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Game Info
Year
2012
Players
2-6
Age
10+
Playtime
90 min
Collection
Ratings
Creator Score
Mechanic profile
Not enough video data yet
Vibe profile
Not enough video data yet
Description
Based on the first novel of the Die Zwerge tetralogy [Eng. The Dwarves] by author Markus Heitz, the goal of the cooperative game Die Zwerge is to keep evil from flooding Girdlegard. During set-up, players choose one of the dwarves from the novel, each of which is equipped with a unique special ability and different stats for fighting, crafting, and movement.
Before each player's turn, the forces of evil usually break through one of the four big gates – which are guarded by different dwarven tribes – and further the spread of the Perished Land. On his turn a player spends two action points to use two of five actions. He can:
Fight against the advancing enemies (orcs, trolls, and älfar [Ger. albae], i.e. dark elves).
Travel to other locations.
Lobby the dwarven council to give advantages to all players – and without the favor of the dwarven council, everyone suffers disadvantages.
Solve a minor quest for rewards.
Take on the current major quest, revealing the next major quest if successful. Completing these quests is the only way to win the game.
For most of these actions, a player must succeed in a dice-driven challenge. If the players cannot control the flood of evil while simultaneously solving the major quests in time, they will lose.
Collector's edition:
additional:
New box cover
5 hand painted dwarf miniatures
10 cards Albae expansion
60 page artbook
5 art prints of the dwarfs
A3 poster "The smiting of Keenfire"
stein with motive "Krasnolud"
coaster "DIE ZWERGE"
numbered COLLECTOR’S EDITION certificate.
Featured Videos
Playthrough
The Dwarves Runthrough
Ask a Rules Question
All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 5
This page: 5
Sentiment:
pos 2 ·
mix 2 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 1
Showing 1–5 of 5
Video 1GeNGNh50Fw
The Dungeon Dive Review at 0:18 sentiment: positive
video_pk 122050 · mention_pk 351155
Click to watch at 0:18 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Packs a lot of game into a normal-sized box.
- Simplicity is appealing.
- Expansions add variety.
- Fast-paced gameplay.
- Tension ramps up quickly.
- Variety in scenarios.
- Simple and easy to set up.
- Adds a lot of tension.
- Threat management is pretty good.
- The political turmoil aspect is cool and adds ebb and flow.
Cons
- Meeples are cumbersome and hard to use, falling over easily and blocking spaces.
- Hex tokens can cover up map spaces, making it difficult to find specific locations.
- Heroes could feel more different.
- Relies heavily on dice rolls, which can lead to frustrating losses due to bad luck.
- The game could use more built-in ways to mitigate luck, such as a currency system.
Thematic elements
- fantasy adventure
- dwarven stronghold
Comparison games
- Legends of Andor
- Defenders of the Realm
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — The game involves managing enemy meeples on a hex map, with mechanics like 'overrun' where 'if there are ever more than five enemies on the board then they have corrupted that land.'
- Bag Building — When enemies spawn, 'you will roll these uh three colored d6 and they will correspond to the color of the enemies that are coming out.'
- cooperative play — The game is described as a 'fantasy cooperative uh, threat management game.'
- Dice Rolling — The game uses 'a dice pool system where you are rolling the number of dice that correspond to the stat that you are testing.' Successes are usually four, fives, and sixes.
- Set Collection — Players need to 'complete one of the C saga cards' and 'work through your A cards, then you do your B card, and then you do one C card.'
- threat management — A key aspect of the game involves managing threats from the 'army of evil'.
- Variable player powers — Heroes 'could feel a little more different' and 'the heroes, they could feel a little more different. There could be a little more variety.' One specific character, Andokai, 'actually start with a ski with a spell deck.'
- Worker Placement — The 'political trek' on the dwarven council board involves influencing the council by 'taking certain actions, by uh rolling dice, by hitting certain target numbers.'
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- this big box version of the dwarves, it packs a lot of game into a normalsiz box.
- It's a little simpler than those games, but that simplicity is something that I admire.
- And so this becomes an additional kind of pressing threat that you have to overcome in order to uh win the game or in order to progress the game without taking further kind of penalties.
- As the game progresses, more of these bad threats will be added to your adventure deck. So there is kind of a feeling of progression while you're playing the game. And I think that is pretty cool.
- And it does kind of, you know, the the tension does ramp up in this game pretty quickly. And you do feel that fire, but I think it works.
- It's a really cool hex map and I think the art looks really good.
- I normally like wooden meuples. I prefer wooden meeples over miniatures, but for this game, I would actually just prefer cubes.
- And I really like that. It adds a really cool kind of eb and flow kind of a give and take to the game and it makes this kind of it makes the political turmoil of of of a kind of epic fantasy kind of come to life while you are playing the game.
