Duel of Ages

So the first board game I have bought on my new Board Game Kick is Duel of Ages. This game is freakin awesome!!! It generally takes 2-3 hours per game, so you gotta have a nice block of time if you want to play it. We have been playing after the kids are in bed.

Its a 2 team game. A team can be 1-8 players. Me and Amy have been playing it by ourselves. We did 2 player teams while we were in Idaho and had a blast.

The game is played representing 4 periods in time, the ancient, colonial, modern, and future.

Each team starts out with a pre-determined number of characters. We have been doing 6 characters per team. Most websites recommend 10 per team, but I cant even imagine the chaos that would cause, but anyway... You draw cards to select your characters. Each character is from a time period. You could draw Genghis Kahn from the ancient, Pyraxian from the future, Frostdancer - a chinese assasin from the colonial era, or Private Sanchez - a sniper from the modern era. There are about 45 characters in all to choose from, even Spartacus is in there. So your team will end being made up of random characters from all these different time periods.

The object of the game is to complete "adventures", which allow you to draw from the equipment pile, which is where your weapons, mounts, armor, and gadgets can be found. You then use all these things to destroy the other team in all out war. All the equipment is also from the 4 different time periods.

The equipment is what make the game very interesting. You could end up with Genghis Kahn on a Mountain Bike carrying a Particle Accelerator while wearing a Kevlar vest. Or maybe you get Cowboy Tex riding a Sumerian Chariot with a Gold Shield wielding a Compound Bow. The possibilites are endless. Some characters get certain benefits when they have the right weapons. Like Private Sanchez gets a bonus to his ranged attacks when he has a long rifle, or Annie Oakley gets a bonus to her ranged attacks when she has a revolver. Or Ace the Quarterback gets a bonus to his throwing ability (cause hes a quarterback), which makes him extremely dangerous when he has grenades. Geronimo gets a bonus to his ability to hide when he is in the bushes on the board.

Im telling you, this game is sweet. Imagine Geronimo with Hover Boots with a Samurai Sword and a Swat Team Riot Helmet while wearing camoflauge.

Its just plain crazy.

So basically you have to complete these quests on the board, and depending on how well you do, will determine how many equipment cards you can draw for that character. Then you run around with all your sweet gear trashing the other team's characters.

Anyway, me and Amy have been playing pretty religiously for past few nights and have just been loving it. There are 7 expansions to the game so far which add more characters, new types of land, new equipment etc. I know we are going to buy the next expansion which has bases, prisons, and even flying characters.

Oh, I also gotta mention, the gameboard is made up of about 12 interlocking pieces. Each piece has different things on it like buildings, tunnels, forest, water, rivers, lakes, fallen giants, etc. All these things have a play on what you can/cant do. At the beginning of the game you take turns placing the pieces.

So every single game has a different board with different characters with different gear.

Its never ever the same game.

Im tellin ya, its freakin awesome!