Will I back War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time? Looking over the project and rulebook to find out
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome back to the board gaming doctor. My name is Phil and I love to talk about board games and in this video I'm going to talk about my first impressions of the War of the Dragon Wheel of Time and the information that we know so far and whether I'm going to back this or not. I I really don't know what the title of this video is going to be or my decision, but uh I want to look through the information that we do have available since this game is quite interesting to me and to plenty of people. It's already made half a million dollars already. So, I am a fan of The Wheel of Time. I've read all the books, you know, in particular, I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson and and that's what got me interested in The Wheel of Time, which I think influenced him to write his books. Anyway, but I, you know, I know these characters and uh have was really excited to hear about this a couple of weeks ago when it was announced to be on Kickstarter.
And so first of all, I do want to point out who is designing this game. I'm coming from this point of view as someone who, you know, really, you know, makes content on board games and I play a lot of, you know, heavier, more complex board games. And so I was curious to see who designed these games. And uh since this game has come from Direwolf, it's no surprise that Andy Claudis, who had a part in developing a lot of the Clank um legacy games and other uh expansions, is a part of this project. Uh Michael Mahilik um Mahilik, who interestingly was a designer for Plays for All My Books. One of my favorite games to play with my wife. uh it's one of her favorite games right now. And then Ryan Shun, who is from uh Man Versus Mele, one of my favorite channels to watch on YouTube for board game content. And I watched their take on the uh gameplay. It's worth a watch to look at the art and some of the components for the game as well.
But in any case, what I want to do is focus in on the rule book to kind of give us an idea of what the game play is going to be like. I think they had a very broad overview of the War of the Dragon game in the Man versus Mele video. I don't know if there are more videos that are coming uh to the Kickstarter. We'll find out. Uh but for now we do have the rule book which is of course uh in a work in development. And so the major thing about this game and and I'll go into some other comparisons later after we look through the rule book is that there are two modes to play in this game. There's a hero mode and epic mode. And and you know you've got all these different components. You've got a ton of cards to draw from and to add to your tableau.
And and we'll get into the differences here, too, but essentially it's a two-player experience. One player plays as the light, the forces of light, and the other the opposite darkness. And you each start off with a an asymmetric starting deck. And on your turn, or I should say uh in the hero mode of the game, which is supposed to be the shorter variant of this game, you uh set up some mission cards out onto the board and you draw a hand, I think, of four cards to begin with in chapter one. And you play through two or three chapters, increasing your hand limit every time. And on your turn, you play a card onto a shared action board and you choose one of these five main actions as well as activating the effects on the card that you just played. And there is an interesting twist where you once you play a card to one of these five areas, these five actions, if an opponent wants to take that action later, they have to pay a cost to do so. And so it's got that element of understanding what you want to do and trying to beat out your opponent for the uh most, you know, and being the most efficient uh with your action selection and prioritizing
correctly in order to save resources. But in any case, what you do with these five main actions is you draw an ally card or, you know, pay for an ally card from a market. You place it onto your tableau. Each card has icons and there are like five different icons that you can play them to which make your actions better throughout the game. And the interesting thing about this at the end of the game is if you have more of these icons than your opponent, you will score some victory points over your opponent for that. And so there is an element of tableau building and specialization that will have an effect on what points you have. You move your characters around the board and you know you've got a heart or sorry a uh map of I saw the heartland here. Uh you have a map that you're moving your characters on and in addition to movement there are bunch of rules. I'm not going to go over all of them right now. Uh you can ma reinforce and so you increase your strength of your characters. you recover allies or or defeated characters and bring them back to the board. Um there's some opportunity for movement as well. And uh in addition to movement, I should say you can move into opponent's territories and trigger uh conflict. If you have essentially more power than your opponent, then you will move in and take
that area. and the and so reinforcing can help bolster defenses so you don't lose an area to someone else's movement. And every area of the map is divided into subcategorizations of areas. And if you control more of that area, that um section of the map belongs to your side and that also uh deals with the endgame, you know, points that you're going to get. And then finally, the consolidate or the second to last action is consolidate where you can gain resources um to spend for uh I believe uh I believe that you might be able to spend this with allies. I I'm not sure.
