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Nerdarchy > Games  > Board Games  > Board Games in Review – Dragon Slayer – The Dice Game with a Twist

Board Games in Review – Dragon Slayer – The Dice Game with a Twist

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dragon slayerIts Monday, so you know what that means.  It is time for another board game.  Today I want to talk about a cool dice game that I recently acquired.  Dragon Slayer, the dice game with a twist.  Last week I did Quadrillion.  You can check out that article here.

Taken from the rules sheet:  ” You are the world’s most fearless dragon slayers, competing to be crowned the master slayer.  Your brave warrior must search far and wide for these ferocious beasts, defend yourself against its attacks and be ever ready to strike them down.  Even in victory your companions may challenge your courage, demanding that you prove your valor with foolhardy audacity or cower in their mocking taunts.”

Are You Brave enough to be called Dragon Slayer?

The game comes with 12 custom dice the rules sheet and 6 challenge coins.  The game says it is for 2 to 5 players and should take about 15 minutes to play a game.  Now with 6 challenge coins in the box I see no dice gamereason why you could not do this game with 6 players.

The game, as I said, comes with 12 dice divided into 4 groups.  The warrior dice, and the dice for the 3 different dragons.

The warrior dice have 3 axes, 2 shields and 1 fire breath.  You need an axe to kill a dragon and fire breaths are countered by shields.

The dragon dice are split by color.  The red dragon is the hardest to slay and is worth the most points 6.  The green dragons is a moderate challenge and is worth 4, followed by the easiest, blue which is worth 2.

The dragon dice are divided not only by color but but dragon body part as well; head, wing and tail.  You need an axe from your warrior dice and all three head, wing and tail in order to slay the dragon and earn the points.

So lets break it down by color.  Blue:  each die has the specific body part on 4 sides and a mountain on the other two faces.  Mountains just require you to reroll, so it can be pretty easy to slay the blue as long as you are not rolling fire on your warrior dice.

Green: these dice step up the challenge.  You still have the specific body parts on 4 sides of the dice but now one of the mountains has been turned into a fire breath.  These can knock you out of being able to slay the dragon as you lose warrior dice when you fail to defend against an attack.

board gamesRed:  Ouch time, You still get 4 sides with the necessary dragon parts but both of the alternate sides are fire.  Is it getting hot in here?  If you roll red you are rolling 3 dice with a 1 in 6 change of getting fire breath AND 3 dice with a 1 in 3 chances of getting a fire breath.  It is certainly doable.  I did it on not only my first try but on the first roll, but trust me you are not always going to be that lucky.

Now above I briefly mentioned challenge coins.  These only come into play once per player, sort of.  What I mean by that is that at the start of the the game, each player is presented with a challenge coin.  These are worth 5 points to you if you use them.  After someone has actually successfully slayed a dragon you can attempt to goad them into continuing the hunt and going after another dragon.

On a single turn a player may only be challenged once, but if they are they are presented with a choice.  They can either stop their turn and only score half points, because they have been taunted, or they can continue and either gain no points if they fail to slay the second dragon or double points for slaying the second dragon.

So either way the player who challenges another player gets 5 points and no longer has a challenge coin so cannot issue another challenge for the remained of the game.  Unless f course you house rule that when you challenge another player you give them your coin instead of to the bank, but be weary of this logic as people will challenge all the time and players will be scoring more points with coins than with kills.

So I highly reccomend that you start with red or green on your turn so that if you are challenged you can go after a weaker a dragon.  Imagine killing the green and blue and then being challenged.  You would either need to walk away with a lousy 3 points or facing the red, potentially with missing warrior dice.

Just some food for thought.  This is a fun quick game about killing dragons, who does not love that.  Well I imagine the dragons don’t, but I won’t tell them if you won’t.  If you want to up the challenge try as your turn going after all the dragons.  Roll all twelve dice and follow the same rules.  You have to defend against the fire breaths but once you roll the body parts keep those dice aside and roll the rest.  Can you get all three kills.  I was able to as a test 2 out of 3 times.  The third I just rolled too many fires.

It is a small game with a small price tag.  You can get your copy here.  As always thanks for reading and remember, Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!

 

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Ted Adams

The nerd is strong in this one. I received my bachelors degree in communication with a specialization in Radio/TV/Film. I have been a table op role player for about 20 years 17 of which with the current group. I have played several itterations of D&D, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd and 3rd editions, Star wars RPG, Shadowrun and World of Darkness. I am an avid fan of books and follow a few authors reading all they write. Favorite author is Jim Butcher I have been an on/off larper for around 15 years even doing a stretch of running my own for a while. I have played a number of Miniature games including Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Fantasy, Heroscape, Mage Knight, Dreamblade and D&D Miniatures. I have practiced with the art of the German long sword with an ARMA group for over 7 years studying the German long sword, sword and buckler, dagger, axe and polearm. By no strecth of the imagination am I an expert but good enough to last longer than the average person if the Zombie apocalypse ever happens. I am an avid fan of board games and dice games with my current favorite being Quarrios.

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