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Nightmare Cathedral box art
2023 Ranked #5,131

Nightmare Cathedral

This area-control strategy game has players build forces, fortifications, and ritual progress to win control of the map. Completing the central structure releases nightmares that can devour units or become powerful tools.

Horror Miniatures Area Majority / Influence Follow

Players

1-4

Play time

Not listed

Age

14+

Complexity

3.42/5

Rating

7.54

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.1/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.7/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.7/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

Nightmare Cathedral prominently features the haunting artwork by the late polish surrealist painter and sculptor Zdzis?aw Beksi?ski.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

Nightmare Cathedral prominently features the haunting artwork by the late polish surrealist painter and sculptor Zdzis?aw Beksi?ski. Nightmare Cathedral is a strategy game for 1–4 players, where victory is gained by controlling the map, managing resources, following objectives and selecting when to engage in fast and furious conflicts to gain strategic advantage. Over the course of the game, you will perform actions — and follow the actions of other players — to produce units, build fortifications, maneuver around the map, and spend your followers to climb the ritual track. Throughout the game, a haunting Cathedral will grow in the center of the board, and once it is completed, you will face — and gain the ability to control! — the physical manifestations of nightmares that are released upon the world. Nightmare Cathedral is a game of both strategy and tactics, where finding clever ways to follow your objectives and combining different strategies is the ultimate route to victory. Each player has a set of Action cards. These Action cards display various effects that may be activated either on that player's own turn, or as a reaction when other players perform that action. When you are the Active Player, you will move your Dreamer to a Day space that is not adjacent to its current Night space and perform the Action associated with that Day space, as outlined on your own Action card. Inactive Players may react to your chosen Day Action. The game is divided into two stages. During the first stage, the titular Nightmare Cathedral is built, piece by piece, as the game progresses. Once the final Cathedral piece is placed on the main board, the Nightmare Cathedral is finished, at which point the game transitions to the second stage. From this moment on, Nightmares, powerful beings channeling the presence of the completed Cathedral, enter the game board, Devouring Units in their path. However, as a player, you may also take actions to control a Nightmare, Commanding it to do your bidding. The game end is triggered in one of the following ways: The Time marker reaches a certain space on the Time track. A single player reaches the final step of the Ritual track. A certain number of Units have been devoured.

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Editions

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Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
1–4
Best with
1–4
Play time
60 min
Age
14+
Complexity
3.4/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
B?a?ej Kubacki

Artists

2
Zdzis?aw Beksi?ski Franek Wolski

Publishers

1
Board&Dice

Linked items

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