- I just wish that the meles were easier to handle. I wish they were just cubes and I wish that the hex's had numbers on them.
- But overall, I think this game is pretty cool.
- It's very fast. It's very simple and it's really easy to get set up and to to just start playing.
- But so if you're really adverse to bad luck in games, you know, bad luck that can just make you straight up lose the game because you don't roll well, you may not like this game.
- Me personally, it doesn't um make me that angry. I sometimes like it because I think it tells interesting stories and I think it adds drama.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video p-BNLfUC8w4
Board Games UnLocked Review at 0:28 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 115978 · mention_pk 328523
Click to watch at 0:28 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- The scenario deck changes and depending on your difficulty.
- Some of the adventure cards give you equipment.
- The threat cards are disgusting and nasty.
- The artwork on the character cards and quest cards is good.
Cons
- The game is cumbersome and plays the exact same way almost every single time.
- The meeples from the expansion are worse than the cubes from the base game.
- The game is very luck-driven and hard.
- The item cards are lame.
- The map is very bland.
- The names of everything are very throwing and sound made-up.
Thematic elements
- Dwarves
Comparison games
- Battlestar Galactica
- Pandemic
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — the threat is any space on the map with one or more trolls becomes parish land gross
- Card Drafting — the adventure cards are giving there's probably like that might that might take into account
- Dice Rolling — This game is absolutely one my percent look like oh yeah everything about it is roll the resolved it's okay well I want to move okay roll the move well I'd like to see if I succeed in this craft roll roll roll
- Set Collection — This thread is averted when there are at least four trolls on this card
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- viewer discretion is advised
- it's like just forgettable
- the game is just at at best average
- it's very cumbersome and tedious
- the game is hard because it's luck driven
- it's a five it's an average it doesn't wow you
- the game is generic
- most people get I mean has a 6.9
- actively don't want to read the book
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video AHfDEXYYN8k
Board Games UnLocked Playthrough at 0:30 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 115979 · mention_pk 328524
Click to watch at 0:30 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
- The attempt at creating unique lore and character names.
- The cooperative nature of the game encourages teamwork.
- The variety of quests and character abilities.
Cons
- Difficult and tongue-twisting terminology and names.
- The game can feel like a struggle with many challenges.
- Dice rolls can lead to frustration when they don't go well.
- The quests can sometimes feel like busywork to gain equipment.
Thematic elements
- Defending Girdle Guard from evil forces by working together to find the magical axe and complete a quest.
- Girdle Guard
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- character abilities — Each character has unique stats and abilities, such as rerolling dice or improving craft tests.
- cooperative play — Players must work together to achieve victory conditions.
- Dice Rolling — Dice are used for combat, skill checks, and other game actions.
- Equipment cards — Players can acquire and use equipment cards to gain advantages.
- Movement — Players move their tokens across a map to reach objectives.
- Quest Completion — Players work to complete various quests to advance the game.
- Threat cards — Threat cards introduce challenges and negative effects that players must overcome.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- It's a war that you're not really familiar with, it always always kind of run into that wall that is the terminology, the wording.
- We are in the war, work, crystal clear communication is a matter of life or death.
- The quests really do just give us equipment cards. Like in our reality, we could just probably just roll a die every turn and see if we get one because that's kind of what the quests do anyway.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video 4OHWCxS0MJk
Rolling Dice & Taking Names Discussion at 1:32:36 sentiment: positive
video_pk 94710 · mention_pk 258799
Click to watch at 1:32:36 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Appears in the top 32 of the geek madness tournament.
Cons
none
Thematic elements
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a popularity contest
- those are your gateway games that will eventually lead to the pandemics
- I'm not gonna begrudge anybody to sit and play Monopoly that that's all they know man
- if you like monopoly you might like and then suggest something else
- I will play Monopoly with you anytime as long as we play by the rules
- there's the problem everybody has a slight what do you play with this particular rule no there's no house rules play by the real rules
- I think that's a natural step and I think people could easily go from monopoly to ticket to ride
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video UWBYLiE7u-A
The Dice Tower Discussion at 9:40 sentiment: negative
video_pk 80640 · mention_pk 196928
Click to watch at 9:40 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
Negative
Pros
none
Cons
- Found the game boring
Thematic elements
- Dwarves
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- The Morrigan Game Factory though, what a great escape room game. It might it's it's definitely in my top escape room games.
- Noobs in Space is one of my favorite little games that's so unique and interesting. You have a deck of cards, you deal them out to everybody. Everybody has cards in their hand, and then you just solve those cards by saying things out loud, working together to play cards, and hopefully you solve it. It communication is the key. You can say anything you want, uh but you just can't show cards. And it's hilarious and fun. Very, very enjoyable.
- If you really like what we're doing here at the Dice Tower, then there are different ways to support Dice Tower.
- Tell your friends about the Dice Tower.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–5 of 5