World of Warcraft: the Board Game

I had first read about the World of Warcraft board game in an issue of Game Informer.How could a game as epic as WoW could be made into a board game?What about all the small details everyone loves from the PC game?PvP?Raids? Loot?Rest assured, it's all here.

This game is HUGE.That's the only word for it.There are over 1,000 pieces.Anyone curious about the steep price tag, trust me, you get what you pay for.The pieces are very well sculpted.The character pieces are not painted (would have been nice), and the monsters could not be painted.Monsters are a fairly unattractive array of blue, green and red.Everything else in the box (including the box itself) looks great.The amount of graphics from the PC game are endless.Fans will love to see how much graphic detail was put into the visuals of this game.

Like many of FFG's games, there are a ton of rules.They aren't hard, there's just alot.I won't go into detail on them, but instead say what I don't like.The setup time for this game takes forever.There's just so many pieces and cards that need to be set up and distributed.If you have several players and everyone helps, it isn't so bad.But if it's just two players, get ready for 30-45 minutes of setup.

The game is extremely long.Not really a bad thing, since it is alot of fun, but the downtime between each player's turn can make for some boredom.The more players, the worse it is.

And my third and final gripe is that there really isn't an incentive to fight independent monsters.Some monsters are fought to complete quests, but random monsters are "generated" with each new quest card.And independent monsters are tough!It's mandatory to fight them if you encounter them, and being as difficult as they are, some reward should have been given.This problem is addressed in the expansion "Shadow of War."

Fans of the PC game curious about the game shouldn't be deterred by my comments however.This is a great buy for any WoW fan with alot of time to kill.It's not perfect, but impressive none the less.

The WOW board game is a well put together game overall, and relatively fun to play... at first.

I'm not going to rehash the points made by the other reviewers, as they are valid, but the overall experience is what leads me with a middle of the road review.

The game is great from the standpoint that you incorporate RPG elements in "building" your character... the quests and items all lend a distinct flavor to the game, but the mechanics of the game are what drag down the rating.

From a fun factor standpoint (which is why we play GAMES, no?) the game drags you along for a 4+ hour ride.At first, it is relatively enjoyable.. but eventually the game wears thin and gets repetitive.VERY repetitive, despite the various quests.

Eventually it becomes not much more than a turn-swapping, roll massive amounts of dice ordeal.Combine this with one "slow" player or a "tactically slow/meticulous" player and you could find yourself waiting in excess of 20 minutes for a turn to come up.

The beginning of the game moves quickly, but as the mechanics stay the same and the game does not mature with the character progression, the game is doomed by folks waiting on line for a turn.It almost seems as if the game can be played independently from the other players save when a PvP element is introduced into play.Based on this standpoint, luck is often the determining factor in who is the victor (who drew the better cards, strategy aside).

So it's good, it's long, and then it gets strained... and eventually the strain saps the fun out a promising idea.

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A friend of mine in Germany actually bought this game from Amazon.de and it's cheaper there.But anyway, I played it and it's an immense game.It's very in depth.There are 31 pages to the instruction book for crying out loud!!It took me a long time to read and understand the directions, but I think it would go easier for someone who is experienced in playing Dungeons and Dragons.Most of the rules didn't make sense to me until I played the game, even though I have played WoW online for over a year now.Once I got the rules down though, the game went pretty good, even though I was having to explain this to Germans.Also, something to keep in mind is that this game is freaking HUGE!!You will need a lot of table space and time to play, especially if you have 6 players.Also, getting some extra rubber bands and plastic bags for the game would be a good idea.There is a lot of extra stuff to keep track of and if you sort it out and keep it separated it will help in game set up.All in all, I enjoyed the game very much and am looking forward to playing it again.This game does make for a good substitute while WoW is down or your internet's out.I highly recommend it even if you are not a big fan of WoW.

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I haven't played too much of the World of Warcraft PC game but I've been a fan of both Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 so I decided to pick this game up.And I must say I was impressed by the quality and complexity of the game.

Much to the style of an online RPG game, there are classes to choose from and two factions players can belong to and they all come straight from the PC game.The objective of the game is to defeat the chosen boss creature within the 30 turns, or fifteen rounds, of the game.If players can't defeat the boss within that time period, then the two factions, the Alliance players and the Horde players, enter into an all out battle for supremacy.The game is composed of various actions the players can do during their turns.Players must complete quests to level up their characters and thus gain more powerful equipment, spells, skills, and items.All the equipment, skills, spells, and items are represented by cards and these cards grant bonus and determine the number and kind of dice rolled in combat.There are also quest cards and event cards.Quest cards represent the quests players must complete while event cards change the flow of the game after a certain number of turns.All quests in the main game of World of Warcraft: the Board Game, is composed of killing off monsters.Once those quests are completed rewards and experience are given to the players.Other actions players can choose to do is go to town, travel, rest, train, and engage in combat.

Setup for this game can take a while if there are fewer players but can speed up significantly if there is a large group setting up the game simultaneously.The game takes a long time to play and the rule book is big, approximately 40 pages long so patience is required to learn the rules of the game.An average game can last anywhere around 4 to 5 hours.I'd recommend this game to hardcore board game fans and to fans of WoW.If you fall into those two categories then this is a must!But if you haven't played WoW but like complex board games then you'll definitely like this game.

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I am an avid Warcraft fan, I play Warcraft III and World of Warcraft. I also read the books, and all the fan fiction I can find. This was the logical next step for me. If you have 2-5 friends that you want to spend the day playing a really fun and deep game with some fairly omplicated game mechanics involved then this is for you.

Quality of the board and artwork are top notch, the player pieces and monster models are fair quality, but not great. The colors of take me out of the experience but not enough to take away the fun.

This game has A LOT of pieces, and you will use every single one of them.

1st play through was 6 hours with full group, the next few after that were around 5 hours.

I am ready to start playing with expansions, so I will be looking at the Burning Crusade expansion first.

J.Vaughn