If it is true that men make plans and gods laugh, then it is more than plausible that gods limit themselves to crack their prophets around the world, competing for followers as we compete for victory points in Flick of Faith, the board game of which below you can read ours review. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this Divine Challenges game, as the subtitle says. But you don’t think it’s that simple, right? Because the gods don’t play subbuteo with their followers, it would all be too simple.
So let’s have fun squirting the divine word around an archipelago of islands with our eyes closed, two prophets at a time, rolling them or with our weakest hand. All this and more we will find in the review of Flick of Faith: Divine Challenges, a board game of dexterity that does not take itself too seriously – and that’s perfectly fine.
Flick of Faith: The Board Game Review
Flick of Faith is a board game created by Paweł Stobiecki, Jan Truchanowicz And Łukasz Włodarczyk for Awaken Realms Lite, the family games division of Polish publisher Awaken Realms; other well-known titles from the same publisher are Bees: the Secret Realm and SiegeStorm. In Italy the game is localized and published by Dal Tenda (Santa Maria, Bees).
It is a title for 2 to 4 players, playable in ten minutes per player or a little less. We are talking about a majority area control game, made through the more or less stable presence of prophets and temples on the game map. The latter is composed of a playmat, on which 4 are printed in a position of relative symmetry with a vortex in the center, and this too has its own function during the game. Each player clicks their Prophet Discs from their corner of the map, with the intent of scoring the most points by controlling the islands or “sacrificing” the prophets in the central vortex.
Before each game round, however, we will vote between two divine laws, one of which will take effect for the round or the rest of the game. These are the crazy rules we told you about earlier, and they transform the experience into something very funny and sometimes even a little absurd.
The contents of the box
The Flick of Faith box is of a particular size, quite elongated and narrow, in order to contain the game map printed on neoprene. Inside we find:
- The Playmat of the map
- 4 double-sided deity cards
- 20 Law cards
- 1 Monkey King disc and a Sphinx
- The First Player throws
- The “Hand of God” token
- The victory point tokens
- The Heart of Freya token
- A “Reserve” token
- A Tornado token
Also, in 4 colors and for each player:
- 7 Prophets, the small discs
- 2 Templars, medium discs
- 4 Temples, the largest discs
- A set of stickers to be applied on discs with illustrations dedicated to the deities
The review of the components of the board game
The components of Flick of Faith are varied and quite well made.
The illustrations are very well drawn (from Dagmara Gąska, Krzysztof Piasek, Piotr Hornowski, Agnieszka Pogan And Adrian Radziun), both on the cards and on the boards of the deities, which are in plasticized linen. The latter also show the symbols of the components to be used, in order to make a setup that takes no more than a couple of minutes agile and simple. The cards must be reshuffled only during preparation, but can be protected with the sleeves suitable for Flick of Faith, which you find TO THIS ADDRESS.
The wooden discs are of good quality, regular, smooth and uniform, so that it is the skills of the players that determine their movements. In total there are 55, so we are talking about a considerable amount of material, which results in a very pretty good quality / price ratio.
Unfortunately, the playmat is not at the quality level of the rest of the materials. Not for the illustrations above it – less beautiful than those on the cards – but for the quality of the neoprene it is made of. It is often difficult to make sure that it remains very smooth and without irregularities on the table. This is a problem during the game, because a less than uniform surface results in possible alterations of our throws, especially when we want to push ourselves a little further.
To overcome this problem, our advice is to leave it out of the box and open, if possible, in such a way that over time it softens and results in a more regular surface.
How to play Flick of Faith
Flick of Faith is played over 4 rounds (3 in 3 players) so that all players are first to round at least once. Each round is divided into 3 phases: the Council Phase, the Mission Phase and the Worship Phase.
During the Council Phase, votes are simultaneously cast to decide which of the two randomly drawn laws from the relevant deck will come into effect for the round or until the end of the game. In case of a tie, he will choose the case. The Laws are that pinch of pepper that make this title really tasty. Here are some of them, just to give an idea of the possibilities: modifiers to the scoring system, bonuses for those who push opponents off the map, new victory conditions, additional or different pieces, or even special obligations, such as squirting with your eyes closed. or with the little fingers; but we leave to you the pleasure of discovering them all.
