"and so my Lord the time has come for you to kneel before your new ruler! Haaaaa! Haaaaaaa! Haaaaaaa!"
How many times have you wanted to say that? Well maybe you can't say it out loud, but if you beat your opponents at this game you will say it to yourself, and maybe after a drink or two you can be forgiven for the odd evil cackle at the end of an evenings hard gaming.
Lords of Waterdeep is a D&D game by Wizards of the Coast. set in the City of Waterdeep (Duhhh!) your task if you should take it, is to become the new Lord of the City.
Now before we go any further lets get one thing straight, this may be a D&D game but monster bashing it isn't and its all the better for that.
Its a resource building game that has a list of adventurers as you would expect from a D&D game, but lets face it when they are little coloured blocks of wood why do you need to say "I need 3 Clerics to finish this quest off"? when in reality what you need is 3 coloured cubes of wood. Maybe because its a D&D game the developers felt the need to have adventurer classes in there somewhere, maybe they felt it would appeal to the American market more, who knows? They are there but I have yet to meet anyone who says " If only I had one more fighter" they are more likely to say " pass me a white out of the box".
So now we have that out of the way what else do you need to know?
OK this is possibly the best put together game I have seen in a long, long time, the intray is superb. Everything fits in it perfectly and the attention to detail astounds. The pieces suit the game and are of a very high standard the game board is a work of art and sets the standard that other game manufacturers should try to emulate. The rule book is colourful and makes it an easy game to learn, another big plus for me.
The game revolves round you collecting victory points (VP) by completing Quests. that you have collected by sending your meeples into the City. You also have Intrique cards that allow you to slightly influnce the game in a variety of ways. Some of these cards allow you to gain resources, but you may have to give some of these to another player. Others allow you to take resources away from an opponent. The Quests themselves may give you a advantage straight away or give you VP at the end of the game. In addition to that you need to build and control buildings in the City. These give you resources if you visit them you can also visit buildings belonging to other players to collect the resources in them, but you will give the owner of that building a boost as well.
As for which Lord you will play, well thats down to random selection each time. I have read on forums that some players dont like that, they must have a favorite for one reason or another. However I think it adds to the game, it keeps it fresh so that each time you play you have a different set of objectives to fulfill in order to obtain a bonus at the end.
Now the part I do like is at the end, you may think you have conquered all the other Lords, but then come's the tally up and the bonuses are awarded. This can allow victory to be snatched away at the very end, and believe me this can lead to some heated discussions afterwards.
Lords of Waterdeep is a great game, you will grasp the rules within a few minutes play and realise that while it isnt a deep thinking game it doe's require some forward thinking and little planning and a little backstabbing. Nothing that will make you fall out, just enough to make you groan. Its well put together and well balanced out, even if some folk think one or two things in it are overpowered I dont. To get a powerful piece you have to spend a lot of resources, you pays your money, you takes the choice.
10/10 would give it even more, but decided to be sensible.
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