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| This is a heavy and nice looking box |
First Impressions -
"It’s Darksouls Christmas. Honestly looks beautiful. Nicely organized, the quality of the components feel nice, and the look and feel of the whole package. I’m excited to start playing."
- Wolf
"Nice packing. Keep the boxes and organizers, very pretty. Words area hard – need more coffee."
- Burns
"It’s a big heavy box. A really pretty box. I like how this is laid out and I’m a bit worried on how to keep all the cardboard tokens preserved. It's rare to see such care in packing and storing these minis, only Scythe has come so close."
- Dozer
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| The contents spilled out on the table |
"The minis look fantastic. I'm not a fan of the classic medieval armour style for my fantasy, but the minis for the Knight and the Herald look brilliant. The Knight has a brilliant stance and look to him, while the Herald's staff pose is so animated."
- Dozer
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| The hero miniatures |
-Burns
"The Dancer is my favorite of the Boss minis. I love the detail seen on the minis and the bosses are true to the source material"
- Wolf
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| Some of the enemy miniatures |
"I love the player boards. The cubes fit well and remind me of the same quality that Scythe produced."
- Dozer
"There is a lot but the quality is there. They feel like they might wear out pretty quickly so I suggest some sleeves for the cards."
- Wolf
Rules -
"Setting up the treasure is a bit of a pain. Copying reference charts on the back cover of the rules seems like a good idea so players can have there own without passing around the rules book all the time."
- Wolf
"I'm glad Wolf read through the setup for the basic game. It did take him about 45 minutes to start our first game. I like the 'node' system they have in place for movement. It's simple and very effective, 3 minis or one boss mini. It was really easy to find answers for a lot of our questions."
- Dozer
"Outside of the boss fights the rules seemed very clear and easy to navigate."
-Burns
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| Set up at Burns' flat |
Gameplay -
"I like it but I think I would appreciate the game more if I had experience with the video game."
- Burns
"A grind that felt like I was working towards something. The cards are easy to follow and the combat is very simple. This is lots of fun."
- Dozer
Dozer led party into the first encounter breaching into the first room. Two Hollow Soldiers spawned mid way in the room and a Crossbow Hollow right next to the door the party passed through. The Soldiers advanced on us while the Crossbow moved back and shot Dozer's Knight who took two wounds. First blood goes to the bad guys.
Dozer ran up at the cost of 2 Stamina and rolled a single Blue die getting three 3 Swords. The Crossbow Hollow died but the Knight was already showing two black blocks (Stamina) and two red blocks (Wounds) out of 10 spots on the character board. Note that if a character runs out of spots on on their tracker from filling it with red or black blocks, the character has died.
During Wolf's first turn, the Hollow Soldiers moved in on Knight who blocked one attack and took a wound from the second attack. The Assassin rushed in and killed one leaving only one Soldier. Wolf dodged the attack from the last solider. The Herald walked in and took advantage of his spear killing the last Hollow Soldier.
With all three enemies killed 6 souls were collected and the party healed back to full. Now the party had a choice, go back to the camp or move onward towards the next level of difficulty. The party returned to the camp and bough one item from the tall stack of small cards. The hope is to draw a piece of gear that can be used right away.
We drew a Pierce Shield solving one of the Heralds issues, getting into close combat. Burns upgraded the Herald's strength so he could equip the new shield. The party was happy with the result and paid for another draw. This time it was the Firelink Armour perfect for the Knight who would need to upgrade both his strength and intelligence. After upgrading the Knight's intelligence the party was out of souls but feeling confident for the next encounter.
Since the party did not rest the room, the cleared room was still empty leaving one difficulty one room to explore. The enemies spawned as before, a Crossbow Hollow and two Hollow Soldiers but this time right in front of the party. Here is also when Wolf realized the traps were not used in the last encounter. So we put in the traps for this encounter. We hoped that this would not kill us.
The enemies attacked the Knight who blocked and killed one of the Soldiers. When Wolf started his turn, the enemies attacked the Knight and shot him again. 6 red blocks and 3 black blocks filled the Knight's board and Dozer was one away from dying. The Assassin killed the second Soldier and moved onto a trap causing Wolf to put down three red blocks on the Assassin's board. Burns rushes forward towards the Crossbow Hollow setting off a trap before spearing it with a heavy swing. The Heralds board was filled by seven blocks, 6 black and 1 red from the trap.
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| The board before we decided to rest |
Since Dozer breached first it started with him. The Swordsman was first, swinging with a five damage attack and it caused the characters attacked to be pushed back. The Knight's new armour was going to get tested right away. Blocking and still taking three wounds the Knight was hurting. Burns took the push and was slammed deeper into the room setting off a small trap taking damage after failing a dodge.
