Dungeon Command - First Game

Mark CMG said:

Played in a demo today at Games Plus and it was a fast-paced game with a lot of similarities to D&D.

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I believe that is a good thing. I also feel as though the game sounds good. However, there is a small part of me which fears that the success of this game might lead to the 'tactical module' for D&D Next borrowing heavily from it.

Johnny3D3D said:

I believe that is a good thing. I also feel as though the game sounds good. However, there is a small part of me which fears that the success of this game might lead to the 'tactical module' for D&D Next borrowing heavily from it.

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I think we've already seen it going that way anyway.

I was entirely ambivalent towards this game. I like to look at miniatures, but I don't prefer to play D&D with them. I didn't play the old DDM game, and I generally don't like tabletop skirmish games.

Not a Warhammer player, me.

So... to my surprise I really greatly enjoyed playing and demoing it at my store on Game Day.

It's really a fine game.

Mark CMG said:

I think we've already seen it going that way anyway.

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About the only thing which might be of interest is the idea that as the fight goes on, the stakes and complexity are raised and do not contract.

If D£D Next can do that without making the game appear cheesy, it might be a good thing. Otherwise, I don't see anything in DC having much application to 5th ED.

So I played two games of Dungeon Command with my 13 yr old son yesterday. I lost the first game ( too much cowering on my part) and won the second.

The game was hugely enjoyable and a VAST improvement upon past D&D miniatures games. Rodney Thompson and his crew identified what they wanted to achieve with the gameplay in Dungeon Command and have executed upon their plan very well. Indeed, this product has exceeded all expectations I ever had for it. I'll go farther: I am inclined to think this is better that virtually anybody ever reasonably expected of this game -- and not just by a little.

In the recent podcast discussion with the designers (the Dungeon Command segment starts about one-third of the way in to the podcast) it is clear that they really did see their mission as coming up with a game to justify the sale of a non-random box of themed minis. I am blown away that with such a clear and obvious commercial goal that they managed to achieve what they have in Dungeon Command.

Where WotC goes with this from here is not immediately clear. Yes, there will be two more faction boxes in September and November, which promises a Goblin themed faction box and an Undead themed faction, respectively. Adding new factions and expanding the then existing factions options seems the obvious step. However, in terms of the game itself, the greatest need is not for more minis but for more cards and tiles. Thisi is a card driven game and the "secret sauce" of the game is in the cards and the different challenges posed by the map setup. The secret is not in the minis.

I honestly think a booster approach for Dungeon Command with three or four minis a pack, plus cards and some new counters would work very well. Tiles should probably be dealt with in terms of the faction boxes themeselves or with a Dungeon Tiles approach to a new map board as those require larger packaging that a booster would not.

I think you could sell clear boxes of minis containing known minis for Dungeon Command and it would still work. The real random stuff would not be in the minis but in the cards. Mind you, when it comes to packaging and selling random cards, WotC does not need anybody's advice!

Whatever the case, I am a big fan of this game. People who play this game are going to be blown away by how good it actually is. Well done gentlemen.

I've played the game eight times now, and I'm still enjoying it. The game reaches a new level once you start customising it.

Here are reports from the Game Day:
Game 7: Our first experience with customisation | Dungeon Command: Sting of Lolth | BoardGameGeek
Game 8: Sarah strikes back! | Dungeon Command: Sting of Lolth | BoardGameGeek

Cheers!

MerricB said:

I've played the game eight times now, and I'm still enjoying it. The game reaches a new level once you start customising it.

Cheers!

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Metric, what resources did you use to customize your game? How many sets, etc.?

Steel_Wind said:

Metric, what resources did you use to customize your game? How many sets, etc.?

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I've now got two sets of each, which is quite sufficient for my needs. I've a sneaking suspicion that the "standard" buy-in for tournament play is two sets; two of the same set most likely, but cross-set for certain combinations of figures and cards.

The warbands I've constructed (see above for links) are mostly just based on two of the same set.

Cheers,
Merric

Yeah, I ran the Game Day event for this at one of my FLGS's and it drew a number of interested parties, and interestingly enough, we had many people drawn to the minis and the D&D brand, but also alot of Magic players drawn to the card aspect of it. The people who played that day were also quite happy to see the added cards for the other D&D board games like Castle Ravenloft and the like (The Adventure system games), and the terrain tiles are cut to fit onto the board game tiles as well. I know that aspect was the thing that sold a few of the players that day and they bought at least 1 if not both sets. If you already have those board games, its just added value.

Steel_Wind - thats a great idea (regarding the suggestion to sell booster packs and randomized cards), I think they could really develop this game quite a bit that way. It will be interesting to see if they do adopt something like that.

Feeroper said:

the terrain tiles are cut to fit onto the board game tiles as well.

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THat's a good point I didn't think of, yet.
I knew about the cards, but being able to even reuse the tiles does make it more attractive, hmm...

It's a pity the sets don't include more new mini sculpts, though. I'm also not too keen on getting more drow minis - I already have more than I'll ever going to need.