by EndersGame
Introducing Defenders of the Realm
Here's a recipe for gaming success:
1. Start with the gameplay of successful cooperative game like Pandemic
2. Add in a fantasy theme
3. Add one famous fantasy game designer (Richard Launius, creator of Arkham Horror)
4. Add one famous fantasy artist (Larry Elworth)
5. Add quality looking components
Stir regularly, while simmering for a year, making necessary tweaks and adjustments. When ready, serve at Origins 2010!
That's more or less what you can expect from Defenders of the Realm, a brand new game published by FRED Distribution, and just officially released this week after being well over a year in the making. The game revolves around the protection of Monarch City, which is being assaulted by four accursed races: orcs, dragons, demons, and undead. The King of Monarch City is in need of your help to defend the countryside, repair the tainted lands, and defeat these four races before one of them enters his city. In this cooperative fantasy game for 1-4 players, you and your friends each choose a role as one of the King's Champions (Cleric, Dwarf, Eagle Rider, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, or Wizard), and must work together to protect the city. To me, Defenders of the Realm looks like it has all the essential ingredients to be a real success! Only time will tell how big an appetite gamers will develop for this new dish, but since it's just appearing on the menu for the first time, in this review I will play the role of a local game connoisseur and share some pictorial first impressions about what the game looks like and how it works. I say: tasty!
COMPONENTS
Game box
The box is quite massive, and is similar in size to other large titles from Eagle Games, such as Age of Empires III and Conquest of the Empire. Don't miss the beautiful artwork by the legendary Larry Elmore on the front cover!
The back of the box introduces some of the components, such as the lovely cards and miniatures included in the game.
The publisher offers this overview of the theme and gameplay on the box-back:
'In the ancient Citadel of Monarch City, the King calls to arms the finest Heroes to defend against a Darkness that engulfs the land. You and your allies must embark on a journey to defend the countryside, repair the tainted lands, and defeat the four creature factions before any of them enter the City. And they approach from all sides! Fast populating Orcs! Fierce Dragons! Undead that bring Fear! And Demons! All tainting the land in their wake. There are several paths to defeat, but only one path to victory, and only the most valiant Hero will be named King's Champion.
Defenders of the Realm is a cooperative fantasy board game in which 1-4 players take a role as one of the King’s Champions (Choose from Cleric, Dwarf, Eagle Rider, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Wizard). You, as one of the King's Heroes make use of strategy, special abilities, cooperation, card play and a little luck in Defenders of the Realm for a unique experience every adventure. But be forewarned! There is never time to rest. As each Enemy General is struck down in battle, the remaining dark forces only grow more difficult to vanquish and their march to Monarch City gets faster with each Hero victory!'
Inside the box is a very sturdy box insert, which houses the components very well:
I love the design: the box insert even has holes to make grabbing the cards easier! Now that's impressive!
Component list
But let's haul all this goodness out of the box and see what is included! Here's what you get:
● Game Board
● 8 Hero Character Cards & Miniatures
● 4 General Character Cards & Miniatures
● 100 Minions (25 in Black, Blue, Red, and Green)
● War Status Board
● Card Decks (Darkness Spreads cards, Hero cards, Quest cards)
● 12 Tainted Crystals
● 12 Dice (3 of Black, Blue, Red, and Green)
● 5 Magic Gate Tokens
● 7 Status Tokens
● 42 Life Tokens
Shrink-wrapped and in the original bags, here's what it looks like when it's fresh out of the box:
The miniatures are particularly impressive and worth admiring:
Image courtesy of the publisher
My copy of the game included Defenders of the Realm: The Barbarian Expansion (an additional hero card and matching miniature), and the Black Dragon figure, an additional general from Defenders of the Realm: The Black Dragon Expansion. My understanding is that these will be included with the game for those who pre-ordered it or purchase it from Eagle Games at Origins, and will be standard inclusions in the second printing of the game later this year.
