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When I actually started reading the game description I was even more intrigued. "Battlecon captures the head to head intensity of an Arcade fighter and tempers it with a strategy card game." Who was I kidding they had me at Arcade fighter but wait theres more. "34 heroes and villains to choose from including a guitar playing summoner, a pair of tag-teaming werewolves(sold) prodigy paladin, a genius artificer and more!" What the fuck could that more be!? How much was this more? Well it had a MSRP of 75 duckets and that's not chump change so investigation was needed. Off to the youtubes for further information and Tom Vasel was leading the charge with the hard sale review. When that gorgnard said that this game is in his all time top games I was kinda taken aback. Im not even the biggest Dice Tower fan but he was saying all the right things in that review to further pique my interest. Now for the purchase!
If only it was that simple! I guess everyone else had watched his review and snapped up all the copies or followed the Kickstarter and got there copies that way. It seemed as if all of my favorite haunts were dried up! No copies to be found anywhere except for the publisher itself(Level 99 Games) and Amazon(also lvl 99 those sneaky devils) I slept on it for a day and when I seen there wasnt any restocks in the near future I pulled that Amazon trigger. I figured I would drive myself crazy with unboxings and reviews for the estimated two weeks it would take to deliver to hold myself over but to my surprise 3 days later I had my package! Already Level 99's head honcho D.Brad Talton got a on my good side. Fast shipping is usually enough to win me over and when my 8 pound beast arrived it came with a little package of extra goodies! A little thing I have learned in my time kids is if your gonna pay full price for a product try and do it directly from the company. More often than not it usually has its perks and at the very least if its something you really like at least the right people are getting the money.
9 times out of 10 when I purchase something online I get it delivered to my place of work and drool over it through out my work day. This monster was killing me because I knew I had to do a proper unboxing when I got to my own home after work. Did it disappoint? Check out my unboxing right here!
Dungeon Slingers Unboxing
When a game has a hefty price tag I usually only shell out the monies if there are miniatures involved. A fairly pricey card game at that had me quite skeptical especially since I like to believe my best days of Magic are behind me. Ive played some Netrunner with a buddy and thought that was pretty good for a big box card game. Ive even dabbled with Call of Cthulhu and a couple of other card games from FFG. I like them enough but never enough to get my own copies. Now would I be burned by this relative unknown publisher(to me anyways) or did I stumble upon a diamond in the rough all on box art and Tom Vasel? You be the judge.
Objective: Battlecon: Devastation of Indines is actually a sequel to the very popular BattleCon War of the Indines card game. This game at its core is supposed to fully emulate the feel of a one on one arcade fighting game. Meaning its a fight between two players trying to knock out the other players fighter to win.There are also some slick variants that let you get all kinds of different flavors of fighting game within this one box. The popular tag team fighters like Capcoms Vs series, the team modes like King of Fighters(3v3 turn based), or the full blown melee of a Super Smash Brothers(2v2 ) are all accounted for in some form. They even went as far to try and recreate the super tough end bosses and secret characters right out of the box! The game is meant to be fully compatible with War of the Indines so any of the characters can battle from either game without any issues. In my opinion this game most resembles the Arc-System games series Guilty Gear and BlazBlue. These series both have large cast of characters that are very unique in play style. Its as if each character has his own gameplay mechanic that changes the system a bit. Of all of the fighting games that exist I feel that the Arc-Systems games are what this game is striving most to be like being that they are both fantasy fighters.
Whats in the box? Upon opening this chest of loots I found two rule books, a myriad of unpunched tokens, a nice game board, stand holders, one card envelope for each fighter, a pack of oversized arena cards, five giant dials for life and time,and five giant stacks of game cards. I also want to point out that the box had a plastic insert. Like it or not I always would rather have one in my game boxes than not have anything. Im talking to you Fantasy Flight Games!!
On paper that seems like alot of stuff but what exactly is all of this for? Starting with the rulebook I for one enjoy a nicely laid out set of rules that is full colored and has good examples. If it has a table of contents and a functional index im pretty much sold. This sucker is a thing of beauty. It is full color with a pretty big tutorial laid out for you with some nice chibi comic art to start you out. Its kinda fun and works pretty well for this game because the rules arent all that complicated.The tutorial has two of the fighters having a fight/conversation about how to play the game. The lay out is a little clunky but it is totally functional and gets you into the game fast enough. Now if comic chibi manga characters telling you how to play isnt your thing then right after this section is a normal rules layout that everyone can understand. I really like the extra effort that went into the comic sparring match though. There is only about one page of game lore on at the start of the manual and each character has a quote but thats about it. Its enough to whet your taste buds but if your like me I love some good fantasy lore and wish there was more of it included in the box somehow. Regardless if you go to there website there is tons of art and info in the Battlecon section so its out there. I just wish it was in the manual. 1st world problems...
