Game Review: Arena of Heroes

My last post about Kickstarter was a nice transition into this board game review. Arena of Heroes is currently up, but I was lucky enough to snag a review copy of the game, just for you guys. I feel big time now. To check out the Kickstarter page, click here.

I wanted to give this one a fair chance by playing with gamers and non-gamers. So the box was opened, cards were shuffled and each group got to experience the game. Every turn you replenish your hand to 5 cards from a common deck. The cards allow you to move, attack, defend and equip items. Each player starts with 10 life and each successful hit takes off a point of damage unless in the center square, which is 2 damage. For the most part, you need to be adjacent to an enemy to deal attack. The rules are quite simple and the pdf version is available here.

Playing with my each group, the first few turns of the first game took a little while to grasp the concepts. In the middle of both first games, we had it down and knew what to do. There was a big difference though following that.

The gamer group is competitive, and so there would be turns where people were standing one space away for a few turns just recycling their hand or most of their hand for great draws. The non-gamers made use of what they had. I change my playstyle based on who I was playing with, and had a lot more fun with my non-gamer friends. We ended up playing more with that group as well because the games were shorter.

I had much more fun with my non-gaming friends because they are not as competitive. My gamer
friends didn't leave so much up to chance which took some fun out of it. I recommend this for the more casual gamers and non-gamer crowd. If you are competitive, it is also worth checking out. There is a short time left to fund it, so be sure to check it out soon.

Arena of Heroes Kickster Page (including an actual play video)