Considering a World of Warcraft BOARD GAME purchase.....

[jcb231]

I'm considering buying this game, as it will be rather affordable at Barnes and Noble. I'd like to get a Heroscape player's perspective on it before I drop the cash. I own Descent and enjoy it to some extent, if that provides any context for comparison, but I do not enjoy more traditional table-top roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. I have never owned nor seriously played World of Warcraft on the PC, so failures to live up to the video game won't matter to me. If I do purchase this game, it will usually be played with 2 or 3, sometimes 4 players, as many of my other gamer friends are unlikely to have much interest in this sort of epic game.

Thanks for any input you can provide!

[Dreaded Gazebo]

Originally Posted by jcb231

I'm considering buying this game, as it will be rather affordable at Barnes and Noble. I'd like to get a Heroscape player's perspective on it before I drop the cash. I own Descent and enjoy it to some extent, if that provides any context for comparison, but I do not enjoy more traditional table-top roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. I have never owned nor seriously played World of Warcraft on the PC, so failures to live up to the video game won't matter to me. If I do purchase this game, it will usually be played with 2 or 3, sometimes 4 players, as many of my other gamer friends are unlikely to have much interest in this sort of epic game.

Thanks for any input you can provide!

World of Warcraft is a decent game, although a long one. Length-wise it can be along the same lines as Descent. Descent's length is determined by the scenario, though, while WoW's length is probably gonna be pretty much the same every time., easily in the 4-6 hour range I would think. I've only played it a couple of times, though, so I suppose that might decrease with experience.

Gameplay wise it really is nothing like Descent. If you've ever played Runebound it's much more along those lines. It's basically a race game where two teams are competing to be the first to kill the final boss. Each team will be completing quests, earning experience and leveling up and the first to kill the bad guy wins. There's not much interaction between the two teams; you can PvP but the one PvP battle we had went for an hour and wasn't even close to done yet so we just abandoned it and vowed never to PvP again Each team has separate quests to work on (unless a special event comes up to change that) so you generally won't even have any real interaction. In that respect it is strictly a race game. Whichever team is more efficient in their quest completions will pretty much win.

Two things make the game work: the quest system and the character advancement. Teams reveal quests they'll be working on and as they complete quests more show up. Basically quests send you to a territory on the map to kill some monsters and get some treasures. Usually the treasures are random draws but sometimes you'll get named items as rewards. As you can see where the quests are and how difficult the enemies are the trick is figuring out how to best divide and conquer. Sometimes you are better off splitting up the team, other times you'll need to work together to clear off quests. It is fun trying to plan out the best route to clearing your quests.

Character advancement is pretty cool too. There are a bunch of different classes which have different equipment limitations and sets of skills. As you level up you get to pick new skills and abilities for your character, so part of the fun is deciding which skills you want that will best fit your group.

It's a long game, though, no doubt about it. I'm also not sure that there's really quite enough variety. There are maybe a dozen or so types of monsters you'll be fighting so the quests are just different combos of those same enemies. The treasure decks are decent sized but again, after a few plays you'll probably have seen it all. Not to say that the game will fail to be fun at that point... I'm not sure as I haven't played the game enough. The quest system is cool though, and the team-based aspect is fun. Combat feels a little more convoluted than it should be though. It took us awhile to figure out exactly how it works and it can be a little fiddly. PvP combat was in no way fun; it's possible we played it wrong but it just took far too long. Also, the game length will probably be roughly the same no matter how many players as I think the teams always have three characters each, just that people may end up controlling more than one character.

For a similar game I'd take a look at Runebound. It's a pretty similar concept with players racing to be the first to kill the big bad guy at the end. There's less character building but far more variety in monsters, events and items plus the combat system is far easier. Plus there are a ton of expansions that you can pick up as you see fit. Most just add new items, monsters and events but some completely change how the end-game works. For example, one small deck of cards changes the game from being the first to kill the end bad guy to players fighting off giants that raid the cities on the map. There are things I like more in WoW (the known quests to work on, character development) but Runebound just feels like a much more fluid game. Plus the game length will vary based on the number of players; I generally assume roughly 1 1/2 hours per player.

WoW's certainly not a bad game, and for the right price it'll be a good deal. Given the game's normal price though, I think Runebound with a few expansion decks is a better value and the better game in the long run.