Rule book
You can download the rulebook here on BGG: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/54105
It is a 16 page booklet, which includes step-by-step guides to all the elements of the game, such as set-up, flow of play, icons and actions, combat skills for the four generals, and an explanation of individual cards, as well as some suggested variants to make the game easier or harder. The last page has a reference for all the possible actions a hero can do on his turn. The rules are adequate, but could have benefited from more illustrations and pictures, and it's not the easiest to learn how to play from the rulebook. But with the help of this pictorial review, you should be on your way in no time. Comparisons with Pandemic are inevitable, and the fact that some of the mechanics are similar certainly makes the game easier to learn.
The main idea of the game is quite straight-forward: players take on one of the eight hero roles (nine if you include the Barbarian expansion character), and must defeat the four evil generals that are advancing on Monarch City. You lose the game if one general enters the city or if five minions are in the city. You also lose the game if the entire army of one general is on the board, or if the countryside is excessively `tainted' by the forces of evil. There is increasing tension as the game progresses, much like in Pandemic. One difference with Defenders of the Realm is that while players win or lose as a group, the player with the most points from Quests and Character cards is given special honour by being declared the King's Champion.
Game board
The board is a high quality mounted map, and features wonderful artwork. The lettering and style is inspired by older style fantasy artwork, for a some what retro classic-fantasy look.
At the center of the board is the all-important Monarch City, which is the citadel that the players are trying to defend. Black lines indicate paths for moving between adjacent locations.
Some may find the colours slightly garish, but there's no doubting the high calibre of the signature artwork by Larry Elmore.
Hero Character cards & miniatures
Players can choose from one of eight possible Hero characters, each of which has unique abilities: Cleric, Dwarf, Eagle Rider, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, or Wizard (the Barbarian expansion adds a ninth). This helps make each game different and increases replayability, but also forces players to work together by relying on individual strengths in a way that will maximize the common good.
Here are their matching miniatures:
Image courtesy of the publisher
The special powers of each hero give abilities like teleporting, travelling by horse or eagle flight for free, casting fireballs, battle rage, ambush, bravery, passing through enemy units, and much more. For example, here is the Ranger, who gets attack bonuses and extra actions when in a Green location (Wood Lore and Elf Support), and can use his Archery ability to attack in adjacent spaces:
General Character cards & miniatures
There's a card and a miniature for each of the four enemy generals: Lord Balazarg (red - leader of the demons), Gorgutt the Savage (green - leader of the orcs), Sapphire (blue - leader of the dragonkin), and Varkolak (black - leader of the undead).
Here are their matching miniatures, which are unique and impressive (Sapphire the Dragon general is the largest at 85mm high and with a wing span of 98mm):
Here's a closer look at the card for Sapphire the Dragon, which has the unique ability of being able to regenerate after combat:
Each General Character card gives various essential information about the general and its unique abilities:
Minions
There are minions for each of the four races, representing Varkolak’s Undead (black), Sapphire’s Dragonkin (blue), Balazarg’s Demons (red), and Gorgutt’s Orcs (green). They are all generic (and look somewhat like hooded monks), differing only in colour.
25 in each colour makes 100 miniatures altogether! Here's the demon army with its general:
The orc army with its general:
The dragonkin army with its general:
The undead army with its general:
Images of miniatures courtesy of the publisher
War Status Board
As generals are defeated, the remaining generals attack more fiercely. This is implemented in the game by requiring that more Darkness Spreads cards (used to place minions and advance generals) have to be drawn at the end of every turn, making the game harder as more and more minions are added in the closing stages (similar to the Infection Rate in Pandemic). A token is used to keep track of the current War Status, and it is advanced every time a general is eliminated.
Card Decks
The game comes with three decks of cards:
Darkness Spreads cards
Most of the Darkness Spreads cards show two locations, with 1 or 2 minions that must be placed at each of these locations. The bottom part of such cards indicates that one of the generals must be moved one step closer towards Monarch City.
The basic effect of these cards is to add minions to the board, and sometimes cause the generals to continue their inexorable march upon the citadel that our heroes must protect! In addition to cards like the one pictured above, there are also some special Darkness Spreads cards that have other special effects, such as Orc Activity, All is Quiet, and the Monarch City card.
