Trolls Not Allowed

A four player game of Dungeon Lords. One of the players, Red, had never played Dungeon Lords before, so she was a bit overwhelmed at the mechanics, but winged it on the go without a long term plan. 

It's been a long time since the rest of us had played this game as well, but at least we were able to plan forward a little, and could try to convince ourselves we were focusing on some aspect of the game. I did masterfully navigate the evil-o-meter to construct lame, easy to beat adventuring parties. Throughout the game only two of my tunnels were conquered - although this did not make me the battlemaster, that title was shared with another player. But I had only Demon and Slime monsters going on for me. 

One of the players drew out the Paladin on the second year, and was able to eventually transfer it to Red. Oh no. Red took a whopping -12 points from conquered tiles. But yeah, that's not -16. During second year she made the investment to acquire a dragon. She was able to blast through the adventurers, Paladin or no Paladin. 

The was the time to count scores. And much to everyone's surprise - and most to Red's surprise - it was actually she who managed to win the game. 

Since we included the expansion monsters, RNG decided that this game did not have trolls for hire at any point of the game. 

So... it's you, again

 So, a four player game of Dungeon Lords, which is a rare treat.

And the nature of this game alters drastically once you actually hit four players. The one random NPC dungeon lord makes handing orders so much easier - plenty of times someone got left without a fulfilled order. (Well, I consider around four times "plenty" in Dungeon Lords.)

We got a curious statistical anomaly when there were no wizards on the first year throughout.

Speaking of statistical anomalies... Once again a random event was Well Hello Ladies, I'm Back, which puzzles me. This comes up so often now that every second card of the deck must be the three paladin variant, no matter how long you shuffle.

Two players got some extra challenge, and most importantly - both paladins went to jail. Can't say the same for the rest of their team.

Scores ranged from -3 to around 20, so that was a tad greater spread than usual. The negative points player had the misfortune of a total of two plagues and two annoyed letters, plus nearly their whole dungeon conquered thanks to dwarven paladin and priests to heal for six points of damage.

Seasonal Greedings

 We had a three player Dungeon Lords game with Festival Season and Minions Bearing Gifts, as is only proper for Christmas.

Once again randomized event was Ladies, I'm Back which is starting to become a statistical anomaly in its occurrence. 

 In this game every player got annoyance letters from the ministry. Four, three and one letter must have been one of the highest count I've ever seen I think. 

Thanks to Minions Bearing Gifts, first year fights went terribly for everyone. At least four tunnels were conquered from each player, and if I remember correctly, no player managed to capture all adventurers. 

Second year this trend only continued, and nearing the end of the year we wondered if we'd even get to positive numbers on the score board. Turned out everyone did - with eight, thirteen and seventeen points.

Minions Bore Gifts

I'm not sure what it means, but I'm baffled how Dungeon Lords feels like a recent addition to my board game collection... yet it has been about four years since I last played these with friends in Salo. But last weekend this all changed. In all of these games we had three players.

First game we played was without expansions, except for monsters and adventurers and such that comes with Festival Season. This was to reacquaintance people to game mechanics. Fun moment here was probably when I had to shoot my Demon with monster catapult just to survive second year adventurer attacks.

Second game was with Festival Season expansion. Though I scored last in this round, I believe I can say I won the bragging rights as I had both dwarf paladins in my jail when game ended.

Last game was with Festival Season, as well as first time ever with Minions Bearing Gifts. We used straightforward variant. I'm not sure how other players felt it, but it did affect my game a lot during second year - that priest preventing a point of damage was annoying nuisance that continuously ruined my plans. So, it was a good expansion. Because I had been such a paladin magnet in first two rounds, I kept low profile on Evil-o-Meter in this game. A spell that made me release a prisoner cost me the game, as I was one point behind from winning player.

Each player won once, so I suppose we need to settle who's the most evil Dungeon Lord in... umm... next four years?

Dungeon Lords Hard Mode

It's been about three and a half years since Dungeon Lords was played.

Even more with this particular group of three.

So there were... some... misplays. Others more grave than others.

Like, taxes and monster pay being played during every season.

I think we were on the summer or autumn of first year before we realized this mistake, because it was quite unplayable. So let's call it a half game being played.

Next we played base game without fifth season to re-familiarize ourselves. And we got most things right that time.

Another day we played the game with Festival Season.

This was eventful game, as the special event "Hello ladies, I'm back!" gave the aspiring dungeon lords two paladins, with only one having crossed the paladin space on evil-o-meter.

I thought I had managed my dungeon well. And I had. Only one or two dungeon spaces had been conquered during both years, and other players had plenty.

Still I had failed to take into account the power of Titles. I was worried during point scoring phase, as I had lost most of my exclusive titles I had been so certain to have. Another player with the "extra points for titles" room made it a tough game. Point difference was about three in my favor, so it was a matter of only one title.

