Tyrants of the Underdark
Tyrants of the Underdark pits 2 to 4 players against each other to take over territory in the tumultuous Underdark, mashing up deck-building mechanics with board control.
Designed by Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson, and Andrew Veen, and produced by Gale Force Nine, Tyrants of the Underdark is a competitive board game in which you play as a drow house recruiting monsters, cultists and demons to aid you in controlling locations such as Menzoberranzan and Blingdenstone. Using power and influence as resources, Tyrants of the Underdark features multiple strategies you can use in crafting your deck of minions. Be the spymaster infiltrating your enemy's strongholds or the deadly war-leader concentrating on assassinating enemy troops. No matter how you decide to play, whoever controls most of the Underdark at the end of the game wins, unless there's some hidden strategy in play.
User Reviews (1)
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Conquer the Underdark by accumulating the best army and spreading your influence to the various Underdark Locations. I have always been a fan of deck builders but lately I want something more from them (for example A Few Acres of Snow) and Tyrants gave me just what I wanted from a deck builder in a market that has plenty to choose from already
Gameplay and replay:
The game is played over multiple turns. Similar to Ascension in execution, you play your hand and buy cards, then take military actions such as deploying your troops, or removing opponents troops or spies from play. You start like in most deck builders with very basic cards that give you either one purchasing power or one military power, but as you purchase more powerful cards the number of purchases and military actions you can take grows. You assert influence in places you have presence, which means you must have a troop adjacent to, or a spy within, the location in question before you can put a troop there. Spies become very essential and you have only 5 to use. They are returned to you if removed from play. Troops are also limited, though you have dozens of them, however when a troop is removed from play by another player, it goes into their trophy case for points at the end of the game. You may also at times (provided you have a card that allows it) promote cards from your deck into your inner circle, they become more valuable for end game scoring, and also act as a means of culling less useful cards from your deck. Controlling areas will grant end game points, and controlling major areas will grant you VP and additional purchase power.
The game ends when one person is out of troops or when you cannot refill the available purchasable cards from the faction deck. Points are then counted from your trophy case, your territories you have control (with a bonus for each location you have total control of), your deck value, your inner circle value, and the number of victory point tokens you get from total control of a major location.
The Bad:
Not much to report here, the worst thing I can say is the insert could separate the cards better (much like a Thunder Stone or Dominon insert does) but that is a nit pick gripe just so I have something to put here. The insert is actually pretty nice otherwise.
Great game, very easy to learn, fun to play but really good tension and player interaction. Give it a whirl!