The game features a modular board consisting of many interlocking cavern tiles used to represent one of the thirteen adventures listed within the adventure book. These tiles, along with all other components, are compatible with the other two (and probably future) Dungeons & Dragons modular board games.

The game is designed for 1 – 5 players, although we have a group of 6 and decided to proceed with allowing all 6 players. It should be noted that the chosen adventure kicked our ass! The Legend of Drizzt is not a simple game where you can easily skate through and defeat the big bad. It is a definite cooperative game where tactics and quick thinking are required. If you make the wrong decision, even just once, your team could be doomed!

Before anyone begins playing this game, it is extremely critical that you read the rulebook. When you have finished read it again. When you have finished reading it the second time, hand it to one of your friends and have them read it too. Hopefully after this you will grasp all the rules and be aware of the little bits and pieces that can change the game from victory to defeat. We overlooked a couple rules and it possibly spelled our disaster. Of course, it could be that we had 1 familiar player and 5 unfamiliar players.

I grabbed my regular 4th Edition gaming group Chris, David, Ryan, Adam, and Dave to sit down and go through a game session and gather their opinions. I read the rulebook out-loud but at the end it appeared I overlooked a couple rules, but oh well. We’re not sure if the game properly scales to 6 players either, but again, oh well. Due to our familiarity with 4th Edition rules, the game’s rulebook was easy to understand. For all those unfamiliar with 4th Edition, only the basic rules and mechanics are being used with a host of new rules and mechanics pertaining to the board game. Overall, they were easy to understand, although we had several questions arise during gameplay (a couple which were actually in the rulebook and would have seen them if we would have read it three times).

Once you read the rulebook, you grab the adventure book and choose your adventure. This grouping includes solo, team cooperative, and team competitive. We chose a team cooperative adventure consisting of a pre-generated cavern and a mission to close some fissures where the monsters appear. It should also be noted that there was a major rule missing from this mission: the fissures close after depleting the Hit Points but the rulebook never defines that number of Hit Points. We went with 5, and that may have been another mistake.

The game was going fairly well until the monsters began overwhelming us. This game definitely does not favor the casual gamer and tactics are definitely required. We thought we had a vision of victory, but we obviously were neglecting to protect ourselves. Needless to say, most of us were down to less than half of our hit points before truly fighting back against the monsters; the Encounter cards were really taking their toll. We continued to push forward, barely staying alive, fighting the monsters and closing the fissures. We were not doing too well.

Upon getting halfway through our objectives, the villain came out and things went from bad to worse. It wasn’t so much that the villain was causing problems as it was the monsters were coming out and they seemed to be getting nastier and nastier. Most of our heroes were on the verge of death as the monsters were breathing down our necks, not a good sign. At this point, there were a couple overlooked rules that could have possibly saved us, but overall the biggest problem was our guessing of the 5 Hit Points for the fissures. The errata has yet to be posted…

By the time we thought we were making a comeback, we pulled a pair of Feral Trolls and that spelled our doom. We had already used both of our Healing Surges and three heroes had fallen. After an exciting game lasting around 90 minutes, the adventure defeated us. However, we all had a great time and loved the game.

OVERALL

The Legend of Drizzt is not only a fun and fast-moving board game, it’s a great way for fans of tabletop role-playing to expand their horizons. It’s also a great outlet for those who are pressed for time or looking for an escape from their regular game for at least one day. Using 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons helps create familiarity and reduces the learning curve enough so that many players can jump right in and enjoy the game. Fans of dungeon delving should get lots of enjoyment.

In addition to its included adventure book, adventurous players could learn to design their own adventures outside of those included. Replayability in this series of games is extremely high.

RATINGS

Visual Appeal: 10 out of 10
If I could rate this 12 out of 10 I would. The components are beautiful. The miniatures are exquisitely sculpted, the cardboard is rigid and designed for years of replay, the tiles fit together perfectly, the textures are fantastic, the art is wonderful, and the plastic tray inside the box is the best thing for storing every single piece. For $65 (USD), you are getting a TON of high quality, visually appealing components.

Mechanics: 8 out of 10
The 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons mechanics translate perfectly to a board game (those used that is). The remaining mechanics designed for the board game make game-play fast and fun without having to get bogged down. The only problem I had with the mechanics is how their formatted and laid out. The rulebook was a little less than desirable and the order in which the mechanics were presented was not ideal. This is in total opposition to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing books, which really surprised me. This is part of the reason why I missed a few important rules here and there. However, by rereading the rulebook, much of this becomes a non-issue.

Desire to Play: 10 out of 10
All of my friends and I had a great time playing The Legend of Drizzt and how familiar it felt. The different adventures allowing for solo, cooperative, or competitive play mean that the board game is desirable to a number of players. It is truly an epic fantasy, hack-and-slash, dungeon delve, there is no arguing against that. If these aspects do not interest you, than you probably won’t want to try it. However, if you appreciate any of these aspects or they sound intriguing, then you will probably get hooked into the game and want to play again. With so many replayability possibilities, you will definitely get your moneys worth in game-play.

Overall: 9 out of 10
I loved The Legend of Drizzt. The theme is wonderful, especially the heroes and their fiction-associated backgrounds, the production quality is the absolute best, and I can’t believe the price. I’ve seen a lower quantity of miniatures that cost more than this. Everything about this game screams “play me, you won’t be sorry”.

Considering that I have not read through the rules, the brief synopsis I was given by the FFG demo person was easy to follow and did not make me feel as though I was being weighted down by an excessive amount of rules or ones that are hard to follow. The rules are simple and the cards are marked well allowing the player to easily follow the direction the game is trying to take you. This creates a fast game play that keeps all players involved without creating downtime.

The mechanics are great for a card game. The cooperative play aspect makes the game very enjoyable and is a definite must to defeat the Tyranids. If all players are not discussing how the team should act, you could easily get caught in a bad place while the Tyranids start tearing your team apart. I played with a group of 4 and found the interaction to be quick and simple and resulting in our ultimate victory. I would love to see how this game plays as a solitaire system.

Being a card game, I was happy that card play strategy was the key as opposed to hand management or deck building. The game doesn’t center around your luck at pulling cards or your ability to keep the right cards in your favor, but rather how does your card play not only effect the games momentum but also how does it benefit the strategy of the other players. This style of play is very favorable to gaming groups that enjoy an interactive game where either everyone wins or everyone loses.

However, with that being said, I find that the Space Hulk: Death Angel card game lacks in repeat playability, especially when your looking at the same group of players. The game could easily turn into a monotonous grind if you find yourselves doing the same thing over and over again. Even by simply switching control of each combat team, the general strategies are the same through-out. Fantasy Flight Games could easily overcome this by publishing expansions that add new units, locations, or even mechanics to the game. If you are playing this game as a solitaire card game, I can see repeat playability to be very high as you struggle time and time again to become victorious without the assistance of your fellow players.

Being a Warhammer 40,000 game, I would expect a certain type of art to be prevalent on the cards. Most of the art is good, especially the Terminators, while I find the Tyranids art to be lacking the “pop” I was hoping for. The look and feel of the Tyranids art was a bit cartoon-like and didn’t truly “strike fear” like you would assume a Tyranid actually would.

I would still recommend this game for purchase, especially if you’re looking for a fast and fun game for group-play regardless of the Warhammer 40,000 theme. As currently published, the game has definite room for expansion and I hope to see further expansions in the near future. Without expansions I think the game will get dull pretty quickly and gaming groups will find themselves moving on to something else. But given the price point, there’s not many reasons to pass this by!