So yeah, wow. At $100 (AUD), I picked this beauty up from the LGS yesterday and boy was it worth it.
I'd read the demo rules way back when they were released and been eagerly awaiting this game for something in the realms of 12 to 18 months, and it certainly didn't disappoint.
Movement? Dead easy. Attacks/defence? Fairly basic. Cuteness? Not quite as over the top as I expected, but once the models are painted I can definitely see it overflowing. Replayability? Fairly high with eight different heroes, and the obvious room for expansion. It looks from the rulebook like it's been built strongly around having expansions, and they can't come soon enough for me.
Daniela (Nailyon) and I had our first go of it last night, and bar some accidents, a few misreads, a bottle of wine and a pair of bad headaches we had a good amount of fun with it. I had to laugh at how long we took, I think our first "30 minute" game was closer to the two hour mark, but I lay the blame for that mostly on my own lack of pre reading. What, I had models to put together I didn't have to pin, ok?
Speaking of, I quite like them. Like any of the model based boardgames we see these days they've got a fairly decent yet minimalistic amount of detail, which with painting will look great. I needed to glue them together, as most didn't have much purchase on the dry fit, and about my only complaint was there not being a big warning saying "dude, bring glue!".
So whats next? Well, Daniela has a handful of heroes and the cute dragon stuff to cleanup, fill cracks on, and paint, while I've got the majority to browbeat the guys into learning to play with. I'm strongly considering getting a second set for dice/heroes/tiles, and I'm thinking it's worth taking a look at my Terraclips for alternate boards.
I'm thinking of converting the second box a tad if I get one. The fire mage could use a dragon head on her staff, that paladin is just asking for a Menite or Morrowan shield and goggles, and a couple of the others could use some steampunking or general conversion work. Paint wise I'd like to get names on the bases too, it's easy to remember which kobold is which with cards in front of me but opponents could use a hand.
Oh, and I'm thinking Cryx might make good Kobolds. You know, if I run out or something. Mechanithralls, Skarlocks, Slayers, and the Deathjack come to mind...
