Well, at Itzacon in Galway I ran into the guys from Arkham Games, who were demo-ing and selling pre-release copies of Mantic's Dwarf King's hold. I was happy enough with the demo to pick up a copy there and then, so I must be one of the first people in the world to own one!
That makes me a happy Boss. I will snap some pictures and add them later.
Gameplay:
The game is somewhat similar in playstyle to Space Hulk/D'n'D. Your dudes get a set of "activations" that are drawn from a stack, randomly. Dwarves draw up to 4, skeletons slightly less. Each token has a number on it, and this is the number of dudes you can move and fight with in by spending that token. Skeletons have higher numbers on their tokens, so they get more dudes moving around, but each individual skeleton is slower and much worse at fighting. Dwarves get special "follow on" tokens that allow them to make extra moves with individual dwarves, which is quite useful and gives the "heroic" feel to the game pretty well. It also gives the last dwarf on the table more awesome factor, something I've always loved about Space Hulk.
I only played the first, most simple scenario, but from it it is easy to see how the game plays. My Dwarves started off really well, kicking skeleton ass and pressing forward. However, one little mistake and the skeletons rose from behind me and wounded a couple of my guys. Once your Dwarves get wounded, you're up against it, as you are usually pretty outnumbered. The wounded dwarves are less effective in combat. In the end, my brave stunties were overwhelmed by undead monstrosities.
The stack mechanic is interesting, as each player has only his stack's worth of activiations. Once he's out of tokens, he loses. This adds an element of resource management- the dwarf player can easily burn through all his tokens in 6 or 7 turns, but if he hasn't achieved his objective, he will auto lose.
Reading through the scenarios, there is much more depth to the game than the simple starter scenario I played. The necromancer gets all sorts of sneaky tricks to use, and there are other, more elite troop types added to the game. I think it has a lot of potential, and I can easily see how new scenarios could be devised. It's a simple enough system to allow for a lot of tinkering.
Components:
The miniatures that come with the set are the bog standard mantic minis. The skeletons are white plastic, the dwarves the familiar grey, so a boardgames enthusiast can get away without painting them easily enough. Sculpt wise, well, they're mantic. They're good, but they're not space hulk standard. This does not bother me- I like the mantic look and especially their sense of humour. I do worry that the skeletons are pretty flimsy though- those thin arms and weapons look like they might snap over time from being rattled around in the box. You get a sprue of skeletons, a sprue of bog standard dwarves, and then two elite greatweapon wielding dwarves and a sprue of elite armoured revenants. The game makes use of the "extras" on the sprue like the bone pile and the mastiff in game, which I thought was good.
The box itself is pretty thin, cheap cardboard. The cover art is amusingly eighties and cheesey, which I hope is what they were going for. Comparing the box to other board games, it does seem to be slightly flimsy.
The tiles are really nice looking, but I have a worry about them too. The card is again quite thin and flimsy, and the plastic backing seems to peel off pretty easily. The tiles also have no "edging", which I find slightly offputting. I can easily see the edges getting frayed or crumpled with use, so would advise caution. The tokens are made from the same material, and I expect they will be the main source of complaint as they are often handled and they must not be "marked" or they will give an advantage. Luckily, they are simple enough that making your own stack would be easy.
The rulebook is small, short and well written (Jake Thornton for those who know him wrote the rules.) Some decent fluff, decent little rules bits, nice and to the point.
Overall:
I was pretty pleased with this purchase. I love quick to play dungeon crawlers and I love the idea of expansions and tinkering with the system. I play primarily at conventions and board game meet ups, so the fact that the entire set fits into a backpack easily and leaves space for a laptop, clothes and all that is perfect for me- it is probably now my "con" game. I was slightly disappointed that in this game mantic gave us nothing new, minis wise. I would have liked some sort of centrepiece undead model or something, but I'm not too put out over it.
This is a no frills, low production value but decently priced and easily transportable game. I will await with some eagerness any expansions, extra rules, or new sets that come out because I feel the system has promise. I would say that this is not Descent, nor Castle Ravenloft or Wrath of Asharldon, and that it is most similar to a low cost version of space hulk, minus the nostalgia kick.
