Playing Hexerei as a Witch Hunter

A fine group of gentlemen indeed.

Written by Francesco Lanza

The Hunter's Game

In each game of Hexerei up to 4 players take up the mantle of the Witch Hunter: there will always be a Coven player to fight against, and at least a single Witch Hunter, "Hunter" in short. Each Hunter is very chacterized, with a slew of abilities that make him (or her) shine, but also do set him apart from his companions. As they are rather specialized, Hunters need to cooperate if they want to bring down the Coven. Being a One vs All game, we found during playtesting that a Coven which is slightly stronger overall makes for a better game. The Witch Hunters can level the playing field by banding together in Patrols, and by "tooling up" in the Market. So, for the Hunters Hexerei is always a co-op experience.
The Witch Hunters have only one objective: to find and slay the Three Witches before the Ritual is complete.

Your Character

To play as a Witch Hunter you need to choose a character sheet among those available. Each of these is used to keep track of the condition and equipment of a Hunter Model in play. A Hunter Model is meant to represent a living, breathing warrior of humanity-- but don't get too attached. You'll keep the same character sheet throughout the game, but will most probably burn through a number of individual Hunter Models, which are Removed from the board when slain, getting back on it your next turn. Individual Hunters are very expendable, and most of them are simply unlucky people forced by the Prince-Bishop in their role, or fanatics out to revel in their own twisted faith (and a curious lack of survival instinct). The Coven player won't really have any pity for their plight, let us tell you!

Yet, it is important to play your current Hunter intelligently. Mounting casualties throughout the game are one of the main tactical problems faced by the Witch Hunter faction. Each time a Hunter dies, their player will immediately have a new one to play, but it is necessary to draw a Novice card from the Novice deck. Each of those grants a one-off "power" and random Items to get the new character up and running, but such cards are numbered. When the deck is depleted, and there are no more cards to draw, the Coven wins. So Witch Hunters have a fixed amount of "lives" to count on.

Hunter Strategies

Playing as Witch Hunters means that you are never alone with your choices. Ignoring your mates spells ruin, since the Coven has all the means to take advantage of each failure of communication between the opposing players. Since financial resources are also in a common pool, getting crazy at the Market is a bad idea, for it is easily depleted.

Hunters should always settle maneuvering around the board between themselves. While the scoundrels they control are not really friends, and won't for example trade off any equipment between themselves, the collective interest of the human race gets the precedence on their tender feelings!

While it sounds hard and cruel, sacrificing your Hunter for a good reason is a very viable tactic. If they are strong enough to wound a Creature before getting slaughtered, that could be enough for the next Hunter to finish the job. While waiting for some better opening sounds enticing, it is really a hard choice to squander a turn preparing.

The fight is always uphill and time never enough, but Hunters must beware of haste! While finding Witches in a timely manner is needed to win, rushing it and placing on the board two or even three of them at once is possible, and is a bad idea since Witches are some of the strongest minions your adversary commands.

The Witch Hunters

In the Hexerei box you will find four Hunters. Additional Hunters are being developed for the future.

The Reiter

This Hunter is relatively slow moving, but hard hitting. He's a master of melee fighting and is quick to get equipped.

The Austringer

This character is fast moving and can hit very hard. He's a master of firearms, but is bad at Questioning Heretics and not particularly good with money!

The Surgeon

A Hunter well versed in Inquisition and on a Market day, he's incredibly good as a support in a fight, or as an "assassin".

The Inquisitor

An Inquisitor won't be bogged down by unknown tiles because he's very good at Questioning. He can use prisoners as cannon fodder and is precious help for the Hunters' cause.

Hunter Character Sheet

Stats

They vary greatly between Hunters

• Influence: used in the Market Phase
• Movement: how fast is the Hunter?
• Inquisition: used to Question Heretics
• Defence: how hard to hit is the Hunter?
• Attack: expressed in dice, it's the basic pool modified by Equipment

Masteries

Each Witch Hunter has two of them. They are very important, and are disabled by a waning Sanity.

Tactics

Each Witch Hunter has two of these. They are to be used in Combat.

Basic Weapon

Each Hunter wields one of these, and they are directly printed on their sheet. They suck mightily. You want to get something better as fast as humanly possible.

(Group) Portrait

by Igor Krstic