[jcb231]

Thanks for the info. I will take a look at both games.

[Rodriquez]

Ive got WoW boardgame
as well as the Shadows expansions(card set) and the outlands expansion(who other board)

and while WoW has been interesting the few times ive played...
be prepared...setup takes awhile and ye need to have at least 4 ppl
to play it.

also there were a few tweak rules that made the game go much faster(I believe boardgamegeek had them listed at one time from one of its users)

[Parduz]

I'm part of a playing group of friends that meets each tuesday. Altough not all the times we are all there, the total of ppl is about 30 persons, so we have a wide range of games to play, each of us buying what he like more.
I'm the "tactical, fast & easy games" man, so Heroscape, D&D Minis and some old tactic games like Space Hulk (and clones) are my contribution to the group.

A friend bought WoW: i've not played it 'cause i was at that time in a RPG session.
I've seen it 2-3 times then it's disappeared. When i ask why (i was courious to play it) my friend said that there's no reason to keep attention to the turn of the other players (which can be long). So after some turns they becomes annoyed and start chatting and look at other tables while the player in turn moves.
I dont like Runebound either: is a game where you can't really "fight" with other players, and there'w no way to cooperate.
We actually enjoy a lot BattleLore. There's a bit too much luck in that game, but with all expansions there's some variety and fun.
Hope this helps.

[Nooblar]

If you're getting it because it's a freekin'-long board game, get RISK. If you're getting it because it's got character advancement, play Dungeons & Dragons. If you're getting it because it's Warcraft, buy the WoW TCG. IMHO.

[jcb231]

I've been thinking about buying Battlelore for a while now, but every time I set the cash aside I end up buying something else, like Call of Duty 4 or something. Maybe I'll finally just buy that, even though it's more expensive, instead of World of Warcraft or Runebound.

One question about it....how good are the reference cards and/or charts provided with Battlelore? Assuming that Heroscape is one of the best "rules reminders" games out there in that absolutely everything you need to know is printed on each card, where does Battlelore fall? I'm terrible at remembering rules, as are many other players in my group of friends. If we have to consult a rulebook too often we'll all lose interest.

[ej]

My limited experience is... limited, but I think you'll be pleased with the reference cards.

[Finrod]

Originally Posted by jcb231

I'm considering buying this game, as it will be rather affordable at Barnes and Noble.

If you were saying this because you were expecting the game to be discounted this month...

...it apparently isn't going to happen. The WoW Board Game is not part of B&N's Feb. game clearance. Still $75.

[Dreaded Gazebo]

Originally Posted by jcb231

One question about it....how good are the reference cards and/or charts provided with Battlelore? Assuming that Heroscape is one of the best "rules reminders" games out there in that absolutely everything you need to know is printed on each card, where does Battlelore fall? I'm terrible at remembering rules, as are many other players in my group of friends. If we have to consult a rulebook too often we'll all lose interest.

The summary stuff is pretty good although you may have to look back in the rules for a few things. If you go through the scenarios in order they do a great job of slowly introducing new concepts and pointing out new stuff to you, so that helps quite a bit. After a game or two you won't be referencing the rules much at all.

[jcb231]

Originally Posted by Dreaded Gazebo

The summary stuff is pretty good although you may have to look back in the rules for a few things. If you go through the scenarios in order they do a great job of slowly introducing new concepts and pointing out new stuff to you, so that helps quite a bit. After a game or two you won't be referencing the rules much at all.

Ah....perhaps I shouldn't buy it then. I don't want to have to remember a lot of stuff, and a reference-heavy game lessens the number of players I can play the game with, as I don't want to have to teach the game over and over and over again, I just want to play, and games like that are hardly ever fun the first play-through, because everybody is stuck in learning mode. Heroscape is so well-documented on its cards that it nearly teaches itself and for my group was fun from the get-go, no learning curve required....the only stumbling points are engagement and height rules I find, and that's only for some people. There's never a question about what a power does or how far a figure can move or shoot.

[jcb231]

Originally Posted by Finrod

If you were saying this because you were expecting the game to be discounted this month...

...it apparently isn't going to happen. The WoW Board Game is not part of B&N's Feb. game clearance. Still $75.

Ah, but B&N puts out coupons galore, plus the usual 10% discount for members.