I love a good dungeon crawl. Weapons blazing, the enemy coming from every corner slowly marching towards you with only your teammates at your back. You fight them all off and rely heavily on your other warriors however like any good soldier-you are always looking out for yourself and advancing your own agenda. Today we explore a game that lets you do just that.
The Rise and Fall of Anvalor is a new game from Wizkids and Games Workshop/Warhammer designed by Rustan Hakansson and developed by Robert Rosen. Graphic design from Richard Dadisman and Illustration from Games Workshop. It takes place in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar and plays 1-4 players.
In The Rise and Fall of Anvalor you play a Castellan for your Faction and along with others representing their Factions you build a defend Anvalor together while also trying to secure your own dominance over the city.
Setup and Gameplay
The large game board is set up in the middle of the table and you chose an enemy to play against. You can chose the difficulty and then set up the entry deck. Each player will chose a Faction and get the corresponding tiles for them and the other tiles are set up near the board. The New City Building Board is also placed near the main board.
Flow of the game is simple. On a player’s turn they must take one action out of these options:
-Place 1 City Building
-Place 1 Faction Building
-Place 1 Faction unit
-Pass turn
All the above actions place a tile on the board and you must pay the cost to do so. You will discard tiles from your hand and use any bonuses in tiles on the board to pay for it. You can also use two tiles as wilds. Each placement of a tile brings a different effect on to the board, the City and Faction buildings each taking up a spot. If you chose to pass you can chose to discard tiles from your hand.
The next step after taking an action is to Draw Tiles, two or until you have five total. Then the enemies get ready and prepare to do some damage. When you have an open space in the City Building market your enemy will start to amass more troops or have some other damage happen depending on what is drawn. If there are 3 or more enemy tiles on one side an Assault occurs and the enemy attack will begin. An Attack wave happens and you and your fellow players have the opportunity to attack the enemy and stop the swarm. You have the option based on your troops and their abilities to do ranged or melee attacks, each with specific dice you roll for success. The enemies who do not die advance on the board as well, adding to push and potential for damage all around.
The game continues player to player, trying to build your army and defend against the enemy until the Final Assault occurs when the final enemy tile is placed on the board. An Assault happens now with many more enemy tiles on the board crashing into the alliance. The game ends when the Final Assault is complete. Winner is determined by the player with the most Influence!
Things that could be better
Rulebook. To be honest this was a hard Rulebook to follow from the onset. Setup was a bit of a challenge and one we got playing there were a few things I couldn’t quite figure out quickly. I eventually found the answers but it took some time.
Icons. I love a game with lots going on but it seemed like a player aid or something of the sort would have been helpful in figuring out what was going on in game as combat took place. I felt like we had to reference the rulebook a lot while playing which can really slow down the rhythm of the game.
What I liked
Art. I enjoyed the card art and the overall design of the game. It came across dark but not washed of detail. I really thought the work put into that was solid.
Co-op. I love a good co-op game and especially one where someone can still do enough to come out as the winner. It makes me work hard for myself but not at the expense of the group. It creates tension in deciding if I do the best for the group or for myself, but if I go too selfish it can blow up in my face easily.
Theme. I’m not a big Warhammer gamer but for my friends who are they said this was spot on. The factions and language throughout the game sang for them. The rulebook had a ton of background for the different Factions and Enemy groups, really giving the game some extra flavor that is not there in standard dungeon crawl types of games. Warhammer gives this game so much lore to build off of. I could appreciate it without feeling lost to it which is a fine line to tow and do well for those out of the IP bubble.
Overall
I do enjoy co-op games and can really appreciate ones that twist a straight co-op theme to something different. In The Rise and Fall of Anvalor we get that theme with the extension of still trying to be the top Faction and win the game outright. I felt the decision making throughout and wrestled with “best for us” vs “best for me” decisions which is a great way to play a game like this. If you are a Warhammer fan, this is a no-brainer for you. Even if you are not, if you enjoy a good dungeon crawl that focuses on combat based gameplay I would recommend you check out this new title from Wizkids!
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