Drakon Review
Tuesday, June 05, 01:34 PM By
Bryan
Two weeks ago, Shelly and I joined a
gaming league. The league hasn't started yet---this weekend--- but
soon. The idea is you play a different game each week throughout
the summer and earn points for how well you do against other
players. I look over at our wall of games and see about 20-25 games
we've never even played. I've read the rules to all of them and
oogled over the crunchy bit goodness, but time is a monster. This
gaming league, hopefully, will spurn some more game playing. It's
also a chance to meet some new people---people nerdier than
myself.
To celebrate joining the league, we, of course, bought a game. Recently at a game con, we played Tom Jolly's Cave Troll. It was a fun, relatively easy to learn game that mixed luck, strategy, player interaction and game engagement. Lots of fun and although I lost the one game I played, I wanted to play again and the game felt close, even against a much more experienced player.
So, we bought Tom Jolly's other game, Drakon. Cave Troll was sold out. While I like Drakon okay, Cave Troll was the better way to spend 25 bucks for a game that plays in about a half hour. I'm doing a Drakon review because I've only played Cave Troll once. We've played Drakon three times, two two-player games and on four-player game. The two-player games were more satisfying because you could develop some small plans and see them through. In Drakon, players lay dungeon tiles and move around the newly created board gathering gold. The first player to 10 gold wins. As you enter each new tile or room, different room abilities are activated. These abilities are the heart of the game. Each room has different arrows out of the 2.5 square inch tiles, so tile place really determines where players can go. A giant dragon can be released and crush you, but in all three games, the dragon wasn't a threat because the rooms that activate him are too few. I'd like more dragon action. Early on, each player figured out a gold loop, a set of tiles to maximize gold collection. By the third game, stopping these loops became a focus. The best way was to limit the amount of choices the others have in tile laying. Because of the new strategy, the last game was much longer than the other two. Plus, having an out tile to win greatly increased the enjoyability. Drakon's a decent game if you like to play to screw over other players instead of just focusing on winning yourself. It's not a Munchkin level screw-job, but this element seems to be prevalent in most modern games.
This bits and piece are nice and worth the 25 bucks. It'd be nice to have painted figures---no game does, except Marvel Heros. Also, the large tiles are a pain to shuffle and manage, but that's mostly unavoidable. There's no dice-rolling and all the luck comes from the draw of the tiles.
Overall, Drakon is a six out of ten. It's a decent game to play in a half hour, not too much of a brain drain, but a bit easy to fall into predictable patterns of play. 'kay?
To celebrate joining the league, we, of course, bought a game. Recently at a game con, we played Tom Jolly's Cave Troll. It was a fun, relatively easy to learn game that mixed luck, strategy, player interaction and game engagement. Lots of fun and although I lost the one game I played, I wanted to play again and the game felt close, even against a much more experienced player.
So, we bought Tom Jolly's other game, Drakon. Cave Troll was sold out. While I like Drakon okay, Cave Troll was the better way to spend 25 bucks for a game that plays in about a half hour. I'm doing a Drakon review because I've only played Cave Troll once. We've played Drakon three times, two two-player games and on four-player game. The two-player games were more satisfying because you could develop some small plans and see them through. In Drakon, players lay dungeon tiles and move around the newly created board gathering gold. The first player to 10 gold wins. As you enter each new tile or room, different room abilities are activated. These abilities are the heart of the game. Each room has different arrows out of the 2.5 square inch tiles, so tile place really determines where players can go. A giant dragon can be released and crush you, but in all three games, the dragon wasn't a threat because the rooms that activate him are too few. I'd like more dragon action. Early on, each player figured out a gold loop, a set of tiles to maximize gold collection. By the third game, stopping these loops became a focus. The best way was to limit the amount of choices the others have in tile laying. Because of the new strategy, the last game was much longer than the other two. Plus, having an out tile to win greatly increased the enjoyability. Drakon's a decent game if you like to play to screw over other players instead of just focusing on winning yourself. It's not a Munchkin level screw-job, but this element seems to be prevalent in most modern games.
This bits and piece are nice and worth the 25 bucks. It'd be nice to have painted figures---no game does, except Marvel Heros. Also, the large tiles are a pain to shuffle and manage, but that's mostly unavoidable. There's no dice-rolling and all the luck comes from the draw of the tiles.
Overall, Drakon is a six out of ten. It's a decent game to play in a half hour, not too much of a brain drain, but a bit easy to fall into predictable patterns of play. 'kay?