"The goggles they do nothing!"
- Burns quoting Rainier Wolfcastle from Simpsons (Episode 2 Season 7)
The Large Hollow Soldier moved up while the Greatbowman made it rain at the Knight who's armour helped him block the attack. The Assassin dodge while the Herald was already out of the hail of arrow fire. With a heavy swing putting 4 black blocks on the Knight's board, the Swordsman was put down. Downing his Estus Flask the knight walked towards the center of the room into the empty well setting off another trap and being next the Large Hollow Solider. It was now coming to Wolf's turn meaning the enemies would be next before Wolf's Assassin took action. Mortality was being felt for the first time in the game and the Large Hollow was going to activate next.
"He runs through you - the axe is for show."
- Wolf explaining how the Large Hollow Soldier attacks.
The Hollow slammed the Knight who used his luck but still took a wound. Alone and closer to the Bowman a second hail of arrows came down wounding the Knight again. Following up the Assassin moved into the center of the room and gave a heavy attack against the Hollow doing 4 damage and leaving it with one wound to go. Before Burns could go the enemies once again attacked. Since the Assassin was sharing the space with the Large Hollow Soldier it was going to attack one of the two other party members - the Knight and the Herald. The Knight took the hit and used his Heroic Action to block the damage. The Assassin dodged out of the Greatbowman's rain of arrows towards the chamber entrance.
The Herald moved back to the entrance and swung it's spear at the Greatbowman killing it. The Large Hollow moved into the center of the room and the Knight followed but only getting a poor swing off leaving no damage to bypass the Hollow's protection. He watched as the Hollow charged into the rest of the party next to room entrance slamming into the Herald who was pushed deeper into the room. The Assassin dodged and avoid getting hit before finishing off the beast.
Here is where we discovered two things. The Assassin did not use it's backstab and that the Knight should not have been taking stamina damage every time he blocked. The party decided to spend the rest of the souls to buy some more gear to work towards. We pulled a Rotten Ghru Dagger, Sunset Armour, Soul Arrow, and Spotted Whip.With the Knight tapped off all of his resources the party decided to rest. The rooms reset and the party back to full health, what would be the next goal?
After the rest we went back to the level one rooms, did some level grinding and earned a few more upgrades and equipment. The plan was simple, get some more souls and work our way up to the mini-Boss. Resting took one of our Sparks leaving us with only 2 left. When a player dies or when the party rests the party looses a Spark. If the party runs out of Sparks before you kill the boss, the players loose the game.
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| In the midst of our second run of the dungeon |
"Oh - Sh!t Snacks!"
- Wolf after looking at the 4 Silver Knight Swordsmen listed on the card
After beating the room we decided to take on the Boreal Outrider Knight, our chosen mini-Boss. The Knight breached the room, taking the Agro token and we started the boss fight. The battle was brutal. Keeping track of the boss actions felt like playing an old school boss fight from the days of the SNES, Genesis, and Turbo Graphic 16. The party treated each round of combat like a puzzle trying to set up the next player's attack.
The party with the upgraded armour and equipment were able to resist the attacks of the Boreal Outrider but the Herald and the Knight were still using their original weapons. The result was weak strikes that did very little damage. The short change attacks made the combat languish on as the party kept working around the Outrider. Being able to resist damage does not mean the boss itself can't widdle the players down. It was in the third pass of the Outrider's action deck and the Knight died sending the party back to the camp fire.
With that we decided to end the game. It had been five and a half hours to figure out the game and play. Wolf suggested that we we should have done another run of the dungeon to gain more souls.
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| This is what you see when you lift the lid of the box Well done Dark Souls, well done. |
Final Thoughts -
"The combat is fun and brutal. A final thought from me would be and adjustment to the activation order. Thinking back on strategy I would be interested in a variable activation order for the party. Adds a new level of strategy and can add to the urgency you feel as a player. That said it might make the game a little easier to, but a 'house rule' I'd be willing to play test."
- Wolf
"The only issue with the game appeared during he first boss fight: determining facings and arcs. The rules could be a bit clearer about what constituted the front facing (180 degrees centred on the arm of the X, or 90 degrees centred on the pace between 2 of the arms). This led to some guess work about what arc each player was in and which modifiers apply a a result. Nothing that can't be worked through in a friendly game, but it seems like the biggest opportunity for improvement."
- Burns
"I enjoyed my time with the game. Co-op games like Myth, Pandemic, and MERCS Recon are always a favorite. Rules questions are resolved quickly since everyone is on the same side. My only gripe is we had to proxy the encounter with the four Silver Knight Swordsmen - as the box only comes with three. It's a small gripe but one issue I think should have been picked up by the game designers. I look forward to my next game and receiving wave 2 of my backer pledge."
- Dozer
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