With this post I want to try something new, and that is to start write some small reviews of the board games I have. Not sure of the quality or if this will be a good source for reviews, but it will be what it will be. Let’s start!

A few weeks ago I received the fantasy RPG Arcadia Quest by Cool Mini or Not and Spaghetti Western Games, which is a board game I Kickstarted back in March. I mostly pledged for it because CoolMiniOrNot was behind it, the same company behind Rivet Wars (an awesome war game for two players), so I didn’t know what I was getting, other then that there where cool chibi miniatures in it.

Now that I had it in my hands it was time to try it out. Before I got some friends over to play it I watched this review of the game by Youtuber Tom Vasel.

So based on what I learned from this video I was super stoked to play it! So I got my friends to get and we started sorting out all the stuff. As you can see in the image below there is quite some tokens to sort out.

The tokens are for keeping track on damage, which hero in your guild (coming back to that) you have used, or more precisely, which item you have used, coins you have earned, how many times one in your guild have died, and last, but not least the treasures you have earned! So back to the guild.

At the start of the game each player choose a guild (just a color and a sign) and then pick three heroes they want. The heroes are picked based on life and defence, and their special ability. Then the game continue with building the scenario that you are going to play. Each scenario consist of several tiles, with doors, monsters, and treasures for the heroes to open, kill, and loot.

The killing and looting are done in two phases of each turn. You start of picking which hero to activate this round, and that hero may take a move action, or an attack. You can do both, but you have to complete one action before you can start the second. The attack action is rather simple. You target a monster or a enemy hero with either a close combat attack, or a ranged one. Then count your dice, based on equipment and other modifiers. If you get more then one bow/sword on the die you may deal some damage. The defender then find the white dice and hope for enough shields to avoid the damage. And it is in this dice action I feel Arcadia Quest really stand out from the rest. Each die has the possibility to land on a crit (a critically roll)! Typically a crit only means that you get an extra damage, or that you are destined to hit., but in Arcadia Quest you get the extra damage, but you get to roll the die again, meaning that you have the possibility to crit again! These little fun feature can lead to some serious damage. When you are done with your attach, you can use your move action. Each move action gives you 3 movement points, which you can use on moving one space/tile, opening/closing a door, or teleport (each map contains a set of portals that you can move between).

Every time you use an item you need to but an exhaust token on that said item, and you can not use it again before the guild have rested. This means that you need to be strategically on how you move your heroes and how you attack. It’s not always smart to move in and attack on the first option, as you may be the first to rest, meaning that you will have to skip your turn, because resting means that you can’t activate your heroes for a whole round. Resting is also the way to resurrect fallen heroes, just because you get killed, doesn’t mean that you can’t get back in the game again!

You may now be wondering how you win, since killing your opponents doesn’t really help (other then that you get coins!). Each scenario has a set of quests that are available, and the first player to manage to finish three quests win. Quest range from killing the green guild to killing a set number of monsters, or a villain.

When the first player manage to finish three quest the game ends immediately, and it’s time to start counting your coins. The next phase is buying equipments for your next scenario. Luckily you don’t have to play it right after each other, as there is campaign sheets that let you “save” the game, till the next time.

So that is what I have to say about Arcadia Quest for now. I’m glad I bought the expansions and promo heroes, as I know that there will be plenty of game nights spent on this game, and I don’t think it will come till Norway.

Underneath you can see some images from my turn with the game.

The green rings you can see in these two images are to separate your heroes from the other players. A very nice touch.

PS: The professional looking images are borrowed from www.ArcadiaQuest.com.