Fantasy Realms

Today's review is of the 2017 release, Fantasy Realms.  For 3-6 players, it takes 20 minutes.

Overview
Build your kingdom wisely!  Each player is dealt seven cards, representing your realm.  Each card has:
- a unique title
- suit (there are ten: army, wizard, leader, weather, weapon, artifact, land, flood, beast, flame)
- base point value (upper left)
- significant bonus (and/or penalty) based on other cards in your hand

the cards: image from here

Your goal is to earn as many points as possible.  Generally the base points are lower than the bonuses, so this game is all about combinations (see below).

Simplified Gameplay
On your turn, you:
- draw a card (choosing the top card of the draw pile OR any card in the face-up discard pile)
- discard a card

The game ends when there are ten cards in the discard pile.  Then points are totaled and highest wins!  It's that simple.

example hand: image from here

The example hand shown above is scored as follows:
Card Title     Base points     Bonus            Total
Beastmaster:       9           +     9         =     18 points
Forge:                 9           +     9         =      18 points
Unicorn:             9           +     30        =      39 points
Princess:             2           +      8         =      10 points
Bell Tower:        8           +      15        =      23 points
Book of Changes:3         +       9*       =       12 points
Candle:               2           +     100       =     102 points

Total points: 222

*Book of Changes ability makes another card into a weapon or artifact to gain another 9 point bonus (thanks to the Forge).

As you can see, the bonuses are much higher than base points.  So it's all about what combinations of cards you have.

Review
I like this game.  So simple, fast, and interesting.  There is a lot to keep track of . . . and difficult choices to be made.  All with just 53 cards!  This is a winner.

Rating: A