In the Mission Phase, we hurl our prophets, in turn order, from the corner closest to where we sit; the prophets are our smallest wooden discs. The aim is to have Presence in the islands, Domination (the majority of pieces on an island) or to end the movement of one of our prophets in the Vortex, to immediately gain victory points. If one of our prophets stops within the boundary of a city, we can remove it and place a Temple on the same island, which is a much larger and more massive disk that is difficult to move by flicking other prophets. This phase ends when all players have thrown the Prophets at their disposal.
In the last Phase of a Generation, that of Adoration, the score is calculated: one point for each island where you have Presence (a Prophet or a Temple), and 2 points for each island where you have Dominion. Once this is done, we take back our Prophets but leave the Temples in their place. The First Player token is passed and the game continues, with the next Generation, or ends, and the winner is declared.
Divine Challenges
In addition to the Law cards, to give particularity to Flick of Faith are the deity cards that each player receives at the beginning of the game, taken from Greek, Ancient-Egyptian, Norse and Irish mythology. There are 4 of them, each with two sides that we can choose at the start of the game. They too give crazy powers, and give each player a rather different experience in each match.
Perhaps some deity cards grant better abilities than others, but this possible imbalance has very little weight in the judgment of the game. This is because the ability of the players to hurl their Prophets certainly has a greater impact on the game than these powers, but also and above all because the heart of Flick of Faith is not mathematical or strategic, although these aspects are present and important. His intention is to entertain players with light, fun gameplay but based on a particular skill – dexterity – which is often and willingly put to the test.
To have an even greater degree of replayability, numerous other Divinity cards have been produced, of which two are also available in Italian; but nothing prevents you from looking for the cards in the original language and using their powers, even without owning the physical copy. The promo cards of other gods are dedicated to Santa Claus, Veles, Loki and Cthulhu.
Conclusions of the Flick of Faith review
Let’s move on to the conclusions of our Flick of Faith: Divine Challenges board game review.
We are faced with a really fun and enjoyable game. Despite some possible small flaws, for example in the balance or in the clarity of some cards, what this title aims to do it really does very well. The balance between a light product, in the sense that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, with the strategic sense, makes it very pleasant to play; this is true both for experienced players who are looking for a less serious experience, and for players a little starting out, who let themselves be taken by simple and fun mechanics but not without meaning.
The only real flaw of this game, which unfortunately means that we cannot give a high rating as we would have liked, is the quality of the playmat realization. Unlike other titles, where a suboptimal component is an aesthetic or ergonomic issue, in Flick of Faith a less than perfectly smooth and level playmat impacts gameplay. Nothing tragic, mind you, and there are various ways to fix the problem, but it’s still a shame for a game that is really very good in its genre.
Nonetheless, Flick of Faith: Divine Challenges definitely deserves a spot on our shelves. It is explained quickly, with a simple regulation but not without strategic possibilities. It adapts well to any type of player and scales well in all player-counters, even if the 4-player game is certainly the most fun due to the cheerful chaos that is created on the table. However, it should not be disdained even in 2, where it becomes almost chess – if chess could be cracked!
For these reasons, we consider Flick of Faith a great board game to have in your collection, to play when you don’t have much time or with a group not too accustomed to wild boars. Or as always a valid alternative when – it often happens to us – you want a fun title but that does not forget the challenge between the players which, even if it will not always be divine, can not miss to give flavor to any board game.
NB No prophet was martyred to make the Flick of Faith review.
Flick of Faith: Divine Challenges
Flick of Faith: Divine Challenges does its job very well, which is to entertain while having fun. Suitable for many types of players, thanks to its discrete strategic depth, it will also be of interest to non-fans of dexterity games. Although the playmat is not among the best around, the quality / price ratio remains good. Ultimately, Flick of Faith is a title that deserves a place in any collection.
Pro
Good quality / price ratio
Fun gameplay because it is light and interesting because it is not trivial
Very good scalability and replayability
Against
Playmat not of the highest quality
