If Stallone Were A Necromancer

...as stated in yesterday's post, I had picked up a copy of Lords Of Waterdeep during Free Comic Book Day. Lords Of Waterdeep is another of the board game systems based in the Dungeons & Dragons realm of game concepts. However, what Wizards Of The Coast has done here (and anyone who has played this already knows) was take the resource management aspects of a traditional Euro game and placed the added flavor of a fantasy theme from the tabletop RPG and book series over the top. In an added layer, the creators also placed some RPG elements on top of the resource management engine by adding quests and intrigue. It is a formula that can go horribly wrong in inexperienced hands. Fortunately, Wizards Of The Coast are game veterans.

At the outset of the game, the board features a collection of standard buildings inside the center. In an RPG setting comparable to something like Final Fantasy or World Of Warcraft, the standard buildings take the place of the basic city centers. They are where one goes to recruit party members, accept quests and play intrigue. The ten outer spaces are blank, set aside for advanced buildings that become stead for the players who pay to construct them. Similarly to the D&D Adventure Game series, the advanced buildings are shuffled each turn and no two games will feature the same group. From there, the Euro aspects of occupying available spaces for recruitment and retrieving gold, quests, etc. takes over.

Already since acquiring Lords Of Waterdeep, I have run through both a two-player campaign and a three-player campaign and as workers are distributed differently based on player count, the game works magnificently in either scenario. While some games usually get into a comfort zone with a certain number of players, Lords Of Waterdeep has nothing but sweet spot. In addition, while some Euro games can get bogged down in over-explaining the rules, Lords Of Waterdeep has one of the most succinct rulebooks I have seen, allowing players to dive right in and unpack the intricacies in short order.

For the price tag and just what comes in the base game, Lords Of Waterdeep is amongst the best Euro style games I have played. This says a lot considering that I have taken to Euro games in a big way since discovering them and this is essentially an American game. As I wade through more of the designer board games, I am beginning to notice the differences between American and European strategy games. Both styles are strong and offer a ton of strategy and replayability, but the differences are very noticeable. Lords Of Waterdeep does a magnificent job of blending both styles while not being heavy on either one. It is the type of game that can handle introduction of both game worlds in one box.

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