Hero cards
The Hero cards are multi-purpose, and often used together with an action - they are used for increased movement, to heal tainted lands, or to do battle with generals.
Movement
At the top of each card is a movement band which indicates what kind of movement you can get by using an action to discard that card, either:
1. Travel by Horse: move 2 spaces
2. Fly by Eagle: move 4 Spaces
3. Move by Magic Gate: move to the location on the card or any Gate.
Building gates & Healing tainted land
Cards with a location on the band can be used in one of three ways:
● Move by a Magic Gate: explained above under 'Movement'
● Build a Magic Gate: discard the card when on the matching location to build a Magic Gate
● Heal the location: discard a card of the same colour as the tainted land to remove a tainted crystal
For example, here are all the Hero cards that have green locations:
Battle with generals
The Hero cards come in all four colours because they are also needed to battle generals. Discard as many cards of a colour matching the general you are trying to fight, and that's how many dice (some cards give you two dice per card) you get to roll in your attempt to eliminate that general.
Special cards
A number of special Hero cards (purple in colour) have special effects, such as the ones pictured here:
Quest cards
Players each get a Quest card at the start of the game, and draw a new one each time they complete or fail a quest (or when a quest becomes impossible to fulfil). Completing a quest is usually an indication of making good progress against the forces of evil! Here are two examples:
Tainted Crystals
There are 12 of these, and these are used to designate land that has been tainted by the spread of evil. In a mechanic similar to outbreaks in Pandemic, if ever a fourth minion is added to a location, instead that location is considered 'overrun', and a tainted crystal is placed there, and minions spread to the adjacent region instead. If the 12th and last crystal is placed on the board, you lose the game! There are ways to remove tainted crystals from a location by discarding certain cards and rolling dice (and getting at least a 5).
Dice
There are three dice in each of the four race colours: Black, Blue, Red, and Green. These will be used for combat, and are rolled when attempting to eliminate minions and generals.
Tokens
Magic Gate tokens
There are 5 Magic Gate tokens which function much like Research centres in Pandemic - when built, players can use them to travel from one Magic Gate to another. Similar to Pandemic, they are built by discarding a card matching the location.
Life tokens
There are 42 Life tokens. Each character gets 4-6 life tokens (depending on the character), which can be lost by being wounded, and restored by healing. On your turn you can perform as actions equal to the number of life tokens you have.
Status tokens
There are 7 Status tokens. Four are used for the Wound track on each general's character card.
One is used for the War Status board, and the other two are used to indicate the attack style for the Eagle Rider character (Ground or Sky).
Overall, beautiful components. I particularly like the miniatures and the cards.
GAME-PLAY
Objective
The way to win Defenders of the Realm is by defeating all four generals. On the other hand you lose the game if one of the following four happens:
1. One of the generals enters Monarch City.
2. Five enemy minions are in Monarch City.
3. All the minions of one colour are on the board and a Darkness Spreads Card requires more to be added.
4. The last of the 12 Tainted Crystals is added to the board.
Image courtesy of Bob Solow
Set-up
Enemy set-up
The four enemy Generals are placed in the places marked for them on the board, along with 3 matching minions each (note: Balazarg also gets a tainted crystal in his space).
18 minions also need to be placed randomly by drawing Darkness Spread cards:
● draw three Darkness Spreads cards (ensure that they have two different locations on each) and place 2 minions on each location (i.e. a total of 12 minions)
● draw three more Darkness Spreads cards (these may be locations that already have minions, as long as it doesn't result in four minions on any location) and place 1 minion on each location (i.e. a total of 6 minions).
Then shuffle the Darkness Spreads cards used back into the deck - at this point there should be a total of 4 generals and 30 minions on the board, with the minions in random locations as determined by the cards. Here's an example:
Player set-up
Each player gets a Hero character card and matching miniature which is placed in Monarch City. They also get 2 Hero cards and 1 Quest card each, and life tokens equal to their character's maximum.
Place status tokens as follows: one on the highest number of the Wound Track on each general's character card, and one on the 'Early War' space of the War Status board. Your heroes are ready to begin their adventure!
