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Lords of Ragnarok (Gamefound – Core Sundrop Pledge) consists of:
1) Lords of Ragnarok Core Box (Sundrop)
2) Lords of Ragnarok Stretch Goals (Sundrop)
In this 1-4 player strategic board game, you will lead a unique, asymmetric hero and their army, trying to be the ultimate victor in a war that unfolds over approximately 120 minutes. Players will choose from various actions, such as building monuments, hunting monsters, ravaging the lands, gathering armies and artifacts.
Gods will grant you blessings that will heavily impact the game and create a unique combo for each player. On top of all that, special runes will play a significant role in leveling up your armies or earning other bonuses that include control of deadly monsters.
While the game is spiritual successor of Lords of Hellas and implements a lot of core gameplay aspects, there will be a lot of new mechanics and twists, so prepare yourself for fresh, new thematic experience!
Multiple victory conditions will keep players at the edge of their seats until the end of the game, making room for some stunning, carefully planned last-minute reversals!
Ages | 14+ |
---|---|
Players | Solo, 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
Play Time | 90m – 90m |
Designer | Adam Kwapiński |
Mechanics | Area Majority / Influence, Area Movement |
Theme | Miniatures, Science Fiction, Wargame, Fantasy, Mythology |
Publisher | Awaken Realms |
FuzzyLlamaReviews
Updated Thoughts ------------------------------------- Dropped the score from an 8.5 to a 7.5. Played a three player game and came to realize the game just has too many variables "Actions" during a players turn. There are so many things going on that you will often forget to do some things during your turn. We ended up playing very loosely and just allowing redo's of turns because something doesn't end up working out, which for sure extended the length of the game. But at the same time I didn't want anyone leaving the game feeling like they didn't have a good time due to the overwhelming amount of things going on. I feel like alot of stuff got added to this game to make it feel different from Lords of Hellas, but ultimately ended up bloating the game. A big one is the runes, which were handy in a pinch but to be honest they just felt unnecessary and yet another thing to remember. Heck a typical player turn SAYS the only thing you HAVE to do is the special action, but then proceeds to slap down a spreadsheet of additional things you CAN do if you are able.....which if you were able why not? So, players end up spending a ton of time going through all the extra fluff of stuff to do. Also, as expansion content goes, the terrain pack is a FAR cry from the amazingness that the Lords of Hellas terrain pack is. In my opinion, the only thing you should use in that pack are the temple minis as they are awesome and work fine and look good. Toss out the settlements, they make the board overly fiddly with no real gain. And as sad as it makes me, the realm minis are also more of a hindrance than a help. They obscure the realm descriptions on the tiles for players sitting on the other side of the board AND there simply isn't enough space on some of their areas to place the mini next to the description, not blocking it. So, overall I still think LoR is a rules "tighter" version over LoH but there's just a bit too much bloat during a typical turn and the expansion stuff isn't nearly as amazing as it was in LoH. It's not a bad game, but I didn't get that feeling like I got when playing LoH, it just doesn't feel as "epic". ------------------------------------ Original Thoughts Rating the same as Lords of Hellas, for now. It's got similar vibes but also stands on its own because of the tweaks. The monster battles are better in Ragnarok as they just feel like a viable option this time around, plus the way they tweaked them where players that do some damage to them can actually benefit from their kill is MUCH better. The area control aspect is different but I think still on par with LoH. In LoH you had much smaller army units but alot of them so you could spread them out to conquer different lands whereas in LoR you have fewer, larger armies so gone is the ability to separate them. However, the map is much more open as far as movement is concerned due to your ship. This creates some interesting tactical choices. Do you move your one army (of varying power due to the dial) away from this controlled land, knowing full well that an army across the board could potentially invade due to the placement of their ship? BUT, them doing so would leave their land open. This creates some really interesting decisions because you need to build up your individual army strength to initially conquer these lands BUT once conquered their strength is only as good as your placed army. Once your army moves out the lands are treated as strength zero, so invading armies could easily wrench your control away. This almost gives the game a "chess-like" value to how you move and position your army minis. However, due to that change the larger mini armies can no longer inhabit settlements so that has been removed in LoR and now the settlements only act as a point where you increase your army strength. If you have the terrain packs for both games I think LoH beats out LoR in this regard. The temples are excellent in both games packs and the new Realm locations look good but they are 100% eye candy and almost fiddly since you also have the realm overlays to contend with now. The realm/action wheel overlays are the most perplexing of the design decisions to be honest. They printed out cardboard overlays to place on the board in the specific spaces for the realms and an overlay for the action wheel but....for the most part they didn't need to. They could have just printed the artwork and info directly on the board and provided overlays with the expansion content. So, having to setup the overlays with every game just makes the game needlessly fiddly and then if using the realms minis you gotta toss those on top of the overlays. Just seems silly. The components are very nice with double layered player boards to track your stats and they have a cool design. The cards are the usual Awaken Realms slick feel. The minis are all very detailed although after seeing pictures I wish I would have opted for the sundrop effect. The board artwork is excellent BUT there are some serious issues with it. I already touched on the needless overlays but also the lines separating the zones are hard to see in some instances. The settlement minis bog the board down extremely bad during 3-4 player games since you use the opposite side of the board which has a smaller (in scale) map. In a 2 player or 5 player game I didn't feel the bog as much since the map is MUCH bigger. I will say I think LoR plays better with 2-players than LoH does. You can use the full map but because of its bigger scale and the way the ships connect lands it doesn't seem like you are spread too far out. You are basically always a ship hop away from the other players lands. Also, because of the ships I feel like LoR is always more confrontational so you won't get players "turtling" in their lands. Overall, I think LoR plays a bit smoother and more refined than LoH BUT at the same time there are a bunch of things to remember during your turn such as the rune tokens and what you can do with them. I think LoH LOOKED better on the table personally, it wasn't as clogged up on the board and nothing ever seemed to meld together like LoR does since all the minis are basically the same size in LoR. I would say that you could own both though, especially if you like one or the other, since the way the armies work creates a vastly different experience between them.
