Publisher: Eagle Games
Designer: Richard Launius
Artist: Larry Elmore
Genre: Tower defense board game
Players: One to four players
Ages: 13+
Playing time: 90 Minutes
MSRP: $84.99
If you’ve ever wondered what you might have if you mashed up Pandemic and Castle Panic into one game, Eagle Games’ new Defenders of the Realm is going to be right up your alley.
Defenders of the Realm is a game about a group of heroes valiantly fighting against an onslaught of creatures laying siege to the kingdom. It is a cooperative game, with the person who completes the most quests being crowned the King’s Champion.
Each player starts in Monarch City (the center location on the board) with their hero. Four generals (Orc, Demon, Dragonkin, and Undead) begin at the four corners of the board with their troops already beginning rampant run through the land. The object of the game is to slay the generals before they reach Monarch City or overrun and taint the land.Every hero has several special powers. The Wizard can teleport and cast fireballs, the thief can pass through enemy units and gains extra cards, the elf can attack from adjacent spaces and gains a bonus in wooded areas, and so on. Players also start with a hand of five hero cards and a quest card. The quests are tasks that may be attempted during the course of play and are universally helpful. When one quest is completed another is drawn immediately.
The cards are used to augment movement or clean the land of taint or, most importantly, fight generals. Each card has a suit representing one of four generals, one or two dice icons, a location and a symbol representing different types of movement. There are also a few special cards with specific effects in the mix.
Each Hero has 5-6 action points with which they move, fight, or perform actions such as building gates (to speed up travel) or delving for rumors. Once created, players may move between permanent gates for one action point. Building a gate or two is usually crucial to winning the game! Heroes move one space per action unless they have a special movement power. Players can discard a card with a movement icon for extra movement or to jump to another space listed on the card. Cards with icons of Horses move two, Rocs move four, and gates let you jump.
The monsters quickly flood the map and players will be busy driving them from the land. For an action point you can attack every minion in a space regardless of how many there are. You roll a die for each monster. Orcs are killed on a 3-6, Demons and undead on a 4-6, and dragonkin on a 5-6. Damage is taken if a hero ends the turn in a space with remaining monsters.
Each opposing army has its own unique challenges. Orcs spawn ridiculously fast, the Undead cause two damage per unit instead of one, Demons taint the land faster, and the Dragonkin are just plain difficult to kill. Whenever three monsters inhabit an area and more are called for, they spill into all the adjacent areas – one of the mechanics very similar to Pandemic – thus leading to more monster mayhem. Also, four minions in an area – three if they are demons – cause the area to become tainted.
The players lose if too many areas of the land become tainted, if a Darkness Spreads card is played calling for more minions to be added to the board and none are left to draw, or if five minions or a general are in Monarch city. How do the players win? Simply by killing the four generals before any of the previously mentioned situations arise.
To kill a general, the minions in area must be eliminated. Then a player discards cards of the general’s suit and rolls a die for each die icon on each of the cards. The generals have the same target number as the troops but each general has a special power that makes the fights more challenging. Slaying the general by landing the killing blow grants the slayer title, making the troops of that general much easier to kill. However, more often than not players must team up to contribute enough cards in order to create a larger dice pool in order to bring the general down.
As generals are slain, the game picks up more steam. Toward the end, as the taint and minion count population skyrockets, it’s a mad dash to take out the last general as he hurdles toward Monarch City!
Seeing I’m one of those few people out there who wasn’t really enamored by Pandemic (yes, burn me at the stake) I was fairly reserved when I sat down to give Defenders of the Realm a try. Maybe it’s due to the theme, or the abilities heroes have and gain throughout the game, or the various actions to be taken in a given turn, or maybe even the epic feel but I’ve enjoyed each and every game. Keep in mind, even with the comparisons, you’ll find that Defenders of the Realm takes quite a bit longer to play than Pandemic.
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