Where enough experience leads to almost certain victory.
After numerous play throughs I'm finding that a few of my cooperative board games have reached a "solved" status - where repetitively using the right tactic often leads to victory. Spoilers / Tips ahead, depending on your point of view!
Police Precinct - never had a defeat in this, the team just to divide labour between keeping crime in check and finding the murderer / preferably focusing on what their character is good at but being fluid enough to adapt to the board. I still really like the "emergency" system. Score Adjustment: -1.
Pandemic / Pandemic: On the Brink - while defeat comes quickly if you go for the full epidemic card set having less than that almost makes for an easy game. The red ones of On the Brink are almost mandatory for us now as we can even win with the full green epidemic cards of the base game. Obviously the bio-terrorist option (which we haven't tried yet) might mix things up. Score Adjustment: -1.
Shadows Over Camelot - on full cooperative it is almost impossible to lose provided the team works together. Defeat only comes if everyone does their own thing and tries tackle the harder group quests solo, or keeps quest hopping. You don't have to win every quest, just be sure to win the important ones. I can see why the traitor mechanic is almost mandatory. Score Adjustment: -1.
Operation Flashpoint: Fire Rescue - while bad luck can ruin any game it can be mitigated a bit here simply through communication. Planning ahead pays well, as does not intentionally damaging the building more than necessary. Almost trivialized if you have the driver in the fire engine to provide cover. Score Adjustment: -1.
Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak - knowing your perks and staying together (more HP to share around) is the main rule here, as well as sharing the XP so that the spawns don't become overpowered ahead of your team mates. Bad things usually happen when people wander off on their own, and most scenarios later on even force the players apart because they know a team together is near unstoppable. And that's even without equipment juggling. Hot potato chainsaw is fun. Score Adjustment: -1.
D&D Adventure Boardgame System - all the ones I currently have reviewed (Ravenloft, Ashardalon, Drizzt, ToEE) fall into this category. Victory lies in finding the quest tile fast, and that usually means splitting up to burn through the tile deck quicker. Yes, this puts more monsters on the board but they are usually more manageable than the dreaded encounter cards. Score Adjustment: -1.
Xenoshyft - though it delivers a few brutal losses at the start, once you know how to manage your card hand properly (don't buy garbage), and how to position troops (weakest dudes NEVER go at the end of the lane) loss becomes a thing of rarity in this game. Just don't expect any of your troops to live through the whole thing. Score Adjustment: -1.
Forbidden Desert - PSYCH! This is the true stand out in my current collection. Despite having such a simple premise each game requires active thinking from each participant to mitigate those deadly loss conditions. Such a treasure of a little game, and one I'm going to recommend again right here: if you haven't played Forbidden Desert yet, please go do so! Score Adjustment: +1, and is now the "best" game in my collection.
Showing posts with label Wrath of Ashardalon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wrath of Ashardalon. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 July 2018
Sunday, 19 February 2017
The Legend of Drizzt (Boardgame)
Because the Underdark is... dark and full of terrors?
After completing Temple of Elemental Evil and Wrath of Ashardalon (in that order), my game group has moved on to the next of the D&D adventure system games - the Legend of Drizzt (which I'll abbreviate to LoD from here on out). I know we're sort of going backwards(?) but the general consensus is that the miniatures are getting better - which is interesting.
LoD uses the same tile and monster mechanics as the others, but now comes with twisting cavernous zones, some of which are -really- tight, and "dead end" tiles which I'm guessing are quite frequent in the Underdark: the main location of this campaign.
There are some strong bad guys here too but nowhere near as strong as the numerous player characters on offer - which is partly why we're still sticking with our initial Temple group. :)
There are a few variations of quests to the seek and destroy or seek and escape which is nice, but the inclusion of competitive adventures (player vs player) actually lessens the value for me. Also, since the campaign tries to follow Drizzt's adventures there are many gaps in the story where he isn't in the Underdark. For those reasons, this one only gets 4 driders out of 5.
