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The Damsel's Tale: Preview

The Damsels Tale: Preview

Information:

Mechanics: Asymmetry, Simultaneous Play
Player Age: 10+ 
Player Count: 2 Players
Time to Play: 10 - 15 Minutes 
Game Designer: Paul Nicholas, Josh Sommerfeld, Alex Wynnter
Game Artist:  Senitra Thompson
Publisher: Red Genie Board Games
Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

This asymmetrical game has two playable characters, each with their own winning objective. The knight player wants the prince's crown but it is heavily guarded by dragons, they wants to reach the last space on the lair track to obtain the crown. As the dragon player, you want the mumma dragon to catch and scorch this unruly knight. This occurs when the mumma dragon reaches the last space on the cavern steps and have the knight out in the open. If the knight is hidden, the mumma dragon returns to the start of the cavern steps. the mumma dragon will move through mumma dragon cards that are activated by the baby dragon cards and the noisy spaces on the lair track.

Components:

Knight and Baby Dragon Cards:

Both the baby dragon cards and the knight cards have an initiating cost on the top left and action on the bottom of the card.

Mumma Dragon Cards:

Whenever these cards are activated ,by a card or space drawing and activating the top card of the mumma deck. The mumma dragon will move up to three spaces on the cavern track. Her movement is represented by a certain number of dragon claw marks on the card. If the mumma dragon ever reaches the end space of the cavern track, either the dragon will win with the knight not hiding away, or the mumma dragon will be annoyed and return back to the start of the cavern track upon finding no knight (he hides shamelessly).

Board:

The board contains two tracks; one for the knight (lair track) and one for the mumma dragon (cavern track). There are two spaces on the lair track that need to be further explained. Firstly, there is the noisy space (see below image) which activates if the knight ends their movement on this spot. As the knight clammers along, the sounds reverberates up and down the cave walls, drawing the attention of the Mumma dragon. She draws and resolves a card for movement to come find the ever-annoying knight.

The knight is sprightly, however, and can hide behind boulders (known as the hidden space, see image below). Whenever the knight comes upon a hidden space, their movement ends here and the panic track is increased by one.

Panic Track:

The panic track will determine the knight's movement for any card that does not have a move value. For example, if the card says to move 1, the night will only move once, however, if the card just says to move, the knight will move based on which number the panic track is on.

Set Up:

- Place the knight meeple on the first space of the lair track
- Shuffle the knight deck and place it in front of the knight player
- Shuffle the baby dragon deck and mumma dragon deck separately and place it in front of the dragon player
- Place the mumma dragon meeple on the first space of the cavern steps
- Place the panic cube on the one space of the panic track

How to Play:

This adventure will occur over a series of rounds. At the start of each round, each player will shuffle and discard two cards from their deck (baby dragon and knight deck), this deck now becomes their hand. Then, each player will simultaneously play one of their cards face-down. The player with the lower initiative will resolve their card first. Then the other player will have the opportunity to resolve their card. Once resolved, both cards are discarded. Play will continue like this until both players have played four cards, then a new round will begin. Shuffle all six cards and again discard two. This adventure will continue until either the dragon or the knight player succeeds in their objective. Of the knight reaching the crown or the mumma dragon spotting an unhidden knight at the end of the cavern track.

Who is this for:

If you are looking for an easy to learn asymmetrical game that shines through repeated plays, then back this one on kickstarter. To expand on this further, the game shines once you are fully aware of the potential cards that your opponent can play, by manipulating the order of play to your advantage to remain hidden, or create a burst of movement for the knight or the mumma dragon. 'The Damsels Tale' is about planning your rounds and your turns based on what your opponent is planning. If you enjoy playing games on repeat with a single player where you can understand and even predict their potential moves, then you will most assuredly enjoy 'The Damsels Tale'.

Click...feed the addiction: 

Red Genie Board Games
The Damsel's Tale on BGG
The Damsel's Tale on Kickstarter
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