Favored Enemy: Elder Sign

There are few things in this world I enjoy more than the Cthulhu mythos and the works of H.P Lovecraft. The idea of malevolent entities of uknowable power and influence perched on the edge of space and time, waiting for the stars to be right to burst forth into our reality and consume it just speaks to me. Gothic horror wows me because the payoff is longer lasting. Its a creeping dread, rather than a bloody spatter. Lovecraft's work makes me believe that the Great Old Ones exist in a nebulous way I will never truly understand, at once knowing that it is all just fiction and yet there is a niggling feeling in the back of my skull that always asks, "...or is it?"

All of that is why I had to pick up Elder Sign from Fantasy Flight games on theme alone. It is a push your luck dice and card game that can be played by 1-8 players and it is fun. It is very luck based, so sometimes it can be truly challenging, other times frustrating and still others a real cakewalk. 

The game in action

Set inside a museum, there is something breaking free amongst the exhibits and it is up to the investigators to search the museum for clues and powerful Elder Signs that can be used to lock that something away before it devours our world. The cards represent a series of encounters that must be completed by players to gain rewards, done so by rolling the dice included and matching them to tasks on the card. Certain items, spells and clues can be used to alter these rolls and help. Sometimes monsters pop up, adding to or changing tasks and screwing up the players' plans. After each player's turn, the clock advances and every "midnight" changes the field in some way, usually for the worse. If the player's don't find enough Elder Signs to win the game befor the Doom track is filled (by various card effects), the Great Old One breaks free and a battle ensues, usually ending badly for the players.

I have only played the game solo, but I really enjoy it. The theme may color my opinion on it, but I think it executes that theme perfectly. When dealing with unknown horrors, you rarely get what you want, always feel on the back foot and sometimes winning that battle is impossible. And you never truly know what is going to happen. Having randomly determined tasks and results with ways to boost your chance of succeeding really makes that come across. You use your artifact, spell or stick of dynamite, roll the dice and hope for the best. And you can use any advantage you can get because you need it.

All I need to take on eldritch horrors are a shotgun, my diary, some hooch and a steak.

You can choose your investigators and the Great Old One you want to fight, but I find that it makes it too easy to find winning combinations. Some investigators can flat out battle certain GOOs head to head. This might make for a great "chosen one" feel once in a while, but it gets boring quick if you can pick it every time. Randomly assigning investigators and GOOs keeps the game fresh and ensures a challenge, in my opinion. I also make the solo game a little harder for myself by not drawing a new investigator if the one I'm using dies, therefore losing the game. This gives a real feeling of being alone against the darkness and speeds up game play a little too.

The game has so many good points and a couple bad ones. Its realatively cheap ($34.99 or less depending on online discounts), stays fresh, beautiful artwork and has great theme. However, games take a pretty long time to resolve (1-2 hours or so) and there are a lot of little rules to remember. The rulebook could use a little better layout as well, and luckily there are several "cheat sheets" (and other great resources) available.

There is only one thing in the game I consider a lost opportunity: no miniatures! I know it would have increased the cost, but some sort of pawn for moving the investigators from card to card would have been nice. They have included tokens, but these are small, flat and fiddly. Given that FFG already produces miniatures for these same investigators (for Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness, which share the same characters), unpainted versions would have been very cool to play with. Even generic colored pawns, or larger tokens with stands would have helped. I usually use one investigator solo, so I have taken using a small Cthulhu statue from FFG's Bag of Cthulhu they sell. It looks suitably creepy and does the job for me, but it would be hard to use multiples and know whose is whose during multiplayer. I have also taken the liberty of buying an FFG dice bag to use as a monster cup and it makes drawing monsters much easier.

Plus it's filled with tentacle goodness. 

All said, though, I love this game. It is a perfect way to spend a couple hours on a free day off, certainly more engaging than a random movie off the TV. It can be tough, outright brutal, but even when you lose you feel like you've played a game. And you can always try to thwart the Great Old Ones another time. Also, there is a tablet/smart phone version of this game called Elder Sign: Omens available for $4.99. It plays a little different, but is almost as good! Some people prefer it, but I like my doom with a little tactile sensation.

