Congratulations on Admission to HOGWARTS (Heroes and Starting Decks)

Needless to say, we at USAopoly are huge fans of Harry Potter. When we secured the rights to work on the first officially-licensed Harry Potter themed cooperative deck-building game, we couldn’t have been more excited! For the past year, we have been working feverishly in collaboration with Forrest-Pruzan Creative to make HARRY POTTER™ HOGWARTS™ BATTLE A Cooperative Deck-Building Game, the most fun, immersive, and challenging Harry Potter board game experience possible. For those of you acquainted with other deck-building games, you may see some things that look familiar, but rest assured, we believe that there are a lot of unique and exciting aspects that fans of both Harry Potter and deck-building games will really enjoy.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing some details about the game, its components and mechanics, and maybe even a few (but not all!) of the secrets and surprises to discover. The game will unfold over a series of seven adventures, each more challenging than the ones before it. Over the course of each adventure, you will have to build a deck with powerful Spells, Allies, and Items, in order to face off against malicious Villains, withstand their Dark Arts attacks, and protect Locations from their attempts to control them. Each game, you must defeat all the Villains before they gain control of the Locations, in order to achieve victory!

To begin your adventure, you will take on the role of one of four Heroes: Harry, Ron, Hermoine, or Neville. We chose these four characters because they all start their studies at HOGWARTS at the same time and have an important role to play each year. Over the course of your adventures, your Heroes will gain improved wizarding skills to help defend against the looming threat of You-Know-Who.

Alohomora!, the unlocking spell, is one of the first spells every first-year student at HOGWARTS learns, and the only Spell you start with each game. This Spell allows a Hero to gain INFLUENCE as they demonstrate their skills as a wizard, which you will use to acquire new HOGWARTS cards for your deck and ‘unlock’ your wizarding potential by learning new Spells, discovering Items, and recruiting Allies to aid you in your adventures.

In addition to Alohomora!, each Hero also has a few starting cards unique to his or her own deck. These are iconic characters (Allies) and objects (Items) associated with each of the Heroes during their adventures at HOGWARTS. Harry starts with his Invisibility Cloak which protects him from Dark Arts attacks, and he is accompanied by his faithful companion Hedwig, who can protect him in one of two ways: by either gaining ATTACK to defeat Villains, or HEALTH to make sure Harry doesn’t get Stunned. Neville has a Remembrall to help him remember what he seems to have forgotten, and a Mandrake which has a variety of uses when handled properly!

Now you have a basic idea of the tools at your disposal as you begin on your adventures in Harry Potter™: HOGWARTS™ Battle. Join us next week as we reveal more secrets by exploring the HOGWARTS cards that you will be using to build your deck, as well as how to work together and achieve your full potential!

HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia are © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © JKR.  (s16)