Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle Game Review: Missing Hogwarts? Play this Game

Christmas break seemed the perfect time to crack open the board/card game, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. We thought we'd give it a try, maybe play a game or two before school started up again. We read through the instructions and found that gameplay seemed very much like the deck-building game Dominion, one we've known and loved for years, except that Harry Potter was cooperative instead of competitive. Seemed simple enough. We began to play, and that's when the magic happened. 

We were sucked in. 

Admittedly, we are huge Harry Potter Fans.  

But even so, this game is so immersive that we ended up devoting the whole of Christmas break to beating it. 

That's right, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle can be beaten. It's what's known as a legacy game, where each game builds upon the last until you reach the final year at Hogwarts and the conclusion. During those seven games the characters grow older and gain new abilities, and the villains multiply and get stronger. We've never played a game that fit its theme so well and where the stakes felt so real. Our loss of game five was heart-wrenching, and we were anxious to learn from it and try again. 

Our Game Hater said this about Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle: "This isn't a game. It's an experience."

High praise, that. We can't recommend this game enough. 

# Players . . . 2-4
Ages 11 and up
Game time . . . . . . . . 60=90 minutes

Set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 minutes

Luck   . . . . . . . .5 .  . . . Strategy 

*Interplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.5

Visual Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Component Quality . .. . . . . 8

*Replayability . . . . . . . . . . . 9.5 

(Until you beat it. There are expansions, which would extend the replayability after that. )

*See "How we Rate" for a definition.

You can buy it here: