Taylor

This is a fun fantasy streamlined deck building game. It has a strong theme and storyline and fantastic artwork.

Positives: It is set in a fantasy environment where you recruit a group of Defenders to defeat the Invaders. You start the game with the most basic Defender cards and minimal gold cards. You build up your gold and recruit Defenders throughout the game hoping to defeat the stronger enemies. The Terror card mechanic in the game is a unique concept. You have a pile of Terror cards that are constantly being added to your deck and the opponent’s deck throughout the game. Each time a terror card is discarded in anyone’s deck, the terror counter goes up (The terror counter is tracked by a 6-sided dice). Once it is rotated to 6, an Event card is drawn from the Event deck. Once the Event deck runs out, the game is over. The Event deck is scaled to 3 cards per player. It has a hurry up and get it done before time runs out feeling. The game takes 30 to 45 minutes and does not drag on like some deck builders can because of this terror card and event deck timing mechanic.

Negatives: Some of the card actions seemed counterintuitive with the mechanics of the game. For example, in competitive play the Cursed Fury and Werebear cards gives an opponent terror cards but that still hurts yourself since all the terror cards that are discarded, no matter which player discards them still effect you because there is only 1 event deck. I guess the only time I can see using those cards if I’m ahead in the game in Glory points and I’m trying to end the game faster. That seems very situational though. The other downside from the games I played was that it turned into a rush to kill as many of the weak Invaders as you could before time ran out. We only ended up killing 1 Invader from the Yellow deck (which has the more powerful Invaders) in 3 games.

Summary: I felt like this game was fast and streamlined compared to a lot of deck building games. It was very fun. It also has great potential for growth. I did feel like it fell short in a couple areas but I quickly remedied it using the variants below. Once I started playing this game with the variants I think I would bump my rating up to a 9.

Variant 1 (cooperative): I tried a full cooperative game with 3 players to 40 victory points. We used Casualty of War, Buried Gold, Shapeshifting, Ruler of the Ruins, Rush to Battle, Reinforcements, and Dawn of Hope Action cards. And we used Imperial Guard, Gladiator Elite, Dread Knight, Warlord, Valkyrie, Dragon Slayer, and Sorceress for the for the Defenders.

Variant 2 (Competitive): I also played a competitive game with 3 players. The Action cards were, Casualty of War, Cursed Fury, City Siege, Betrayal, Enchantment, Growing Darkness, and Courage. The Defender cards were, Arcanist, Werebear, Shaman, Beast Rider, Stone Titan, Dread Knight and Fire Mage. I did make some card text changes for this to work. Cursed Fury, Betrayal, Arcanist and Stone Titan were changed to give Terror cards to all other players and not yourself. I gave everyone their own die and event deck of 3 cards each. We played to 15 Glory Points (must defeat at least 1 Invader from the Yellow stack) or whoever had the most Glory points when the game ended. Which ever came first. If your Event deck ran out, you were out and the remaining players continued on until the game ended.

Both these Variants were extremely fun. I highly recommend it!

After playing the card game for several years, I was very excited about the Munchkin boardgame. I bought this game without any second thought. Oops, I should have played it once before I bought it. Maybe I should have had someone that know how to play this game already to teach me and play along. But, I painstakingly read all the rules myself and tried to play this game with my kids. I was the one who had to keep track of all the rules and details. All I was thinking the whole time is “the card game is much easier”.

I really blame myself for such high expectations. I’m willing to give this game another chance if there is someone else who knows the rules better than me.

The game right now just sits on the shelf. Occasionally my kids will pull the game out to just play with the game pieces.

I’ve been playing this game for almost 30 years. I actually don’t have the latest 4th edition, I have the 2nd edition from the 1980’s. This was the transition game for me from playing Monopoly, Risk and UNO to playing Settlers of Catan, Munchkin and Sentinels of the Multiverse.

