Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising game review

Are you ready to defeat Lord Voldemort and thwart his rise to power?

Wait…

Have we talked about this already, because it feels very familiar?

Well, we’ve got yet another new Harry Potter-themed game for you to check out from The Op — Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising!

Over the 11 years we’ve been reviewing family board games, we’ve reviewed a bunch of Harry Potter games. Yet, we still don’t get tired of playing them.

That’s because each game has a totally different feel to it.

Some are competitive, while others are cooperative. Some are for many players, while others are for just 2-players. Some are card-driven, and others are dice-driven. Such a variety!

Yet, while Death Eaters Rising is unique for Harry Potter games, the gameplay itself isn’t completely unique. That’s because it plays very much like a game reviewed two years ago — Thanos Rising.

Death Eaters Rising board game — Let’s get ready to rumble!

Of course, we really like the cooperative gameplay of Thanos Rising. So when we heard of Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising, we were totally on board with checking it out too!

How to play Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising

In Death Eaters Rising players work together to recruit Wizards and defeat Death Eaters before they and Lord Voldemort corrupt Wizarding World locations. Players win if they can defeat Lord Voldemort. But they can lose in multiple ways:

Too many Wizards are defeated (the number depends on player count).
Any one player has all their Wizards defeated.
Four (or more) Places are corrupted.
Any one Location is completely corrupted.

Set up

To begin, each player chooses an Affiliation (Hogwarts, Order of the Phoenix, or Dumbledore’s Army) and takes that Headquarters card and affiliation token as well as a starting Wizard character.

All the character cards (Wizards and Death Eaters) are shuffled together and 3 character cards are placed face-up next to each of the 3 Locations around the board. Then the Lord Voldemort card is inserted into the middle of the character deck. And the 2 Place cards for each Location are placed on their spaces on the board.

Finally, the Lord Voldemort figure is placed in the center of the board facing a random location. And you’re ready to play.

Player turns

A player’s turn consists of 4 steps.

Travel to a Location
Resolve Lord Voldemort and Death Eater actions
Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice
End turn

First, the player chooses where to send their team and places their Affiliation token in that Location on the board.

Then they roll the Voldemort die. This die has 3 possible results. Voldemort will either rotate Left or Right to the adjacent Location or he will Activate all Death Eaters. After rolling the die and possibly moving his direction, Voldemort attacks the Wizard characters at his Location. This means all Wizard cards next to that Location receive a Damage cube. If the player’s team is at that Location, all that player’s Wizards also receive a damage cube.

Next, a Corruption gem is added to the Place card at that Location and Death Eaters’ regular abilities at that Location are activated. Meaning the normal effect listed on those Death Eaters cards occurs.

If that weren’t enough, if the Dark Mark was rolled on the Voldemort die, he also Activates the Dark Mark abilities of all Death Eaters around the board.

Then the player fights back by rolling all their Wizard dice. This includes the Wizard dice indicated on their Headquarters cards plus any dice they get from Wizards on their team.

After their first roll, the player assigns at least one of the die (may also assign more) to cards at their Location, their Headquarters card, or a Wizard ability on their team. Then the player can roll any remaining dice from their dice pool and again assign dice with matching symbols to cards.

However, if a player chooses not to assign a die (or can’t) after a roll, they forfeit one of their dice by setting it aside.

They continue rolling and assigning until they’re out of dice.

Once dice have been assign to match all symbols on a Wizard card, the player recruits that Wizard to their team and removes all damage cubes from that card. After doing so on a Death Eater card, they have successfully damaged that Death Eater and place one damage cube on that card. They also take a random Spell token for each damage they inflict.

If a Death Eater’s damage spaces are filled, they’re removed and added to the Azkaban area. And Wizards will full damage are removed and added to the Hogwarts Infirmary area. Any Place cards will filled corruption spaces are removed from the Location. Empty spaces around the board are refilled with cards from the character deck.

Then it’s the next player’s turn.

Once the Lord Voldemort card is drawn, it’s added to the Villain card. Now any player may attack Lord Voldemort when they’re in his Location.

Players continue taking turns until players either defeat Lord Voldemort or one of the losing conditions (mentioned above) occurs.

Can the whole family enjoy Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising?

Harry Potter is loved by so many families around the world. And in a like manner, Harry Potter games are usually big hits with families as well.

The good news is that Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is likewise a game families can enjoy playing together. And one major reason is because it’s a cooperative board game — with players working together to defeat evil forces.

However, like with some of the dark themes in the Harry Potter universe, the game is best suited for older kids.

The amount of text on each card would also make the game difficult for younger kids. Yet, because it’s cooperative, older players can also help in their regard if you decide to play with younger kids.

We’ve also found the game to be a solid challenge. We’ve lost more times than we’ve won.

That could be a combination of bad choices and bad dice rolling. But we also find that’s what we enjoy about the game. Plenty of options to choose from and take your chances!

It’s a cooperative board game that doesn’t suffer from the alpha-gamer problem — where one player just directs what all players should do on their turns. Because of the dice rolling, there are many options and many different possibilities on a player’s turn. It’s not just a puzzle that can be readily solved.

Plus, we find cooperative board games that are challenging are the ones we’re more likely to attempt again and again because it’s more satisfying when we pull off a win.

The distribution of symbols on the Wizard dice varies depending on their color — which corresponds to the different possible Affiliations. The possibilities are Phoenix symbols (Loyalty), Wands (Friendship), Sorting Hats (Knowledge), and Swords (Bravery). Knowing this helps determine which Wizards you have a better chance of recruiting and which Death Eaters you have a better chance of defeating when you choose the Location to visit on your turns.

As we stated at the outset, the core gameplay is just like Thanos Rising. A board with 3 sections, a central bad guy, heroes to recruit to your team, henchmen to defeat, and dice to roll to accomplish your goals. Yet there are differences that play into the theme of the source material (defeating Lord Voldemort vs. stopping Thanos from getting the gems for his Gauntlet).

So even though we’re keeping both games, we anticipate many more plays of Death Eaters Rising than Thanos Rising. Which in our family is due to the fact that mom is a huge Harry Potter fan and isn’t interested in Marvel superheroes.

(Now, if only I could snag a copy of Star Wars: Dark Side Rising, which is only available in EMEA…)

How does Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising scores well on our “let’s play again” game meter for a number of reasons. First, it’s a cooperative board game where we get to team up. Second, it’s a challenging game to win. Third, it’s Harry Potter themed. Fourth, we like building up our teams of wizards. Fifth, it’s got awesome components. And sixth, we love rolling the wizard dice and deciding how to best use them.

If your family has Harry Potter fans and you like games where you get to work together, Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising may be a great game for your family!