Um but you do gain some resources to be able to spend elsewhere. You do are allowed to for if you're playing as the shadow to also spread corruption to um uh progress up a track. You have a track advancement uh aspect to this game for both the light and the dark sides and you will gain victory points essentially for how far you advance on those tracks. And then finally, you have the weave action where you have a a wheel, kind of a two dialed wheel that you're moving around uh on your tableau. And I think you get certain bonuses and and victory points uh from those. And back to the mission cards, there are two missions that are placed at the beginning of each chapter by like moving your wheel and moving your characters around, etc. you try to accomplish these chapters for points essentially and you uh score. Yeah. So, so there's intermittent scoring for where you are in the map, what you control and then finally uh you know there are a bunch of other different cards and and aspects to this game which are quite thematic as well but also make mechanical sense or should make mechanical sense as well. And then uh finally you score for your tracks, your how your wheel is set up and and the pattern which is the tableau and however many allies you add to certain areas of
your tableau. And if you have more than your opponent, you score uh you also get to score for your leaders resources and then whoever has the most points wins. And so that if it sounds pretty intense, that's only a portion of the game. The hero mode includes essentially instead of a very simplified conflict resolution when you move into different territories occupied by an opponent, you do have a more tactical experience where you are uh fighting over, you know, you have a blinder and two sides where you uh play cards and and resources to have a tactical experience, kind of a lane battling, it looks like experience to me. And so you take part in that throughout the game. And instead of where you just resolve whoever has the most victory points at the end of the hero mode, you do set up yourselves for the last battle, which is the, you know, the big ending of of the whole series of books. And you get to take part in a tactical battle experience with that as well. And so all of these rules are included there. A ton of, you know, pages to this book, almost 50. And so, yeah, there's it's definitely a very um intense game, especially for the uh epic mode now. And then, you know, you've got the last battle and uh different things.
you know, you can play your characters to different uh areas, different areas of the map as well as, you know, are they going to be the vanguard or are they going to be the center or flanking, etc. And you kind of reveal where you blindly place these cards from your opponent and see and kind of resolve wherever you tactfully have allocated your resources. And there finally there is a four player mode. I was wondering about this if there was either going to be a four player or solo version of this game and and so you can play the hero mode with four players. It's essentially 2v2 uh two people on the light and two people on the dark dark side and so there is that aspect as well. So yeah, so that is essentially the rule book and how the game on a somewhat large overview of, you know, how it's going to be played. Finally, here are the prices of the game. So 90 bucks for the base game and the cardboard standees.
uh you know go up to 123 for the miniatures and of course plenty of different add-ons that you can add to the game to make it even better. So this kind of goes into a thought that I've been having recently with Kickstarters. this really kind of when I made my video on Brass Pittsburgh and looked at the prices for that game, the essential version versus the decked out, blinged out version of the game as well. It was quite expensive and that is definitely a reflection of of the economy these days. But, you know, in addition to this, like you know, what we're offered here is a work in progress. It's probably a work in progress as compared, you know, with the rule book that is pretty far along.
There's probably some tweaking whether it's big or small that's going to happen still. And Brass Pittsburgh is still a work in progress as well. Like the the rule book is pretty much done, but there are some tweaks to make the game play probably more balanced. And so there's that aspect of it. because I and I feel like because it is still a work in progress. I don't know. I feel like this has been happening a lot more recently with Kickstarter games, crowdfunding games, but not only are they more expensive, but the games themselves are not finished. And so for example, you know, five, six years ago when I started getting into board games, I often saw that these games, you know, during co essentially these games that were being kickstarted had a tabletop simulator or some sort of digital option for people to um observe and and tinker around with to see if the gameplay was something that they liked. Right. And I you I mean there is no first of all there is no actual gameplay video of this game. We just have an overview from Man Versus Mele. Hopefully there are some more uh gameplay footage uh later on even if it's preliminary. But we don't have that here and we don't also have a tabletop version of this game or anywhere that we can try it for
ourselves. It is a sharp-edged sword, you know, double-edged sword. If a game is really good, you know, you might not need to play it to to back it. And of course, if you are a huge fan of this IP, then this game, and I will say if if you're not uh you know, a typical hobby board gamer, uh this game, you know, might look complex, but I don't think you'll have to worry about it being a bad game. We have triedand-true designers here who seem to be sticking very well to the theme of of the game to make it feel like you are participating in the will of time, but also mechanically it's going to be a uh you know as streamlined and as balanced of a game as possible. And so I don't have any doubt about the game being good. But with so many good options these days, it's hard for me to reconcile what I used to be able to do, which was to try the games and decide if it was worth uh my money to have a physical copy of uh essentially owning the best of the best, right? And so I don't have that option yet here for this game. And I would have loved to to try it. You know, like I said, with a double-edged sword, it's nice if a game you can try it out. And and I think of some recent games that I played that had a tabletop version like Sweetlands. I tried that solo and loved it and wanted to play more of it and and when it came back to Kickstarter, I I backed it. There are other games that
