Black Rose Wars: Rebirth | first impressions and rules overview

About Black Rose Wars: Rebirth, from BoardGameGeek:

Black Rose Wars: Rebirth is a highly competitive fantasy game of combat, strategy, and deck-building set in ancient Italy. Black Rose Wars: Rebirth is the second chapter in the Black Rose Wars series. Even though 25 years have passed after the Lodge was destroyed, Mages have not forgotten the Old Ways. The Black Rose calls to them. They return to the Lodge to repair and rebuild the glory of the Black Rose who still imbues every inch of the place, to hold their tournament to name the Crown Holder of the lodge for the following century. The Black Rose demands a champion. Every player represents a Mage in this struggle to prove themselves as the true beholder of the Black Rose's power. The mages will program spells to their board and execute them in turn order. Those spells may disable other mages spells, arm traps, arm powerful defensive moves, deal damage, or summon otherworldly beasts. The battle is played out on a hexagonal arena that requires tactics and planning to ensure each mage can pull off the perfect move. When a mage finally succumbs to their wounds, they will die and return to their room. This disrupts position and planning but no mage is ever out of the fight! Black Rose Wars: Rebirth plays well with 1-4 players and is best played with lots of players for even more interaction. The expansions add a very large amount of options for replayability as well. This game is a stand alone game as well as an expansion for the original Black Rose Wars game.