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- Verified Buyer
Read other reviews for gameplay details, this review only comments on the differences in this set from earlier versions. That said, this is a great edition of Dungeon Lords that has everything from previous sets as well as some additional perks. These include metal coins, stickers for all the wooden pieces, a helpful new token for the adventurers, and bard song tokens. I really loved the bard's lute tokens to differentiate bard effect from coins to make it less confusing and prevent disputes about where a loose coin came from on somebody else's turn and who it belongs to. He little plastic token boxes were also a great addition, as they can double up to bank out of to keep pieces from sliding around.The box itself has great organization of all game elements. It is quite large for you game shelf, but is really worth it.For Dungeon Lords fans, this box is the definitive edition. One other perk, it makes all game components new, so the expansion tiles wont stand out if your original set was purchased at a much earlier time like mine was. I was also able to donate my old copy and expansion set to my local game store so more people can now enjoy Dungeon Lords in their collection!Dungeon Lords rank amongst as one of my favorite board games of all time. If you never owned the original games, this Happy Anniversary edition is a highly recommended place to start. It not only comes with the original base game and its various expansions, but almost every single game component had been remade to be more robust and are very high-quality. Visually, this game is a beauty to behold from all aspects.Dungeon Lords is definitely a game made for devoted gamers, as its complexity and depth may turn away a lot of causal gamers. But if you like constructing an economic engine that attempts to overcome all odds that the game AI will be throwing at you, then you surely cannot go wrong with a masterpiece such as this.Great game and the extra pieces for this edition are very nice.It's the best game EVEEEER !Dungeon Lords is a worker placement game created by Vlaada Chvátil and published by Czech Games Edition. The game supports 2-4 players and the Happy Anniversary edition of the game includes the Festival Season expansion along with premium components such as metal coins and additional decal stickers for game components.The game is played across two years divided into four seasons (rounds) of play as each player does their best to setup the best dungeon. This is done by hiring monsters, building rooms with additional benefits, purchase traps and dig tunnels. The whole time the heroes will start to gather at everyone's dungeons based on how evil everyone is with stronger heroes braving more evil players. But they won't attack until the end of the year, so seeing them gathered above your dungeon is both a threat and also a map for planning your strategy.However there are several constraints in how actions are selected. First they involve a deck of cards with the different action spaces and players nominate three cards they hope to accomplish. The caveat is that from prior turns two of those cards remain locked thus your options are limited. Then there's the action board itself that typically has one less space available than the number of players. Thus even if you played the card, turn order and card sequence may result in you getting locked out of the action you wanted to do since everyone else has gotten there first.What I Liked: The game has so many moving parts that managing it all can leave you feel pretty proud of yourself regardless of what the heroes end up doing to your dungeon. And that's where a lot of the fun between players really kicks into gear once you realize that you may have wasted an action card since everyone has taken the action slots you wanted to do.Then the actual hero attacks is when everything comes together. Similar to Vlaada's other game, Galaxy Trucker, there's not much you can actively do to help your minions defend your dungeon so it becomes more about how well you prepared your dungeon specifically in anticipation of the heroes that had gathered above your home. And let's face it, things have to be slanted in favor of our heroes so the dungeon lords can only really make the best out of an inevitably bad situation.And this anniversary edition really adds a nice feel to the game given the beautiful metal coins and other bonuses. It's a great bundle for a clever game.What Could Be Better: The many elements of the game are both its greatest joy and perhaps it's biggest hurdle. The learning curve for this game is a pretty steep and we've had to invest a lot of time in teaching new players how to play. And the real fun won't come in until players get to a point of comfortable experience - something that won't happen even after your second play. It's just one of those games that are pretty daunting but you are pushed to try harder because the theme and experience is just so fulfilling.The limitations of actions is a clever move but it tends to result in very limited dungeons there's definitely that urge to want to end up with more complex dungeons. The room placement rooms are a lot harder to accomplish because of the reality that you won't be able to explore as much as you'd like. I understand it's control mechanic that ensures dungeon growth follows certain patterns so your dungeon at year 1 has a chance to defeat the heroes without being too strong. But a guy can dream, right?TL;DR: Dungeon Lords: Happy Anniversary is a great collection and also probably the best way to experience the game. It's not the easiest game to dive into but it does offer a very fulfilling game experience in the long run that you'll want to come back to.The game is amazing, and the box it comes in is really well designed - perfectly fits everything, all neatly organized. Only thing is, mine was missing one of the player boards! Returned it, and got a replacement a few days later that came with all the pieces, so that turned out ok in the end. Highly recommended.Heavy and well made Great game tooFast shipping and great productThis is a really fun game - and really hard. There's a lot of replayability and fun to be had, with really good balance. Haven't tried the expansions yet but they look really fun.Dungeon Lords is better than expected because I already have Dungeon Petz. My family of 5,from aged 6 to 43 years old, love to play this game.