Bards were cursed on many an occasion.

Fresh imps

During my trip to Salo we played three games of Dungeon Lords.

First two games we had four players, which is a bit rare.

All other three players had never touched Dungeon Lords, so the first game was somewhat of a hassle. We used most of the rules of a real game, though. Only first inaccessible orders were randomised. New adventurers and monsters from Festival Season expansion also added complexity. Perhaps from now on I should leave out the bards at least. Another choice is to play bards with correct rules - our minstrels were hard mode, as they didn't mourn for their fallen comrades.

Special event "I'm back ladies!" caused the elven paladin to enter fray in the first game, though nobody honestly crossed the paladin space.

First time ever somebody got negative points (-1) and as a consequence didn't get a permit to build dungeons.


Second game went much faster and more smoothly, though the hard mode bards were devastating dungeons left and right. Paladins were farmed during both years. This time the differences in points weren't that big, though we had one player who struggled just to get to exactly 0 points. That player was me. Damn those bards.


Last game was played on Sunday, and it had only three players. But since we all were now seasoned dungeon lords yearning for new challenges, we played with the Festival Season expansion.

Unique opportunities shaked up the game this time. Just about every opportunity that had most impact during first year happened exactly then. Rentable "magic room" in the town was a source of many giggles, and an expert Evil Eye played a critical role in saving my dungeon. Every player got an improved tunnel also. Last opportunity escapes my memory.

We were playing with the two paladin variant, and three paladins out of the four were killed.

Everybody scored 20+ points (even the player who had been critically screwed by being unable to enter gold farm when taxes were due...)

Winner scored exactly as much as there were spaces on the scoreboard... 42 or 43, that is.


All in all nice games. Even the one I scored a grand total of zero points. Festival Season with four players remains to be experienced.

And the last adventurer was slain in the Magic Room

During visit to Kuhmo we also got to play one four player game of Dungeon Lords.

One player hadn't played the game before, so we didn't use Festival Season, but we also didn't play it entirely with beginner rules. We used random inaccessible orders at the beginning, but that was it. Though we did use additional rule of the three paladin variant - which mattered very little, as nobody triggered any paladins in either year.

First year special event we lost half of our gold, which wasn't too bad - except for one player who received three dead letters because of that.

Second year we had Monster Strike, which turned monsters face down if you didn't pay one part of the monster's wage.

Four players wreaked surprisingly little havoc when it came to orders phase. A player didn't get a minion on a location perhaps only twice during whole game, so I guess playing with three players is a bit more challenging in this matter.

This was also the first game we played the "build rooms" order correctly. Tee hee. I hope that's the very last rule that's been played wrong.

In the end scores were 21, 10, 7 and 1. So everybody got their dungeon builders permit again!

But this was the last game of Dungeon Lords for this year.

I need to figure out a better way to write the dungeon lords, I'll probably try to write up the exact order of tax day/pay day/special events for every season from now on.

Bi-Polar Dungeon Lord

So, my bi-annual trip to visit my parents started only a few days ago, and already it has yielded two three player games of Dungeon Lords.

First time around we only added into the soup all easily integrated parts of "Festival Season" expansion (that is - monsters, bards, rooms, special events) since it's been a while when any of us played Dungeon Lords.

And did it show!

I messed up completely my finances, though the yellow guy is to be blamed a little here, too. I didn't have any food or money available during second year (except for taxes), so my only defense against leveled up adventurers during second year was a lone demon. No other monsters, traps, or anything.

Special Events screwed every player up. First year we had Witch Hunt (remove one of your monsters or gain 3 evil) and second year was Impatient Heroes (various highly annoying effects from adventurers you get that season).

Two players got some dead letters, but I avoided them like a plague. One of the letters was received from using the plague trap, heh.

Only one player got to use new monsters (the cocatrice), and only two bards showed up, both years combined. Nobody triggered paladin even if there was this Witch Hunt.

It was a real struggle for every player, a minimum of five squares was conquered from all players, and the final scores weren't too shabby, either.

Winner scored six points despite having three dead letters.

Second player scored five, and last player scored the loneliest number of points - but still got the dungeon lord's permit!


Game 2:

Second game we played we used all the components of Festival Season expansion. I find it somehow fitting that this happened only a couple of days before Christmas.

Since nobody has played the game extensively, it was bound to happen that the game went into full chaos.

First year we all managed quite well. This was probably due to special events not being too punishing - first we got Rats when nobody had over one food token, and the last one was A Scout at the Entrance, but everybody had a trap for the scout.

I got myself a Cocatrice with +2 attack modifier from the Unique Opportunity.

The unique opportunity (bank gold farm) ruined my first year Tax day, and as a result I got two Dead Letters when nobody else had those. I didn't have a gold to put into the farm.