Score after re-review: 3 driders out of 5.
After completing Temple of Elemental Evil and Wrath of Ashardalon (in that order), my game group has moved on to the next of the D&D adventure system games - the Legend of Drizzt (which I'll abbreviate to LoD from here on out). I know we're sort of going backwards(?) but the general consensus is that the miniatures are getting better - which is interesting.
LoD uses the same tile and monster mechanics as the others, but now comes with twisting cavernous zones, some of which are -really- tight, and "dead end" tiles which I'm guessing are quite frequent in the Underdark: the main location of this campaign.
The tiles are more claustrophobic!
There are some strong bad guys here too but nowhere near as strong as the numerous player characters on offer - which is partly why we're still sticking with our initial Temple group. :)
There are a few variations of quests to the seek and destroy or seek and escape which is nice, but the inclusion of competitive adventures (player vs player) actually lessens the value for me. Also, since the campaign tries to follow Drizzt's adventures there are many gaps in the story where he isn't in the Underdark. For those reasons, this one only gets 4 driders out of 5.
Score after re-review: 3 driders out of 5.
Friday, 27 May 2016
Wrath of Ashardalon
Firestorm Peak is a lovely spot for vacation... if you enjoy monsters!
After thoroughly enjoying the Temple of Elemental Evil board game, my gaming group is now half way through the Wrath of Ashardalon which is actually the previous game in the series. It plays very similarly though, with a few obvious differences: there are less traps, there are doors (which might be locked or trapped), and the biggest one is that it is a total slug fest. Yep, the mountain is full of monsters, monsters, monsters!
Unlike the Temple of Elemental Evil, I don't think there are any tiles that do not spawn monsters and all the mooks are tougher here and in my opinion, have much better figurines. This caught us off balance in the first mission since we "imported" our characters from the other game and their high damage / single target skills.
This was easily fixed though with some skill swapping, and truth be told I find it an easier play than the previous game though it might be due to the whole "imported" characters thing. Or, it might be all the really overpowered treasures and gear you find in THIS game. Doesn't make it any less fun though!
Instead of the powerful bosses Wrath uses the "chamber" system which is my favorite mechanic here. Upon finding it (think of it as "the boss room), instead of drawing one tile you build a whole chamber (potentially 5-6 tiles?) and spawn it fully. When you have things like legion devils that spawn in groups of three the board really fills up quick.
If you like fun dice rolling action (and/or simply liked Temple of Elemental Evil), I highly recommend trying this out and give it five D20s out of five!
Score after re-review: Four D20s out of five.
After thoroughly enjoying the Temple of Elemental Evil board game, my gaming group is now half way through the Wrath of Ashardalon which is actually the previous game in the series. It plays very similarly though, with a few obvious differences: there are less traps, there are doors (which might be locked or trapped), and the biggest one is that it is a total slug fest. Yep, the mountain is full of monsters, monsters, monsters!
Monsters everywhere!
Unlike the Temple of Elemental Evil, I don't think there are any tiles that do not spawn monsters and all the mooks are tougher here and in my opinion, have much better figurines. This caught us off balance in the first mission since we "imported" our characters from the other game and their high damage / single target skills.
This was easily fixed though with some skill swapping, and truth be told I find it an easier play than the previous game though it might be due to the whole "imported" characters thing. Or, it might be all the really overpowered treasures and gear you find in THIS game. Doesn't make it any less fun though!
Instead of the powerful bosses Wrath uses the "chamber" system which is my favorite mechanic here. Upon finding it (think of it as "the boss room), instead of drawing one tile you build a whole chamber (potentially 5-6 tiles?) and spawn it fully. When you have things like legion devils that spawn in groups of three the board really fills up quick.
If you like fun dice rolling action (and/or simply liked Temple of Elemental Evil), I highly recommend trying this out and give it five D20s out of five!
Score after re-review: Four D20s out of five.
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