Favored Enemy: DungeonQuest (or how I learned to stop worrying and love the swinging blade trap)

I am a gamer, and therefore love games of all types. The games I own run the gamut from sci-fi to fantasy, ameritrash to euro, from wargames to RPGs. But, more than anything, I enjoy dungeon crawls. The very idea of exploring a dark, dank, underground dungeon filled with monsters, traps and loot sets my pulse racing. It can be a heroic quest or a selfish gold grab, either way I'm ready to delve.

As long as there are handrails. Safety first.

So, it may surprise you that, until recently, I had never played DungeonQuest. Weird, right? It has everything I described above and it has existed for over 30 years. Copies of the original still pop up on eBay, still complete or even unopened. Fantasy Flight Games even reprinted it about 2 years ago with all their lavish style. And I am only now playing it.

And I honestly don't know why. Possibly because I had an aversion to eBay for many years. Possibly because I had originally balked at a $65 price tag on what was originally designed as a beer and pretzels death-fest for the FFG version. I really have no idea.

But late one night, amidst one of my regular insomnia bouts and through a haze of exhaustion I found myself on Amazon and, without any provocation I can remember, had typed "DungeonQuest" into the search bar. What came up was an entry for the FFG version at under $40 and with free shipping. Apparently it had been decreed, after such a long time pondering its merits, that I would own this game.

"OPEN THINE WALLET!"

Not being one to deny divine providence, I ordered it and 4 days later it was in my possession. I have owned this game for 4 and a half days and I have played it about 20 times now. I simply cannot get enough of this beautiful game.

Look at it. Look, and weep at its beauty.

Now, I don't call it beautiful because FFG has lavished it with great artwork and top-quality components. I really want to pick up a copy of the Games Workshop version from the mid-80s at some point as well, with all of its gritty, simplistic glory. I admire it so because the game is an elegant portrayal of a classic dungeon deathtrap. At its core, it has no airs. Your goal is to grab as much gold as your greedy hands can carry while dodging traps and fighting monsters, then legging it as quickly as possible out of the dungeon before you are trapped forever at sundown.

This is what the origin of woe looks like.

Gameplay is quick and simple: draw a dungeon tile, move there and draw a card and it tells you what you encounter. Some rooms are empty, but most have some horrible effect. It is actually rare that you win a game. Between the sun going down (fast) and ending the game, and all of the nastiness that goes on, there is maybe a 10% survival rate. I have only won 2 games so far and of those, one was due to sheer cowardice (I left after only a few rooms with a tiny bag of gold without ever reaching the dragon's lair). However, it is the times that I died, and their awful manner, that I have loved the most. 

Since I have acquired the game I have:

• Been cut in two by a swinging blade trap in the very first room
• Fell down a bottomless pit
• Crushed by a golem
• Murdered by poisonous gas
• Eaten by rats in the catacombs
• Trapped at sundown countless times

Every minute was glorious. There are so many ways to die and so little chance of surviving, that you spend the entire game wondering how it will happen. 

Dead end with no chance of escape? Boring...

And when you win it is that much more satisfying. You don't care about the end result because it is the journey that makes the game. You never know if you will make it to the dragon's lair only to be burnt to a crisp, get lost or killed on the way, or trapped before you get out. It is always tense and exciting.

The best thing about the game, for me, is the ability to play solo. It doesn't lose a whole lot (except player and monster powers) and has the same range of possible death and dismemberment. I have played all of my games solo at this point and can't wait to share it with others, but I would be happy playing by myself forever.

A lot people complain about FFG's take on combat and I can sort of see their point. It uses a deck of combat cards and is way more complicated than the rest of the game. Seeing as the original had a sort of rock-paper-scissors, chart-based system, the playing of whole hands of cards with counter-attacks and powers seems needlessly slow and confusing. An otherwise fast paced game grinds to a halt when combat occurs.

Personally, I like the card system. I find it more tense and a little deeper than matching card types to a chart or rolling a couple dice. You have to decide if you will pay the highest number card you can or a slightly less powerful attack with a chance to counter. Do you play a huge swing card or try to nab extra damage with a deathblow? It all depends on the risk you wanna take. And for those that like the original system, FFG has included those too in the rulebook, along with several other variant rules to make things more interesting (or for cowards) less deadly.