First year I got a vampire and the aforementioned cocatrice as my monsters. At this point my play style could be described as "bi-polar", since at the end of first year I was as good as it can get: lowest of the lowest on the Evil-O-Meter.

But then first two seasons next year I purchased a ghost and a dragon before it was pay day... So that's effectively a nine step rise. At that point I just stopped caring. And I also had some wild dreams of getting the dwarf paladin to visit my dungeon. And that looked like a very real possibility, when the Masquerade unique opportunity was revealed to be the very last unique opportunity in the whole game...

Two special events were the Earthquake and Danse Macabre. Har har. Danse Macabre with six monsters. Last year I'd have a guaranteed rise of +15 in the Evil-o-Meter, before taking into account possible additions from Masquerade. I've never felt so good. I mean... I've never felt so evil.

Thanks to Masquerade every other player (well, except for the yellow idiot) (I don't usually speak bad of other players, but yellow was a non-player character, so it's okay) got over the Paladin space on Evil-o-Meter, too. So I got the dwarf. Just as I planned. Damn, I've never felt the idea of growing any kind of mustache, but in situations like these it would be so lovely to get to twirl.

Then it's the last quarter of the game, the fight round of year two.

One of the players is whining excessively and ready to flip all her dungeon tiles over because she would just get her ass kicked with no possibility to survive. I don't usually speak of other players in a bad tone, but she was my little sis, so it's okay.

I don't remember too well how the other two players did, because I was so immersed in my own nefarious plots.

First the Paladin eats a poisoned meal, and then dart of madness causes the warriow right behind of the paladen to strike him for three damage. Who knew getting rid of paladins could be so simple?

In the end the adventuring party of two bards, a wizard, warrior and a palading conquered only two tiles.

Having played such a successful second year I was rather certain I had won - especially when I compared my points to those we had scored a day earlier. I had scored twenty one points.

Final scores were:

Winner: 30
Second: 21
Third: 11

Damn you, sis... Damn you!

An arm and a leg. And a kidney.

It was a terrible thing to do to give me a board game coupon at the local gaming shop, where after ten stamps I get a discount voucher.

I already get fixated on completing every conceivable collectable set, and this was no exception.

So instead of one expansion, I came home with three expansions for different, just to get more stamps. And because I knew that eventually I would buy those expansions anyway, so why not get all of them right away?

Well, eating something other than macaroni with salt for the rest of the month might have been a good reason.

First I got the Woodland expansion for Talisman. Usually I review new purchases a little, but I think I'm skipping on that part now. Too many packages to look into in any kind of detail. But I did take a look at the new characters for Talisman. Fantasy Flight Games has been steadily moving away from the mundane and traditional hero archetypes for Talisman, but Woodlands raised the bar there. Ancient Oak (treant) and Leywalker (who escaped from Avatar?) seem a little weird. Not entirely bad design choice, just weird.

All characters, however, do have interesting token mechanics. They're first characters that come with bits and bobs other than their character sheet.


Next expansion was the Festival Season for Dungeon Lords.

I took only a quick look through the various tiles, but what I saw filled me with dread. It seems that adventurer parties will consist of four heroes, and there is an extra battle round. There were also entirely new type of adventurer, the bard. Bards temporarily increase hit points of party members.

Considering I've only played four games of Dungeon Lords by now, I think I'm not going to force anyone to play with Festival Season just yet, and only add the game elements in to the base game that work without difficulties.


Last and least, I got Unfortunate Expeditions expansion for Gloom. I got all expansions for Gloom now, but I've heard that the Cthulhu Gloom is compatible with original Gloom...

Once you drink paladin's blood, no other blood will satisfy you

The last game today was a four player game of Dungeon Lords.

It was quite exciting to see how it would play with four human players, because the NPDL (non-player dungeon lord) is so random after all.

Since I was the only player who had played the game before, we didn't use the full rules.

To try something new, and to possibly rid myself of unfair advantages I decided that I would trigger the Paladin in this game and plan around it - not trying to lose, but to win with extra points from paladins. Big promises, grand words.

You could see the difference between three player and four player games. Certain orders seemed to pile up in some turns, and a lot more minions were sitting on the cards than in three player games.

But then... my boast. Uh.

First year I failed miserably with any and all goals I had with the Paladin - well, I did succeed in one goal, though. I managed to get him come to my dungeon. Well, and I did also kill him, but I didn't have enough resources to wipe out the entire party. So it was four conquered tiles that year.

Second year went a little better. Except that I kind of accidentally triggered the paladin again. Well, I wouldn't have had to, but I thought that what the heck. Might as well try.

I was relying heavily on traps, as I had the trap producing workspace. First year had actually went so horribly, because there was a thief with two trap damage blocks, plus the two from Paladin... so I made every possible action to dodge all incoming thieves. This called for some really desperate actions. Such as reaching the Ultimate Evil space on evil-o-meter.

