Castle Ravenloft board game preview

[Colmarr]

Is up here. The actual rulebook is here.

I'm not sure what to make of it. The exploration/villain phase seems like it would make the game quite hectic, forcing the heroes to continuously expand the board rather than consolidate their position.

I'm also not sure I like the fact that the villain turn immediately follows the hero turn, meaning that any hero that explores an adjacent tile immediately get attacked by the monster discovered there. The heroes never get the "first shot".

I was quite keen to buy the game but I'm not so sure now. Maybe the variables (power, treasure and encounter cards) make all the difference.

A play example would have been nice.

 

[fjw70]

Some monsters can only attack if they are within a couple squares of a PC. So those monsters probably won't attack right away.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

People who have actually played the game seem to have enjoyed it, so I'm willing to give it a try, even if it doesn't encourage the 15-minute adventuring day.

 

[Zulithe]

ack. i'm so tempted to buy it, but for some reason amazon is not selling it at a discount... even though they are giving a 37% discount on Wrath of Ashardalon. Call me a cheap-o

 

[Festivus]

ack. i'm so tempted to buy it, but for some reason amazon is not selling it at a discount... even though they are giving a 37% discount on Wrath of Ashardalon. Call me a cheap-o

Price is the by far the largest obstacle for myself as well, so you aren't the only "cheap-o" around.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Aye, the price is more or less prohibitive.

Otherwise, it would be a very nice gateway drug.

 

[doctorhook]

Indigo/Chapters (here in Canada) is selling this game at 34% off. Combined with a $25 gift card I had floating around, I ended up paying a grand total of of only about $22 for the game.

...The downside is that they aren't shipping it until 21 September.

 

[boar]

ack. i'm so tempted to buy it, but for some reason amazon is not selling it at a discount...

Do you have to buy it from Amazon? There are over a dozen great places to buy board games online, all of which give discounts on the board game price, sometimes by as much as 35%. Without advocating one particular site over another, I'll point you to BoardGameSearch, which lets you comparison shop among all the major ones.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

So today is the release date. Can anybody confirm seeing it in stores? Are the online availability dates later because WotC is giving FLGSs a head start? Or did the boat from China take a detour?

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Online shops here in Germany don't have it yet; Amazon lists a release date of September 21st. I blame the slow boat for the delay.