Daniel Lin

The base game of Mage Knight board game, is already an amazing game. It offers the player vast number of in game choices, puzzle solving, strategic planning, and an immersive fantasy theme which compounds to a unique and great board game experience.

The Lost Legion, is the first expansion set to Mage Knight. This expansion set introduces a lot of new features into the base game, without over complicating the existing mechanic of the game, while at the same time, introduces enough new features to add more variety to the base game.

Here are the new features:

1) The introduction of general Volkare, an intimidating antagonist. Two additional scenarios are also introduced revolving around Volkare, he is a very tough boss, but if you mange to defeat him and beat the game, it is a very satisfying experience. These 2 scenarios are fantastic, and absolutely epic! In one the scenarios general Volkare will race against the players to conquer the city, and he also can also attack players while he is moving. All in all, General Volkare as a boss, is a brilliant addition to the game.

2) The introduction of a new hero, Wolfhawk. She is a very nice addition to the game, with some very interesting skills.

3) New tile maps, with new locations such as walls, new mines, camps etc.. adding more variety to the map.

4) New monsters. This expansion introduces some really challenging monsters. For example, there is now an assassination ability, where the damages cannot be assigned to the units. And the arcane immunity ability, creatures with this immunity cannot be damaged by spells. It is really difficult to defeat some of these new monsters without taking wounds. But they surely added a lot of excitements and fun to the game.

5) New hero cards: Each hero (including the base game heroes) now have another new hero card unique to them. This means the heroes are now start the game slightly stronger. Not only are skills in these new cards very interesting, but these new skills are also very useful, without been overpowering. Another thing is, these cards make the heroes feel even more unique and distinctive from each other.

6) New action cards, new artifact cards, new spells, and new units. Some of the cards from the base game are replaced, which improve the balance of the game play. The new cards add some very exciting abilities and in game effects. (and some of these new artifacts are really cool!)

The quality of components in this expansion is very high. Volkare has his own miniature, with level adjustment at the base like a city. This miniature is slightly bigger than hero miniatures, and highly detailed. Wolfhawk has her own miniature as well, I really like the miniature of Wolfhawk, it is highly detailed, and very well painted. Overall, components in this expansion is beautiful to look at, just like the base game.

All in all, it if definitely worth your while to acquire this expansion, especially if you already like the base game. The scenarios against general Volkare are epic, challenging and super fun. The new hero is super exciting in game play. The new cards, monsters and tiles added interesting variety to the game. And finally, the components are beautiful with high production value. Indeed, the lost legion makes Mage Knight a beyond perfect board gaming experience!

Defenders of the Realm is a superb board game. It is, without doubt, one of the best co-op board game on the market. The Dragon Expansion, added many new features to the game.

New features in this expansion sets are:

1) The introduction of 3 new generals. These new generals are all dragons, and each have different abilities, adding difficulty and challenge to the game. Also, the expansion comes with 3 agents of the dark lord cards. This means, you can customize the game and use any of the new generals as “agents of the dark lord”. This really added another level of customization, while making the game quite challenging to play.

2) The introduction of new minion types. These minions ramp up the difficulty of the game a fair bit, but makes the game very exciting, keeping you on the edge of your seat whenever you are drawing a darkness spread card.

3) The expansion also comes with a whole new set of hero cards, and a new set of darkness spreads card (together with global effect cards). You can also customise the global effect card to make the game easier or harder at your choice.

4) Royal blessings and tokens, players can use these tokens to make the game easier.

5) King’s champion variant. This variant allows players to earn fame in the game, getting rewards which give bonus effects to their characters. This is a very fun variant, especially in a game with large group of people.

6) The rule book also introduced scenarios, these scenarios are fun to play, and added some campaign feel to the game.

The component qualities are as good as usual, the new general miniatures (the 3 dragons) are painted miniatures. They don’t look as good as the original Sappire pre-painted miniature you can buy from Eagle games, but it is still very nice to have painted miniatures, as it is better than not being painted.

The gameplay of this expansion is superb. The new features makes the game a lot harder to win, but at the same time, the challenge is welcomed, and added even more replay value to the game.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing this expansion. Since I got this, I never played another Defenders of the Realm game without it, sometimes I use the original generals but use the new generals as the agent of the dark lord. Anyway, there are a lot of freedom to customize how you want your game to play now.

Should you buy this? Well, this is definitely not a cheap expansion, but if you are a fan of Defenders of the Realm, then I would say yes, the added elements in this expansion will add even more mileage to this great board game. Personally, I can’t wait for the next expansion to Defenders of the Realm!

In the 2nd hero expansion set, there are 4 new heroes, and a bunch of global effect cards.

The 4 new heroes are: The elf lord, the monk, the druid, and the healer. This expansion contains some of the most thematic characters in this game.

The Elf lord, is a very powerful character. He has a re-roll token that enables the player to re-roll any failed die once per turn. And he can also throw one additional die upon his first attack. Finally, he has another handy ability where it doesn’t cost him action tokens to move into a green location as long as his action tokens are not fully spent. This means, in the north east area of the board where there are lots of green locations (the area where the dragon and the orc general are), the elf lord is an absolute killing machine as he can travel to many locations and killing many minions in his turn.

