Kamigami Battles: Avatars of Cosmic Fire
Japanime Games
2-6 Players
Playtime: 45-60 Minutes
Kamigami Battles is a deckbuilding game for 2-5 players. The game features gods and other mighty figures from various pantheons. Avatars of Cosmic Fire is an expansion that utilizes tons of gods and mythological beings from Hindu mythology. This expansion adds six gods, nine warriors, one disciple and one temple to the experience.
Avatars of Cosmic Fire doesn’t change much of the core gameplay that is established in Battle of the Nine Realms and River of Souls. What Avatars of Cosmic Fire does is make Kamigami Battles more interactive than any set before it. All but three warrior cards have abilities that negatively affect other players. One of those cards, Naga, still rewards players with energy if they dealt damage to a God this turn. Ichchhadhari Nag interestingly gives gods energy if the player doesn’t attack anyone on the turn she is played.
The most interesting warriors in Avatars of the Cosmic Fire for me are Gandaberunda and Rama. Rama is interestingly because it’s a card that needs specific conditions to be met for it to be effective. It’s an attack card that deals extra damage if the target’s god has the Death or War Spheres. The second deals damage without an effect, and deals bonus damage if the target has the Death Sphere. Rama is a god that is only effective against certain targets, therefor it can be severely nerfed in certain gams if the Death Sphere isn’t in play at all. Gandaberunda is interesting because she has the ability to break chain rules when playing gods that cost 5 or higher.
Adding the new cards is easy: 6 red warriors and 3 of each other color are added to the deck. Then, one of each disciple level is added.
The new disciple card is Archaka, a faith generator that occupies the Disciple I spot in the Hall of Heroes. Archaka is the first disciple that has two Act abilities that more or less do the same thing. The first Act generates one faith point. The second generates two faith points if the player gives another player’s temple one energy. It’s a neat card that isn’t very flexible, but can be especially useful early in a game if a player isn’t concerned with their opponent’s temple causing trouble.
Most of the gods in Avatars of Cosmic Fire don’t bring too much new to Kamigami Battles. Most of the cards consist of abilities that are pretty similar to what we have seen already, they just have a different combination of Acts and Reacts. There are two exceptions here, including Ganesha and Lakshmi. Ganesha has a React ability that can change the target of attacks to other Gods or temples. Lakshmi has two powerful effects. The first one allows the player to discard warriors to gain faith equal to their cost. Her other ability reincarnates warriors or disciples that damage her (At the cost of just 1 energy).
There is still a lot of fanservice in this set, as expected. Lots of revealing outfits and chests that defy physics can be found in Avatars of Cosmic Fire. There are a lot of men in this set too, with buff chests to complement the big chests. If you love or hate Kamigami’s art, this set won’t change your mind.
Avatars of Cosmic Fire is another solid expansion with a few new effects to add some more spice to the experience. Like most of the previous expansions, it doesn’t change the game in a major way, but some fans won’t need Avatars of Cosmic Fire to reinvent the wheel.
