Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria Kickstarter Preview

For years the humans, elves, and dwarves have been slowly encroaching on your territories and slaying your kind in the name of progress. They’ve built their citadels, keeps, and villages over your homes and sacred spaces as they push you further into the darkness. Now is the time to rally your troops and lay waste to your oppressors and bring forth the reign of the Shadow Kingdoms!

You are a Warden of the Shadow Kingdoms, tasked with proving yourself to become the next General of the Dark Army. Use the resources of the Cavern Shrines to fill your army with ravenous troops and monstrous champions then send your minions out to ambush, clash, and lay siege to the entitled trespassers of Valeria.

Only one Warden will claim the title of General. Will you outwit your opponents and bring glory back to the Shadow Kingdoms?

Setup

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table.
2. Shuffle the Battle Plan (Brown) cards and place them face-down in the topmost slot to form the Battle Plans deck. Then, draw and place 5 Battle Plans face-up from the deck to fill each of the remaining 5 slots in the Battle Plans line.
3. Place Gems in the top-left Gem Shrine area according to the number of players. Return unused Gems to the box.
4. Referring to the chart below, fill the dice bag with a number of dice of each colour depending on player count. Randomly draw and roll dice from the bag so that each of the 5 Shrine areas on the game board has an equal number of dice as shown on the chart. Some dice will be leftover in the bag

5. Shuffle the Award cards (Purple) into 3 separate decks according to the glowing diamonds on the card back. Place 1 random Award from each deck face-up into each of the 3 slots. Return unused cards to the box
6. Divide the Champion cards into 3 separate decks based on the icon:

• • Instant (Marked with a Lightning Bolt)
  • Ongoing (Marked with a Two Arrows circling one another)
  • End-game (Marked with an Hour Glass)

Shuffle each deck separately and place them face-down in the marked slots on the game board. Fill each slot to the left of each deck with a face-up card from that deck.

7. Each player chooses a color and takes the player board, Warden, Score Tracker, and 10 Victory Markers of their chosen color. Then, each player places their 10 Victory Markers over all 10 of the spaces on their player board.
8. Each player randomly takes a Campaign board and places it to the right of their player board.
9. Each player places their Warden in the Camp area of their player board
10. Each player takes and places an Influence (Green Star) token on the “10” space, a Gold (Yellow Circle) token on the “6” space, and a Magic (Blue Triangle) token on the “3” space of the track on their player board. Return unused Influence, Gold, and Magic tokens to the box
11. Each player places their Score Tracker on space 0 of the score track.
12. Randomly determine the first player and give them the Start Player token. Going in clockwise order, starting with the player to the left of the player with the Start Player token, each player gains 1 extra Gold than the previous player (i.e., the 2nd player starts with 7 Gold, the 3rd player starts with 8 Gold, etc.) You are now ready to begin the game!

Objective

You are a Warden hungry for the destruction of Valeria. Visit shrines to gain troop dice and activate shrine powers. Recruit champions, gain gems and gold to fuel your war machine and call upon ancient magic to aid you in your glorious cause. Scout for battle opportunities and command your troops into battle to conquer the lands and earn Victory Points. The player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game will be declared the General of the Dark Army.

Gameplay

The game takes place over several turns starting with the player with the Start Player token and continuing clockwise. On your turn, you must move your Warden from its current location to another location.

There are 6 locations your Warden may occupy. One of the 6 locations in the Camp on your player board and only you may occupy this location. Your Warden starts the game in this location. Important: You may only move your Warden to this location if you can complete a Battle Plan. There are 5 Shrine locations on the game board: Gem, Magic, Champions, Gold, and Tactics.

When your Warden enters one of the 5 Shrines, you first take any 1 available die from the Shrine and place it on your player board, then perform the Shrine action associated with the Shrine. The die you take may affect the Shrine action you take by giving you a Discount.

DIE FACES: STRENGTH AND DISCOUNTS

Each die face has a different Strength value (top), a Discount value (bottom left corner), and a troop type (bottom right corner).

The Strength value is used when resolving Battles. Note: Some powers allow you to flip a die to modify your Strength value.

For easy reference, opposing sides always add up to 7 (e.g., the opposite side of “2” will be “5”). The Discount value applies only when taking certain Shrine actions. Note: The “6” Strength die face gives no Discount.

TROOP TYPES (DIE COLORS)

There are 5 troop types (die colors) in the game: Goblin, Orc, Skeleton, Gargoyle, and Gnoll. The Wild color icon represents any 1 of the 5 troop types.

Re-filling the Game Board with Dice

At the start of your turn, if there are a total of 4 or fewer dice on the game board, return all dice on the game board to the bag. Then, starting in the Gem Shrine and moving clockwise, randomly draw and roll 4 dice from the bag to refill each of the 5 Shrines.

Additionally, each face-up Champion card on the board is returned to the bottom of its respective deck. Then, new Champion cards are drawn and placed face-up in the slots.