Game Turn
Players do the following three steps in turns:
1. Daytime: perform actions
2. Evening: draw Hero cards
3. Night: draw Darkness Spreads cards
Basically each player first takes actions equal to the number of their life tokens (e.g. movement, special skills, gather rumors, heal land or yourself, fight minions or generals), then draws more Hero cards, after which new minions are added to the board as determined by drawing Darkness Spreads cards. Let's look at each of these three steps in more detail.
1. Daytime
This is the most important part of the game, where you complete your actions. For each of your active life tokens, you get one action (turn them face down as you use them, and refresh them face up at the start of your turn). Life tokens can be lost by suffering wounds or losing a battle with a general. You can do the same action multiple times in a turn (exception: Rumors at the Inn can only be done twice a turn). Possible actions are as follows:
● movement; ● build magic gate; ● special skill; ● listen for rumors; ● healing; ● combat
Movement
● Move by Foot: move 1 space to adjacent location.
● Move by Horse: discard a Hero card with a horse icon to move 2 locations away
● Move by Foot: discard a Hero card with an eagle icon to move 4 locations away
● Move by Magic Gate: discard a Hero card with a magic gate icon to move to the location on the card or to any magic gate on the board; or if you are at a magic gate, move to any other magic gate without discarding a card.
Special Skill
● Special skill: some heroes have unique abilities that require an action (as noted on their Hero Character card).
Build Magic Gate
● Build magic gate: discard a Hero card to build a magic gate at that location (you must be at the location on the card) by placing a magic gate token there. This is similar to building a Research station in Pandemic.
Listen for Rumors
● Listen for rumors: If you're located at an Inn, you may listen for rumors - select a card colour, then draw two cards and keep any cards that match the called color (as well as any special Purple cards). This can be done a maximum of twice each turn. Pictured here is the Gryphon Inn, linked by road to Gryphon Forest.
Healing
● Heal the land: When on a tainted location, discard a Hero card matching that location color and roll 2 dice, and remove a tainted crystal if at least one 5 or more is rolled.
● Heal your wounds: All life tokens are restored if in Monarch City or at Inns, 2 life tokens are restored if at a location without enemy minions or generals (up to a maximum equal to their starting number, and only usable the next turn).
Combat
● Fight Minions: Role a coloured die matching each minion in your current location. You need a 3 or more to defeat an orc minion, 4 or more to defeat a demon minion or undead minion, 5 or more to defeat a dragonkin minion. If you end a turn in a location where enemy minions are still present, you suffer a wound for each minion there (the presence of undead minions causes one additional wound as a result of Fear) - take this number of life tokens and put them face down beside your Hero character card. (Note that you can use the Healing Wounds action to restore these, but if you are reduced to zero active life tokens, that character dies and is replaced by a new hero that begins in Monarch City). Pictured below, one of our heroes has eliminated one of the two dragonkin minions by rolling a 6.
● Fight a General: To attack a general, all enemy minions in that location need to have been eliminated. You play any number of Hero cards with that generals picture, rolling one or two dice for each card - the general's wound marker is advanced 1 space for each hit (the general's character card indicates the die result needed for a hit). This is a similar to the 'Cure Disease' mechanic in Pandemic, although it adds dice rolling so it is less predictable. Note that other heroes at that location can also join in the combat against the general and assist by attacking as a group. Be warned that each of the generals has special combat skills!
Balazarg: Corruption - before battle, roll a die for each red card played for the battle, and lose a card for each 1 rolled.
Gorgutt: Frenzy - each 1 rolled in battle negates and blocks a successful attack roll by another die.
Sapphire: Regeneration - she returns to full health after battle if not defeated.
Varkolak: Fear - no re-rolls are allowed in battle.
You'll need multiple hits to defeat the general, so don't initiate combat with a general unless you are fairly confident of victory. The best way is to attack it as a group - other players on their turn can move to the General's location but not initiate combat with him. When the active player does initiate combat by using an action to attack, the other heroes can also play attack cards and participate in the attack.
