The Dragon Game

Although I’ve only been subscribing to The Phoenix for a couple of months, I’d class myself as quite a fan. I’m also quite a big fan of board games, and have been for many years, so of course when it was announced that there would be a complete board game published in the comic, it was met with some excited anticipation on my part. If the Von Doogan puzzles were anything to go by, then this was going to be quite a treat.

It’s really well thought out, with a good strong theme linking it to a comic idea with knights searching for a key to gain access to the dragon. The board is fairly small, which can be quite a good thing, as it indicates that it’s not going to be just a track game with a starting point, a finishing point and a few pitfalls along the way, like snakes and ladders. I have to say I’m not really too keen on that type of game because they rely solely on luck rather than any skill or calculated risk taking. Unfortunately, even though players are given the choice of which direction they move in – clockwise or anticlockwise – that is essentially what you have here. From a specified starting point, the players move to a space containing a key, then take that key to the door to win. Of course the other players are attempting the same, so are all trying to reach the key, regardless of where it is. If you land on a player carrying the key, you battle to see who keeps it. This offers some promise, although it’s simply decided on the throw of a die between the two players involved who gets to continue with the key.

The game me and my eldest son played for reviewing purposes lasted a fairly short 20 minutes, and during that time, we both managed to land on quite a few squares that made us miss turns, either missing our own turn, or casting a spell to freeze the opponents turn. The game still played through quickly because there were times when we both missed turns at the same time. I landed on the key on my second turn, and Ryan landed on the tub of butter square “That’s very random” he commented, as it had no effect on play whatsoever. There are other squares on the board which have the same non-effect on play.

I managed to lose the key in the dark, and Ryan landed on the strange force square so was able to collect it. His next move caused some confusion – overshooting the dragon door by one, he landed on the square sending him back to his starting square. I read this as the one where he started his move from, but he moved his piece to the shield space where he started the game. We accepted that option, although it is unclear which is correct. Somehow Ryan ended up landing on the troll square, and as a result had his movement restricted, although cleverly opted to use his single space to reach the magic mirror,taking him nearer to the exit, still holding the key. By a stroke of luck my own piece landed on Ryans, I won the key from him and on my next turn it was all over.

In summary, it’s an OK game, and play’s easily enough, which may appeal to younger children, but relies too heavily on the luck of the dice alone to make it a game with long lasting appeal. This appears to be the first in a series of medieval themed games, so I look forward to some other variants to encourage playing board games which are far more sociable than their electronic counterparts.