Elden Ring: The Board Game Review

Elden Ring is simply a campaign committee game, meaning you and your chap players advancement done a bid of scenarios, leveling up and improving your characters arsenic you play done the story. Steamforged Games has created 3 of these “campaigns” for prospective Tarnished to take from – Realm of the Grafted King, The Weeping Peninsula, and Stormveil Castle – with Grafted King serving arsenic the larger “base game” and the different 2 arsenic standalone expansions. These expansions tin beryllium tackled connected their ain oregon played aft Grafted King, allowing you to transportation implicit your characters and proceed their adventure, increasing ever stronger successful the process. Depending connected which container you purchase, you volition person entree to antithetic classes, including the Vagabond, Samurai, Astrologer, and Prophet successful the Grafted King (base game) box; the Hero, Prophet, Astrologer, and Bandit successful Weeping Peninsula; and the Confessor, Prisoner, Samurai, and Vagabond successful the Stormveil Castle box.

This crippled is an imposing thing, arriving successful ample boxes filled with fearsome-looking monster miniatures, hundreds of cards, cardboard tokens, tiles, and a plethora of books containing rules, combat maps, and script guides. It’s 1 of the astir intimidating games successful my collection, made adjacent much terrifying by the information that I lone ain 1 of the campaigns – I person yet to get the different 2 boxes oregon immoderate of the bonus brag sets that tin beryllium added in. For specified a ample game, Steamforged has knocked Elden Ring retired of the parkland successful presumption of accumulation value, featuring immoderate of the astir elaborate miniatures I’ve seen, on with great-feeling cards and sturdy cardboard components.

Scenarios travel successful a fistful of varieties that bash a bully occupation of keeping things fresh, truthful you’re not doing the aforesaid happening back-to-back. However, not each script benignant lands arsenic good arsenic others. Narrative scenarios inquire you to work paragraphs of story, take antithetic actions to instrumentality (potentially making accomplishment checks), and past gully the due paper to spot what happens. While these are well-written and I admit the inclusion of accomplishment checks, this benignant of script didn’t bash overmuch for maine – if I wanted to bash a clump of speechmaking oregon storytelling, I’d simply work a publication oregon play Dungeons & Dragons.

By far, my favourite are Exploration scenarios, which excellently seizure the tone of find and the feeling of ne'er knowing what lies beyond the adjacent elevation – thing that astir defines the root material. In these scenarios, you and the different players research a portion of the map, flipping and placing random tiles arsenic you enactment to implicit assorted quests. Tiles tin incorporate enemies, items, Sites of Grace, oregon different surprises for you to uncover and instrumentality vantage of. I’m a large instrumentality of the “grow arsenic you go” attack to representation instauration successful committee games – whether it’s successful Betrayal astatine House connected the Hill oregon Clank! Catacombs – arsenic it enhances some the consciousness of find and the game’s replayability owed to the random quality of tile placement. These scenarios connection a balanced premix of everything Elden Ring has to connection – combat, story, and exploration – without feeling overwhelming.

The remaining 3 script types are strictly combat-focused: Gauntlet, Dungeon, and Boss scenarios. Gauntlets propulsion you into incredibly hard encounters with mobs of enemies and peculiar rules sprinkled in. Dungeons are akin but culminate successful a beardown brag astatine the end. Finally, Boss scenarios – wherever you and your friends quadrate disconnected against the game’s existent threats – are the eventual trial of your builds and teamwork. Between these scenarios and the encounters you stumble upon portion exploring, Elden Ring is simply a combat-heavy experience, which isn’t a atrocious happening considering that the combat is truly solid.

Combat takes spot connected grids formed from ring-bound notebooks included with the game. Some fights necessitate aggregate books to beryllium laid retired successful a multi-page spread, creating a battlefield wherever players and enemies determination strategically successful their conflict to decision 1 another. Attacks with spells and weapons person specified ranges, but depending connected the enactment you’re lasting in, players tin summation further boons – specified arsenic dealing other damage, modifying crook order, oregon blocking much effectively. My friends and I often recovered ourselves heavy successful deliberation implicit positioning, trying to past the onslaught of incoming attacks. Alas, adjacent our best-laid plans often led to our demise – due to the fact that the enemies successful this crippled are TOUGH.

Basic enemies each person a paper displaying their actions, with symbols indicating onslaught placement, movement, and different mechanics. It takes immoderate clip to get utilized to what each the symbols mean, but it’s manageable. Once an force has taken its listed actions – oregon passed if it can’t fulfill each the steps – its crook ends. That's straightforward and comparatively casual to manage. Bosses, however, are terrifying. They person full decks of actions, each with its ain spot successful the inaugural order. Sometimes, you get fortunate and their attacks onshore last. Other times, they pounce connected your enactment earlier you tin react. It’s brutal and unforgiving, but acknowledgment to scalable wellness pools based connected subordinate count, the fights ne'er felt unfair. Every brag conflict was breathtaking and afloat of tense moments wherever we held our breath, hoping to stagger the brag oregon dodge a devastating attack. Despite conscionable being miniatures moving connected a grid, the combat offers astonishing extent and strategy that makes it shine.

One facet that whitethorn astonishment players is that Elden Ring forgoes dice entirely, opting alternatively for a card-driven deck-building experience. Players play cards from a platform dictated by their equipped weapons, skills, and gear. However, harm dealt and mitigated – on with peculiar effects similar Bleed – are determined by a abstracted Attribute deck. Different Attribute cards incorporate symbols representing Strength, Dexterity, and different stats, with onslaught and defence decks favoring definite symbols implicit others.

Character progression is simply a halfway constituent of run committee games, and Elden Ring is nary different. Similar to the video game, not lone tin you level up your people for caller abilities, but you tin besides customize your quality by swapping weapons, armor, accessories, and Attribute cards, arsenic good arsenic expanding wide stats done Trait cards. This is each managed via the Rune system, which functions arsenic an instrumentality load limit. Your full Rune number increases arsenic you advancement successful the campaign, allowing much customization. However, the tracking method is lacking – Steamforged provides tiny Rune cards to way your total, but they aren’t abundant capable for each subordinate and adhd to the paper clutter. A elemental tracker, similar the 1 utilized for health, would person been acold much effective. As it stands, the champion method is to way Runes connected paper, which feels clunky. Hopefully, a amended solution volition look from the assemblage oregon Steamforged itself.

Despite Elden Ring’s strengths, my archetypal acquisition was frustrating – not owed to the crippled itself, but due to the fact that I started with Stormveil Castle, the 3rd campaign. While technically a standalone expansion, it assumes your characters person completed earlier quests and starts with adjustments to gear, runes, and decks. This made it overwhelming to acceptable up for caller players. I powerfully impulse anyone funny successful this crippled to commencement with Realm of the Grafted King.

Where to Buy

• Get it astatine Steamforged Games

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Originally posted:

Mar 6, 2025 8:39 pm