World of Warcraft The Adventure Board Game Hits Stores

A new installment to the World of Warcraft line of games has just hit shelves with World of Warcraft the Adventure Game [Amazon, Funagain]. Players chose one of four classes and hit the Eastern Kingdoms t compete against each other. Each player's character grows in ability as they plow through portions of the board, and numerous tiers of monstrous fodder pulled straight from the World of Warcraft universe. The winner is the player who becomes the baddest mofo around (ie: reaches a certain level).

As the adventure moves on players are rewarded with new Ability cards that scale with their character's level. These abilities can be used to aid in combat against monsters and bosses. And though the characters aren't in direct competition with one another, the players can use numerous ability cards to hinder an opponent's progress.

The game is much simpler than the previous World of Warcraft big box board game from Fantasy Flight, which sometimes required a Mentat, Abacus and a Bottle O' Scotch to play. The previous title came with some unwanted combat baggage, including a lot of downtime between turns. Unfortunately, although smaller in scope, the World of Warcraft the Adventure Game continues to have also has some downtime problems of its own. They're nothing serious thankfully - some turns may by 5-10 minutes long on your first go - and after a while that time decreases with familiarity of the rules.

Additional drawbacks include a limited number of characters classes to chose from: Hunter, Mage, Warrior, Warlock, and only a few races so toying with racial bonuses and mixing them with various classes is just not present.

Thankfully the game works, and is fun for WoW fans that aren't die hard enough to slog through the previous board game - which took an entire day to play. If you're looking for more info then there's read a great series of user feedback in this Board Game Geek forum post. More information about the game's mechanics can be found on the Fantasy Flight Games' World of Warcraft the Adventure Game Support Materials page, which includes the instructions and FAQ in PDF format, and 5 preview articles written the staff and designers of the game.

Here are the game's official details:

World of Warcraft: the Adventure Game is an exciting and fast-paced journey through the world of Azeroth for 2 to 4 players. Choose your favorite hero and embark on an epic journey from humble beginnings to immense power, battling vicious monsters, powerful overlords, and your treacherous fellow players! Will you be the mightiest hero in all the land?

World of Warcraft: the Adventure Game includes:

1 Rulebook
1 Game Board
4 Plastic Figures
108 Bridge-sized Cards, including:
16 Character Cards (four per character)
92 Ability Cards (four decks of 23)
224 Small Cards, including:
18 Starting Quest Cards
30 Elite Quest Cards
16 Trophy Cards
160 Challenge Cards (four decks of 40)
1 Blue Movement Die

2 Combat Dice (one red and one black)
4 Challenge Deck Organizers

106 Cardboard Tokens, including:
10 Encounter Markers
20 Discovery Markers
32 Damage Tokens
4 Bag Tokens
4 Quest Log Tokens
36 Character Tokens (nine per character)

The World of Warcraft Adventure board game is now shipping from Amazon and Funagain Games.

July 18, 2008

World of Warcraft The Adventure Board Game Hits Stores