This month sees the release of "The Warlord of Galahir" for Dungeon Saga. This is the third adventure released for the game, and much like Infernal Crypts, it introduces new monsters and a new overlord. This time it is against the classic Orcs and Goblins.
I don't actually have this expansion myself yet (still waiting on my kickstarter due to 'challenges' with the pledge manager - but it has only been six months since it was originally shipped, and I was told mine would ship in February. However Mantic has said that restocks are now in - so who knows.). My son has graciously lent me his set to review.
First off is the quest book. Full color glossy, this is much like the other quest books. I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, but this should give some new and fun challenges to an adventuring party. Once again this is NOT a world ending quest - the party has been hired to stop a bunch of orc raiders, and to rescue a kidnapped merchant.
Of course the expansion has more cards (no pics because we have all seen cards). There is a new overlord panel with all the stats for the minions. Pretty standard fare - the one new addition is the "Green Rage" rule for the orcs - the first time they take damage it does not hurt them - instead giving them Frenzy for the rest of the game. This also means that no model with this rule can be taken out in one shot (regardless of how many points of damage it would cause) - making the orcs a bit more of a challenge.
In addition, the timing mechanism is a bit different here. When the overlord is no longer able to draw cards the game does not end with the players losing. Instead the inevitable flood of greenskins arrive - each turn reinforcements for the greenskins will enter the board making it harder for the slow heroes to accomplish their goals. There is a limit in that you can't have more minions on the board than the expansion comes with (4 goblin warriors, 2 goblin spitters, 2 orc morax, 2 orc greatax, 2 orc archers, 2 trolls, 2 mawbeasts and 2 orcling swarms), but each turn more can show up until they are all on the board (and if you kill one - well he can then come back next turn).
Of course there are new player panels as well. Much like in Infernal Crypts, two of the base game models are given new stat cards to mix things up a bit.
In addition, there are two all new heroes - a salamandar fighter and a treeman druid.
Of course, the final boss has his own stat card - and there is a final one for the merchant that the party is sent to rescue.
There are, of course, more tiles and tokens in this set (three sheets). They honestly are pretty much the same as in the base set (different tokens and artwork on the tiles) - a four by five tile is pretty much the the same as any other. Combining these tiles with the existing base set does allow for some much larger layouts however, and are used in the new quests.
Ok - full disclosure - my son had already punched out all the tokens and tiles from the cards and mixed them in with his other sets - so hard a hard time figuring out what the new ones vs. old ones were.
I did find it interesting that there were some unusually shaped tiles (below). First the standard 3x4 room - with a one square extension. The other was even more interesting - a ready build maze. While this isn't anything that couldn't be created with smaller tiles - it is interesting as a larger piece, and can make the overlords job of laying out new tiles once a door is opened much easier - plop this down instead of hunting for a bunch of corners and straight pieces.
This set introduces two new heroes - Hrath and Kapoka. These are in the same blue 'game' plastic as before, but I don't have any issue with it and find it to have plenty of detail, especially for a board game. While maybe not centerpieces, I would have no problem including these in a Kings of War army as well.
Of course there are a lot of greenskin minions to fight - and these come in green this time.
The biggest one is the troll. No longer undead, this bruiser is going to give your fledgling heroes a bit of a challenge. He does not suffer quite as much from the 'tiny leg' syndrome as the KoW trolls do, though the legs are still not quite 'troll' sized (the base set undead troll was, I feel, a bit better for this). It does keep the look and feel of Kings of War trolls however, and I can see people wanting to use him.
For orcs, you get greatax and morax models. I did find it a little interesting that there is no 'ax' model in the expansion - as this is the base orc.
The overlord needs a bit of ranged combat to help against these pesky heroes, so both orc and goblin archers are included.
The goblin warriors come in two poses - basically sharpsticks (spears) and rabble (weapon & shield), though in this game there is no stat difference.
In addition, there are mawbeast and orclings. I understand why the mawbeasts were made to fit on a single base, but it is a shame they are not larger so they could also be used in KoW (where they are on a 25x50 cavalry base). There are also orclings - a swarm of nasty little buggers that can't actually attack, though they can give bonus for outnumbering to their comrades. The orclings are basically one piece - and again I can understand the game reason for this, but I'd like to be able to spread them out a little (onto 40mm bases) to use them for Kings of War as well.
Lastly is Thrundark himself. The big bad end boss (whose name just keeps sending me back to the 80's Thundar the barbarian cartoon) is a tough baddie. The wolf head/hide his is wearing was, to me, a bit confusing, as it hides his face (it is meant to be on top of his head, not covering it like a mask).
This looks to be an interesting expansion for the game. I haven't had a chance to give it a real try as of yet, though reading through the quest book (hey, I end up being the overlord for our group so I can do that) it looks like the escalation of the scenarios might be a bit better than some others. At least a tough, fighty boss is a bit harder for the heroes to take down than a weak necromancer (neither end-game scenario against Mortibris was a real challenge for my group of players).
