Board Game Review: Defenders of the Realm

Year of Release: 2010
Publisher: Eagle Games
Number of Players: 1-4
Suitable for: Age 13 to adults

"These are dangerous days! Dragons, Orcs, demons, and the dead, stalk the land. This scourge marches toward Monarch city, threatening to destroy all that is good . Will you, the valiant hero, answer the king's call to purge evil from the land?"



Description:

Welcome to Defenders of the Realm, a fantasy themed, co-operative board game. It supports 1-4 players, and the average time per play is between 1 to 2 hours. The game is designed by Richard Lanius (the designer of Arkham Horror), and artworks by Larry Elmore. If you don't know who Larry Elmore is, it is probably because you are not geeky enough. Larry Elmore, is the artist who illustrated numerous fantasy novels (such as Dragonlance series). Needless to say, a board game from a master game designer and illustrate by an excellent fantasy artist, should be very good, but how good is it really? Let's find out:

Game components:

Defenders of the Realm comes in a big and shiny box. All components can fit into the box nicely. This game has 8 hero miniatures, 4 enemy general miniatures, 100 minion miniatures, a massive game board, lots of cards, lots of tokens, 12 dice, and a rule book.

The game board

 The quality of components is excellent. The game board is heavy and sturdy, the tokens are made of very thick boards, and cards are big, nice and thick. The quality of miniatures is pretty good, the only negative side is all miniatures for minions are identical, but this does not hinder the game experience at all. I will do a quick overview for some of the major components:

Miniatures:

Larry Elmore's artwork is gorgeous, breathing a strong theme into the game. While some might say the artwork in this game is a bit retro and doesn't live up to the modern standard. But in my opinion, I think the style of artwork in Defenders of the Realm is a perfect match for the theme of this game.

Generals:

There are 4 generals in this game:
An ancient dragon, a terrifying unleaded lord, a ferocious orc general, and a mighty demon lord. Each of these generals and their forces are represented by 4 colors: blue, red, green and black. These generals are marching towards Monarch city. Each of these general has their own miniature  and the character sheet. The only way to win the game, is to defeat all 4 generals in battles.

Heroes

There are 8 heroes to choose from, each hero has his/her own miniature and a character sheet. These characters are very generic D&D styled characters: Ranger, Wizard, Cleric, Sorcerer, Dwarf, Eagle rider, and Rogue. Each of these heroes has very different abilities and powers. This means the tactic you employ in this game, depends on which hero you are using.

Quest cards:

The game also has quest cards. Essentially, every hero will have a quest at the beginning of the game. These quests serve as sub-adventures. The completion of a quest often grant positive effect (or an item) which will help the hero with his/her quest.

Hero cards:

This game also use the hero card system. Hero cards, serve 3 functions:

1) Enable the hero to combat generals

2) The hero can use hero card for movement (some can be used to build magic gates)

3) Some hero cards have special powers.

Darkness spreads cards:

Darkness spreads cards, prescribe the appearance of new minions, and dictate enemy generals' movements at the end of every turn.

Tainted crystals:

When a location is overrun by minions (3 or more minions present), it becomes tainted. These tainted crystals are used to mark a tainted location. If the land becomes heavily tainted, players will loose the game.

Dice:

There are 12 dice in this game. The color of dice being used depends on which enemy the hero is attacking (or the color of the location where the hero is performing an action at). These dice are very heavy (for example, heavier than the dice in Arkham Horror). 

Gameplay:

Defenders of the Realm uses a turn based game mechanic. There is only one way to win the game: defeat all 4 enemy generals. But there are 4 ways of loosing the game: 1) If a general moves into monarch city 2) If there are 6 or more minions in monarch city, 3) If the land becomes tainted more than 12 times, and 4) If there are too many minions on the board, and minion miniatures run out of supply. 

To win the game, players must work together as a team, to defeat all 4 generals before any of the 4 loss conditions are met. Every player turn, consists of 3 phases:

1) Movement and attack:

Each hero has different action points (denoted by tokens). He/she must spend these action points during this phase to move or to attack.

2) Drawing hero cards:

After the player has finished phase 1), he/she will draw 2 hero cards and add them to his/her deck. There is a dice number at the bottom of every card, this indicate how many dice a player can use in a combat against a general.

3) Drawing darkness spreads cards:

After phase 2), the player will draw darkness spreads cards. Place new minions and move the general according to the instruction on the card.

After these 3 phases are done, the next player's turn will start.

Taking down a general:

When a player collects enough hero card, he/she can attack a general. However, it is very difficult to take down a general by yourself. Luckily, this game allows players to initiate a co-operative attack on a general. The beauty of a co-operative attack is, players will really have to co-ordinate with each other, to ensure a combined attack can take place according to the strategy.

The general game mechanic is very easy to understand, and flows smoothly during the game. The war status however, determines the pace of the game.

War status:

The pace of the game is driven by the war status sheet. Initially, when war status is at "early", players only have to draw 1 darkness spreads card at the end of his/her turn. However, after the first general is defeated, the war status moves to "mid". At this stage, players have to draw 2 darkness spreads card at the end of every turn. This means the chance of activating the remain general is increased, increasing the pace of the game. When the 3rd general is defeated, the war status moves to "late". At this stage, players have to draw 3 darkness spread cards at the end every turn. At this stage, the chances of the last general being activated is very high, and minions are also spawning at a very fast rate, and the game becomes very intense. 

What I think about the game:

Learning curve: (8/10) - Defenders of the Realm, is an easy game to learn. Some rules are not described well in the rule book, but this problem can be solved by finding information on the internet. But the core mechanic of this game is quite simple, and very easy to learn. Any new comer can learn to play this game quite easily, if properly instructed by an experienced player in the group.

Components/production quality: (9/10) - The quality of components is excellent. All components are robust, sturdy and made of good materials. I have played this game over 50 times, and all components are still in great shape. The production quality is very good. Larry Elmore's artworks are a perfect match for this game, oozing with fantasy themes and flavors. The only slight drawback, is all miniatures for minions are identical. I would have given the production quality 10/10 if there was some variety in these miniatures for minions. But the components of this game, is excellent as it is.

Game play: (10/10) - Let me tell you something. I have played this game over 50 times, and every game I played, was just as exciting and fun as the previous one! As a co-operative game, the game play flows very smoothly. Team work and co-ordination are keys to win the game, and this translates to a great co-op board game. Player down time is minimal, and the pace towards the end of every game is always very intense, keeping me at the edge of my seat. There are enough random factors to guarantee twists and surprises in every game you play. There are so many times in my past games, when the last die roll can determine if I loose or win the game. And there are also numerous occasions when I won the game when I thought I was going to loose, and vice versa.  

Replayability: (9.5/10) - The randomness factor is present at the core design of this game, this means most of the time your game will be different in each play. There are also 8 heroes to choose from, each of these heroes is unique. This means player's tactics will be different from game to game, depending on which hero he/she is using. I have played this game over 50 times, and it is still as fun and exciting as always.

Thematic Factor: (9.5/10) - Defenders of the Realm is a highly thematic game. The game play, and Larry Elmore's artworks matched perfectly to create one of the  most thematic co-op games on the market. 

Overall: (9.2/10) - Defenders of the Realm is one of the best co-op board games. The game is challenging, with a very balanced game mechanics. The excellent game play blends perfectly with the generic fantasy theme. The result is a very robust, fun and exciting board game in all departments. The price of this game is a bit higher than most board games, but after more than 50 games, I am still loving it. This game is definitely worth every penny you spend, and I would highly recommend this board game to anyone with interest in fantasy themed, co-op board games.