I didn't have any healers or thieves in my adventuring party, well, except the paladin who is them all.

Adventurers were lead to anti-magic room, where I tried to stall them as long as possible. And it worked quite well, paladin and wizard both died in the anti-magic room. I was happy with that performance.

Then we started counting points, and even recorded hand clapping with a mobile device, playing it whenever a title was announced for a player.

I had the exclusive title of The Lord of Dark Deeds and a shared title of Monsterlord.

But however evil I was, jailing two paladins didn't make up for the loss of, what, eight tunnels an rooms... I definitely took a little bit too much for me in this game. I was last on the scoreboard. Which was, by the way:

Winner: 22
The rest: 14, 13 and 12.

So stay out of paladin's blood, kids. It ruins your career.

Ending my new career (as a Dungeon Lord)

This morning a third game of Dungeon Lords was played.

We had three players again, plus the yellow guy. Actually the yellow player was different than in last game - it was no other than Eeyore.

First year event was VIP visit, which didn't cause problems for anyone. Second year event, however, was Earthquake that is bound to have a real effect, as two tunnels (or rooms, if you wish...) are collapsed.

In third game players started to manipulate the Evil-o-Meter more than earlier - previously it was mostly avoiding to attract paladin, but first real attempts to get the right adventurers were made now.

Oh. And the demon made first appearance now (and saved my arse, or whatever counts as an arse for a dungeon lord).

It's too early to say, but I think I'm falling in love with this game.

Scores were something like 23, 13-16 and 11, and again the winner got tons of titles. Perhaps it tends to go that way at least in three player game? Or is it just lack of experience?

Game lasted almost exactly two hours. I wonder how much fourth player will add to this?

Since this game doesn't have that much direct player interaction it's difficult to write any meaningful description of the games. But don't get me wrong, Dungeon Lords is full of indirect player interaction, so it doesn't feel at all like you're playing solitaire and then count points and see who won. No. Far from that.

In fact CGE has found a pretty damn good mechanics where you can, should and will affect other players, but nobody will feel like all the blows are aimed at him or her, because after all it's just blind guess work when and where you put your minions. At least in three player games, where the fourth player will be a completely random spoilsport.

But it was the last game for now.

Starting a New Career (as a Dungeon Lord)

During ongoing weekend I got to play the newest board game in my collection - Dungeon Lords.

We had three players, obviously complete newbies everyone of us. Except the yellow player, who was a pro-player and a master in complete randomness and bluffing. It was the non-player-dungeon lord.

But despite this we played suprisingly few rules wrong - we only forgot that trap buying is a little different during second year, and that you start with three tunnels (we played with one). So that is to say that the rules are very well written and there isn't many rule entries that can be understood in different ways.

First game (along with tutorials and whatnot) obviously took many, many hours. The second game, however, took only about two. I guess this is a prime example of a game that is "easy to learn, difficult to master"? We also played the second game with full rules. They seemed quite easy and natural to adapt even after only one game.

Nobody attracted the paladin in either game, though it was a close call a couple of times during second play. I guess we're not that evil yet and the paladin saves itself for a worthy foe.

Both games had in common that one of the players gained most of the titles, so they weren't exactly "close" games when it came to victory. First game scoreboard was 31, 16 and 8 (three dead letters is really this fatal). Second game was 23, 14-16, 13.

One of the more memorable moments in first game was an annoying situation where my dragon was turned into a sheep, and another player had some other monster turned into a sheep, too. And were those sheep bloodthirsty! Both dealt the final damage point to an adventurer.

Special events in second play were Extra Tax and Rats. Neither had a very big effect, since special events came during spring in both years. Only one player had rooms to pay extra tax for in year one, and rats ate only four food tokens, all players combined. If I remember right, it ruined my plans of recruiting a goblin, but that's only a goblin.

Second game also saw a lot more situations where minion token would sit on an order card because there was no space at the order spots. Everyone hated the yellow player at one time or another.

Nobody recruited the demon.

Yet.

What trolls and imps and... oh my!

Actually this should have been written in Thursday 4th of September, but I felt moral obligation to write last games of Warmachine in first.

But anyway, I bought a new board game last Thursday called the Dungeon Lords.

Idea seems weird and lovely twisted - you're the evil overlord building underground dungeon, and some annoying goodie good heroes are attempting to do good things (ie, loot your treasures).

Rules look really complex and deep, probably a little bit too complex for random gatherings. I have this fear that Dungeon Lords needs a dedicated gaming group. But we'll see.

Also I thought that there would have been imp miniatures you can paint to match player colors. Well, yeah, there are imp miniatures, but there's not much point in painting them, since everyone uses same stack of imps.