I introduced this game to my kids a few years ago and they loved it. It’s easy to learn and play, also the kids like the fantasy theme. It sort of reminds me of a Fantasy Monopoly. I know that turns a lot of people off of the game being similar to monopoly (all luck, no movement options and 3+ hours of game time), so I made some house rules for movement and some other things to help speed the game up and create more strategy.

This has been one of my favorite games through the years.

. . . were the words uttered from my 11 year old daughter when I asked her what kind of game she wanted to play. She loves dragons, so I was on a quest to find a game. I found this game! Not only did it meet the criteria of my daughter, it met my criteria as well.

This is a very strategic and tactical game with beautiful miniatures. The tactics and upgrade cards can get very complex and there are lots of cards and tokens to this game but don’t get overwhelmed by that. You can choose to not use all the “extras” in the game and just play a simple move and attack game that will take about 10 minutes. Once you learn the basics, you can keep adding upgrades as you feel comfortable.

When I play with my kids, they pick a dragon and that dragon’s breath weapon card and that’s it. To really speed the game up, we won’t even use the shield ability on the dragons. There are other rules we overlook too. But that doesn’t matter much to us. My daughters just love flying the dragons around and saying they are wacking the other dragon with their tails or breathing fire on the other dragon.

In more competitive games, I’ll use all the features and upgrades to the game. That is the part I really enjoy. I like building up my forces and building up my dragon’s powers by adding upgrade and spell cards.

One of the downsides to this game is that it will hit your pocketbook. This is a collector’s game for sure. You have to buy each individual unit separately, except for the initial starter box which contains 3 dragons. Some of the smaller units cost around $10, while some of the most expensive will cost over $60. On average I’d say expect to pay between $20 and $30 for each unit or dragon you buy.

Overall, this game is very versatile in it’s complexity and matchup ability. You can play simple 10 minute games or very complex campaign game that last for hours. You can play 1 on 1, 1 on many, or teams. This game is enjoyable for every level of gamer. You can get many hours of enjoyment out of this game even if you just buy the starter box.

I gave this game a lower rating earlier on because I bought this game not knowing you need 2 packs to have a “real” game. Now that I have 2 packs (Heart of Cormyr and this one) and have played a “real” game, and I would rate this game higher.

This pack gives the heroes a run for their money. There are very tough orcs and a powerful Ogre that smashes everything in it’s path. This game was much better than I expected it to be. I did not have very high expectations but was delightfully surprised.

I like that I could play this game in under an hour on my first game. I’m sure after several plays, games will average around 30 minutes. Maybe even less!

The miniatures are fantastic! They are beautifully painted and worth the cost of the game alone.

Huge bonus for me is, I have Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon board games in which I can throw these monsters into the game for added variety.

This is a fantastic fast paced miniature skirmish game. The miniatures are beautifully painted. Worth the cost of the game in itself.

I think this is a great intro into the tactical miniatures genre. There is not a lot of rules, details and campaign baggage with this game. You just get right into the basics of miniature tactics battles. Once you play this game a few time and get the hang of it, it’s possible to complete games in under an hour.

This game is for people who appreciate D&D and fantasy themes but just don’t want to invest the time, or don’t have a good Dungeon Master to run a role playing campaign.

You can get a good D&D fantasy fix with this game. I enjoy the aspect of exploring as you go. Cooperating with your friends to accomplish a goal. I also enjoy the fact that you can play the game solo because the adventures and monsters run themselves. It’s easy to learn and fast to setup. You also get a lot of game for the money.

The downsides to this game, for one, is that it’s a challenge to store this game. There are many components of different sizes and shapes. Second, it’s a bummer, for me at least, that the miniatures are not painted. I’ve never done miniature painting and thinking about painting all these figures is daunting.

Overall, I really enjoy getting my D&D fix with this game. I also have Wrath of Ashardalon and mix these 2 games together for some extra adventures.

This game is perfect for bringing a new player into your gaming group. It’s light, quick and not too many components. You can get multiple plays in a night.

