Another Vlaada Chvátil game - Dungeonlords.

I played Dungeonlords last night with Frank, Sandy, and Kieth Suiderman(one of my RPG Buddies.

I wasn't too bad. I enjoyed it while playing but when I was through, I didn't really want to play it again. Its one of those Balance all your Resource games. Place all your meeples, hopefully get the sweet spot for the resources, don't get too out of whack because you need everything all the time..ect.


Things I liked:
-The theme worked well, good graphics, fun setting
the economy of the game was tight
The monsters and traps are fun and creative- and some of them you have to pay with YOUR SOUL!!!

Things I didn't like:
-I HATE HATE HATE games that score everything. I hate it in Agricola, I hated it in dungeonlords. I hate it. Give me something to work toward instead of being balanced in everything.

-A minor complaint is that the adventure combat is a bit convoluted. I can see why it was done that way but it took a bit to grasp it. "Ok, I do 3 points of damage, reduced by 1, then attack for 2 more and he gets healed 2"

-there are a ton of substeps in the turn. Kieth remarked "The buearacracy level in this game just keeps going up". I kept forgetting steps- much to Sandy's ire.

If you like Euros even a little bit then you'll probably like Dungeonlords. I'm glad I played, and might play it again sometime this year though not if there is something with more carnage availble.

Steve"Lord of the Dungeons"Avery

I'm not expecting to love it, but I'm looking forward to trying it. The more I hear comparisons to Agricola the more interested I become since I really like that and I'd much rather be doing the same stuff but eating goblin's souls or whatever than raising sheep.

I don't think the Agricola comparison is apt. You need to diversify in Agricola because the first point is actually two as you are also avoiding a negative. Dungeon Lords just scores everything without penalty for not being in on something. So you can focus to score lots of points in one area or diversify to score points in multiple areas. If anything, focusing on a few things is the way to go so you can win more of the "Most" awards.

Its totally like Agricola in that there is not a clear goal- you score everything and there are many ways to generate VP. As I steated before I hate that aspect or euro game design.

Steve"PlayahHater"Avery

I agree that DL scoring is not really comparable to Agricola. In DL, you may generalize; in Agricola you must generalize. This is what produces the common criticism of every Agricola game feeling basically the same. DL games can have wildly different strategies and outcomes and still remain competitive.

Normally, I would agree with you in that I also HATE massive spit out points scoring.

In Dungeon Lords, I think it matters somewhat less because it feels much more like we are playing the game, and then someone wins. This is very unlike Agricola where those last few turns it is all about how many VP you can eke out. Dungeon Lords---it is more of trying not to be slapped down by the wave of possible bad that comes your way.

We ARE playing the basic game still. The Full game adds another layer of nastiness that scares me. And I don't think I can fully evaluate it until I get there.

One thing that is interesting is that my opinion of the game keeps going up since my first play. The game definitely has Euro mechanics, but the game itself isn't really Euro-y.

If the game itself isn't very Euro-y, what is it? An abstract? Because I'm not seeing any real AT elements. Sure Dungeon Lords has a theme, but so does the donkey-shitting game. Is there direct interaction, or is it more of the passive-aggressive cock-blocking variety? Drama? Narrative? Chaos?

moofrank wrote:

One thing that is interesting is that my opinion of the game keeps going up since my first play. The game definitely has Euro mechanics, but the game itself isn't really Euro-y.

This sounds promising. I have been eyeing it off for the theme, but everyone keeps criticising the mechanics so it remains unpurchased.

There isn't direct interaction, but there is more than enough so that it's certainly not a multiplayer solitare. Its hard to screw with people intentionally, but you will be doing it accidently very often very regularly.
It has Drama, Narative and Chaos. That's probably why it doesn't feel as Euroie as it should.

Nearly 5 years later - Dungeon Lords still ranks high on my "stuff to do" list.

1. take nap
2. watch crap tv
3. Dungeon Lords!
4. browse geeklists
5. remove malware
6. search for dead animal in crawlspace
7. attend wedding