German board game called Legenden von Andor

[buddyCasino]

I discovered that there is a board game called "Legenden von Andor". It is done by a rather large company. It is a cooperative fantasy-themed game where you play a gang of adventurers. I wonder if the name is a coincidence?
http://legenden-von-andor.de/

Englsih description: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1273 ... s-of-andor

[oskarwiksten]

Nice find, buddyCasino!

It's also available on BGG (which is an awesome site for those that like board games btw):
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1273 ... s-of-andor

I doubt they had any connection to Andor's Trail when selecting their name. We're both placed in a fantasy setting, but that's about as far as I see similarities. It's probably as you say, a coincidence.

Nice find, though!

[Pyrizzle]

That's prerry cool! I wonder what the board game is like. Too bad I don't know any German.

[ncer]

I remembered this topic when I actually had the opportunity to play the game last Sunday. There are Dutch and English versions as well. The game is like the D&D boardgame, but rather than having a Dungeon Master the game sort of tells the story itself and does the guidance. It was pretty cool to play, but, not sure it'll remain interesting (we just did the final intro quest and I had the feeling you only need to figure out 1 thing to solve it, on the other hand, many others failed that quest and thought it was challenging).

Andor seems to be the name of the country btw.

[Pyrizzle]

I remembered this topic when I actually had the opportunity to play the game last Sunday. There are Dutch and English versions as well. The game is like the D&D boardgame, but rather than having a Dungeon Master the game sort of tells the story itself and does the guidance. It was pretty cool to play, but, not sure it'll remain interesting (we just did the final intro quest and I had the feeling you only need to figure out 1 thing to solve it, on the other hand, many others failed that quest and thought it was challenging).

Andor seems to be the name of the country btw.

Thanks for the update and review Ncer! I was very curious about that board game.

[ncer]

It sure is an interesting game. If you like a cooperative boardgame where you're killing monsters, solving quests, etc. (kinda the whole D&D thing), it should prove interesting. I would see if you can try the first normal scenario somewhere though. I got a feeling that's the one that should really give an indication of replayability. I understand that at that point monsters are spawned (semi) randomly, while in the intro scenarios nearly everything is predefined.

A weird thing about our intro scenario game was that we basically left the castle we were supposed to protect undefended and the enemies would have swarmed in in 1, 2 rounds at most. Flavorwise it felt really weird to win at that point while in "reality" we would have returned to a destroyed castle. We also faced 2 wolf-like creatures and basically just let them run into the castle because they were too hard to fight (in a 3 player game you get 2 "lives" to start with and if you manage to bring farmers into the castle you get extra "lives". When you're out of "lives" you lose: we basically fed the farmers to those wolves. I am not sure what the "lives" are called in the game itself.).

We had one somewhat more experienced player with us, I found the combat math a little confusing, but that may have been the explanation we got. I just let him do it and we seemed to win so I didn't complain . On the other hand, while he was the experienced player (he had played 3x), he hadn't beaten this scenario yet, if we followed his tactic I don't think we would have won. I do believe the ready to begin in minutes description I came across online may be pushing it a little. I'd personally be surprised if a decent explanation takes less than 20 minutes, particularly if you want to understand it well enough to actually win.

Apparently amazon sells the English version of the game:
http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Ga ... 1616615877

[Zukero]

I know I am resurrecting a rather old topic, but I bought this game to play it on new year's eve with some friends.
My wife & I have some experience with board games (played a dozen of them, but never a lot), and the other two players had none (save for card games and monopoly...).
The one thing I have to say is, it's really easy to understand. Not like other games where there's a 30+ pages rulebook that you need to read 10 times before being able to play, in this game, the first page tells you how to layout the game components on the table, and the second page tells you to start playing.

20 minutes after unboxing, we were starting our first quest. The first scenario is like an in-game tutorial, pretty well made.

We really enjoyed it, but lost the second scenario because we didn't look out for how the creatures would move : the castle was swarmed in a blink.

The base game box comes with 5 scenarii, and has blank cards for a 6th to write yourself.
You can find extra scenarii, either for free on the game's website, either in expansion boxes (German and English only so far it seems).
A new extension will be released in April 2014 in Germany to extend the game to up to 6 players (2 to 4 players only now).

Honestly, I really wanted it because of the name (in France, it's simply called Andor), but it's now one of my favorite board games, really easy to understand and play, but tough enough to feel the pressure of the challenge.
IDK if it's different in other countries, but the french edition is really nice, and comes with more than enough resealable plastic bags to keep everything in place in the box without having to sort all the bits and pieces when unboxing for a new game.

If you're looking for a fantasy-based board game, and especially if you're beginning in the world of board games (or want to introduce friends to them), I strongly recommend it !

[ctnbeh13]

I've always thought of Andor as a reflection of the available options to choose from during game play, such as you, the player, can do this, "and/or" that, to proceed. I have never asked Oskar what may have inspired his given choice for the title however.

[benjemin56]

It sure is an interesting game. If you like a cooperative boardgame where you're killing monsters, solving quests, etc. (kinda the whole D&D thing), it should prove interesting. I would see if you can try the first normal scenario somewhere though. I got a feeling that's the one that should really give an indication of replayability. I understand that at that point monsters are spawned (semi) randomly, while in the intro scenarios nearly everything is predefined.

A weird thing about our intro scenario game was that we basically left the castle we were supposed to protect undefended and the enemies would have swarmed in in 1, 2 rounds at most. Flavorwise it felt really weird to win at that point while in "reality" we would have returned to a destroyed castle. We also faced 2 wolf-like creatures and basically just let them run into the castle because they were too hard to fight (in a 3 player game you get 2 "lives" to start with and if you manage to bring farmers into the castle you get extra "lives". When you're out of "lives" you lose: we basically fed the farmers to those wolves. I am not sure what the "lives" are called in the game itself.).

We had one somewhat more experienced player with us, I found the combat math a little confusing, but that may have been the explanation we got. I just let him do it and we seemed to win so I didn't complain . On the other hand, while he was the experienced player (he had played 3x), he hadn't beaten this scenario yet, if we followed his tactic I don't think we would have won. I do believe the ready to begin in minutes description I came across online may be pushing it a little. I'd personally be surprised if a decent explanation takes less than 20 minutes, particularly if you want to understand it well enough to actually win.

Apparently amazon sells the English version of the game:
http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Ga ... 1616615877

Hello there,
Thanks for sharing such beautiful information with us.