The Coven as a player

The odd one out: you will love to "hate" the Coven!

Written by Francesco Lanza.

The Coven's Game

The Coven's role is always taken by a single human (well, you'd better hope) player. The Coven represent the malignant intelligence that steers the Powers of Hell throughout the land. Be it the Devil himself, or an amalgam of the fears and bestial desires of a disenfrachised humanity, or even the collective will of the Three Witches, the Coven is perfectly capable of bringing about the Apocalypse.

Let's start this by being absolutely clear: The Coven's player is no game master. It's a competitive role, and is played to win-- which can be accomplished in two ways: either the Coven manages to endure to the end of the eight Round, or they kill so many Hunters that there are none to go around with anymore. To accomplish either plan you need to make a lot of hard choices. Your main problem is that the Three Witches need protection, and can only be defended with a fine degree of cunning. The Coven will find it to be impossible to preserve them indefinitely from the guns and swords of the Witch Hunters, but only eight turns are needed! That said, the Coven is the strongest by far among the players: Hexerei's balance is slightly tilted in favor of the forces of Hell to even the playing field -- this is an asymmetrical board game and it is meant to be played one vs all.

While the side of Evil is gifted with impressive powers and Maleficia, the best weapon in the arsenal of the Coven are of course Coven Models: Creatures, Abominations and Cultists. Witches, while incredibly powerful, are usually too precious to be used as mere tools, unless a Coven player knows exactly what they are doing.

A Coven turn

by "Tabulae" di Davide Schileo e Daniela Sobetchi

Each Round in Hexerei begins with a Coven Turn, followed by a Market phase and then Turns for each successive Witch Hunter. During their Turn, Coven Players:

Draw Orbis cards to inflict board-spanning conditions on the Witch Hunters
Draw a new hand of Maleficia cards (or replenish it if only partially spent)
Replenish their Goetia pool, which in turn can be spent to Summon Creatures, Heal them, Corrupt the Arcanum deck with false clues leading Hunters astray and finally gather
Cultists to open the Hellgate
Then Witches, Abomination, Cultists and Creatures are maneuvered around the board, hopefully vanquishing the Hunters.

The vast majority of the Coven's plan for wordly obliteration is decided here. While the Hunters play, though, the Coven's player will still wield dangerous Maleficia to thwart their opponents in Combat.

The Coven is always strong, even when pressed into the defensive.