Re: Dragon Strike (in Depth)

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost on May 27, 2010; 6:40pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Dragon-Strike-in-Depth-tp5036968p5110027.html

SamuelF wrote

A very thorough review

Billiam Babble wrote

An engrossing review.  You do the game a lot of justice compared to the meagre offerings I just been clicking through on the web

Thanks guys, I decided it was about time some one did a proper review of DragonStrike!
Reviews I've read on other sites have been worryingly inaccurate or just solely concentrating on the video, so I decided mine should concentrate on the game mechanic and miniatures.

Talking of miniatures, you might surprised that there's something I forgot to mention ...
The base sizes and the amount of space the miniatures take up on the board. Most of the plastic Dragon Strike miniatures come on small not-quite-square bases very similar to the HeroQuest miniature's bases which fit nicely into (most of) the squares on the boards. But there are some exceptions; The Dragon is mounted on a double-long base (about the size of standard cavalry base)    and is designed to take up 2 squares and move around the board as show in the diagram below (from the Instructions Book)



the ManScorpion is also supposed to take up 2 squares and move in the same way, but due to the stupid design of the plastic miniature it's base in fact takes up the better part of 4 squares.



the Troll also has similar problem, it has a base only slightly smaller than the Dragon's base, but is only supposed to take up 1 square on the board.



likewise the Gargoyles are much to large to fit into 1 square as intended




I see this as further evidence that Dragon Strike wasn't properly play-tested in it's final form and maybe even have been made in a hurry in the hope that it would ride the wave of popularity that dungeon-games enjoyed at the time due to HeroQuest.

Billiam Babble wrote

In a home brew version of the game would it play okay if variable damage was worked out from the difference in Attack and opposing Armour rolls?  Perhaps only heroes could deal variable damage?

Yea, I don't seen any mechanical problems with that, but some monsters would die very quickly at the Warrior's blade, I think it's intended that killing monsters in DragonStrike takes a few turns, to encourage the players to think about negotiating (the DragonStike rules make a big thing of trying to talk to monsters before you kill them and take there stuff).
What might work better is to add some rules along the lines of Fighting Fantasy's Luck system, by which a normal successful hit knocks off 2 points of damage, but Heroes have the option of using their Luck to increase that to 3 if they can pass a Luck Test, but should they fail the test the blow only does 1 point of damage.

SamuelF wrote

 The boards in the D&D game and Dragonstike also seem similar in that they are both pretty, but they suffer from being way too static.

I'd disagree with you there, although they do have fixed walls and some fixed features (like the river of lava) the D&D Adventure Board-game boards are a lot more flexible (in fact more flexible than the HeroQuest board) because the positions of the doors are not fixed and the separate 2-sided 11x11 board sections can be placed on the table in a near infinite number of combinations and conjunctions. Where as the Dragon Strike boards have 1 fixed map per-side.

SamuelF wrote

Having to pick up each monster and squint at a little number on it is fiddley and rather time-consuming. I'm kind of surprised that the designers didn't catch this the second time round

Yea you'd think they'd have come up with something a little better, even little coloured and/or numbered stickers you could attach to the a flat part of the base would be better. The revised Talisman 4th edition used different shaped bases (Square, Triangle, Round, ect) to distinguish between different Toad miniature's. The other problem with having to pick up the miniature's all the time to look at the numbers is that in a large game it's quite easy to forget exactly which square you picked it up from, MageKnight and HeroClicks  have this problem as you need to pick up the “miniatures” to turn the dials on their bases and the rules for MageKnight recommend you put down a marker on the board to remind you where the model was standing.

The thought just occurred that a combination of the DragonStrike rules and the D&D Board-game's boards and miniatures would make for a pretty good game ... There are of course far, far better miniatures out there, but at least the D&D board-game miniatures take up the correct number of squares on the board.

Hmm ok, how about the DragonStrike Rules, the D&D Board-Game boards and the HeroQuest miniatures!

Billiam Babble wrote

be careful you don't become known as the world authority on DragonStrike! (sneaks off to add a this thread to the links on the Wikipedia page...)

In all seriousness if you want to add a link to this thread to Wikipedia's rather sparse entry on DragonStrike go ahead, anything that gets more people reading the forum is good for us.

Billiam Babble wrote

at the local tip the other day, I saw a massive skip devoted to video tapes alone!

you'd be surprised what you can do with old VHS tapes, check out: http://ironhands.com/h2ember1.htm

Billiam Babble wrote

.... Are you feeling hammy, tonight?

How hammy? Hmm?

Hammy enough to do hideous acting?

Hammy enough sneak around unconvincing sets in stupid outfits and chance become the next victim ... of a DragonStrike!      

I believe that's how the auditions for the video went!