If you win? If the general is defeated, the hero receives the general's character card and turns it over (giving the hero a new special ability), and gains 3 Hero cards, while the War Status token is advanced to the next box.
If you lose? The hero suffers the penalties listed on the general's character card, and is moved to Monarch City. From now on the general will heal at a rate of 1 point at the end of each player's turn, but if the wound marker is on a red space (major wound), the healing only begins after the completion of full round of turns by all players.
If multiple players are part of the attack on a general, they all gain 3 Hero cards (if they win) or suffer the penalty noted on the general's character card (if they lose).
Here's the reverse side of the card for the general Sapphire, which the winning hero acquires in the event of defeating this general, to gain the new title 'Dragon Slayer'.
2. Evening
Draws 2 Hero cards and adds them to your hand (hand limit is 10 cards, discard if necessary).
3. Night
Draw Darkness Spreads cards (1, 2 or 3, as determined by the current War Status), and place minions and advance a general as indicated by the card:
1. Place Minions: Most Darkness Spreads cards show 1 or 2 minions in two locations - these have to be added to the board. If this means that any location would get a fourth minion, instead a Tainted Crystal is placed on that location, and minions are placed on the surrounding locations instead. This mechanic is more or less the same as the 'Outbreak' mechanic in Pandemic, but here it is called an 'Overrun' that leads to the land being 'Tainted'. Unlike Pandemic, if a neighbouring location is overrun, it does result in the placement of a Tainted Crystal in that adjacent location, but doesn't cause an additional overrun. Note that Generals don't count towards calculating an overrun, and that a location can get more than one Tainted Crystal.
2. Advance a General: If the general pictured on the bottom half of the card is one space away from the location shown, that general advances to the location on the card (towards Monarch City only, never away) and gets new minions at that location (which may also cause an overrun and tainted land).
Special Darkness Spreads cards: There are several Darkness Spreads cards that function differently when drawn, by having the following special effects:
● Orc Patrols and Orc War Party: These cause extra orcs to be added to the board.
● Monarch City: One minion of each color that is adjacent to Monarch City has to be added to the city (remember that 5 minions in the citadel signify a loss!), and all decks are reshuffled (used purple Hero cards excepted).
● All is Quiet: No new enemies appear and no generals move.
War Status: Each time a general is defeated during the game, the War Status token is advanced, which affects how many Darkness Spreads cards are drawn:
Early War (0 generals eliminated): requires only 1 Darkness Spreads card to be drawn during the Night phase
Mid War (1-2 generals eliminated): requires 2 Darkness Spreads cards to be drawn during Night - the second card does not place minions but only advances a general
Late War (3 generals eliminated): requires 3 Darkness Spreads cards to be drawn during Night - the third card does not place minions but only advances a general
This means that the game becomes increasingly difficult in the closing stages!
What do I think?
Components: The components are high quality, and the inclusion of so many miniatures is a big plus for this game, adding to visual appeal. No little wooden cubes in Defenders of the Realm - and let's face it, when you're playing a fantasy adventure game it's far more fun to move around miniature dragons and orcs than wooden bits! It's a bit of a pity that the different kinds of minions are differentiated only by colour, but overall I'm very happy with the miniatures. My guess is that it will only be a matter of time before we start seeing pictures appearing on BGG of custom painted hero minis. Larry Elmore's artwork on the cards and the board is lovely. I'm personally not that enthused about the garishness of some of the colours on the board, and the retro look, but this is largely a matter of taste, and there will be many who will be immensely pleased with it. Overall the components are good.