The Monk, is my favorite character in this expansion. She starts the game with 2 quests, this means she has a higher chance of getting good items very quickly. She also has some very interesting offensive ability, if a combat, if she throws a natural 6, it counts as 2 hits (although it does’t work against dragonkins). And when she takes damage (from loosing a battle against a general or minions), she can throw die and take use any die that are great than 5 to parry the damage taken.

The druid, is a very thematic character. He sounds pretty weak in description, but he is actually very powerful in the game. His main abilities are mainly tied to green locations on the board. But he has a special ability that allows him to attack minions anywhere on the map in green locations at -1 to die rolls. This means if Druid is in play, it is very easy to prevent orc minions from spreading across the map.

Finally the healer, she can provide healing to other players, but I do not find her to be particularly useful except in general combat. The healer can ignore the general’s special abilities (except the dragon general). This a very neat skill to have in battles against generals.

Overall, this expansion has some very good characters, and it is a worthy addition to Defenders of the Realm board game.

This is the 3rd hero expansion to Defenders of the Realm.

As usual, the expansion comes with 4 new heroes, and a bunch of global effect cards.

The new heroes in this expansion are: The shaman, the thief, Feline, and The seeker.

The Shaman, is perhaps, one of the strongest and interesting character in this game. He can shapeshift, between a human, a bear and a wolf. When he is in his human form, a shaman can attack any location and defeat all minions there, but by doing so, he also has a chance of tainting the location. When he is in his wolf form, he can travel 2 spaces per action and takes no damage if he ends his turn in a green location. Finally, when he is in his bear form, he can re-roll any failed die. The thief is a very thematic character, her special abilities are focused on drawing more cards, but she is not a very strong character. The feline is not very good at combat, but can be very fun to play. She can travel with a hero or a general with having to spend action tokens, and if she gains one action token back whenever she defeats 2 minions.. Finally the seeker, she is a very powerful character if used correctly. She can look at the next darkness spread card, allowing the player to plan ahead during his/her turn. The seeker also has an amazing ability where she can turn all purple cards into wild cards in turns of general combat, so she can use any purple cards against any generals.

Overall, this is a solid expansion, I especially like the shaman hero.

This expansion adds 4 more characters to Defenders of the Realm: Captain of the Gate, Assassin, Adventurer and Chaos wizard.

The box came with the hero cards and their respective miniatures, as well as a bunch of global effect cards.

It is worth mentioning that the box also comes with a new Paladin miniature that is larger than the original.

First of all, the new heroes are very interesting and offers a lot of variety to the base game. My favorite new hero from this expansion, is the assassin. She is arguably one of the strongest hero in the game. Captain of the Gate, adds a lot of strategic planning perspective to the game as he can let other players spend his unspent action tokens, and he has a nice attack bonus too. The chaos wizard, is a very interesting character, he is like the wizard from the base game, except that all of his abilities require card to activate, and sometimes it might cause him damage. The adventurer, can have up to 14 cards in the deck, and has added bonus when doing quests.

Overall, this is a good expansion, and will provide more variety to the base game.

Age of Conan strategy board game, uses the background from Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian age setting. In this game, up to 4 players are put in control as one of the major powers in the world of Hyboria, fighting for influence and imperial dominance, by waging wars and diplomatic actions. At the same time, the legendary barbarian, Conan, travels the land on missions to pursue his own personal interest.

This game is a very unique war strategy game, in that it has a very interesting aspect. That aspect is Conan. None of the players can truly “control” Conan, but can simply try to maximize his/her personal interest by manipulating Conan. This adds a lot of dynamics into the game, often require players to use carefully calculated strategies before executing the next few moves.

This is a great strategy war game that really deserves to be played more!

The legend of Drizzt board game, is an adventure, scenario based dungeon crawling board game based on D&D rule, based on NY times best selling author, R.A Salvatore’s beloved novel series, the legend of Drizzt.

The game components are robust and beautiful. The game play is easy to learn. The modular tiled design of the game board offers a a variety of replay value (because most of times the dungeons will be different every time you play). The scenarios are interesting, allowing players to relive some of the key moments from Drizzt novels. The heroes in this game are the main selling point of this game, every hero has different skills and strength. This means the player has to approach the game with different tactics depending on which hero he/she is using.

Overall, this is a solid dungeon crawling game. Even if you have never read any of the Drizzt novels, the game is still a blast to play. If you are a fan of Drizzt, then you will love this game!

Arkham Horror is probably the most epic board game I’ve played. The base game is played with hundreds of pieces, takes between 1-4 hours to play, and has a lot of small rules.

Since this is a really big game, the downside is the game requires a long setup and pack up time. Another downside is there are a lot of small rules, and it can become quite heady (especially in solo play). When I play the game solo, sometimes it feels like I am directing a 3 hour long drama than playing a board game. This also means it takes a while to learn to play the game properly, and might turn off new comers to this game.

But the game is fun! This is a very thematic game inspired by Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. The game feels very atmospheric, and it is always a blast to play Arkham Horror whenever I crack open the box and play it!

Defenders of the Realm is a fantasy themed board game, supporting 1-4 players. The goal is to defend Monarch city from being invaded by 4 generals and his minions. This game has a great sense of immersion. The quality of components in this game is excellent! Very robust and beautiful at the same time. The game play is fun and exciting, and the pace of the game is very fast, and will leave players at the edge of their seats. Overall, Defenders of the Realm is probably number 1 on my list!