The next item I want to talk about that is included is the game board. The first time I seen it online I got to say I wasnt all that impressed with it. I got what they were going for with it. Its the world of Indines in map form. After looking at it up close I warmed up to it a bit more. It is a pretty nice map and evokes memories of my favorite anime of all time Record of Lodoss War. Just at first thought when I think of fighting games in general I like all the different locations they take you too and was hoping for something like that included in game board form. After I played on it a couple of times and really started to think about it. Having just one or two arenas that you played on would really narrow the games vision down. It really wants you to get immersed into the world they have created. The characters they have created come from all over this vast world and only having one or two game boards would not do it justice. So the world map lets them cheat and use your imagination to be at any of these locals.One thing I really love that this board has is a player turn sequence on each side. Love it and if you cant include a turn order card this is the next best thing. It might even be better because it takes up less table space. On a side note I myself may create one or two of my favorite arena boards if the inspiration hits. Im hoping they do a couple of different arena game mats like they have character mats available now.
Now after you get the hang of the game included also are 12 Arena game cards that basically add on some fun rules to your game. These are kinda of awesome because they are double sided and start with a set of rules on one side and when the card tells you to flip it there is another piece of art and more rules to screw up your well laid plans. All of my complaining about the board just being a map got put to rest after I opened these up. I followed the insert and manuals directions of only adding a little bit of the game at a time.I didnt start playing with the arenas but after they were added I feel like they add three things to the game. More replay value, another layer of rules variants and lastly another piece of the lore puzzle within the World of Indines games.
Now onto the real good stuff and why anyone would get this game to begin with the actual fighters. In this box alone there are 30 fighter kits! Maybe to some people(I have no fucking clue as to who they are) 30 fighters doesnt seem like alot but to me that is a ton of choices. Now I know what your gonna say next " There probably just a player card with a special rule or two right?" Wrong you are because in reality there are 30 characters included all with tokens and cards that make each play very different. Each one really is a whole new play style. A player kit includes an art/player rules card, a reference card, style cards,unique cards, finishers, and an envelope which tells you what other goodies you need to play said character i.e. specialized tokens or extra character cards.
Wait there is more... also included are several different sets of base cards. There should be one standard set for each player and a couple of variants for different types of play.Also the 4 life dials and time dial that are included to keep track of wounds and what turn you are on. I also dont want to forget the ton of tokens both specialized and generic for game use. Not to mention the 34 double-sided character stands with the art of your chosen fighter. 5 black stand holder are included to put the punch out stands in. If thats not enough stuff i dont know what is but to be honest I feel like im forgetting something. You get the point.
Base Cards
Set Up: The set up for BattleCon is as long as you make it for yourself. If you are an organized game nerd like myself that finds a way to separate your cards and tokens in a fairly easy to find manner you are probably going to to be fine. Organization is key to getting this game into heavy rotation on any table. Use the plastic insert to the best of your ability and you should be fine. Some people have taken there game to the next level and created there own custom inserts. All im saying is do what you gotta do! Dont get lazy on the minimal level of organization other wise set ups going to be a bitch and no ones going to want to play with you.
The actual game only needs you to pick a character. Get said characters kit which may include cards and tokens. Now if you are super indecisive and cant pick one of the the 30 playable characters this is going to ad to your set up time. Your also going to grab a set of base cards, player stand up, and life dial. After you have done this you are going to discard two pairs of cards to the recycle stacks. Place your stand up on one of the two board start points. Then whatever start of game maintenance your character has. Thats it now your ready to rumble.
Mechanics: BattleCon stands for Battle Connection Fighting System and this entire game functions off of one simple but super interesting mechanic. The Attack Pair, its the bread and butter of this game. This simple yet elegant mechanic has you the player select one style card and one base card and create an Attack Pair. Thats it, you are slave to the attack pair each turn of the game. The style card is your chosen fighters special move that he attaches to a base card which is a standard set of cards that both players use. For example using Eligor Larington one of the poster boys for the game and one of my favorite fighters lets you create a Attack Pair.
If I took one of his style cards Vengeful and combined it with the base card Strike I would have the Attack Pair Vengeful Strike. Each of these cards has several important rules that you have to implement when you play them. From top to bottom you have your badass attack name Vengeful Strike. Moving down you have your attacks range which are found by adding the base number and the styles modifiers together. Vengeful Strike has a Range so its a close range melee attack. It has a very respectable Power of 5 which is the amount of damage you do to your opponents life dial which by the way starts at 20. Next up is what gets the fighting fans juices flowing the Priority. In this game it determines turn order.Just like the first two numbers you ad the Style and Base together and determine your Priority for the turn. Who ever has the higher number acts first.