Game-play: I can't comment too much about the gameplay at this point. Usually I only write a review after playing a game multiple times, while on this occasion I decided to share some first impressions, because I know that many gamers are itching to find out what this game is like and how it plays - an overview without the benefit of extensive gameplay could help the curious see what's inside the box and get an idea of what the gameplay is like, plus ease the learning curve for anyone planning to play the game. That disclaimer aside, my initial impressions of the gameplay are positive. The cooperative system of Pandemic is one I enjoy a great deal, and converting this for a fantasy game is an excellent concept. To some extent, the engine itself has already been tried and proven in Pandemic, and Defenders of the Realm just takes this in a new direction. Tension increases as the game progresses, and the dice based combat makes for exciting gameplay that suits the fantasy adventure genre perfectly. I particularly like the fact that there are nine different here characters that players can choose from - this helps give the game flexibility and enhances replayability, making each game a new challenge, depending on the roles chosen and the random placement of minions. The addition of a black dragon general in a forthcoming expansion will only increase this further. The dice-based combat and minion placement based on card draw certainly result in random elements, but these lend themselves perfectly to the fantasy genre. It needs to be seen whether the gameplay stands up against repeated play, but I do think there's good reason to be optimistic, given that the core engine is not something entirely new.
Cooperative game: In many respects Defenders of the Realm shows evidence of an underlying game system that we've already seen in Pandemic. If you can't stand Pandemic, this game is probably not for you, no matter how much you enjoy fantasy adventure games. To some extent it's still somewhat of a puzzle that requires players to work together to solve. But unlike Pandemic, the random elements of dice-based combat result in a different feel. You cannot calculate everything in advance, and the unpredictable can happen. There are also individual quests that give the possibility of achieving personal glory. In that respect Defenders of the Realm includes an aspect of story-telling and adventure that Pandemic can't provide, and despite some similarities, the two games don't really overlap.
Fantasy adventure: Over the years I've played several other fantasy adventure games, including Runebound and Prophecy. Neither was entirely satisfactory for me, in part because I wanted to see more interaction without the games becoming too confrontational - making the fantasy adventure game into a cooperative endeavour solves that neatly, because it requires a high level of interaction without being nasty. The game length of Defenders of the Realm also seems to be more ideal for the kind of game I look for when playing with family or friends. Is it the ideal fantasy adventure game? It probably wouldn't be fair to judge it as such, because it lacks certain elements, such as the ability to build up your character, and acquire items. It's also simpler than something Arkham Horror, and doesn't have the same kinds of events and depth of story-line as that modern classic. It wouldn't be fair to make this a criticism of Defenders of the Realm - it means rather that it occupies its own niche on the fantasy adventure game shelf. I look forward to see more reviews and read more comments as the game gets more play by other gamers, and gets put through its paces!
What do others think?
Even though the game is only just released officially, it has been playtested for some time, already having appeared in prototype form at Origins in 2009. Here are some of the responses to the game at this early stage, and many of these folks have played the prototype multiple times:
'This is going to be one of the most popular cooperative games ever. I'm still amazed at how different all the characters feel.' - Tom Vasel (TomVasel)
'My favorite coop and one of my favorite games in general. It is very engaging with a high degree of replayability.' - Mark Zoghby (Atl_gamester)
'If you don’t like coop games and you don’t like fantasy games then avoid this like the plague. If you like both then this is a must buy for you ... this game pulls off the coop mechanic and the fantasy theme very well. This game gave me the feeling of an epic fantasy battle, more so than when I played War of the Ring' - Daniel Brown (StyxParadox)
'Pretty Pandemic-y, but with fantasy additions and twists. Dice combat, some more varied powers for the characters, and a big bad in each color make it a different game, though.' - Lucas Hedgren (boomtron)
'Very fun co-op. Lots of options, and not enough time.' - Sean Brown (onekccs)
'The game has quick turns, lots of fighting, choices between personal and group gains, and special powers.' - Stephen Avery (StephenAvery)
'Even though it uses mechanics very similar to those in Pandemic, it is significantly deeper and more difficult than Pandemic.' - David Knepper (Aging One)
'Played 3-4 times. I look for this to be one of the BEST received games this year. Fantastic!!' - Edward Maxwell (enditen)
Recommendation
Is Defenders of the Realm for you? If you like fantasy adventure games and cooperative games, you'll be hard-pressed to dislike this one. Not everyone is going to be the target audience, particularly those who can't stand those genres. But the rest of us can expect to enjoy it a lot. Get your game, and prepare to defend the realm!
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