Duel for Cardia

Play your cards right to win the favor of the factions, and become the next ruler of the city!

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Duel for Cardia (also known as simply Cardia) is a card game for two players, designed by Mathieu Rivero and Faouzi Boughida. It’s published by Hans im Glück, but since we’re in the USA, we got our copy from Asmodee.

You can play a single round in 5-10 minutes. A complete game shouldn’t take more than about 20 minutes.

How to Play

Start with identical 16-card decks for both players. Each player shuffles their own deck and draws a hand of five cards.

Choose a card to play, and put it face-down, next to the location card. Once both players are ready, reveal your card and compare values.

These two cards are “dueling”, much like in the game War. The higher value card gains a signet token, showing it won this duel.

But then – the player with the lower-value card activates its special power. This could be an immediate effect such as the Surgeon above (which subtracts 5 from the next card’s value). Or it could be an ongoing effect – if so, show the effect is active by placing an ongoing token on the card.

Once powers have been resolved and tokens have been placed or moved accordingly, draw one card from your deck. Then choose a card to play – again, face-down – next to the previous duel. Reveal when your opponent is ready with their own card.

As more cards are placed, you’ll form a row showing the history of your one-card duels. Since card powers can change the values of previous cards – or upcoming cards – keeping all the duels in order is important.

The round ends in one of three ways:

• After powers are resolved, one player has at least five signets and at least one more signet than the other player. They win!
• One player is unable to play a card. Their opponent wins.
• A card power causes its player to immediately win.

For a full game of Duel for Cardia, play until someone wins two rounds.

More Cards

But there’s more tucked into this small box. You get your choice of two different 16-card decks. Deck II is slightly more complex than Deck I, and you can even mix and match them to make a new play experience. Just make sure that both players start with identical decks!

A choice of eight Location cards changes up the game even more. Use a single Location for an entire round. Each one modifies the rules in ways that will make both players think hard about their strategy.

Impressions

For a small card game, Duel for Cardia offers a lot to explore. Even after a dozen plays, I’m still discovering new tactics and combos.

Usually, ultra-small dueling games are about purely outwitting your opponent. In Cardia, your available cards usually don’t exactly mirror your opponent’s, despite an identical set of actions in the 16-card deck. This adds randomness and flexibility to the game.

I love the way the variety in the deck gives me an opportunity to be sneaky. Even if I can’t outwit my opponent right now, I can throw off their planning while I figure out my next move.

Of course, they can disrupt my plans, too.

Challenges

Cardia presented me a few challenges I didn’t expect.

First, it’s surprisingly hard to remember how cards activate their powers. Every duel produces a “winner”, who gets the signet – at least for now. Then the losing card (and only the losing card) activates its power. It’s easy to get caught up in what your card can do, and forget that it only performs that ability if it was the lower value and didn’t win the fight.

These tiny decks also contain cards that can change the outcome of previous duels. Thankfully, there are tokens to help players remember which ongoing powers are active and which (if any) card values have changed. But you still need to pay attention!

There are definitely patterns that emerge as you play the game more often. But the best moves are still the unexpected ones.

Cardia quickly becomes frustrating when I just can’t get in the right head-space for the game. Although it’s quick, there’s a lot to consider on every turn. I need to be paying attention and making flexible plans, looking ahead AND looking at the cards already played.

Continue to Explore

The Locations are one of the things that can change up a game the most. But these game-changing cards will cause you to re-examine your strategy and think in different ways.

If you tend to alternate between high and low cards to balance using card powers with winning duels, you’ll have to weigh your choices when playing in the Auction House. Your strategy might still be effective, but you’ll have to be quick to defeat your opponent before your deck runs out.

Meanwhile, the Haunted Catacombs forces you to alternate factions every turn. Don’t get caught out playing two similar cards in a row!

Playing with the Bazaar, in which you only draw cards when your hand is down to one, almost felt like a different game. I had to plan carefully so that I didn’t cause my opponent to discard cards in a way that would let them draw up to a full hand when I had fewer cards.

Recommended

We loved Duel for Cardia, and so did our teenage son. The temporary frustration at losing a duel adds tension to the game. It motivates us both to keep looking for the best play with our limited cards. And winning feels even sweeter when you can force your opponent into a corner.

Although younger kids could play this game, I would avoid it if they struggle with reading comprehension or are easily frustrated. The same goes for adults – this is not a game for a casual break. Play it when you’re ready for 10-20 minutes of intense tactics.

Pick up a copy of Duel for Cardia from Asmodee USA, on Amazon, or at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Duel for Cardia from Asmodee North America for this review.

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