Wizards of the CoastDungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon | Board Game | Ages 12+ | 1-5 Players | 60 Minute Playing Time, Red

I have been fascinated with the exotic D&D game since the early 1980’s. Yet there was a total lack of fellow players on the continent so I had to satisfy my D&D cravings with painting the figures, reading the books and playing the blocky video games.About a year ago I bought the excellent pre-fab D&D Dungeon family board game that to my delight and surprise gets the children very excited, even my wife likes it. So I thought it a good idea to step up and buy one of these curious large D&D boxes and see if I could get a more genuine family D&D gathering.Other than I expected, this is not a single adventure that can be played over and over again. The set includes 13 scenario’s and even a solo player version to start and get familiar with the game. And the connectable tiles make it a different experience every time. I play-tested it on my own in single player mode, and that works actually quite well and is enjoyable.The box contains many thick, good quality cardboard pieces that have to be removed from the sheets. This is a time-consuming exercise in itself. You’ll also have to familiarise yourself with the rules, the many game pieces and game play, so that will add another hour or so before you can play. Not only because you’ll have to sort out the pieces required for your selected adventure. One drawback I would point to, is the lack of storage and organising capacity, despite the large box. It would have been great if there were plastic trays that hold the various stacks of tokens and cards, or perhaps bags included, the box now contains 3 large compartments and only 2 card sections - while there are 9 different type of cards.Despite having a lot of interest in D&D I have never really played the game in a proper manner. So it took me some time and effort to get a grip of it even though the rules are far less sophisticated and complex than the real D&D. And I didn’t find it easy. Yet playing our first adventures with the family each turned into an exciting hour. I think this board game version is great as it is a bit more familiar to my wife and children.The plethora of included plastic figures make the set very attractive, in particular to my children. I feel a great urge to decorate the plastic figures with paint. The figures are marked and carry a name on the base which is helpful if you are looking for the heroes that unfortunately do not really resemble the depiction son the character cards very well.All in all, extremely pleased with this set and the game. The children keep begging me for the next adventure. And the overall quality of the pieces and cards is outstanding. Will buy one or two of the other D&D board games in the range as well. And perhaps move on to the real D&D at some stage.

Being new to D&D, I'm loving this product. The first co-op adventure turned out to be a massacre, but the 2nd attempt went much "smoother". Loots of randomness fun and dispair to be had, so I think this game will fail hard at being repetitive.This game is really designed for co-op, which makes it a fun and rewarding experience for family and friends.The rule and adventure books are very simple and get you ready for action in a few minutes of reading.The miniatures are very cool and look very nice even without paint, although it's tough to resist giving them a more detailed look.All the cardboard pieces are tough and well-made. The overall artwork is awesome (didn't expect anything else from Wizzards of the Coast!).I'm seriously thinking about getting the other 2 game sets and combining them all in a slaughter-fest of D&D fun!Seriously recommend it for D&D and dungeon crawling iniciates!

Great game, so much in the book so many choices and variability. It me back into playing D&D after a 20+ year break and brought along two new players into D&D.

This is an overall review of not just Wrath of Ashardalon, but also Legend of Drizzt, Temple of Elemental Evil and Ravenloft.Great games, fun and exciting. Not as in depth as real D&D of course, but its not meant to be. My two sons love this game and its a great intro into the world of D&D and fantasy. For what you pay, the miniatures are superb quality, plentiful and good to paint once youve applied a baselayer. My gripe with this game is that the monsters dont appear in enough numbers to be a real threat. E.g one Orc at a time. The encounter cards (which are random bad things that occur, e.g a trap) are more likely to kill your players off than the monsters. Monsters generally take only one hit The way around this is to half the use of encounter cards, and to buy more miniatures (I use Reaper bones, cheap and look great) to add more bad guys to fight. So your party of 4 or five suddenly face 6 Orcs, rather than 1. This makes it far more fun.My other gripe is that some of the heroes are uninspiring. The heroes are Far better in Legend of Drizzt, Temple of Elemental Evil and Ravenloft. You can make your own hero cards from templates online, which if you buy a corresponding miniature for that hero. It works well. Ive made a Ranger, Paladin, fighter all inspired from my days playing the Baldurs Gate PC game.The heroes, monsters, cards, treasure etc can all be transfered over to be used in the different box sets.Well worth the price.