Because it is all fun and games . . .
All the expansion contents
I don't actually have this expansion myself yet (still waiting on my kickstarter due to 'challenges' with the pledge manager - but it has only been six months since it was originally shipped, and I was told mine would ship in February. However Mantic has said that restocks are now in - so who knows.). My son has graciously lent me his set to review.
First off is the quest book. Full color glossy, this is much like the other quest books. I don't want to spoil any of the surprises, but this should give some new and fun challenges to an adventuring party. Once again this is NOT a world ending quest - the party has been hired to stop a bunch of orc raiders, and to rescue a kidnapped merchant.
Of course the expansion has more cards (no pics because we have all seen cards). There is a new overlord panel with all the stats for the minions. Pretty standard fare - the one new addition is the "Green Rage" rule for the orcs - the first time they take damage it does not hurt them - instead giving them Frenzy for the rest of the game. This also means that no model with this rule can be taken out in one shot (regardless of how many points of damage it would cause) - making the orcs a bit more of a challenge.
In addition, the timing mechanism is a bit different here. When the overlord is no longer able to draw cards the game does not end with the players losing. Instead the inevitable flood of greenskins arrive - each turn reinforcements for the greenskins will enter the board making it harder for the slow heroes to accomplish their goals. There is a limit in that you can't have more minions on the board than the expansion comes with (4 goblin warriors, 2 goblin spitters, 2 orc morax, 2 orc greatax, 2 orc archers, 2 trolls, 2 mawbeasts and 2 orcling swarms), but each turn more can show up until they are all on the board (and if you kill one - well he can then come back next turn).
Of course there are new player panels as well. Much like in Infernal Crypts, two of the base game models are given new stat cards to mix things up a bit.
In addition, there are two all new heroes - a salamandar fighter and a treeman druid.
Of course, the final boss has his own stat card - and there is a final one for the merchant that the party is sent to rescue.
There are, of course, more tiles and tokens in this set (three sheets). They honestly are pretty much the same as in the base set (different tokens and artwork on the tiles) - a four by five tile is pretty much the the same as any other. Combining these tiles with the existing base set does allow for some much larger layouts however, and are used in the new quests.
Ok - full disclosure - my son had already punched out all the tokens and tiles from the cards and mixed them in with his other sets - so hard a hard time figuring out what the new ones vs. old ones were.
I did find it interesting that there were some unusually shaped tiles (below). First the standard 3x4 room - with a one square extension. The other was even more interesting - a ready build maze. While this isn't anything that couldn't be created with smaller tiles - it is interesting as a larger piece, and can make the overlords job of laying out new tiles once a door is opened much easier - plop this down instead of hunting for a bunch of corners and straight pieces.
This set introduces two new heroes - Hrath and Kapoka. These are in the same blue 'game' plastic as before, but I don't have any issue with it and find it to have plenty of detail, especially for a board game. While maybe not centerpieces, I would have no problem including these in a Kings of War army as well.
 |
| Hrath (he has been primed white - which actually makes it come out better in the picture) the Salamander fighter |
 |
| Kapoka the Gladewalker Druid |
The biggest one is the troll. No longer undead, this bruiser is going to give your fledgling heroes a bit of a challenge. He does not suffer quite as much from the 'tiny leg' syndrome as the KoW trolls do, though the legs are still not quite 'troll' sized (the base set undead troll was, I feel, a bit better for this). It does keep the look and feel of Kings of War trolls however, and I can see people wanting to use him.
For orcs, you get greatax and morax models. I did find it a little interesting that there is no 'ax' model in the expansion - as this is the base orc.
 |
| Greatax on the left, Morax on the right |
The goblin warriors come in two poses - basically sharpsticks (spears) and rabble (weapon & shield), though in this game there is no stat difference.
In addition, there are mawbeast and orclings. I understand why the mawbeasts were made to fit on a single base, but it is a shame they are not larger so they could also be used in KoW (where they are on a 25x50 cavalry base). There are also orclings - a swarm of nasty little buggers that can't actually attack, though they can give bonus for outnumbering to their comrades. The orclings are basically one piece - and again I can understand the game reason for this, but I'd like to be able to spread them out a little (onto 40mm bases) to use them for Kings of War as well.
Lastly is Thrundark himself. The big bad end boss (whose name just keeps sending me back to the 80's Thundar the barbarian cartoon) is a tough baddie. The wolf head/hide his is wearing was, to me, a bit confusing, as it hides his face (it is meant to be on top of his head, not covering it like a mask).
This looks to be an interesting expansion for the game. I haven't had a chance to give it a real try as of yet, though reading through the quest book (hey, I end up being the overlord for our group so I can do that) it looks like the escalation of the scenarios might be a bit better than some others. At least a tough, fighty boss is a bit harder for the heroes to take down than a weak necromancer (neither end-game scenario against Mortibris was a real challenge for my group of players).
Because it is all fun and games . . .
That looks like a lot of fun. I really like the Salamander Hero. That model is pretty damn cool.
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