This should be you at the end of the game, nancy-boy.

So if you enjoy dungeon crawls and high death rates, pick up this game. I can't recommend it enough.

Favored Enemy: Dungeon Command

For this installment of Favored Enemy, I'm going to take a look at Wizards of the Coast's new miniatures game offering, Dungeon Command.

This won't be a true Favored Enemy column, since I have only played two games so far, but since it is new and I'm fairly excited about it, I wanted to give everyone else a look. Like all FE posts, this won't be a true review. I'm just going to ramble on about what I like and don't like (so far) and you're going to sit here and read it. Or go to a different website, because I suppose that's an option too. But I hope you don't. Please stay?

Anyway, before I left on my honeymoon, I cleverly pre-ordered both of the initial sets of Dungeon Command and, lo and behold, they were waiting for me when I got back. I may have squeeled like an 8-year-old girl when I collected our mail, or at least that's what my wife says. But since I'm the one writing this, I definitely did not. It was more like a 13-14 year-old girl at least.

The two sets I got were Sting of Lolth, a drow based set, and Heart of Cormyr, which centers around adventurers of various human and demi-human races. Each contains a pre-determined set of 12 miniatures and some pre-constructed decks of order and creature cards, along with dungeon tiles to play on and loads of tokens and counters.

Upon opening the box, I was impressed with the artwork and box quality:

The box cardboard is thin, but unless you really mistreat it, it should hold up just fine. I also liked that the box had a little latch built into it. They definitely intend for you to keep using this box to carry your miniatures, which the inside box set up also shows:

As you can see, the tiles sort of "lock" into place over the inside tray, and do a marvelous job of keeping everything in place. Even after turning the box completely sideways , nothing shifted. I haven't been brave enough to turn it upside down, but I can imagine only a couple pieces escaping, and the latch ensures that it will never spill open.

And speaking of the tray, everything inside is marvelously organized:

Each miniature has its own cozy little hole to live in and all the cards, tokens and counters have a spot of their own. It makes the little OCD part of my brain very happy, though I am already scheming ways to separate the tokens up even further with little plastic bags and such.

The rulebook is well laid out and the rules very easy to learn. The book itself its more like a pamphlet or small magazine and I was interested to see that each box's rulebook had a cover unique to that set:

It is a nice touch, but hopefully they move to something more generic in the future. I can't imagine it is cheap to commission new art for each set and the contents of the rules are exactly the same otherwise. I wouldn't like to see art costs drive the costs of the game up (or kill the game) for something that's kind of unnecessary.

The game itself is very simple: summon monsters to your start area and they move around the board, square by square, and attack your opponent's creatures. You can collect treasure to boost your warband's Morale (which goes down as you lose warriors; reach zero and you lose, kind of like "life points"). Rinse and repeat each turn until someone wins.

Two things really stand out, however. The first is that you have a deck of Order cards, which let your creatures perform more and different actions than just the basics. The second is that there are no dice. This is very different from other D&D games, and especially miniature games in general. Instead, you tap a creature's card (much like in Magic: The Gathering) and you do damage automatically. It was kind of hard to get used to at first, but I really like this aspect because it creates a more puzzle-like game where strategy is everything. The Order cards introduce a little bit of randomness and can prevent damage, but you have a lot more control of how and when you deal or prevent damage.

Setup takes up a little more room than your average board game, but this won't be new to miniatures gamers. Those just buying in expecting a board game will find the space issue somewhat of a problem. Each person needing their own box to play, however, should be a decent clue that this isn't your average board game. Incidentally, the boxes are set up to provide a well-balanced sample game out of a single set, with the miniatures and cards split between both players using a smaller board set-up. It isn't a full game experience but it is a great way to learn.

Each box comes with a choice of two commanders with different abilities that affect your warband. Some provide more Leadership/Morale (which summons more creatures or act like "life points" for your warband respectively) while others give you bigger Order or Creature card hands, affecting your options during the game. Each commander also provides a special ability to shake things up. 