dmiloc420
I rated Lords of Hellas at 9.5. It's a fantastic game. Lords of Ragnarok, on the other hand, is not a fantastic game. The games components I haven't had any of those issues, but it might have something to do with configuration, so I made some adjustments to see if I could duplicate your problems. I typically plug the receiver into a pedal, but tried plugging it directly into my amp, and then moved the receiver around like a clock. I noticed that, when I moved it closer to the speaker, I was able to hear a slight hissing sound, so I decided to place some of my bigger PA speakers close to the receiver, and the interference increased, but only slightly. Then I reset my configuration, so I could test another theory. With the receiver plugged back into a pedal, I moved some of the power cables closer to the receiver, and the static/hissing was very noticeable. Much more prevalent than the previous speaker configuration test. I have 4 theories as to the source of the static/hissing you are experiencing. First, the speaker magnets are causing the static/hissing. Second, the electric field from the amp, and/or power cables are causing the static/hissing. Third, it's a combination of those two things. Lastly, you may have a defective product, which may need to be returned for a replacement. I recommend trying to adjust your configuration first, to eliminate the possibility that it's the components, and/or cables causing the static/hissing, because replacing it isn't going to help if those things are causing the problem. As far as the issue with the loss of volume, without hearing it, and/or using a decibel/SPL meter, I can't offer any suggestions. I can tell you, from personal experience, that a slight loss of sound is the nature of the beast, when it comes to these cordless devices. Spending more money, on better tech, reduces some of these issues. It's the same issue with cordless headphones, which I also own. When I'm using both, while practicing guitar, the loss of volume is extremely noticeable, but my headphones aren't top of the line. Unfortunately, there's usually a sacrifice when it comes to convenience, and price. When you use WiFi for your computer, it's difficult to get the same speed , and performance that you had with wired connection, with the same router/modem. If you have a WiFi router/modem, that didn't cost you a small fortune, try running a speed test with, and without a wired connection. It's night and day. The better the router/modem, the better the WiFi speed is, but the more it's going to cost you to close that gap. If you're like me, I can't afford the high-end stuff, so I have to decide if the sacrifices are worth it, when I'm thinking about purchasing middle-end, or lower-end tech. Anyway, I hope some of these things help. play a great game with mediocre components, then play a mediocre game with great components. After 13 playthroughs, I think most of the 'Win' conditions are either unlikely, or not possible. It really seems like there wasn't enough, or any play testing. The only reason I played 13 games is because I kept thinking that I was doing something wrong. After loaning it to a friend, that doesn't appear to be the case. They were having the same issues i was having. I can not recommend this game to anyone.
frostypenguinz
Includes: + Lords of Ragnarok Core Box (Sundrop) + [thing=351570][/thing] (Sundrop) + [thing=350720][/thing] (Sundrop) + [thing=350196][/thing] (Sundrop) + [thing=350203][/thing] (Sundrop) + [thing=350259][/thing] (Sundrop) + [thing=350258][/thing] (Sundrop) This one is a little fiddly to learn with a below average rulebook (in my opinion -- and let's be honest, that's subjective), but it sure does look pretty on the table. I never played Lords of Hellas, but this one seems to offer something a little different than other dudes-on-a-map area control games that I own. I don't think it will live up to the standard that other games have set (Blood Rage, Rising Sun, etc.) but it's quite good. I really enjoy the "semi-cooperative" elements like teaming up to take down a monster, or building up temples thereby inviting other folks at the table to take control of them, etc. The ideas here are pretty good in the base game, and I'm interested to see what the expansion boxes add.