Kamigami Battles: Warriors of the Dawn
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. Warriors of the Dawn is an expansion that utilizes tons of gods and mythological beings from Japanese mythology. This expansion adds six gods, nine warriors, one disciple and one temple to the experience.
Warriors of the Dawn doesn’t change much of the core gameplay that is established in Battle of the Nine Realms and River of Souls. Instead, Warriors of the Dawn adds more depth to all of the game’s mechanics. Most of the Warriors of the Dawn cards are incredibly flexible, offering multiple act and react plays for players to choose from. Some of the warriors that are highlights in the expansion are Tanuki, which can change its color for chaining, and Kaguya Hime, which can give a big burst of Faith in exchange for banishing herself. Kaguya Hime is especially flexible since players can generate less faith without the banishing effect.
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 Ashigaru, which is actually the game’s first offensive disciple card. Ashigaru occupies the Disciple III spot, and can defend for 2 or Attack for 1. It’s not a big burst of damage, but it’s nice to have such a flexible disciple to pull from. If a player can avoid damage, they can take chip shots at their opponent, making Kamigami Battles more aggressive.
The gods in this set aren’t as diverse as the last few, but they are all still interesting. A few Gods interact with banishing and the Netherworld. Others add flexibility to the player’s discard pile. Amaterasu has a niche effect involving adjudication, but its neat due to how interactive it is. No God feels useless, and everyone has at least one ability that is somewhat universal for every game.
There is still a lot of fanservice in Warriors of the Dawn, but it isn’t quite as severe as it is in previous sets. Two or three cards have some ridiculous interpretations of anatomy though. There are plenty of men in this set, which is a nice change of pace. A bigger emphasis on husbandos would be nice going forward.
Warriors of the Dawn is another solid expansion for Kamigami Battles. It fleshes out the rules with cards that adds more depth to the experience. None of the cards really blew me away, but that didn’t stop my board game group from having a good time while playing this expansion.