As you can see, the miniatures are pre-painted. They are pretty much the same quality as WotC's other pre-painted models in the past and many are re-issues of those same figures with different paint. They aren't terrible, but they aren't great either. They get the job done though. I would have like to see a little more variety in the colors and the drow are just plain too dark.  

The tiles are the same quality as other D&D tile products and are thick and durable. Best of all, they have puzzle-like hooks on the edges, similar to the D&D adventure board games, that keep the battlefield together during play. This is very handy if you bump them accidentally. The textures on the dungeon side are beautiful, but I am not entirely happy with the outdoor sides on the reverse. 

It's less about their looks and more about outdoor battles are handled. Aside from slightly different looks and terrain, there is little to distinguish them from dungeon battles. Hills are treated as walls, so even flying models can't move over them. It would have been nice to see hills be more like difficult terrain that provided a high ground bonus, since that would have at least changed outdoor tactics and given a reason to choose it over dungeons. There are even random magic circles and treasure piles scattered around for apparently no reason.

Ultimately, though, I find the game fun. It plays fast, allows for strategy unhindered by horrible luck and has fighting in dungeons, which always makes me happy. It has a lot of room for expansion, and there are two more sets announced this year, goblins and undead. In fact, you are not limited to playing a single faction out of the box. There are rules to create your own decks of order and creature cards, and there is some benefit to getting multiple sets, although for a casual gamer such as myself there is no real need. So far the sets seem very balanced, and play uniquely, with many options within the set itself. So far I am favoring Heart of Cormyr, as they are very much my playstyle, but maybe as I play more and get used to the drow I will change my mind. Or maybe one of the new factions will steal my heart. Time will tell.

There is one surprise in the boxes that I found most welcome: Each box has a small set of cards to use in the D&D Adventure System games. If you own Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Asahardalon or Legend of Drizzt, then Dungeon Command is a great addition. A small handful of the miniatures in each set are painted versions of ones in the AS games, and come with new cards so they can be used as new monsters for custom scenarios. The Heart of Cormyr set has the best addition, in my opinion, as it allows allies for the AS system heroes to encounter and get help from. It is a unique, fun addition that adds new rules instead of retreading the same monster/encounter ground. 

There is a lost opportunity, in that no AS scenarios using the new cards were included. As it is, there are no real guidelines for making new scenarios and encounter decks in the base AS games, so it would have been nice to see something added for the less experienced players who aren't quite comfortable with making new scenarios yet. 

Dungeon Command gets a big thumbs up from me and I hope you try it out. If you are still on the fence you can check it out by reading he rulebook here. The price tag is $39.99 per set, but if you look around you can find some good deals.

Favored Enemy: The Lord of the Rings LCG

Since I am between ideas on my dungeon project and not feeling much in the mood to do any painting, I have decided to do something a little different. This post is going to be the start of a new series I will be posting every once in a while called "Favored Enemy", which will focus on my favorite games that I am currently playing or that I want to talk about. I am NOT going to try and review the games I talk about in this series. I am just going to talk about the things I like, what I don't like and anything else that pops into my head.

The first game I want to talk about is one that carries one of my favorite themes: The Lord of the Rings Living Card Game.

The first thing that drew me to this game is, of course, the fact that it is Lord of the Rings. That's not something that necessarily makes a game an auto-buy, but it does grab my attention immediately. I have definitely purchased games that turned out to be less than satisfactory based on this (LotR HeroClix, for one), but it rarely steers me wrong and I usually end up with some great games (The LotR Strategy Battle Game is high on my list for best fantasy skirmish games).

But, the LotR name combined with the fact that it is a 1-2 player solo/co-op game made it an instant addition to my collection. I am mostly a solo gamer these days. This stems from a number of reasons, but is mostly because my regular gaming group has spread out all over the country these days, leading to only getting together for Skype RPG sessions. I also suffer from varying levels of social anxiety, so I rarely move out of my comfort zone to find new gaming partners. Solo/co-op games give me the outlet I need when playing games without having to go through the trouble of trying to find more players. I even play a lot of 2 player games solo by playing both sides. The 1-2 player nature of this game kind of lets me do both.

