Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 4, 2007 8:32:58 GMT -5
Played a game with a few of the expansions last night. Here's a quick blurb about each:
Drakes and Dragonspawn - This adds a bunch of new adventures of all levels. Most of these are just more interesting then the originals, having more Before Combat and more interesting rewards. There are a ton of new 'keep this card' style of rewards. I loved some of the beneficial events and encounters that was a great touch, especially the two we saw with the Dragon disguised as a human. The problem though, too many tough green cards. There are a bunch of green cards that seem more on the level with yellow cards. Sure they give some of the best rewards you can get for greens, but we spend the first bit of the game just dying on tough low level encounters. Adding red cards means less of chance of finding Morgoth.
The Dark Forest - a rather cool set. This adds a bunch of fay and wilderness encounters. These are all rather well done as there are a bunch of neat rewards. New items gained by killing monsters and even one that lets you turn yourself into a Treant. These encounters, at least the ones I noticed were from this set, seemed to fit their level better. Again you are adding more Red, making the chance of a Morgoth defeat victory slimmer.
Relics of Legend - okay the Ally/Item deck is so huge, and you go into cities so infrequently (at least thus far in my games) that I wasn't too sure when I was looking at a new card or one that came with the game. The ones I did notice were the banners. I just though it was cool there were banners. Plus I like the fact they tend to get better the more you use them. The new allies looked interesting (at least the ones I saw) and all had some form of ability instead of just being a string of stats.
Overall: adding the new adventures definately improved the game. The one thing I disliked the most in our first games was the fact that each time we cycled through at least one of the adventure decks so things would repeat, and you had 'that guy again' moments. The new items didn't seem to make as much impact, or maybe they did and I missed them. It's cool to have new stuff but much cooler to add more adventures imho. I really liked the fact that some of the added events and encounters were beneficial to the player. I also loved the one where every player had to pay gold to another player to enter a city.
There are a few downfalls though. Quite a few of the encounters seem a bit tough for their level. I'm assuming people complained green was too easy, or they wanted more people trying to escape from encounters and come back (which actually would be cool if it happened more often). The more red cards you add the less chance of getting the 'kill the main baddie' ending to happen.
Also, see the boardgaming discussion boards for a discussion on the "Death Track" This varient did not seem to work well with the expansions at all. This is the one where after a certain number of encounters are discarded the endgame begins.
Drakes and Dragonspawn - This adds a bunch of new adventures of all levels. Most of these are just more interesting then the originals, having more Before Combat and more interesting rewards. There are a ton of new 'keep this card' style of rewards. I loved some of the beneficial events and encounters that was a great touch, especially the two we saw with the Dragon disguised as a human. The problem though, too many tough green cards. There are a bunch of green cards that seem more on the level with yellow cards. Sure they give some of the best rewards you can get for greens, but we spend the first bit of the game just dying on tough low level encounters. Adding red cards means less of chance of finding Morgoth.
The Dark Forest - a rather cool set. This adds a bunch of fay and wilderness encounters. These are all rather well done as there are a bunch of neat rewards. New items gained by killing monsters and even one that lets you turn yourself into a Treant. These encounters, at least the ones I noticed were from this set, seemed to fit their level better. Again you are adding more Red, making the chance of a Morgoth defeat victory slimmer.
Relics of Legend - okay the Ally/Item deck is so huge, and you go into cities so infrequently (at least thus far in my games) that I wasn't too sure when I was looking at a new card or one that came with the game. The ones I did notice were the banners. I just though it was cool there were banners. Plus I like the fact they tend to get better the more you use them. The new allies looked interesting (at least the ones I saw) and all had some form of ability instead of just being a string of stats.
Overall: adding the new adventures definately improved the game. The one thing I disliked the most in our first games was the fact that each time we cycled through at least one of the adventure decks so things would repeat, and you had 'that guy again' moments. The new items didn't seem to make as much impact, or maybe they did and I missed them. It's cool to have new stuff but much cooler to add more adventures imho. I really liked the fact that some of the added events and encounters were beneficial to the player. I also loved the one where every player had to pay gold to another player to enter a city.
There are a few downfalls though. Quite a few of the encounters seem a bit tough for their level. I'm assuming people complained green was too easy, or they wanted more people trying to escape from encounters and come back (which actually would be cool if it happened more often). The more red cards you add the less chance of getting the 'kill the main baddie' ending to happen.
Also, see the boardgaming discussion boards for a discussion on the "Death Track" This varient did not seem to work well with the expansions at all. This is the one where after a certain number of encounters are discarded the endgame begins.