Torchlit

• Designer: David Spalinski
• Publisher: Allplay
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 40 minutes
• Amazon link:  https://amzn.to/3RUf8CB 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Every adventurer dreams of delving into a monster-packed dungeon and returning home to bask in fame and fortune. However, choosing the right dungeon can be tricky. Some have barely any monsters, while others are teeming with adventurers eager to split the spoils. And lurking behind it all is the fickle Dungeon Warden, forever tugging at the strings of fate. It’s no wonder adventurers carry a torch to light the way. In this trick-taking game, you must decide when to win tricks and when to increase the value of the number of tricks you think you might take. However, points are limited, so if any players end up taking the same amount of tricks, they must divide the points among themselves. After 3 rounds of play, the player with the most points wins!



Place the door tiles in numeric order on the table (the backs tell you which ones to use based on player count).  All players choose a meeple, place it on Door 0, and take the player aid card of matching color.  Construct the deck (using 6 or 7 suits based on player count), shuffle it and deal out a hand of cards to each player (14 cards in 4p game).   Each player chooses one of their cards to be their torch, and that card is placed facedown on the table.  At the end of the round, if your meeple is on the same door as the number on your torch card, you will score a bonus.  One player is designated as the Torchbearer (start player) and takes the matching token.

The game then moves into a mostly simple must follow trick taking game. Red is always trump. One big rule difference is that players are NOT obligated to follow trump if trump is led.  The trick is resolved in the normal manner – the highest trump card wins, and if no trump, then the highest card of the lead suit.  The winner of the trick AND anyone else who played a card of the same rank as the winning card move their meeple one door the right.  If you are at the right edge of the doors, you loop back around to door 0. 

The player who played the lowest ranked card (with later card played being lower amongst ties) becomes the new Torchbearer.  The new Torchbearer now takes one card from each suit played into the trick and places it in the dungeon, under the door of matching number.  In the case where all the suits in a trick are different, the Torchbearer can instead choose to place any number of those cards into the dungeon (including zero).  Any unplaced cards are discarded.  The Torchbearer now leads the next trick.

There is a bit of a change for the final trick.  In this last trick, players can either play the last card in their hand OR they can reveal their Torch card and play it instead.  In that case, the card in their hand is then placed facedown as their new torch.

When that final trick is resolved, the round now moves into scoring.  All players reveal their Torch card, and if their meeple is on the Door tile of the same number, that player gains 3 gold.  If the player does not match, they get no gold and must place their Torch card facedown into the dungeon in the column that matches the number of that Torch card.

All players now total the gold for the cards in their column: 2 gold per faceup Dragon (red card), 2 gold per facedown Torch card, and 1 gold for any other card.  The gold for the column are then split evenly amongst all the meeples on the door tile for said column.  Record the scores on the score sheet.  Repeat this three times, and the player with the most gold wins.  There is no tiebreaker.

My thoughts on the game

Torchlit is a very interesting take on the trick taking genre because in this game you are trying to match your hidden bid rather than simply winning all the tricks.  In addition, if you are able to correctly read your opponents, you can try to also get them off their own bid.

There are plenty of opportunities to learn what your opponents are shooting for as the warden, i.e. the lowest player in a trick, gets to add some cards to the dungeon, and you can see which doors they are making more valuable (or perhaps avoiding from adding cards to). 

Paying close attention to the other cards in the trick can be useful as one card from each suit generally must be added to the dungeon. So, if you can play the right suit of card, you can guarantee that your desired card is added to the dungeon regardless of whether you came in last place or not.

As the round progresses, you’ll be constantly calculating where you think other players will end up.  If you end on the same space as someone else, you’ll have to split the loot with them – so sometimes you’re better off finding a column of your own to occupy.  Of course, if you miss your own door, you’ll have to add your Torch card to its column, thus enriching it for anyone else who ends the round there.  The game even gives you a bit of wiggle room by letting you swap out your final hand card with your Torch card.  Of course, you’ll have to figure out what the swap will do to the cards added to the Dungeon as well as your own score.

The bonus of 3 points for hitting your Torch target is strong, but certainly not so large that you cannot overcome it by landing on a juicy non-target door by yourself.  And it is this scoring possibility that makes the game so intense and interesting to play.  It’s a game that definitely uses ideas from trick-taking, but it feels like there is much more going on. Certainly worth a try for those interested in the genre.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Erik Arneson: I agree with Dale: Torchlit is a very interesting take on the trick-taking genre. It’s a challenge to hit your secret bid, but there are plenty of decisions along the way to give you a real chance at doing so. Torchlit definitely rewards repeated plays – there are nuances that only reveal themselves over time. (My comments are based on playing the original self-published version.)

Alison Brennan: Normal trumpy trick-taking with a novel scoring approach. Each time you win a trick or match rank with the winning card (off suits, trumps), move up one rank on the score ladder. Whoever plays the lowest card to the trick adds one card of each colour played to its appropriate rank on the score ladder. At the end of the round, score points if your kept bid card matches your rank on the score ladder (Xylotar style) plus pts for the cards of that rank added to the score ladder. Which means your score isn’t dependent on winning the most tricks (which is refreshing) but instead on matching your bid and hoping that a ton of cards of that rank are added. Players with incorrect bids can score higher than correct bids. Which feels rather capricious but trick-taking is fun and I’m willing to explore more to find out.

Lorna: Fun, thematic trick taker. It even scales reasonably well to 2 players. 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Steph H, Erik Arneson, Lorna
• I like it. Dale Y, John P, Alison
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon link:  https://amzn.to/3RUf8CB