Lastly, it is also one of Fantasy Flight Games' living card game series. I love most of FFG's catalog and the concept of getting all the cards you need in any expansion you buy is wonderful. As a MTG player, I already get my fill of random card packs and card scrounging. While the core set of LotR lacks a few copies of some great cards, I can live without the max 3 that I can use of those cards and even if I couldn't, the cost for 3 core sets pales in comparison to some CCGs. So far, I'm good with one core set and couple expansions, but I do plan on buying more.

My solo setup. Kicking Passage Through Mirkwood's ass with my Leadership/Tactics deck.

Basically, you choose a scenario and its accompanying pre-set encounter deck to play against using a deck of player cards you assemble yourself. The core set comes with pre-set player decks you can use, but deck-building is extremely fun. By no means do you need to buy more cards, but you will find that some scenarios are harder than others, and not all decks are equal against all scenarios (even ones you build yourself). You get 3 heroes per player and you can play some favorites from the books, like Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli or Glorfindel. Other characters show up as allies, such as Faramir, Arwen or the powerful Gandalf (probably the best card in the game; never leave home without 3 in your deck!). You send some characters questing against the threats on the horizon, making progress in your quest if you succeed or raising your threat if you fail. Then, fight the foes that attack you from the deck. Reach 50 threat or lose all your heroes and you lose. Accomplish the scenario goals and you win. Simple enough.

Now, there are 2 ways to play solo: A single deck, or 2 decks and acting as 2 players. Running 2 decks works just fine with the rules as given. The challenges are pretty easy to tackle with 6 heroes and decks meant to support each other. I haven't played more than a couple games this way, but I am convinced that this is the way it was meant to be played. The scenarios just seem to be weighted toward having 6 heroes and there are some keyword (Sentinel, Ranged) that only function if you have another player. I assume actual 2 player functions the same way except that you have to deal with another person who may mess up your plan. 

A single deck is significantly harder to play and you really have to tailor your deck heavily to take on specific quests. Your deck really needs to be able to do everything. Even then, it is extremely difficult. I lost every single game I played until I decided to use the "Basic Game" rules in the back of the book and eliminating shadow cards from combat (or rather I deal one less than usual, which normally becomes 0 but some monsters add extra shadow cards). This makes combat a little more predictable and eliminates some truly nasty effects. Maybe once I feel comfortable again, I'll go back and start adding in the shadow cards to give myself a challenge. I haven't as of yet tried house ruling Ranged or Sentinel to work in single deck solo because I really haven't needed either yet, but it would be nice if they had some effect. There are still some scenarios where they can be useful, even if they don't work as written in the book.

I am by no means a master of the game yet. I have yet to attempt a quest with more than a medium (4-5) difficulty level, and I still lose 50-75% of the time (except the intro quest; that I pretty much destroy every time now). I recently picked up the Khazad-Dum set and a couple of expansion packs, so my deck has gotten a tad better and I am learning new tricks. Currently, my deck looks like this:

Heroes (Threat 30)

Powerful and versatile, Aragorn
is a consummate Hero

Aragorn (Leadership)

Gloin (Leadership)

Thalin (Tactics)

Leadership (27 cards)

Sneak Attack x2

Valiant Sacrifice x2

Durin's Song x3

Guard of the Citadel x3

Snowbourn Scout x3

Narvi's Belt x2

Steward of Gondor x2

Silverlode Archer x2

Son of Arnor x2

Sword That Was Broken x2

Longbeard Orc Slayer x2

Faramir x2

Tactics (20 cards)

Gandalf can fix any problem you might have.
Just don't expect him to hang around.

Dwarrodelf Axe x3

Feint x2

Horn of Gondor x1

Gondorian Spearman x3

Veteran Axehand x3

Veteran of Nanduhirion x3

Citadel Plate x2

Khazad! Khazad! x3

Neutral (3 cards)

Gandalf x3

That's all for the first installment of Favored Enemy. If you haven't tried it yet, I really recommend giving this game a shot. The learning curve may be high, but that's half the fun. As a card game it's expandable, relatively portable and comparatively cheap to get a good collection. If you feel like expanding past the core set, the Khazad-Dum expansion is a must have. There are lots of great cards in it and worth it for the box alone (but that's the subject of another feature).