Friday, August 5, 2011

Game Closet Reviews: Quarriors!

Come out to Pla-ay!
With GenCon rolling around this week, I have to admit that I'm a little bummed to be in Sacramento rather than in Indianapolis (probably the only time in my life), surrounded by geeks of every shape, size, and smell playing every board game that will be released in 2011.

Despite being home-bound, I still feel like I have a leg up on a whole bunch of those nerds because I've been playing a Game-of-the-Year contender that'll just be hitting store shelves in the next week or so.

"Quarriors!" continues to ride the deck-building card wave that was caused by "Dominion's" cannonball into the gaming world, but adds a unique twist.  Actually, 130 unique twists; because in this deck-building game, "Quarriors!" uses dice instead of cards.

Delicious Game Bits
18 sets of uniquely crafted D6's are included in the base game of "Quarriors!" that will be drafted into your velvet bag to be shaken, drawn, rolled, and played in the hopes of eliminating opponent's dice and keeping yours around long enough to score points on your next turn.

Dice sets are split up into three different categories - Basics, Creatures, and Spells.  The Basics are your standard fare - currency (here, called "Quiddity"), Assistants that give you a basic creature or the opportunity to re-roll, and Portals that allow you to draw more dice than your basic hand of 6.  Creature and Spell dice are accompanied by Power Cards and each dice set has three different cards. Players will randomly draw of the three cards to use for the dice set for that game - eventually drawing five different Creatures and three different Spells.  Each card tweaks the Creature or Spell's abilities a little bit, making each game very different from the last.  This is part of the genius design of "Quarriors!" - though the dice may stay the same between games, the powers and effects that each of the die have change depending on which card they are tied to for the game.  Even though there are only (only?) 18 sets of dice to choose from, 15 of those sets have three different cards each - that's 45 different skills and abilities for all of the dice sets, and the combination between those sets are...

... well, I'm no mathemagician, but sufficed to say there's variety.

Not to mention that my mind explodes with the possibilities of expansions - both with new cards for the standard dice, as well as new types of dice and new cards.  Though I'm certain to be satisfied with the initial card/dice selection in "Quarriors!," I'm also certain to be picking up any expansions as they are released.  Afterall, the die-shaped tin that the game comes in has more than enough room for many more dice.

Players all begin with the same dice which are rolled; Quiddity will be used to summon any available creatures to the Ready area or to purchase additional dice from the "Wilds."  The Creatures that are summoned will immediately attack all other players' creatures in the hopes of destroying opponent's creatures and preventing them from scoring.  Spell dice can be attached to any creature and spells can be stacked onto the same creature to increase the chances that he'll stick around until the player's next turn.  If the creature manages to survive until the player's next turn, that creature will score points according to its card,  then be placed in the discard pile, and the player will have the ability to discard, or "cull," a die from his discard pile.  Six new dice are drawn again, play continues until a specific victory point value is reached or four of the creature draw piles are exhausted.  Play moves quickly, and most Creatures don't stick around too long to create a runaway leader.  This leads to quick back-and-forth games that, though ultimately dependent on luck, can require some forethought into what should be purchased in order to ensure the strongest Creatures on the board.  The ability to roll your dice while a player is finishing up his turn allows a game of "Quarriors!" to move quickly with very little downtime; 4 players can easily wrap up a game in 30 minutes.

Is this a game that is going to be the centerpiece to an all-night game-a-thon? No.  But you'll be hard-pressed to only play once in an evening.   Between "Quarriors!" and "7 Wonders," you've got a pretty satisfying evening of quick and enjoyable gaming.  In fact, with two sets of the game, there's no reason why "Quarriors!" couldn't be a 7 player game to compliment along side of "7 Wonders," something I'll have to consider doing in the future.

Let's talk about presentation for a moment: Publisher, WizKids is no stranger to attractive looking components, having built an empire out of their "-Clix" line, and "Quarriors!" is no different.  The dice are beautiful, with wonderful color choices and levels of opacity.  Seeing the dice all spill out together and rolling handfuls of them fill me with an unidentifiable joy - achieving a level of tactile pleasure that I would never get from playing the same type of game with a deck of cards.

Defender of the Pale
The art on the cards and die are light and cartoony - which appropriately matches the overall aesthetic of the game - "Quarriors!" does not take itself too seriously, as evidenced by it's packaging and it's goofy "Q" naming conventions.  Personally, I find this refreshing as compared to the boring theme of "Dominion" or the too-serious high fantasy of "Thunderstone" or "Ascension." "Quarriors!" is Saturday-morning fun, which should appeal well to the 'Tween and up set.

Some concern has been made about the size of the dice.  Granted, they are smaller than a standard D6, but I have no problem with that - their slightly smaller size makes it easier to hold a handful of them, and since I pretty much cut my born-again gaming teeth on Heroscape (which are the same size as a Quarrior die), I feel right at home.  Besides - you get 130 of them for $50! What are people griping about?

Really, the only minor (and I do mean minor) gripe I have with the game is the metal-tin-for-a-box.  Though I like the fact that they made it look like the dragon die from the game, it doesn't sit neatly and uniformly on my shelf.  More practically, there are easier ways to carry the game than in its metal cube.  For my purposes, I store the game in a Plano container that easily fits into my messenger bag, and put the tin in the garage; if you're going to be taking "Quarriors!" places, you might want to consider the same. 

My unmitigated recommendation of "Quarriors!" does come with one mitigating factor: luck.  The nature of the game in itself is one of randomness - the dice you draw are random, their resulting values from the roll are random.  If you're one of those people who can't enjoy the peaks and valleys of dice-based games, then "Quarriors!" is not for you.  But one would think that in advertising 130 dice on the cover of a self-proclaimed "dice-building game," "Quarriors!" is going to find its intended audience; if you end up buying the game and disliking it because of its random nature, you pretty much only have yourself to blame.

Otherwise, "Quarriors!" gets an exuberantly enthusiastic recommendation from me - just make sure to keep those candy-like dice away from small hands; if I have trouble not gobbling them up, what chance is there for a toddler?

Check out more "Quarriors!" deliciousness by visiting WizKids' website.

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