Draconis Invasion: Collected Edition

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loudaboutgame/draconis-invasion-wrath-and-glory?ref=clipboard-prelaunch

I actually wrote a nice piece about this upcoming kickstarter (should be today and there is an early bird) a few days back and lost all my progress. So here you are again!

This game is a deckbuilder where you vie for glory points by defeating enemies who are attacking the kingdom. There are “campaign” cards that act like bounties that allow you to target specific monsters to maximize your final score. The solo game is played against a timer (terror cards) and you need to achieve a certain amount of points to win the game (based on your difficulty preference. In fact, this game feels like it was made for solo, minus the fact that there are a few cards you may not be able to utilize entirely.

The card art is very grimdark with demons and even heroes that look creepy and foreboding. It is not for everyone, but I happen to like it.

Quick Summary: You begin the game by picking certain action/defender cards that will be used during this “battle.” After shuffling and setting up you place monster (invader) cards that eventually need to be destroyed. Each turn you draw 6 cards from your deck then have several choices: Play an action card, Purchase a card, draw campaign (bounty) cards, trash a card, or defeat an enemy. So for instance if I spend the first few turns purchasing gold (economy) cards, I can then utilize my extra currency to purchase some worthwhile defenders from the market. However, in order to play them I have to wait until I draw it on my future turn, and also hope to have enough gold to actually deploy him/her. So if I am flush with defender cards, and not enough currency, I won’t be able to send them to battle. In reverse, too many currency cards will make me wealthy but unable to perform certain actions (battle). As it is there is a fine balance to be achieved in order to win.

The end-game timer consists of something in your deck called Terror cards. Each time you draw a terror card you must increase the game’s terror level by one. The more this happens the more bad events come into play, and eventually the game will end. The twist here is that most deck-builders encourage trashing weaker cards to make room for new ones. But, in Draconis Invasion this just means that those dreaded terror cards will actually pop up sooner!

In conclusion, I had a lot of fun with the base game, and while I have heard good things about its first expansion, I never even took the time to get it to the table yet, as I am still currently enjoying the original game. As my skill improved and I beat each consecutive difficulty level, I began to increase the point threshold to something within my ability range. There is an overarching “story“ of sorts where you can play 10 pre-configured scenarios before choosing them or randomizing at will. When I complete the original 10 battles I will most likely crack open the expansion and see what fun or challenge awaits me.