Beginner Guide: Your First Game

Check the components, set up for your player count, and follow a complete first-round teaching example.

Before opening the box

Harry Potter: Defenders of Hogwarts is MinaLima's physical board game for 2–5 players, with a published recommendation of 13+ and a 90-minute session estimate. This lesson covers standard base-game setup and one complete worked round. Keep the physical board beside you: identify spaces by printed names and icons. Our diagrams do not replace a full board map.

Use the component and deck index to identify pieces, the movement guide to read icons and the printable tabletop reference during play. Rules are paraphrased from the publisher. The worked round is an editorial teaching example, not a recorded playtest or official strategy advice.

Choose sides and count pawns

Exactly one person plays Dark Arts; each other player chooses a different house. For a first session the publisher recommends giving Dark Arts to the player most familiar with the rulebook. Return unchosen houses' boards, starter cards, pawns and House Markers to the box.

Each house uses four pawns: three in the Great Hall, and the fourth on the Loyalty Track. That fourth pawn tracks Loyalty rather than exploring. Setup: printed pages 6–9.

Check the base-game components

Separate these groups before shuffling. Purchase-package upgrades do not add rules to standard setup.

Check card backs and the top-right starter symbol before sorting. Book Cards, Location Cards and cards in your playing hand have different jobs. Inventory: printed page 4.

Set up the main board

1. Put the main board in the table's middle and the side board above it. Shuffle six Defence Shields, placing one face-up on each shield space. Keep each Detector/Coin symbol visible.
2. Put the seven Hogwarts Tokens on matching printed spaces in the castle or grounds. Match category icons; do not deal tokens to players.
3. Place one Dark Arts pawn on each of the four grounds spaces marked with the Dark Mask deployment icon. Put remaining allowed pawns from the player-count table in the reserve pool. Return unused extra pawns to the box.
4. Put three pawns of every participating house in the Great Hall. Keep the Room of Requirement piece and four D.A. Coins beside the board. The room begins closed; its piece is not on the map yet.

Use the actual board's shield, token, Great Hall and Dark Mask symbols. The publisher's illustrated setup is the placement authority; this lesson adds no unverified coordinates. Main board: printed page 6.

Set up the side board

Shuffle each deck separately and use the side board's printed spaces.

Advanced Learn costs two hand cards; an Advanced Acquire Bonus Space costs one. Their similar names do not make costs interchangeable. Side board: printed page 7; bonus: page 11; Learn: page 17.

Prepare each player's area

After objectives are dealt, the House Location Deck contains 18/15/12/9 cards in a 2/3/4/5-player game. All four Dark Arts Location Cards remain in their shared deck. Place a Player Aid beside each board if useful. Personal setup: printed pages 8–9.

Start play and keep cards separate

The House player to Dark Arts' left starts; continue clockwise. Each House turn chooses one main action: Explore, Learn or Replenish. Dark Arts chooses Explore or Replenish and has no Learn action.

For teaching, leave an open area beside your board for cards currently resolving. This is an editorial arrangement, not an official Storage Pile. An Explore card leaves your hand, stays visible while its move/effect and resulting actions resolve, then goes to the Discard Pile at turn end. Cards discarded for Learn or Replenish go directly to the Discard Pile. An acquired card goes face-down on your Draw Deck top, not straight into your hand.

Resolve a first card before a second that its effect permits. A token extra action requires a token gained on an earlier turn and a matching hand card. Resolve relevant bonuses and free actions before ending. Turn end alone does not draw cards or advance the Path. Order: page 10; House handling: pages 16–17; Dark Arts: pages 20–21.

Worked first round for three players

Assume a legal shuffled opening: House A has Alohomora, House B has Trevor, and Dark Arts has the single-movement 4 Conspire, each among five hand cards. These actual starters appear on printed page 13. Other hand cards are not played this round. Each player has Draw Deck 2, Discard Pile 0 and temporary resolving area 0.

Seat the players clockwise as Dark Arts → House A → House B → Dark Arts. House A starts. In this teaching situation no pair of Location objectives is simultaneously satisfied and finishing spaces give no token or bonus. These are stated conditions, not a predetermined deal or a claim that every opening has this route.

