Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 2-3 hours
The Components
Defenders of the Realm comes in a massive box chock-full of neat components.
Game Board: A massive linen-textured four-panel game board that depicts a few score locations across the Realm. Though the game board features a slew of attractive Larry Elmore artwork (in fact, the game is full of it) and though there's good attention to some details--such as the clearly marked paths which will be traversed by the big bosses and the easy to spot setup places for the various monsters--the board is not without its flaws as well.
First up, there hasn't been enough attention to usability: the individual locations are hard to pick out by name (which could be a fault of the board or the cards that reference it); there are no places for the numerous decks of cards (which isn't necessarily a fault, but it'd sure be nice if it had been considered); and there's no game system reference material on the board (at the least, a list of actions would have been helpful either on the board or as a card).
Second, the graphic design of the board is lacking. Though all the individual pieces of artwork are good or great, they just haven't been blended well. In addition, some dark artwork was allowed to get too black. Finally, the words just aren't laid out that attractively.
Generally, minor issues of usability and graphic design pervade all the components of the game, but they're the worst on the game board, which is a pity because it's (of course) the focus of play.
Additional Displays: There are status boards for: the war status; the status of each general; and the status of each character. They're all printed on very sturdy, linen-textured cardboard. I think the Elmore artwork gets more of an opportunity to shine on these boards and everything tends to blend together better on these boards.
I wish an icon system had been developed, particularly to make it easy to see what the generals did at a glance, and the title headers--which are presented as colored words with strokes around--are never as clean as they should be, but even if just the latter was resolved, I'd think these were great.
Plastic Bits: The game comes with 120+ plastic miniatures. These include 100 minions (in 4 colors), plus miniatures for the general of each of the colors and for all the player characters. These are all well-molded and attractive and add a lot to the game.
Dice: Two dice in each of the four colors. Nicely color-coordinated with the miniatures.
Cardboard Bits: The game has a small selection of cardboard bits to supplement all that plastic. Most of them are used as markers on the various boards. The biggest set of markers--a collection of 42 life markers--are very helpful components. Not only are they used to represent a character's life, but you also use them to count off actions during your turn. I always find action tokens very helpful when I'm playing an action-point game.
Cards: Full-sized decks of "hero cards" and "darkness spreads" cards, plus a half-sized deck of "quest" cards, all printed on sturdy, linen-textured cardstock. The hero cards are both very attractive and usable (other than the issue of matching individual cards with map locations), while the darkness spread cards present much less attractive mixtures of colors (though they still make their intent clear). The quest cards are more text-oriented than the others, and offer some nice color to the game of Defenders.
Overall, Defenders of the Realm has great quality components, but there are some issues with the graphic design and some places where more usability would have improved the game. I'd love to see a second designer go over the layout of the game components, as I think he could make everything top-quality. As is, I've only given Defenders a "4" out of "5" for Style; as you'd expect from the above-average ranking, there's still a lot to like.
(Side Note: on the pricey side. Probably a fair cost for the components, however.)
The Gameplay
The object of Defenders of the Realm is to slay the four evil generals before the Realm falls into chaos.
Setup: Each player takes a character and places his figure in Monarch City, the center of the realm. Each player also gets two hero cards and one quest card.
The generals are placed in their designated spaces on the board, each with 3 minions of the same colors. Then, six pairs of minions are placed in random locations on the board and six singleton minions are placed in random locations on the board.
Characters. Each character in Defenders is unique. He'll have a set number of life points, from 4-6, which also double as action points. More importantly he'll have a set of three powers, which give specific advantages (and nice color) to the character. For example, the cleric has bonuses against undead and demons (2 of the 4 minion types), can disperse undead, and can easily sanctify the land.
Hero Cards. These cards are the main resource of the game. They're also multi-function. First, they allow a specific type of fast movement. Second, they are associated with a specific locale. Third, they can be used to fight a specific general. They'll be explained more under the various actions, below.
Quest Cards. These special cards can give you bonus powers if you meet the conditions on them--such as defeating certain minions or visiting certain places. They also can give you a bonus to see who the "best winner" is, if the good guys win. They thus represent both temptation and valuable aid.
Generals & Minions. Each general is a unique individual who has a set number of life points, a combat advantage, and a specific penalty he applies to the players. Each general is also associated with one type of minion. For example, Varkolak is the black/undead general. He prevents players from using their combat special abilities when he fights them. He has 5 life points and both he and his skeletons can be hit on a 4+.
Order of Play: Each player's turn is broken into three part:
- Daytime: actions
- Evening: card drawing
- Night: enemy movement
Daytime. On his turn a player can take a number of actions equal to his current life points: 4-6 at start, but possibly fewer later in the game. The player may choose any number of actions from the following menu any number of times, up to his life limit. Some actions require cards.
Move. A player may walk one space on the board; or he may play a movement-by-horse card to move up to two spaces; or he may play a movement-by-eagle card to move up to four spaces; or he may play a movement-by-magic-gate card to either move to the location depicted on the card or move to any magic gate location; or he may move from one magic gate to another without spending a card.
(Every hero card has one of these types of movement on them, so you just need to decide if you want to expend your card resources to move or not.)
Build Magic Gate. How do you get magic gates on the board? You build them. You do so by expending a card showing a location at that location.
Battle Minions. A player can simultaneously fight all the minions on his space. He rolls a dice of appropriate color for each minion. Each die which rolls the target number or over of a minion kills it. Minions don't get to strike back; that happens at the end of the daytime phase.
