Dwarf King's Hold

I solo'ed through both introductory scenarios of Dwarf King's Hold: Dead Rising
and Dwarf King's Hold: Green Menace.

The former took thirty minutes including set up time. The latter took forty-two minutes. This is a simple game with a lot of tactical nuance. Dwarves are tough and can shield bash; or should I say MUST if they want to win. Skeletons are slow but hard to permanently kill. Elves are fast and nimble always leaping out of the way of the first hit. Orcs are unkillable until you wound them; then, they get angry, faster, meaner but easy to kill as they forget to defend. At first I was skeptical. Then I played them out. These distinctions are fantastic. There are six games in each box; alternate playing sides and you get six more plays out of each. Each box is a separate game, so if you have no interest in Dwarves vs. Skeletons or Elves vs. Dwarves, there is no need to buy that one. The figures are characterful, durable and quite nice. There are also advanced rules adding additional troop types, weapons, war dogs and war panthers; but I did not try them. The tiles are also very nice and not tabbed so you literally have countless combinations. All in all, Mantic has produced two good games, not just a rehash of Space Hulk set in the world of Swords and Sorcery. I will be buying Dwarf King's Hold: Ancient Grudge, an expansion later this year when budget permits...

Oh! There is a pre-order up for the Mantic take on SciFi Corridor Crawls called Project Pandora: Grim Cargo that has me very intrigued. Giant, intelligent space rats spewing poison gas and using power drills...