aceraxon

The first expanion for Quarriors came and went and I liked Quarriors well enough to pick up the expansion. The expansion adds corrupted creature cards for the first set and also gives you the nasty demonic overlords and a corruption spell.

The rules changes are nominal and it only takes a couple of minutes to gain an understanding. But is this game worth the $20? Is it an expansion that you need?

Pros:
– Demonic Overlords are amazing and a great addition to the game!
– Some of the variations on previous spells and monsters work fairly well and add some extra variety

Cons:
– Corruption spell is not that useful
– Most of the dice we get are corruption dice, pardon me, but color me not impressed. Seems like we’re paying for a bunch of dice we rarely ever use
– Does not add much to gameplay options
– Hard to integrate into a normal game, you really need specific combos out there and I like to play a completely random set-up, I don’t having to set-up specific scenarios to enjoy an expansion

Overall:
Overall I didn’t feel this expansion added much and quite frankly I would have rather spent my $20 on something else. Maybe if I would have saved my money for Quarmaggedon I would have been better off. I just didn’t feel like I was getting a bang for the buck with this. $10? Maybe. Considering most of the dice are corruption dice, I just felt cheated. It didn’t add anything different enough for me. While I did like the Demonic Overlords, I was hoping for some interesting other creatures and there wasn’t any.

The overall objective of the game is to get the most points. The cards you “buy” give you those points. Cards usually provide power which is the “money” of the system. When the Super-Villain Deck is depleted, the game is over. Sounds simple? Pretty much is. You can play cards in any order you want on your turn, but the order can matter. Super-Villains do mean things to everyone unless you have defense. There are some cards that give you more points depending on the type of cards you “purchase” for your deck, so that can give you goals to get more points.

I’m sure you can read all about it in the game description, but let’s look at what I feel are the pro’s and con’s of the game.

Pro’s:
Simple to Learn – very few rules make the game flow along and a quick clip.
Varied Art – apparently they learned from the Marvel game that the same old art becomes bland. Not to mention the art is FANTASTIC!
Variety of Cards – I like that they have Equipment and Super Power and Villains that you can buy and they aren’t super repetitive. The main deck keeps you cycling through a lot of different cards, so it is exciting to see what will come up.
The Hero – sure, you don’t really feel like the Flash, but it is neat that everyone has a certain advantage (power) to go along with the character they draw. That makes it feel more varied and can make you go after specific cards depending on who you have.
The Super-Villains – Oh, I love the Super-Villains when they pop up and give everyone a big smackdown. I also really like how you have to keep an overall focus on this deck to really win.

Con’s:
Almost too simple – Not a lot of meat here. If you want a lot of meat, it isn’t for you. I don’t mind it in this type of game, plays about right to me. Luck of the draw will outdo a lot of strategy here.
Theme is PASTED on – So, you don’t REALLY seem to be your own super hero, right? I mean, it’s not like you’re recruiting villains to beat Atrocitus. I think in the context of the game, it works for me, so it isn’t that big of a negative. Legendary probably has a bit stronger theme if that’s what you’re looking for, but even that is “iffy” when it comes to theme.

Right now, the pro’s outweigh the cons for me. More expansions would be fantastic. However, I wonder how they would handle the already large deck situation when adding even more. But I definitely want more heroes I can be and more super-villains to “fight”. This game is just FUN! In fact, I like Legendary but I feel this is more FUN than Legendary. Much quicker to explain (not that Legendary is hard) and so much easier to set-up and tear down. That’s a huge plus over Legendary right there. They’ve varied things enough where I feel excited to see what comes up next. For me, I’m a big comic book fan, I also like deck builders. The combination works for me just right and scratches more of an itch than Legendary.

Here’s the real question though. Will this hold up over time? That I can’t guess.

A semi-cooperative game where everyone drafts from the same pool of heroes and fights off hordes of villains. You have to defeat the Mastermind 4 times in order for the game to end, or it can end in a draw or the evil can win on certain conditions.

I like a lot of what this game does. It’s easy to teach and is pretty simple. Unlike most games, after reading the rules, there wasn’t a whole lot I could mess up. The few times I had questions, they were answered concisely in the rule book. So how do things average out?

Pros:
Easy to play, simple to learn, quick to teach.
There are good potential strategies in this game, especially trying to get your cards to work together. When your strategy comes together it can be a beautiful thing.
The theme, what isn’t to like about recruiting super heroes to fight super villains? Great theme.
The mechanics work well together and everything makes sense. Feels fun once it gets going and you start putting that deck together. You really get antsy to use that new hero you just recruited.

Cons:
Makes you want expansions immediately!
The luck of the draw. It can be frustrating, just like in a lot of deckbuilders, when you draw all your weakest cards in a hand and can’t do anything or much that turn. Especially if you get it on the last turn.
Only 5 heroes at a time, sometimes you just want a tad more variety. I get that you wouldn’t really want to do more with how the way the game works. Sometimes the combinations of heroes can be frustrating, especially with some of the Master Strikes that villains launch. If you didn’t have any X-Men and you’re going against Magneto, it can be frustrating just as an example.
The cards wear down quickly, especially the edges show wear right away!
They should have/could have made the villain deck cards with a different color on the back.
Clean-up and set-up take FOREVER!

Overall I like the game, but it does feel like the game is just missing a few things. But the fun factor makes up for it. There’s limited interaction and there are times when the game feels like it is playing itself. Then again, when villains start escaping the city and all looks lost and you come back, that can be really fun too. So mixed feelings in some aspects, but it is fun. Looking forward to picking up a future expansion if they make some to see if it adds even more life to the game.

Even though this game is another non-collectible deck building it, it definitely is deep on theme. The problem is that you can have monsters in the game that are almost impossible to beat with the characters available. It just becomes a drag out type of affair at that point. There is just times when the combinations of cards don’t work and the game becomes annoying rather than fun.

When you have good card combos, it’s really good. When it has bad card combos, it’s awful

Another in a line of great expansions for Dominion. Adds another possible level to the game that you can add in when you want.

As far as boardgames go, this one is top notch. The auction strategies you can employ, the market that’s going on, it’s all about economy and maximizing as much as you can. You can even occasionally win by taking some risks, but those don’t always pan out. Just like in real life!

I think the game is pretty good, but gets boring after a few repeated plays. Feels same old. The expansion fixes some of that, but the base game I just lost interest in after several plays.

Does what a good expansion good. Makes a really good game great!