Any one buy those WoTC Board games?

[killem2]

Just curious if they are pretty good quality. They seem to come with a robust amount of miniatures and tiles.

[Mordokai]

I possess Castle Ravenloft and can vouch for it to be fun and easy to get used to.

[Tyndmyr]

Played the ravenloft one. Basically, it's 4e, the board game. It works out fairly decently. Not the best board game I've played, perhaps, but buying it isn't the worst of calls. At worst, if you hate it...you have some useful map bits and minis. So...win/win.

[Griffith!]

I just bought Lords of Waterdeep, but there are no miniatures in there to speak of. It is, however, a pretty fun strategy game.

I assume you're actually referring to either Dungeon Command or the board games like Legend of Drizzt et cetera. I which case, no, I have not.

[Fatebreaker]

My buddies and I played the Castle Ravenloft one. Same results as Mordokai and Tyndmyr: fun and easy. It's not the best board game out there, but it's good for killing some time.

Has anyone tried the big Risk-style one? Conquest of Nerath or whatever?

[killem2]

Yeah I was thinking of snagging that Wrath of Ashalaron (spelling), I really want to paint those minis :P

[JabberwockySupafly]

I own Castle Ravenloft as well, and like previously mentioned, it's a good bit of fun. Started gaining serious dust once we picked up Lords of Waterdeep. Completely different kinds of games, though.

Castle Ravenloft is the HeroQuest-style dungeon crawler, whereas Lords of Waterdeep is a Strategy/Worker Placement board game.

[yougi]

My buddies and I played the Castle Ravenloft one. Same results as Mordokai and Tyndmyr: fun and easy. It's not the best board game out there, but it's good for killing some time.

Has anyone tried the big Risk-style one? Conquest of Nerath or whatever?

Conquest of Nerath is quite awesome, it's very heavily based on Axis & Allies, same combat mechanics, but the map is more balanced, and the victory conditions make it so the game doesn't go to 50-60h per game.

Lords of Waterdeep is a really cool Worker Placement game, I'd recommend it any day of the week.

Now the LoD/CR/WoA combo is, despite what people say, not something I'd recommend. I had them, and when I took them out, after a few people were like "hey, why don't we play actual D&D?". It basically is 4E, without the character creation, and without much story in the background. It's basically 4E combat, without much else.

[killem2]

My main reasons for it are:

I have a little boy who is ALWAYS asking to play d&d when we aren't actually playing d&d for weeks away from them.

He loves board games, he loves playing with his grandma when he stays with her, and this simple version of the game would work perfectly I think.

Plus I have a surplus of art supplies that I could use to paint the miniatures which if you compare to the painted version, you are getting quite a good deal in miniatures alone. (I think the painted huge dragon is like 39.99-49.99 on most sites) as a single.

[Kerrin]

We own four of the D&D board games.

As to Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and Legend of Drizzt ... These are all essentially heroic party dungeon crawl games. We like Wrath of Ashardalon the best for three reasons that make it more interesting for us:

• The monsters are more varied in the actions they can take than Castle Ravenloft
• The treasures the heroes can find are also more varied than Castle Ravenloft
• The game isn't dominated by one character (Drizzt) like in Legend of Drizzt

As to Conquest of Nerath ... As someone else mentioned this is a more strategic board game like Axis & Allies where you command an entire nation, including the individual units. It's a really fun game that we enjoy.

[Averis Vol]

I own wrath of ashardalon, I thought it would be similar to dnd but it really wasn't so I scrapped the actual playing and just used the figurines\tiles. I guess if you don't think of it as dungeons and dragons and more as dungeon crawl: the board game it would be good, but it just felt....off to me.

[QuidEst]

Eh… I gave Ravenloft a try twice, and it was pretty dull in my opinion. If you're going to blow that much money, I recommend the Kingsburg games, Dominion, Munchkin, or (for parties) The Great Dalmuti. No miniatures, but much more enjoyable gameplay.

[Tyndmyr]

We own four of the D&D board games.

As to Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, and Legend of Drizzt ... These are all essentially heroic party dungeon crawl games.

For another game that's similar in nature, I recommend Shadows Over Camelot. Cooperative, a little less map focused, some traitorous elements, and lots, and lots of tactical interplay between chars.

[Kerrin]

For another game that's similar in nature, I recommend Shadows Over Camelot. Cooperative, a little less map focused, some traitorous elements, and lots, and lots of tactical interplay between chars.

Thanks for the recommendation! I've actually been debating picking up either Shadows Over Camelot or A Game Of Thrones board game. I originally checked them out a while ago, but I'll have to take another gander at them.

Our children (13 and 11) LOVE playing games - it seems my wife and I passed along love of games (and books). They play and win their fair share of all sorts of games with us including things like Dominant Species and Twilight Imperium!

Thanks for the reminder to re-check-out SOC and AGoT.

