Wouter & Ymke 
As a dragon trainer, your job is to shape a future champion. You’ll spend your time teaching your dragon magic, strength, and agility, preparing it for the legendary Wind & Fire Tournament. The competition is fierce, and every choice you make could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Do you have what it takes to train a dragon strong enough to claim the title?
👥 1-4 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 45-60 minutes
📝 Designers: Georgij Shugol, Alexander Krys & Oleg Meleshin
🎨 Artwork: Evgeny Shvenk & Victor Zaburdaev
🏢 Publisher: iDventure (preview copy provided)
Check out the Kickstarter campaign by clicking here
Gameplay Overview
The game plays out over three phases: training, preparation, and the grand tournament. First, you train your dragon by collecting magical elements and building its strength. Then, there’s a quick preparation phase where you make some final adjustments. Finally, the tournament begins, where your dragon’s abilities will be put to the test.
Dragon Training: Rolling Dice, Building Power
Each round starts with the active player rolling dice and splitting them into groups, depending on the number of players. Then, in turn order, each player picks a group and decides how to use their dice. Every die gives you two possible options.
The first option is to gather magical elements. You take the elements shown on the die from the supply and place them on your elemental board. Completing a full row earns you a coin, which increases your dragon’s power. But watch out; if a die shows a black crystal, you’ll have to place it on your dragon, weakening it.
The second option is to train your dragon. Instead of taking elements, you can assign a die to your training grounds. This lets you move a matching crystal from your supply onto your elemental board. If you clear two adjacent realms in the process, you’ll get a reward. Depending on the space, this could be a coin, removing a black crystal from your dragon, placing a magic tile on your board, or drawing an action card.
If a die assigned to your training grounds has a black crystal, you have to store it in a special area. Once you collect two black crystals there, they must be placed on your dragon, which is bad news. The good news is you’ll get an action card as compensation. Action cards can be a lifesaver, letting you remove black crystals, gain extra resources, or have more flexibility when choosing dice.
At any time during your turn, you can also upgrade your dragon. If you match a specific pattern on your elemental pyramid, you can flip those tiles over and swap out an old body part for the upgraded version. The stronger your dragon, the better your chances in the tournament.
Training continues until one player upgrades their third dragon tile. When that happens, the round finishes, and it’s time for the preparation phase.
Final Preparation: Getting Ready for Battle
Before the tournament begins, players have one last chance to play any leftover action cards and upgrade their dragon’s body parts if they have the right pieces. Once that’s done, it’s time to determine each dragon’s final power.
Each body part’s final value is determined by its base number, plus any coins, but minus any black crystals attached. Once that’s settled, the tournament can begin.
The Tournament: Proving Your Strength
The tournament phase starts with selecting the challenges. The player with the lowest total dragon power gets to pick which public tournament cards (revealed at the start of the game) will be used. At the same time, each player secretly chooses a private tournament card from their hand.
When the competition begins, you total up your dragon’s body part values along with any magical elements, like crystals and tiles, on your elemental board. The players with the highest and second-highest scores in each tournament earn trophies.
After five hard-fought tournaments, the player with the most trophies emerges victorious, proving their dragon’s strength once and for all and claiming the title of Champion of Wind & Fire.
Game Info
Champions of Wind & Fire is a game designed for 1 to 4 players, with an average playtime of around 45 to 60 minutes. The minds behind this game, Georgij Shugol, Alexander Krys, and Oleg Meleshin, previously worked together on Cryptic Nature, a game that gained support through crowdfunding a few years back. Now, with iDventure as the publisher once again, they are bringing this new project to Kickstarter on February 19th.
Components, Production, and Artwork
We had the chance to check out a preview copy of Champions of Wind & Fire, kindly provided by iDventure. Since this is not the final production version, some details might change before release, but what we have seen so far already makes a strong impression.
The game features dual-layered boards for each player, including both the elemental boards and dragon boards, which help keep pieces securely in place. The magic crystal tokens are vibrant and easy to distinguish, and the game also includes tournament dials and two sets of dice: elemental dice and tournament dice, which are central to the gameplay.
If we had to pick a favorite component, it would definitely be the wooden magic tiles. These are not just sturdy and well-crafted, but they also have a really satisfying presence on the board. Each tile is finished with a dragon illustration on one side and an elemental symbol on the other, making them both functional and visually striking.
Speaking of visuals, the artwork by Evgeny Shvenk and Victor Zaburdaev gives the game a lively and captivating look. The colors pop, the details feel immersive, and the style fits the fantasy setting perfectly. It is the kind of artwork that does not just make the game fun to play, but also makes it look fantastic on the table.
How It Plays: Strategy, Luck, and a Bit of Sneaky Planning
At its core, Champions of Wind & Fire is all about training your dragon using magical elements and preparing for tournaments. But there is more to it than simply collecting resources and rolling dice.
Each round, the active player divides the dice into smaller groups, and players take turns selecting a set. Sounds simple, right? Not quite. You need to think ahead, not just about what benefits you the most, but also about what you are leaving for your opponents. You do not want to hand them an easy advantage, but you also do not want to sabotage yourself. Finding the right balance can be trickier than it seems.
The game also includes action cards, which help smooth out the luck factor. Some allow you to adjust dice faces, while others let you use another player’s combination. If you enjoy a bit of player interaction, some cards even let you throw extra black crystals onto an opponent’s dragon or force them to take an unwanted magic tile. Play these cards at the right moment, and you might just turn their perfect plan into a disaster.
Upgrading Your Dragon: A Puzzle Worth Mastering
Upgrading your dragon is a challenge in itself. To improve a body part, you need to create the right pattern on your elemental board, flipping magic tiles to unlock stronger abilities. This is not as easy as it sounds. If you are not careful, you might find yourself in a situation where you have upgraded two parts, only to realize there is no way to fit the third into your pyramid. It is a puzzle within a strategy game, and planning ahead is important.
If you ask us, the tournament phase is what takes the game’s strategy to the next level. Players secretly select a tournament card that determines which attributes will score: body, head, or wings, combined with a specific color or magic element. If you pay close attention, you might be able to predict your opponents’ choices based on how they have been playing. Reading the table can make a big difference when it comes to final scoring.
Advanced Mode: A Deeper Challenge
For those looking to add more strategy, an advanced mode introduces new ways to manage resources and influence the game. Black crystals are assigned secretly before the final tournaments, and players use tournament dials to decide how much magic and gold to commit. With added action cards and more room for tactical decisions, this mode offers a more strategic and competitive experience.
Final Thoughts
Champions of Wind & Fire is a game of risk, reward, and clever planning. Every decision, from how you train your dragon to when you play your action cards, matters. Do you focus on building raw power, or do you take a more tactical approach, keeping an eye on your opponents and playing defensively? Either way, the game offers different paths to victory, and it is always satisfying to see your dragon evolve and grow stronger.
What we really like is how the game lets you build up your dragon while still giving you chances to throw a wrench in your opponents’ plans. You can focus on improving your own abilities, but ignoring what others are doing can leave you vulnerable. The challenge lies in managing your dice and resources carefully. If you do not, you might end up with more black crystals than you would like, and that is never a good look for a champion in the making.
So, is this game for you? If you enjoy mid-weight strategy games with a fun theme, engaging decisions, and a mix of planning and tactical adjustments, Champions of Wind & Fire is definitely worth a look. It is not the heaviest strategy game out there, but it offers enough depth to keep things interesting while remaining accessible. Plus, who does not love training dragons?
📝 We received a preview copy of the game from the publisher, iDventure. The final version may have some differences from what we played.
