Legends of Andor
(Miniatures not included in game)
About
A cooperative board game released in 2012. Work with 2, 3, or 4 people to fight off the evil and save the land.
The novelty of the game is the "story deck". The game is played as a set of five games each with a unique set of "story cards". These cards are turned over as the game plays giving each game a unique story and challenges. You might have to rescue the Prince in the first game or have to save villagers and return them to the castle in another.
Reviews online are mixed. The game moves the story forward not only every time the users turns are complete but every time one of the players kills a monster. This means that the way to win is never to just try and kill every monster on the board. There is a bit of a puzzle element in determining which monsters can be ignored and what is the fastest way to complete the story's goal before the time runs out. This will not appeal to everyone.
The other complaint is that the box only includes five stories. Personally, If I get five, two hour games from my purchase I'm quite happy. Currently there are four "print and play" sets of cards available on the publishers website if you want more. There is also one expansion story to the game, and a second standalone game.
Thoughts
Tim:
I really liked it. Each of the five of the stories was unique and provided a different challenge. As mentioned, there is a bit of a puzzle aspect to each of the stories which is both good and bad. I was unsure at first if the stories were fair. I.E, "without knowing the story in advance, could you win?". After playing the last story I would say yes. The difficulty lies in playing "this game" and not a game where you try and kill every monster. It also lies in knowing when to burn the clock, and when to push forward with everything you have.
Laura:
Andor is a fun game, even when it's frustratingly difficult in some spots. The scenarios are usually clear, though a few times we won because we didn't follow the correct order of play due to an error or ambiguous direction in the scenario task cards. I'm glad we persevered and replayed a few pieces to find out where there are sections that take skill or understanding and planning, and the ones that are luck, and just had bad luck with the dice. I certainly would replay the game again, but not have it in heavy rotation as it does require a good half hour or so to set up the board for the start of the game. I appreciated the ability to choose a different class of hero each scenario if I wanted instead of being stuck with one character throughout the game of five scenarios. There was enough going on each scenario that it was never boring, and each scenario was different enough to feel like you're playing a new game every time.
Trivia
- The expansion "The Star Shield" is just as controversial as the original game. One of the largest criticisms of the original game is that there are only five stories. It was expected that the expansion would have multiple stories, but the game designers took a different approach. Instead of multiple stories, they created one story with multiple variations. As one reviewer put it you get "one of five enemy setups, one of five tasks, one of four ways to get the star buckler, and one of six bosses". The expansion is $18 on Amazon. How much value you think you will get from it probably depends on how much you like having totally unique stories vs how much you like similar but highly repayable stories.
7-16-2020