First turn: House A explores

1. Choose Explore. Show Alohomora: single movement 3 and passage through Locked Doors. Put it in the resolving area: hand 5 → 4.
2. First verify a legal adjacent exit from the Great Hall on your physical board: a full shared border, destination outside a blue-shield Protected Area, and any obstacle only a Locked Door. Activate door permission before moving. It does not permit castle walls, water, physical objects or protective spells.
3. Move one unstunned pawn one space, using 1 of the possible 3 points, then stop. Call the verified destination space A. This is a teaching label, not a published place name or coordinate. If no such exit exists on your board, this route does not apply: choose another route allowed by your actual board and cards, without treating this lesson as extra permission.
4. Check space A has no Dark Arts pawn, activated bonus or pair of completed objectives. The pawn stays upright. Passing an icon does not automatically grant a resource.
5. End the turn and discard Alohomora. State: hand 4, Draw Deck 2, Discard 1, resolving area 0. Two pawns remain in Great Hall, one on space A. Loyalty and the Dark Arts Marker have not moved.

Starter face: page 13; movement: page 10; Explore: pages 16–17.

Second turn: House B replenishes

1. Choose Replenish, legal with all three pawns in Great Hall. The outside-Protected-Area condition belongs to Learn, not Replenish.
2. Discard Trevor without playing it. Hand 5 → 4, Discard 0 → 1; the resolving area remains empty.
3. Draw one top card. Hand 4 → 5, Draw Deck 2 → 1. You drew enough to return to five, rather than five new cards.
4. Recover your stunned pawns; this example has none. Advance the Dark Arts Marker one space. The published setup diagram shows a blank space immediately after the start, so this advance draws no event. When an advance lands on an Event Space, resolve its event, House part first; follow actual icons if your edition differs.
5. End with hand 5, Draw Deck 1, Discard 1, resolving area 0. All three pawns remain upright in Great Hall; Loyalty is unchanged. Replenish does not also grant Explore or Learn.

First Path spaces: page 7; Replenish: page 17; events: page 22.

Third turn: Dark Arts explores

1. Choose Explore and play Conspire — four-move variant. This actual starter has movement 4 and no effect, unlike the other Conspire starter. Hand 5 → 4, resolving area 1.
2. Choose one upright pawn already deployed. Verify a fully adjacent grounds space without a House pawn or blue-shield Protected Area, reachable without crossing a castle wall. Move one space, less than the maximum four.
3. No House pawn at the destination means no bump, Marker transfer or bump acquisition reward. The fifth pawn stays in reserve. Bringing it on would require legal deployment, one movement point and an available deployment space.
4. End and discard Conspire: hand 4, Draw Deck 2, Discard 1, resolving area 0; four pawns on board, one in reserve. Explore alone did not advance the Path.

The complete first round ends; play returns to House A. Dark Arts Explore and deployment: pages 20–21.

Check the end-of-round state

The Dark Arts Marker is one step beyond its start; both Loyalty pawns stay at the start. Both Acquire rows still show two cards, two books remain visible, and no shield or Progress Token was taken. This teaches procedure, not optimal opening strategy.

Next turn: learn a card legally

House A's pawn on space A is outside a Protected Area, so next turn it may Learn. Choose one branch, not both.

After a face-up acquisition, shift the row's remaining cards right and refill its leftmost empty space. Taking a face-down card does not remove a visible card. The acquired card is not in your hand to play immediately. Learn does not also move a pawn. If all your pawns were in Protected Areas, Learn would be unavailable. Learn: printed page 17.

Continue toward the actual objectives

House players need a Library Book, Scroll and the shield's specified Detector or D.A. Coin. A pawn must reach that shield to exchange items. Two shields win; see the shield guide.

Dark Arts watches the Path and House positions. White effects work from setup; orange and red effects require their zones to unlock. Winning needs three Progress Tokens and the required pawns simultaneously at the Dark Arts Location Card's objective. A bump or the Path's end alone is not victory.

Next consult stun and recovery, bumping, token extra actions or rule clarifications. Final-phase questions are recorded rather than given invented official rulings.

Sources and scope

• Publisher rulebook — inventory, printed pages 4–5.
• Complete setup, printed pages 6–9.
• Movement, drawing and starter illustrations, printed pages 10–13.
• House turns, printed pages 16–17.
• Dark Arts turns, printed pages 20–21.
• Path events, printed page 22.
• MinaLima official tutorial — setup from 00:14.

PDF links open the spread containing the stated printed pages; viewer numbering differs. Reviewed on 12 October 2026. The example adds only its stated hands, seating and verified ordinary-space conditions. It does not reproduce card artwork or supply unverified coordinates.