kickstarter Game Preview: Dragoon

Those pesky humans are populating the land, time to fill your cave with gold and prove you’re the dominate dragon!

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The following is a preview of a prototype copy of Dragoon. The artwork, components and rules are not in their final form.

Overview

In Dragoon, 2-4 players take the roll of dragons with the goal of filling their caves with the most gold. The humans populate the land of Dragoon each round, providing plenty of opportunities for players to claim locations for a continuing reward or destroy them for immediate gain. Players can even attack their opponents, or sneak into their caves and steal the gold right from underneath their fiery noses. It’s a bit of strategy, a bit of luck, and a lot of Dragon dominance!

Gameplay

The goal of Dragoon is to be the first dragon with 50 gold points. You’ll gain gold in various ways: Destroying or claiming villages and cities, attacking other dragons, stealing gold from another player’s cave and stealing gold from the thief’s treasure.

Each round will start with populating the board with new villages and cities by rolling two dice that act as coordinates. After the board has been populated, the player with the least amount of gold gets to choose who will go first that round. Players then take their turns performing three actions: moving, claiming, destroying, stealing and attacking.

Each player also starts the game with three cards and will draw an additional card during each of their turns. These cards really mix up the game and can be used to help yourself or hinder your opponent. They don’t count as actions, so you can play as many as you want, or save as many as you want for later.

After all the players have taken their turns, those that have claimed cities will roll the dice to see if their cities will pay them tribute. Play continues until the first dragon reaches 50 gold points.

Who would enjoy this game?

Family Gamer {yes}

The fabric map board, along with the metal components and unique art style have that “magic” feeling to them that parents and their children will fall in love with. The rules are also very easy to learn and teach. A big part of the strategy involves thwarting other players, which could be a drawback if members of your family don’t enjoy games with a bit of “take that” in them.

Social Gamer {maybe}

Dragoon is full of player interaction, but is limited to 4 players and it’s every dragon for themselves. Not a game you would pull out in a larger party setting.

Strategy Gamer {maybe}

There is plenty of strategy to be had with Dragoon, but there are also a lot of random aspects of the game like the random village/city placements as well as the cards that might turn away the strategy purest. If you don’t mind a bit of chance mixed in with strategy, Dragoon offers a fun challenge.

Casual Gamer {yes}

Dragoon is perfect for the casual player. It’s easy to set up, learn and teach. Turns are quick, so there is very little downtime. There’s also the added bonus that whoever has the lowest score at the start of the round gets to choose who goes first, so no one is left feeling like they’ve got no chance to win.

Avid Gamer {yes}

The replay value is very high due to the way the board changes each round. The fun and unique art, board and components are also a huge draw that will make this an easy game to pull out and get your friends and family into.

Power Gamer {maybe}

Dragoon would probably be considered “light” by most power gamers, but its unique metal components and portability will appeal to a power gamer that’s looking for something to mix things up when they need a game that’s quick to play, but still has plenty of player interaction.

Final Thoughts

We absolutely loved our time with the prototype of Dragoon. We really enjoyed how each round the board would populate and change. Each dice role for where the next village would be placed had each player full of anticipation and then excitement if the village appeared close to their dragon, or if a village they had claim on changed into a city.

Many games can leave the person in last feeling like there’s no hope, but that wasn’t the case with Dragoon. Giving the last player control over who goes first was a very welcome and refreshing mechanic.

At first we were skeptical of the fabric bag and board, but we quickly fell in love with them. When you pull this game out of the bag, it’s like you’re pulling out a treasure map, and the metal pieces feel like treasure. It also has a unique art style that separates it from anything else we’ve seen. So you combine the art and the components and it’s a game you want to keep out as a display piece.

If this all sounds intriguing to you, we highly recommend checking out the kickstarter campaign. We’re definitely looking forward to seeing and playing the final production version of Dragoon.

Support this game on kickstarter.com!

{Backing ends March 31st, 10:00am MDT}
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