It takes a few rounds to get the hang of how your energy and culture work but once you do, it’s a thoughtful game of trying to figure out the best way to play your dice.

I got a small sense of Yahtzee with a space theme with this game. I had a lot of fun playing it. This game is worth adding to your game collection and may hit the table from time to time.

You get a lot of bang for you buck with this game. Very well made game. Amazing components, easy to learn, kid friendly but challenging. This is a very versatile game with endless possibilities. After a few games under your belt, you can begin making your own house-rules and adventures to adjust to your style of game play. The miniatures are detailed and the Ashardalon dragon miniature is huge!

I love the exploring aspect of this game. I love being able to play solo. I love the campaign mode and building up your character over several adventures.

I will definitely get the other expansions for this to add more possibilities.

This is a great family game. It is easy to learn for any type of gamer.

The fun challenge of the game is figuring out how to complete all of your “routes”. The extra challenge is figuring out how to complete all your routes while making one continuous path to win the Longest Route at the end of the game. This game has a high replay value since there are so many combinations of routes in the game.

Another dynamic of the game is the strategy of blocking your opponents from completing their routes. For players who are very competitive, this can be a fun part of the game. For playing with not so competitive players, you can also choose to play “nice”. So, there is an option for any type of player. How ever you decide to play, you will still have fun.

I’ve found there are a couple of downsides to this game. One is that it does not play very well with 2 or 3 people. It plays much better with 4 or 5. That seems to be very limiting in deciding on a game on any given game night. The second is that it is very difficult to interact and have any “blocking your opponent” strategy except by chance that they are wanting to build a route on the same path as you.

Overall though, it is a fun family game for occasional play. It should be in your game closet!

Argent Adept is amazing! This is a more complex hero to play but when you figure him out he can be a beast.

The Ennead is a very fun Villain group to fight against. If you let them hang around too long they all start causing havoc, then the heroes are in trouble. I love the play off the ancient Egypt mythology with this group of Villains. I always seem to use RA when fighting these guys.

Gloomweaver is a little weak, but the great thing about this game is you can make small “house rules” adjustments to the setup that can make a Villain as tough as you want.

Excellent expansion.

This expansion really threw the game for a loop. I think I realize now that in the Multiverse anything can happen. My favorite hero in the game is now a bad guy in this alternate timeline. He is tough as the dickens too!

The Villain Omnitron has created a good self in the future which travels back in time to defeat himself. Doesn’t that cause a paradox? Still a lot of fun to match up the good Omnitron of the future with the current bad Omnitron.

Good variety in this set!

This game has a great theme with lots of awesome figures. I liked picking out my character and teaming up with my buddies.

The complexity level of this game is very high. I would not try to learn this game on my own. My friends taught me how to play which would have taken hours to figure out on my own. I played this game for 2 hours and it seemed like it was just getting started. I wish I could have gotten through a whole game but I’m a busy person. I only have 2 or 3 hours every couple of weeks to play games. This game definitely takes some dedication!

This was the first battle tactic style game I’ve played. It’s slow at first when you are learning a new style of game. Once I got the hang of it, I had a good time smashing zombies and solving the puzzle aspect of it though.

It’s a complex game to setup and learn. I was fortunate to have a few people to teach me to play because I don’t think I would want to figure a game like this out on my own.

This is the best game I’ve played since I was introduced to Settlers of Catan back in 1998. Great game to play with your family. I love that it is a cooperative game which is unique compared to most games. I also like that you don’t need to put together your own deck for each hero. I played Star Wars Customizable Card Game for years and spent too much time building competitive decks. It was too exhausting! Sentinels of the Multiverse is great because you can just pick it up and play. It is a very easy game to learn for new players. Your turn consists of playing a card, using a power, and drawing a card. Very easy game mechanics!

Sentinels is a game you can play over and over and never play the same game twice. It’s also nice that it is ever expanding. There are already several expansions you can add to the starter game.