Lumina Spell
- Board's Eye View
- 6 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Lumina Spell is an easy-to-play tile game from Phantom Lab. It's designed by Kotori for 2-4 players. It's played on a 7 x 7 grid that represents and has the appearance of a stained glass window as it's populated with attractive, colourful translucent acrylic tiles.
The tiles in Lumina Spell come in three colours and are numbered 1-8. The tiles are placed out onto the grid randomly and each player takes a special multicoloured tile with which to take their first turn. The idea is that you play a tile from your hand against any tile of matching number or colour in order to push that row or column of tiles. You take the tile you push off the end but if you push off a run of numbers or two identical numbers, or a combination of both (eg: 2, 3, 3, 2) you push off and collect all those tiles.
It all seems simple enough: you just look for the row or column that will yield you the most tiles, assuming you have a tile with the matching colour or number to be able to push that row or column. The more tiles you collect, the broader your prospects for being able to push rows and columns.
But this isn't a game where you score by accumulating tiles... There are 18 'magic' cards that score you points when you trade in the tiles needed to fulfil the card's requirements. There are always four cards available in a market display, and you can use your turn to take one or more. It means you don't get to push that turn, and it means you have to trade in the tiles specified on the card - so reducing your options for subsequent pushes... When the game ends, you score for your cards but tiles in hand that are left unspent are each worth minus 1 point!
We've especially enjoyed Lumina Spell as a two-player tussle where players can plan a turn or more ahead and set up potentially powerful pushes and/or card claims. Seeing that your opponent has the tiles needed for a card, you may well set up a strong next move in the knowledge that you can profit from it yourself as your opponent probably won't be making a push move on their turn. The game becomes less tactical as you increase the player count.
The bright acrylic tiles add to the game's appeal but we've been less impressed with the cards. Tho' the tiles are transparent, the iconography on the cards is surprisingly opaque. You're likely to find players struggling without the rules sheet to decode what each card means.
