Challengers!

The Game

Challengers! is the 2023 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner, i.e. the German Game of the Year in the Expert category. I had already noticed it when it was first released. I thought the premise was interesting and I wanted to give it a go. After it won the award, I thought I shouldn't wait any longer. So I asked Allen and Han to try it out with me on www.boardgamearena.com. Challengers! is a premium game, which meant I had to restart my subscription to be able to play it. The monthly subscription is MYR 24 (~USD 6), which is a good deal. If I only spend MYR 24 for a gathering with friends, I'm happy. Since I had subscribed and the minimum was one month, after our online meet-up I went online by myself to play more with strangers. 

Challengers! supports up to 8 players. It is a deck-building game. The game is run in the format of a tournament. Every player controls one team. You will play a series of 7 matches, and earn fans (score points) from the matches. Once everyone has played 7 matches, the two teams with the most fans enter the grand final. Whoever wins the final wins the game.  

With four players, each will match up with a different opponent from game to game. You match the same team 2 or 3 times. When the number of players is an odd number, every round one team will be matched with a robot team. No one is left idle. 

Everyone starts with the same card deck of 6 cards. Before every season match, you have a chance to do deck-building and alter your deck. By the time you get to the 7th match, your team may already be completely different. The deck-building mechanism is very simple. You get to draw 5 cards from a specific deck, and from there you get to pick 1 or 2 cards, depending on which round you are in. While picking cards, you have one chance to discard all your options and redraw the same number of cards. After making your selections, you may also discard any number of cards from your deck. This is so unbelievably simple that I had to read twice to make sure I didn't misunderstand. 

There are six families of cards in the game, and every time you play, you will use five families. Cards are divided into Levels A, B and C. The higher level cards are more powerful. In addition to the card value, some cards have special abilities.  

To appreciate how to deck-build, you need to understand how a match works. Let's talk about that. At the start of a match, both teams shuffle their decks, and the starting team draws a card. A flag token is placed on this first card drawn, representing that the starting team has control of the flag. The other team plays the attack role, and tries to claim the flag. The attacking player reveals cards from his deck one by one, until the total value matches or exceeds the card holding the flag. Once this happens, the flag changes hands, and the attack and defense roles change. 

One important rule is if two or more cards are used to capture the flag, these cards don't remain splayed. Instead they are stacked together so that only the most recent card is on top and visible. Only this card is holding the flag, i.e. defending the flag. The values of the other cards are ignored. 

When a card or a stack of cards is defeated, all the cards must be placed at the bench. Each team has a bench with 6 slots. Every slot can fit one specific card type (i.e. exact same name). If you have multiple copies of the same card in your deck, when defeated they go to the same slot. The bench size is an important element of the game. You lose if you need to place defeated cards at your bench, but you are out of space. What this means is you tend to want to keep your deck to just 6 types of cards. 

The other way you win is by controlling the flag when your opponent is no longer able to attack. That means he has run out of cards. 

You realise that during a match, there is actually very little control or decision-making. You are mostly flipping cards. Victory is determined by what cards you have and the order they turn up. The most important decisions in the game are made when you pick cards to add to your deck. Cards from different families have different characteristics. Some cards jive well together. Usually it is good to have many cards from the same family. 

When you win a match, you earn a trophy, and each trophy is worth some points. As the game progresses, the trophies are worth more and more points. There is escalation. Even if you lose a few early games, you still have a chance to catch up. Some cards let you score points directly. Trophies are not the only way. After 7 matches, you total your points, and the two highest scorers get to play in the final. You don't get new cards for the final, but you still have one chance to remove cards. At the final, you don't bother about scores anymore. Whoever wins the final wins the game. 

The Play

Challengers! is a quick game. Well, I say so because I play online, and the computer takes care of all the tedious bits. Not that it is very tedious. There will be multiple matches running concurrently. You will be occupied with the match you are in, and you won't be able to spend too much time watching other matches. However it will be somewhat helpful to take a glance and have a rough idea who is having what kind of deck. It may affect your decision when your build yours. You may want to know who you will be matching up next, and adjust your card picking decisions based on that. Let's say you expect to face a team with many high cards. If you have a card which discards the top card of your opponent's deck, that can be quite a blow to them. 

Picking cards is interesting. The mechanism is simple, but it often presents difficult choices. The option to refresh your card choices is genius. Sometimes the cards you draw look mediocre, and you decide to refresh, only to get an even worse set of choices. Yet sometimes when you decide to refresh, you get cards which are perfect for your current deck. When picking cards you will consider how they can help one another. You want to make combos. However the order cards are drawn is random. You can only hope they appear in a good sequence and at the right time. If your opponent's flag holder is a measly 1, it would be bad news if you draw your mighty 5 to defeat it. It is also bad news if your opponent has a 5, and you draw 2, 2, 5 to defeat it, because you are spending three cards to beat his one card. 

This was when I played against the bot player. There are bots of different strengths - their decks vary slightly. Experienced players can choose to play against stronger bots. One bot card has a strength based on the round number, which means it gets stronger and stronger. By Round 7 it is strength 7, which is pretty strong. 

In this particular game I had 9 types of cards in my deck. I kept this many because I had a card which could remove cards from my bench to a discard pile. This reduces my risk of losing due to my bench being full. However it still depends on the timing of the card draw. If I draw that card too early (no other cards are on my bench) or too late (the bench has already gone bust), it wouldn't help me. 

At the final, only two teams will play. The others can only spectate.

By Round 7, my starting deck had been completely replaced. I picked many cards from the movies family (green). 

Some cards let you remove cards from your bench to a discard pile. That greyed out stack of cards near the top right is the discard pile. By default it is not used. Only specific card powers let you use it. 

The Thoughts

The biggest difference between Challengers! and other deck-building games is the lack of control. That sounds like a bad thing, but it is not. Instead this is what makes it refreshing and unique. The luck of the draw is what you have to contend with. This is the premise which makes the game interesting. When you pick cards, you have to think with a very different mindset. You won't get to choose when to play any specific card. You are at the mercy of the draw, and you have to manage that. 

Many of the card powers are linked to the fact that cards turn up at random. Other deck-building games don't have most of these powers. Some powers let you look at some of your cards and rearrange them in an order you like. Some cards give you a bonus if they happen to be at the bottom of your deck. 

Challengers! won the Kennerspiel des Jahres, which is the expert gamer category, but to veteran gamers this is just a mid-weight strategy game. There is a healthy dose of strategy, but this is a game which gamers can play in a relaxed, light-hearted manner. There is a significant luck element. You don't need to overthink it. 

Challengers! is a pleasant surprise. Definitely worth giving it a go. It did not disappoint.