[killem2]

Eh… I gave Ravenloft a try twice, and it was pretty dull in my opinion. If you're going to blow that much money, I recommend the Kingsburg games, Dominion, Munchkin, or (for parties) The Great Dalmuti. No miniatures, but much more enjoyable gameplay.

thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure I'm blowing money on these games those :), the miniatures alone are worth the 40.00, and if you love to paint these things like I do, that's a bonus! :)

And the dungeon crawl aspect is perfect to appease my sons hunger for d&d when not playing the main campaign.

[Fatebreaker]

Thanks for the recommendation! I've actually been debating picking up either Shadows Over Camelot or A Game Of Thrones board game. I originally checked them out a while ago, but I'll have to take another gander at them.

Our children (13 and 11) LOVE playing games - it seems my wife and I passed along love of games (and books). They play and win their fair share of all sorts of games with us including things like Dominant Species and Twilight Imperium!

Thanks for the reminder to re-check-out SOC and AGoT.

I just picked up the Game of Thrones board game. Some friend and I will be giving it a try the weekend after next. It looks fantastic, though.

And Twilight Imperium is a blast! I wish I got to play that more. Ah, well. Someday, eh?

[Kerrin]

I just picked up the Game of Thrones board game. Some friend and I will be giving it a try the weekend after next. It looks fantastic, though.

I'd very much like to hear what you think of the game once you've had a chance to play.

And Twilight Imperium is a blast! I wish I got to play that more. Ah, well. Someday, eh?

This is the lamentation of all Twilight Imperium players and Advanced Civilization players. We should all get together and have an outrageous party!

[Tyndmyr]

Thanks for the recommendation! I've actually been debating picking up either Shadows Over Camelot or A Game Of Thrones board game. I originally checked them out a while ago, but I'll have to take another gander at them.

Our children (13 and 11) LOVE playing games - it seems my wife and I passed along love of games (and books). They play and win their fair share of all sorts of games with us including things like Dominant Species and Twilight Imperium!

Thanks for the reminder to re-check-out SOC and AGoT.

Oooh, tough call there. I'm a huge fan of the game of thrones board game. Much less cooperative, but a fantastic risk-stye game...you're much less likely to be eliminated entirely early game, so much less waiting around for others to finish up.

[BiblioRook]

I wouldn't say I bought one before, but I once won the Drizzt game as a door prize last time RA Salvatore came down for a signing.
Which I then got signed by Salvatore, because he was there.

Spoiler

Show

It was supposed to be a raffle and to enter you just had to have a receipt from ether the game store next door or the nearby comic shop. Turns out aside from me only one other guy got the memo it was happening and I got the grand prize just for having the bigger of the two receipts ($8, due to the store having a $5 minimum. The other guy had one for $4)

...truthfully though, I've yet to actually get around to playing it. Not out of lack of interest, just lack of opportunity. I know there are ways of playing it single player, but I want to try out some of the more normal scenarios before I try those out.
To be honest however, I would have probably preferred ether of the other two to the Drizzt one, not being the biggest Drizzt fan to begin with.



Aside from that, one game I would love to buy would be Lords of Waterdeep. Now that's a game I'm quite a fan of.

I don't know if these count, but I also have Inn-Fighting which I find quite enjoyable and Three Dragon Ante is also quite fun.

[zanetheinsane]

Also keep in mind that the three "dungeon crawl" board games are all fully-cooperative: each player plays a hero and nobody "plays" the monsters. The monsters are sort of "AI" driven by cards that players draw.

If you want more of a D&D style boad game where one person plays the "dungeon master" and controls the monsters, Descent: Journeys In The Dark just released their second edition, as did Super Dungeon Explore.

Also think about tracking down the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Adventure Board Game (terrible name, I know). It was only released in the UK so it is a little pricey to find in the US sometimes. It's not amazing, but plays like an updated Hero Quest if you were familiar with that game.

[Kurald Galain]

So how do these dungeon crawl games compare to, say, Descent Journeys In The Dark, or to Talisman?

[Sipex]

I have Castle Ravenloft and from the looks of things it's closer in comparison to Descent.

You choose one of several adventures from the adventure book and follow the set up instructions to get started. Once that's done, you move, with your party, through the dungeon (which randomly generates via a stack of shuffled dungeon tiles) revealing and fighting monsters, dealing with events, until you meet the victory conditions of the adventure or run out of healing surges (ie: 3 deaths in the party).

It's a surprisingly difficult game. I've lost several rounds, especially with the later adventures in the book. You're constantly under assault by monsters, traps and other nasty happenings.

[Emmerask]

I have the Castle Ravenloft game, I thought it was rather boring, the only positive thing where the minis which where of good quality.

Instead of Ravenloft I would buy Descent: Journeys in the Dark, it just is the better thought out boardgame in my opinion and comes with even more minis and tiles all working perfectly for d&d.

If you want a coop only game then there are well working community made ones on the boardgamegeek forums for descent.

As for the other d&d boardgames, I didn´t buy any other of the products because honestly I was rather disappointed in the first I bought ^^