tabletopgaming.co.uk 73 e frustration and tedium of
playing is made worse by a rulebook
that is both poorly worded and
structured like the moving staircases
in Hogwarts, leading you in one
direction in search of clari cation
only to send you icking back
through to another page. Worse are
the character reference cards, which
have attempted to pay homage to the
style of the magical Daily Prophet
newspaper by featuring text in several
di erent fonts and sizes running in
multiple di erent directions. e look
is e ective, but trying to quickly check
a skill or trait in the cluttered layout
becomes a meta-exercise in su ering
the Cruciatus torture curse.
Unsurprisingly, the miniatures
are the stars of a box of otherwise
extremely lacklustre components, with
the thin, cheaply laminated tokens
and map overlays simply unacceptable
for the asking price of the set. Even
the resin models – which need to be
assembled with no shortage of ddly
arms and legs attached – disappoint.
ere’s a lot of ash and mould lines
to be cleared up, making them far
from an easy entry point for Potter
fans looking for their rst miniatures
game, and the poses and sculpts often
felt at odds with the characters we
remembered from the books.
ere have been good Harry Potter
board games and there have been bad
ones – this is one of the worst. What
makes the Miniatures Adventure Game
such a gutting disappointment is it
leaves the promising potential for an
interesting and faithful fresh take on
the series in a worse state than we were
at the end of Half-Blood Prince.
MATT JARVISI
f you thought “All was well” for
Harry Potter by the closing pages
of Deathly Hallows, prepare to
think again. e Boy Who Lived
has been dragged out of his cushty
early retirement selling plastic
wands, theatre tickets and Warners
Bros. Studio tours for a tabletop
outing that’s less enchanting than
a Magic Marker.
e clumsy, lifeless title of Harry
Potter Miniatures Adventures Game
gives you some idea of what to expect
inside its biscuit tin-like metal box.
It’s a grid-based miniatures skirmish
game focused on the magic duels
between Potter and pals – Hermione
and Ron accompany him in the
core set, naturally – and the various
evil-doers of the Wizarding World.
If you want more exciting foes than
four anonymous Death Eaters and a
handful of the magic-less, spiderish
wand-fodder Acromantulas, though,
you’ll need to cough up for some
expansions. Good luck convincing
anyone to play as the anti-Potter side
without investing well over £100.
Even with this caveat, J.K. Rowling’s
endless invention of enchanted items,
magical spells and their e ects – from
unlocking doors and levitating objects
to summoning spectral beasts and
wiping memories – has the potential
to conjure up a brilliantly dynamic
and strategic tactics game. Imagineusing the Invisibility Cloak to sneak
up on an enemy before casting
Petri cus Totalus to render them
motionless and summoning your
broomstick with Accio to escape.
Sounds fun, right? Except here your
characters are limited to just a handful
of spells between them – even fewer if
you want everyone to be able to deal
minimal damage to opponents with
a basic Stupefy spell, which takes up
a slot rather than being a given – and
they’re dull to cast, requiring bland
dice rolls and the wait for a multiple-
turn cooldown before they can be
used again.
Depending on which side of the
map boards you use, encounters
take place either in the Forbidden
Forest – here envisioned as a generic
woodland environment – or the
slightly more atmospheric and
tailored surroundings of Hogwarts
during the climatic battle of the last
book. A selection of scenarios based
on pivotal moments from the series,
which can be played as a campaign,
try to inject a greater sense of the
story and wider universe into the
back-and-forth duels with additional
rules but end up falling at. In one
particularly laughable moment, an
event randomly determined by dice
roll saw a unicorn suddenly appear
in the Forbidden Forest and give two
victory points to a team, just because.Knut a lot of good
HARRY POTTER MINIATURES
ADVENTURE GAME
Designer: Gustavo Adolfo Cuadrado, Mark Latham | Artist: Knight Models team 30-90m 2-6 12+ £90WHAT’S IN
THE BOX?
◗ 13 resin miniatures
◗ Three double-sided
game boards
◗ Nine character cards
◗ 10 potion cards
◗ 10 artefact cards
◗ 40 adventure cards
◗ 20 cardboard tokens
◗ 20 spell cards
◗ 20 quest cards
◗ 16 event cards
◗ Six custom dice
◗ Seven 30mm
plastic bases
◗ Campaign deckTRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED...
HARRY
POTTER:
HOGWARTS
BATTLE
The only real reason
to pick up this set if
you’re a Potterhead
is if you really want
the miniatures- even then, you
should absolutely
wait until it’s a
fraction of the price.
PLAY IT? NO
Between its uninspiring gameplay,
woeful components and a price
tag that would leave Gringotts
searching behind the sofa for a lost
gold galleon or two, the Harry Potter
Miniatures Adventure Game deserves
to be sent to Azkaban for good.