Battle Generals. This is the goal of the game. It also takes some work. First, you have to kill all the minions in the general's space. Then you have to play hero cards of the appropriate type to fight him, with each card giving you 1 or 2 dice to roll. For each die roll that is equal to or over his target number, you generate a hit. The generals all take several hits to kill.
Worse, if you don't kill a general, you suffer bad effects and he starts to regenerate from his damage pretty quickly.
There's one upside to all of this: other characters in the same space can join you in the fight--though they suffer the same consequences if you lose.
If you manage to kill a general: the slayer gets the ability to quickly kill minions of that color; everyone in the battle earns 3 hero cards; and the "war status token" moves up: basically, the more generals you kill, the quicker the game tries to defeat you.
Heal Wounds. If you get wounded (by losing to generals or, as we'll see, hanging out with minions) you can heal 2 life tokens in any space free of minions or all your life tokens in Monarch City or at inns.
Heal the Land. The land can become tainted by groups of minions, as discussed below. It's one of the ways you can lose the game. Fortunately, you can also turn this timer back. As an action, a player can expend a card matching his location to try and heal its taint. He must roll a 5 or 6 on either of two dice to do so.
Gather Rumors. So how do you get all those cards you need to move and fight generals? Some you'll get at the end of a turn, but you can also get extras by visiting an inn. You name a color and flip two cards, taking any of that color and any special cards that are revealed.
Perform a Skill. Finally, some special character powers require an action to use. They usually mimic existing actions, such as the Cleric who can sanctify without a card, the Eagle Rider who can move-by-eagle without a card; and the paladin who can move-by-horse without a card.
Ending Daytime: If a character ends his turn in a space with minions, he takes 1 wound for each minion.
Evening: Next, the active player gets to draw two hero cards, to a maximum hand size of ten.
Night: Then, the bad things happen. These are managed by the draw of a "Darkness Spreads" card--or possibly two or three in the later phases of the "war status".
The majority of the cards tend to have two elements. First, two locations are shown for you to place either 1 or 2 minions in each. Second, there's an option for one of the generals to advance: if he's at a specific location than he moves one space closer to Monarch City--and gets new minions at his new space.
Minion Problems. Minions can cause two sorts of problems if you try to fill a space to more than 3 minions. First, they "overrun", meaning that you add minions to all adjacent spaces. Second, they taint the land in that space.
Ending the Game: The players win Defenders of the Realm if they kill all four generals. The bad guys, meanwhile, have four ways to win:
- Any general reaches Monarch City.
- 5 minions are placed in Monarch City.
- You run out of minions of a specific color to place.
- The 12th tainted crystal is placed on the board.
If the players win, then the player who completed the most quests and killed the most generals is named the King's Champion, giving players an individual competition if they manage to win against the game system.
Relationships to Other Games
Richard Launius, the designer of Defenders of the Realm is also the designer of one of the foundational co-opperative games put out in 1987, Arkham Horror, now in its second edition, from Fantasy Flight Games.
Defenders of the Realms shares only general similarities with Arkham Horror. It's similarly a game played against the system (not against another player) and it similarly has a best-winner position (which is pretty rare in other co-ops).
I think that Defenders of the Realm shares much more ancestry with the euro-co-ops that have appeared over the last ten years. Many of the mechanics are particularly reminiscent of Pandemic whose outbreaking diseases look a lot like overrunning minions. Defenders distinguishes itself by pushing those euro-mechanics back toward the direction of American hobbyist games, meaning that it's more thematic, less abstract, and there's a more risk-reward (aka luck) in the game.
The Game Design
Defenders of the Realm is a strong co-operative game, and that means that it does a good job of requiring cooperation. The game system moves itself inexorably toward defeat for the players, and they must constantly balance a variety of goals to try and push back that defeat.
I find the quest cards in the game particularly clever. They not only give a strong secondary objective, but they also introduce a nice tension to the game, as you have to try and figure out whether you're actually helping the group or just yourself--and ultimately whether that matters to the game overall. I think this is the game's best addition to the co-op play genre.
The one other place that the design of Defenders really stands out is in how well the various characters and generals are characterized. The characters in particular have a sufficiently wide variety of special powers that they really feel different from each other--at a level higher than the similar roles in Pandemic--and that adds a lot of color to the game.
The whole issue of randomness and luck in the game is either going to be a love it or hate it thing. The elements of risk and reward are clear, and you're rolling dice enough over the course of the game that I think the luck should balance itself out. It certainly adds some fun and excitement to the game, but if you're looking for a more staid eurogame, you should be aware of the randomness in Defenders. Conversely, if you enjoy more American designs, this will probably be a big plus for you.
I do feel that the game could have been developed better. Some inconsistencies in the rules--such as the fact that a 12th placed crystal ends the game but a 4th unplaced minion causes an overrun--and some complexities--such as the ways that demons can taint the land early--make the game harder than it needs to be.
I've also seen many of these systems in other co-op games from the last ten years, and thus Defenders doesn't have quite the level of originality to really wow me out of the box. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable game that I suspect will particularly appeal to many folks here at RPGnet. I've given it a "4" out of "5" for Substance.
Conclusion
The author of Arkham Horror returns with a new co-operative game that brings strong theming, some player conflict, and good dash of randomness to the genre. The result should appeal to many fans of hobbyist games in the American tradition.
