themselves well. Apart from the addition of the trainers I also preferred the overall cards and card synergy in this deck and the way to add more cards to your deck via certain cards mid game was enjoyable. They also seemed to have leaned more into some cards with higher rewards but equally an element of risk we just didn’t see in the first game.
As with the first game I would recommend this at 2 and say its a must buy if you can play with 4 or more. This is definitely the better version of the games to get but having said that its not worth an upgrade unless you are a massive fan or want to be able to play 9-16 players.
Equally at around £30 it’s pretty well priced for this type of game with high-quality components.
For an alternative view please see Alex Brown’s comment below.
The version of the original on Board Game Arena is really good, and I would 100% recommend you try it on there to get a feel for it. Equally, if you decide to play the game physically, the Board Game Arena tutorial is excellent and how I learned how to play the game.
