Wizards of the Coast | Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon | Board Game | Ages 12+ | 1-5 Players | 60 Minute Playing Time

Product Information

Each player then takes one Treasure Card and a number of Power Cards – the precise number for each character is written on the Hero Card. These give your Hero special abilities and items that can be used throughout the game. The game, on the whole, is well made and sturdy. However, those that like expansive terrain might be a little let down by the dungeon tiles, which leave a lot to the imagination. That said, the lively miniatures – and the adventures you can have with them – really liven it up when the game gets going. Wrath of Ashardalon Review (TL;DR) Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game – Contest Adventures Designed for use with Castle Ravenloft. (2011)

There’s a big red Dragon, which was to be expected, but now there’s a lot more interesting critters to slay with no regard for their litter of demon spawn, such as the ever-beloved Beholder and the Otyugh, which is the equivalent of how many perceive their Mother-In-Law to be. There’s an Orc Shaman, a Drake that gets more powerful as you beat on it, a Kobold Dragonlord, and all kinds of other nasties. All in all I am very impressed with the collection of stuff in the box, and they went above and beyond my expectations with all this new stuff. When you combine all this stuff with the Ravenloft stuff, you’re talking about being able to craft amazingly deep, narrative, complex adventures and campaigns that will keep you entertained for years. To top it all off, Wizards just announced a third sister to these tantalizing twins, The Legend of Drizzt, so we’re talking about nearly 140 figures, 30+ sheets of tiles, and more cards than a poker room at the Mandalay Bay. I simply could not be more excited about the epic Dungeon Crawling that I will be doing in 2011, and that’s a fact. If you don’t like Ravenloft, you may not like this, because the two games are a lot alike. That being said, it’s deeper, both thematically and strategically, and the game is just downright fun to play. Those who found Ravenloft too shallow, I maintain, are not seeing it for what it is: a game system that allows you to not only play what’s been printed in the book, but that allows you to create epic adventures on a grand scale if you so desire. If you want a game where you need no thought or creativity, try Container; I hear it’s a hoot. If you want to slash and incinerate fiends and fell beasts until your boots are soaked to the knees with blood of differing shades, then Wrath of Ashardalon is what you’re looking for.

Tokens (10 Condition; 7 Monster; 33 Treasure; 1 Wizard Eye; 3 Mirror Image; 3 Flaming Sphere; 1 Cleric’s Shield; 5 Blade Barrier; 3 Caltrop; 5 Villager; 1 Gear; 5 Healing Surge; 5 Time; 9 Encounter Markers; 8 Closed Door; 10 Shield Markers; 1 Adventure Marker; 1 Item Marker; 1 Vast Gate Marker) Wrath of Ashardalon is a well-made game – there are no buts about it. Ashardalon comes individually bagged (who’s going to say no to that guy if he wants his own room?) with your heroes, monsters, and other villains jumbled in together separately. You lose if any one of your characters is at zero HP at the beginning of their turn and they have run out of Healing Surges. There may also be other rules in your Adventure that could mean you lose the game. Your First Game of Wrath of Ashardalon

other Cards (5 Sequence of Play; 33 Treasure; 50 Power; 5 Adventure; 53 Encounter; 14 Chamber; 4 Adventure Encounter; 6 Boon Cards; 30 Monster Cards) Wrath of Ashardalon is incredibly entertaining for gamers of all levels. However, if you’re after a more complex dungeon-crawler, you might find this doesn’t quite go far enough. Similarly, with only two levels to progress through, character development is also limited. That’s why I’ve been a bigger fan of the D&D strategy game DDM. It only has two books (one for the basic Battles Game and one for tournaments). Instead of sheafs of character sheets, you have a single stat card for each creature in your warband. We’ve been making “Dungeon Runs” and scenarios using DDMGuild’s rules for some time now. These dungeon runs (which are like a campaign boiled down to just the most exciting parts: killing monsters, rescuing maidens and finding treasure) have been my favorite form of D&D. At least up until Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon came out. I’m a long-time player of other board games and really enjoy them. Some items say to discard the item after use (like potions).Others say to flip over.What’s the difference between the two?Since each set of three miniatures are identical there is no way, short of player memory, to distinguish which of two identical monsters is controlled by which player should more than one be on the board at a time. This problem is solved by having each player who controls a monster of a given type control all of that monster type, while not allowing any individual player have more than one monster card of each type in play. As mentioned, it’s important you follow the rules of the game setup closely to make sure you get the most out of the game. Helpfully, the game comes with a ‘Sequence of Play’ card for each player, outlining how to take each turn. The Bad: While there are plenty of scenarios in the book, after a couple of games I was left with the feeling that the content is actually fairly shallow. Perhaps a group of D&D enthusiasts who rarely seek out boardgames will find more replayability here, but it takes little time for the dungeons to all look the same and the characters to be running through almost scripted actions.