I've played recently too that did have a a digital version of it and I did not end up backing it because I didn't like the gameplay as much and it didn't stack as well as it does to some of the other games that I have on my shelf which is limited. And so I understand if you know publishers nowadays especially with that we're out of co and and you know back to normal we can uh you you can go ahead and just release a rule book in progress or a video or or two and you know people would have to go on faith with what they have there and not play the games for themselves in order to buy it. But in addition to that we know that this game will come to retail. It's coming from Dire Wolf. It's, you know, a very established company. They have a ton of games, Dune, Imperium, Clank, etc. that are, you know, our favorites in the hobby. And so there's there's no doubt that they have the resources to be able to bring this game to retail, whether it's fully funded or not. And, you know, it basically is. And so essentially, this this Kickstarter is not to help the game come to pass. It will. It's essentially here to allow people to get a more upgradeable version of the game with miniatures and and add-ons and things like that to make it a more special product for them, right? And so for those reasons, I while I think and have faith that this game is going to be good and it looks really really great,
like just from going through the real rule book, I think it's going to be an excellent game. it. So, as far as comparisons go too before I continue, um I mean in the Man versus Mele video, they compare it to games like Star Wars Rebellion, War of the Ring, uh two-player versions of IP games that are kind of simulations or retellings of those types of games. Somewhat on the complex end, uh but it they're very thematic experiences. And this game kind of feels like that. that for for games that I've played personally like I felt like uh I've played War of the Ring the card game the sequel to the actual board game War of the Ring kind of felt like that where you are you know essentially playing cards to um control different areas of of the story of Lord of the Rings as you're progressing and controlling different areas that the book portrays in the game and it also kind of like the uh the lane battler aspect of The epic mode of this game kind of felt like at first glance it kind of reminded me of airland and sea where you're trying to play, you know, three different lanes, air, land, and sea with cards. It's a it's a simpler game, but you're trying to outmaneuver your opponent and and uh, you know, kind of predict where they might want to go or use faints and things like that to to be able to win as many of those lanes as possible. The Old King's Crown also came to mind with how you're supposed to kind
of like uh place different resources in different lanes and and there's a big reveal and you have the chance to bluff or or predict what your opponent might do as well in a lane battler type of experience that also kind of reminds me of this epic mode with uh with that, but obviously in a a different fashion with this game. So, it it does remind me of a lot of good games, but yeah, like because this game is coming to retail and I'm I'm not the deepest fan of The Wheel of Time, I think I think if this were like a Brandon Sand like the Brandon Sanderson game that's coming out later this year, I might consider the upgradeable aspects of the game. But for me, I think I'm okay to wait. And and so there are two reasons, right? one because I know it's coming to retail and since I don't have a chance to play it yet and really, you know, get a a good grip of how the strategy plays out in this game and how replayable and and varied this game might be, but I know I'll get a chance to do so with the retail version and I don't need the upgradeable components essentially. And then two, uh I mean I play a lot of games solo. I love to play games with others and I do play games with other people but u you know I to own a game and have it in my collection I know I want to play it solo as well and you know it's a lot of people play games solo these days and there is no
mention of a solo mode for this game and so it would be hard for me to justify having this game with really no one else to play it with consistently unless I wanted to do so on my own and So, the other twist to that uh that reasoning as well is that with Direwolf, they do have a large digital uh library of their games. And so, there is a good chance that War of the Dragon, if successful, would come to a digital format where you could play with people online or friends or family, etc., or even solo against a a computerized opponent. And so I am willing to hold out for that as well. And you know those games are a fraction of the price that you would pay for the actual cardboard. And so that to me feels like the route that I'm going to take with this game. I I am very intrigued and excited to play this game and see how well it does hold out in the long run, but I am willing to wait until next year to see uh you know when when this does come to retail and if it does get a digital version. And I'm sure someone you know maybe maybe officially they might pull out a solo mode for this game. Maybe they'll reveal that in an update. Who knows? And that would really uh that might persuade me otherwise with my decision right now. But uh I'm sure if not them then someone would make a playable version of a that you could
play by yourself to enjoy this game against uh a you know created opponent that makes it feel just as good as playing against someone else. And so I'm holding out for that. It's not going to come until next year anyway. And I'm happy to wait and and see this game uh be successful. It's nice that it is success successful. It's probably of no surprise, but yeah, I think I will I will wait for now. And hopefully that my reasoning and you know makes sense and helps your decision whether to back this project or not right now. So yeah, th those are my unscripted thoughts and and reactions to the rule book uh for this game as well as what information we have on the Kickstarter. So let me know what your thoughts. Let me know if you're going to back this game or not. And uh thank you for watching and I'll catch you on the next