First games of Wrath of Ashardalon

[MerricB]

G'day, all!

I've finished my pictorial session reports of my first two games of the new D&D boardgame, Wrath of Ashardalon.

The first game I played the most basic of the scenarios, Monster Hunt, where we had to kill 12 monsters. We accomplished that pretty easily, although we got to see a few of the tweaks the game had (most notably: every treasure is an item, but the monsters are also interestingly different).

The second game we went to the last non-campaign scenario, Wrath of Ashardalon, where we had to first defeat the dragon's lieutenant, and then the dragon himself! This was a pretty massive game that ended in victory... just! (If our last action hadn't killed the dragon, we would have lost ourselves).

Plenty of pictures and commentary on the game and the new elements thereof for those interested in such things.

Cheers!

 

[nedjer]

Excellent 'gateway' to the hobby - offers a route to and tutorial for AD&D.

 

[MerricB]

The game for people whose DM hasn't turned up yet... It's generally 1 hour per game, but the campaign games might take significantly longer. Could one take 14 hours? I'm not sure yet... need to read rules more thoroughly.

Cheers!

 

[Reynard]

Did you play it solo? If so, how did it play?

 

[MerricB]

Did you play it solo? If so, how did it play?

I haven't played it solo yet. You can always play any scenario solo by controlling more than one hero, but there's also one or two scenarios designed for solo play. The solo scenarios were fun in Castle Ravenloft, but I haven't had a chance yet to try them in WoA.

I spent all of yesterday evening writing the session reports instead!

Cheers!

 

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello Merric,

Good stuff on the reports - a perfect finish against Ashardalon. You've convinced me to pick this up as there are a couple in our group that would get right into this.

Just a couple of questions:
- Do you think having the Ravenloft boardgame will add significantly to the experience?
- Do you think that as a gateway to 4e/4.e D&D, WotC are on a winner with their boardgame series?

Thanks again for spending the time crafting your gameplay reviews.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[fba827]

I spent all of yesterday evening writing the session reports instead!

Obviously, your priorities are out of order. Give up food and sleep so that you can get more gaming in



Kidding aside, nice write-ups.

 

[MerricB]

Just a couple of questions:
- Do you think having the Ravenloft boardgame will add significantly to the experience?

Hard to say without trying it - and I likely won't get to play these games that often. Not because I don't like it, but because I own over 250 boardgames, and I tend to gravitate towards the heavier ones.

I'd say that having both opens up the options for richer gameplay, but we'll really get to see how that works once the tinkerers post combination ideas.

- Do you think that as a gateway to 4e/4.e D&D, WotC are on a winner with their boardgame series?

Very much so. These games are really, really good gateways to 4E D&D - in perfect truth, I think they're better value than the Red Box set. You won't learn many of the 4E rules, but you'll become familiar with the move + attack structure and attack rolls, which are so important to the game.

Cheers!

 

[cdrcjsn]

Totally agree on the gateway comment.

Got to play this last night. Other than a player who didn't realize it was a cooperative game (and thus hoarded all the treasure rather than passing them around to others who could use them), it was great fun.

Lots of different mechanics from the Ravenloft board game, but they all contributed to the fun. I especially liked the abilities of certain monsters to do other actions (reveal additional tiles or summon monsters).

Oh, and the player classes have some different abilities as well, so that having two of the same class from different boxed sets won't have all identical abilities.

Fun. Highly recommended.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Thanks for the write up, can't wait for my copy to wing it's way to the Shaky Isles. I have been running Ravenloft for 2 of my boys, now 5 and 7, and they love it!