Ending the Game and Final Scoring

Play continues until a player completes their 7th Battle Plan. So that all players take equal turns, the game ends after the player to the right of the player with the Start Player token has taken their full turn.

Players then gain bonus Victory Points from their Champion cards and 1 Victory Point per die on their player board.

The player with the most Victory Points is the winner! In the event of a tie, the tied player with the most Influence is the winner. If still a tie, then all tied players share the victory.

First Impression

My first impression of Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria is this is unlike the other Valeria games I’ve reviewed or played before. This feels more like a euro game than the card games I’ve come to expect and love from the expansions I’ve previously reviewed.

I’m excited and a touch worried if I’m honest. As this could be a big risk as board gamers can be creatures of habit, they don’t always like their games changed so drastically…. Let’s see if their risk is our reward!

Game Play

In the land of Lockdowns, this has been the hardest I’ve had to work to get people together to play a Valeria game. As I have so many friends that love the Valeria & Daily Magic games. The only issue I’ve ever faced trying to get people to play any Daily Magic Game is having too many people wanting in.  So, I put out an open call and just hoped that I could find anyone in my local area that wanted to come around. As I was writing this, I had one games night canceled & I still had no one to take up my offer.

Solo Playthrough

I decided to play the solo version of the game. I normally don’t like solo games, as for me it takes away what I love about board games. As whether you are playing together or outwit one another, It helps bring people together.

Also in the past, most solo games I’ve played are super easy or geared towards giving that solo player a less challenging game. It seems to allow us to get a vibe of the real game, but with a helping hand to get the ‘W’ more often than not.

I first sat down thinking let’s see how this plays solo, expecting it would hold my hand. Instead, the solo version of Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria cut off my arm and beat me with it! And I loved every minute of it. It is unforgiving, it is challenging and it is not going to give you a second chance. I highly highly recommend you play the solo version of this game, as it will not just make you a better player of the multiple player version of this game.

This is the first game I’ve ever played solo that I actually hated the other player. It didn’t feel like I was actually playing it solo, which is mindblowing! This is in massive part due to the beautiful design of this game & the solo version being a part of the game & not an afterthought.

As every turn, they just tick onto the next location, getting closer to the last locations where they would & could pick up some big points. It forces you to play them in a way you would any other player, but a player that is much better than you!

Do I want them to get those points? Should I sacrifice that and aim for this? Dam, if they get that, I need to push this harder! It was a true game of strategy, that challenges you to play and be your best. And of the seven times I played the solo version, I won once & only by 1 point on the final turn.

Multiple Player

The day I had planned to release this review (5th of July), I got super lucky and was able to organize a few people to come around. I had 2 newer board game fans and one of their friends that loves Euro game to finally answer the call. I’d only met these people a few times, but they were friends of friends and I had played with them at multiple games nights. I invited them over that night & delayed the review.

We sat down, went through the rules, set up the game and I slowly walked them through the game. Alex (the Euro Gamer), picked it up very quickly as expected, but my 2 newbies (Sarah & Dan) also had it down by halfway through the first game. I honestly think Sarah just read the rule book several times and paid no notice to me teaching them. We played into the wee hours of the night & were having a ball.

Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria is a very strategic and complex game but is not complicated. This is a beautiful example of great game design, highly challenging, well thought out without being overly complicated. While still perfectly blends the world of Valeria we have come to love, but giving it a level of depth that no other game in that series has done before.

Art

What can I say about the art…. The Mico! Literally nothing else needs to be said!

With a style that is so his own and recognizable from across the room, there is a reason why Daily Magic Games continues to work with him. He is as much a part of the Valeria world as the games themselves. His art style is so much part of the game, that you couldn’t have a Valeria game without him.

His characters are some of my favorites from any board game, & this game is no exception. His characters are amazing, but in this game, I really love the board! It is gritty, cave-like & yet his use of color is amazing. As each zone has it’s own color yet the way he has used them allows each zone to feel different but the same at the same time.

As most of my friends know, I have an unhealthy love affair with meeples! I have brought custom meeples for almost all of my games that I can find. Most times paying more in shipping than the actual sets themselves. And if the below proofs are going to be the meeples in this game, WOW!

Never underestimate what a custom meeple or tokens can make on a game. It seems small but it adds a huge amount of board presents and it helps players from a deeper connection with the factions. I’ve had a many a fight with people because I love the character art or meeples,

Final Thoughts

This is hands down my favorite Valeria game, and it is a huge step forward in this series. I hope we get more bigger and complex games moving forward. As I do love this series, but wanted something more from it.

Daily Magic Games definitely delivered that in spades. They were about to deliver something new and special but not lose the heart of their Valeria series. Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria is strategic and complex in its gameplay that adds so much to the world. Whether you are a solo player or with a group you will get so much out of this game

I have never said this before, and may never say this again. And this does not take anything away from the multi-player game. I would honestly buy this game just for the solo mode. It is that good!

If like me you would like to own a copy of Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria, and trust me you do! Head over to their Kickstarter here