You may remember last month I reviewed Gunpowder Studios Dungeon crawler game called Bag of Dungeon (you can see review here) which is a great game for beginners and veterans alike.
Now Gunpowder Studios are back on Kickstarter with their new game called 7 Moons Heroes Of Dragon Reach where you venture to the lands of Dragon Reach and build your resources and make allies to fend off the impending Shadow Army.
Let's take a look.
7 Moons is a 2- 4 player game as see players as royal emissaries sent out to organise your city's defences from the on coming Shadow Army.
As you play through the game you will travel the lands to buy and sell resources such as iron, wood and stone to build your war chest which will go on to help build strongholds in your city or sell at the market to use the coin to buy allies to help fight against the Shadow Army.
Here is the contents of the core game.
Game play is set around characters which can travel the lands either by foot, horse or even a dragon. Each mode of travel has its benefits of extra dice for movement or the ability to hold more items.
As players travel the lands they can go on quests which can add extra magical items or gold to help you defend your city in the final battle.
There are also wilderness encounter where players could pick up items such as an invisible cloak which stops players getting robbed in the wilderness by thieves, a dragon egg or encounter something not too nice but fortune favours the brave.
As players travel though the lands they try and gain allies which include Dwarfs, Elves, Witches, Giants, Wizards and Barbarians.
These allies help in the final battle by giving an extra dice to help defeat the Shadow Army fighting your city.
As players wonder the wildness beware as mentioned players can get robbed of coin or even a resource if unlucky. To see if this happens you roll a dice and on a 1 players loose. If a player is riding a dragon however on roll of 1 the dragon is startled and flies away leaving players on foot.
At the start of the game each player gets a sneak peek at the Shadow Phase cards which will help in decision making and plans on who would be best to pay to be allies with in the final fight against the Shadow Army.
As players wonder Dragon Reach they will collect resources these can be traded along with items at the market.
The prices for resources can very turn by turn as the price for each item is set by a dice roll so players may need to hurry to get the best prices.
Players can also trade with fellow players as long as they are on the space space.
In the event that players end up having no gold or resources they can head back to their city and receive 5 gold coins to help continue the quest.
Playing a game of 7 Moons is a race against time as when players build a stronghold or gain an alliance the 7 Moon tracker goes down bringing the Shadow Army closer to the kingdom.
If players ready their city too far ahead of others this could lead to other players city's falling fast which could be a bad idea as players may need each others help in the long run.
Once players have traded, built defences and gained all the allies they can and the moon counter has reach 7 the Shadow Army attack.
The Shadow Phase deck is shuffled including the cards players have been able to see at the start of the game.
Each card is then flipped one at a time.
On the card there is a number for a Realm attack, a number for the City attack and the icon in the middle is the allies which is best suited to help fight against that monster.
If players have the ally that best fights the foe attacking the player can roll two dice if not its just one dice. If a player has a dragon players can re roll one dice.
All players roll their dice and add the total to try and match or beat the realm attack also players need to make sure in that roll they have one dice equal to the city attack too.
If all players roll and don't beat the realm attack number each player loses and need to either take away a stronghold or an ally but chose which ally to lose wisely as this it could effect future attacks as you may need the help.
If you do beat the realm attack but a player does not match or beat the city attack number then they also have to lose a stronghold or ally.
If a player loses both rolls bad luck you have to take an ally and a strong hold for each roll.
Players keep flipping the Shadow Phase cards until all have been used and the winner is the player who is still standing or the player that has the most victory points which are totalled by the amount of allies and strongholds are left.
That's a taste of the over all game play but if you would like to read the rules of the game in more detail you can view them here
As part of the Kickstarter campaign Gunpowder Studios has an option to buy a deluxe version of the core game which comes with metal gold coins, specially designed tokens and a luxury velvet bag as well as this there are planned stretch goals which include solo rules and a faerie expansion which aid you in you quest.
One of the stretch goals was to have the game playable on Tabletopia.
Gunpowder Studios has decided to release the game early on the site for you all to try.
If you would like to play the game yourself you can play it for free here
So my thoughts..
Gunpowder studios have yet again made a game and a rule set that is easy to pick up but has a lot depth and strategy that would keep players of any age engaged through out.
The game is well suited and aimed at the family game market but it also will be a great game to play with your gaming group as if you are looking for a strategy based game but don't want to invest lots of time reading rules and just want to play then this works perfectly.
The over all set up is straight forward and having all the information on each players card on how much it cost to buy things such as horses and allies and how much resources players can carry makes everything clear.
The game does not take up too much space so allows for dining room table gaming and if the 7 Moons box is the same size box as Bag Of Dungeon it will be easily transported perfect for holidays.
Through out the game there is plenty to keep players engaged not only with the main amis of building your defences and allies but options of quests and encounters. The help of a couple of Shadow Phase cards at the start of the game helps players get an idea of who may be best to ally with right at the start so it gives some idea of where to start and wont't feel like randomly walking around Dragon Reach not knowing what to do.
There is also the choice as a player of do you move ahead and just concentrate on your own city or do you work as a team to help fight off the Shadow army.
All these choices to make as the countdown timer of the 7 Moon tracker keeps running down so theres always that element of urgency.
If you are looking for a family game that has elements of resource management, strategy and adventure take a look at 7 Moons Heroes of Dragon Reach on Kickstarter until May 1st 2021.
If you would like to see the game being played Gunpowder Studios have produced a video showing you a typical game of 7 Moons.
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