Unboxing “Dungeon Saga: The Infernal Crypts”
How fast has “Mantic France” been! That is awesome!!! I ordered my copy of “The Infernal Crypts” this wednesday and received it today! That is cool! I’m also gonna thank the team for being so careful and really paying attention to what customers ask (I am not paid and do not gain anything from this, but I simply needed to put forward the humanity of Mantic as opposed to some famous rivals...).
This being said, I wanted to share with you a bunch of feelings that came to me as I unboxed this expansion set for “Dungeon Saga”. As all DS box so far, the look of the box itself is just beautiful! You get the feeling that you are holding a precious spellbook.
Well... Yeah I know... more miniatures to paint... I also ordered the legendary versions for two new heroes included in this expansion!
The first things you see once you open the box is the questbook, the datasheet for all the new minions - that said “Infernal” right? So daemons are gonna kick some asses I hope! I must say that there are some shrewd ideas (like the lava pools heroes have to cross, the rocks to jump above the pools, or - without spoiling the surprise for my players/readers - some skills for the minions themselves). The questbook includes 6 new quests, which will allow the GM to pretend to be a daemon for a while!
You do get something totally different in terms of gameplay than what you had as a necromancer, and that’s refreshing to have a new role as GM! Okay, that was a dream to become an Arch-Daemon... granted!
You also get a few new hero cards: I knew about Venetia and Arianya (just these two ladies nearly made me buy the box) and they look promising to play/fight against! But I don’t know how to feel about Orlaf v2 and Danor v2... I’m calling them like that on purpose here...
Don’t get me wrong! From the stand alone you do already have the cards for Orlaf/Danor both “standard” and “legendary” versions (though the miniatures are sold separately). This new box offers “Ragran” (a blond version of Orlaf with very very close stats/skills) and Semential (Danor wearing green...).
I’m sorry here, but that seems a bit cheap to me... Not only do pictures on the cards are THE SAME with different colours but you don’t even get the minis, so you either get them from another dungeon crawler (I’m lucky I already have plenty from older games) or you buy another set of basic heroes...
To say that I was disappointed is the least you could say... You can find a few differences in the legendary versions, so I’ll be curious to try an arena opposing legendary Orlaf vs legendary Ragran and legendary Danor vs legendary Semential.
But let’s move on to the greatest part of the box(es as usual): the miniatures!!! After all, that is why you buy such a game in the first place! That clearly put an end to my disappointment... If you went through my blog in the past months, you know I have started a daemon army for Warhammer (old/40K) and started thinking about a “Forces of the Abyss” army for Kings of War...
Well... there you go... Effrits, Molochs, Succubis and lower abyssals are all in the box! The miniatures are finely detailed, smooth to touch and already look ready for battle with that red plastic! It is time to mention that mantic clearly pays attention to the non-modelist gamer, who wants a “ready to play” collection of minis! No work needed, if you don’t want to bother painting, the plastic allows you to identify undeads from heroes from abyssals from bosses! Having been through a whole regiment of daemons (early 2000′s bloodletters), I am not afraid of that small bunch of daemons and I can’t wait till I get my hands and brushes on the Molochs and the boss!
Finally, the tiles! Not really much to say (apart from lava stuff) which completes the set of “hell-like” tiles you get in the stand alone. But... but... but you get a big 8x11 tile consisting either of a “classic” dungeon floor OR the amazing lava pool you can see below! Also included are a bunch of tokens and some more tiles allowing either to play in lava/hell-like terrain, or to further enhance your dungeons.
Well, to conclude I must say that I’m quite excited at what I’m getting in this box! The only negative point being the Barbarian v2 and Wizard v2. Maybe the advanced system - which I don’t have since it has not yet been released in France - does not allow to create much difference when you create the same type of hero, but if that’s the case, then you don’t just copy/paste them, you either don’t put them at all, or you create new ones!
The thought of having my heroes crawl into the Abyss is thrilling, and I am impatient to read the fluff in the questbook (which makes it a pleasure to be a GM). Added to the possibility of building my dungeons myself or play “uncharted” ones makes it all the more enjoyable!
@fairywitches, @yuukisinon, @warhammergamingpgm, @claaraa1503: three of you readers already went through Hell in the previous episodes... Well... More is to come, don’t worry!
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