Each Style and Base card has more text below the stat numbers which also build upon each turn of play. Everything written on each card is an important component of each turn. For example first up on these cards is another important mechanic Stun Guard. Each of these cards has a Stun Guard number so im going to add them up to get Stun Guard 8. Thats pretty huge but what does Stun Guard do you ask? When ever you take damage in Battlecon you are stunned if you do not have a Stun Guard to absorb the amount you have taken. For example if I would take 5 points of damage I would move my life dial down 5 clicks but I would still be able to react because of my massive Stun Guard of 8 from Vengeful Strike. If some how I took 9 points of damage though I would lose my activation this turn.
Next on the Vengeful card is a passive ability which is a rule that applies to Eligor this beat. On Vengeful any movement abilities your opponent would try on you this turn have no effect.
There are also other effects that happen within each turn at certain points but all the info you need for your turn is on your and your opponents attack pair. If you go down the line and follow the Priority and turn sequence order you shouldn't have any problems. Thats not to say there isnt characters that arent very tricky and really screw up this nice game flow. Attack Pair beautiful in its simple yet frustrating combo.
Gameflow: You pretty much got the gist of gameplay in the mechanics section of this review. Each turn each players pick an Attack Pair. Then during the Ante Phase they ante tokens, cards, or maybe even a Finisher to modify this turns Attack. Each player reveals there Pair and follows all rules that apply. Usually this means your character is racing up and down the game board. Your jumping over your opponent, jockeying for position, making long range attacks or melee rush downs. The Mind games in Devastation of Indines are incredible. You are pulling and pushing your opponents character all over the 7 spaces of game board. That doesnt seem like much but when you picture yourself in a 2D fighting game plane then it is plenty. The game last for 15 turns which are called Beats. This is another clever nod to fighting games (Guilty Gear in particular) which calls there combos beats but in Devastation it is a game turn. Most games wont last the full 15 Beats but will go until one player has K.O.ed the other players 20 life point total. 20 life points seems to be a real sweet spot that must have been rigorously tested because you really can get a feel for your character within this time. A buddy and I tried to play with 10 life and it wasnt nearly as impressive as the full 20 life. The game also recommends each Duel to be the best of 3 falls just like Arcade fighting games.
Odds and Ends: BattleCon Devastation of Indines is choked full of extra goodies and game modes its a wonder if you would need any more than this one box. There are 4 boss battles right out of the box! These are multi-player variants where 2-4 players team up to take down a big bad. Each one of them is super tough and should not and I repeat not be attempted until you fully have a grasp of a character or two. Try em too early and you will not only get a severe beating but have a bad taste in your mouth for days. I heard things at my game table like "Not doing that again." and "I dont think I like this anymore!" After everyones butts stop hurting and you come back to your senses you realize that its pretty cool that its even included. I wish there was some way to play them within a story mode or tournament finale but thats for you to figure out. As it stands you just try them when you are ready.
Other game modes include tag-team which lets each player make a team that swaps back and forth throughout the battle. A favorite at my table seems to be the 2v2 multi-player mode. Not the games most functional mode but with a little scotch tape it works just fine. Its just harder to plan your next move when you got 2 players breathing down your neck. Even your teammates abilities may screw you over but man is it fun to see in action! The Dungeon mode called Battle Quest which lets you take a team of fighters through a meat grinder which is for 1-4 players. I havent even tried this out yet because it too is supposed to be super hard and ive been playing just under a month.
Also included are EX and Almighty modes for each character. Basically you will switch out the standard Base cards and replace them with either the stronger EX bases or uber Almighty bases. Your character will also get some new powers that are referenced in the rule book. The EX version of a character is equivalent to a tag-team of fighters while an Almighty character is equal to a three man team. Its pretty crazy stuff that I have not tried myself. All of this and because I ordered my copy directly from the source I received a bonus pack of promo cards that had extra characters and bosses. If thats not enough for you there are secrets hidden right inside of the game box waiting for you to uncover them just like a video game. I dont know what else you could want in a box other than someone to play with.
Dungeonslingers Final Thoughts: Its no shock that if im doing a review for a game its usually for one im in love with. It hits alot of the right notes for me being that its a fighting game, has a nicely crafted fantasy world that has a anime type feel, the Art is pretty spectacular for a 3rd party publisher and the rules are pretty tight. If you are like me and enjoy fighting games and board games this one is a must own. If you dont like fighting games because you just arent very good at them this game evens the playing field for everyone. No longer do you have to struggle with difficult button inputs, long combos, frame counting and precise timing. Im not saying that there isnt timing and tension in this game but the physical ability to play an arcade game like a pro is not needed. Just good solid tactical know how and someone to play with is all you need.
The setting won me over as much as the gameplay to be honest. It oozes Record of Lodoss War(personal favorite) combined with Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, a dash of Queens Blade, a smidge of Vampire Hunter D, and a little Full Metal Alchemist for good measure. Basically there are several different kingdoms and factions that all have their own agendas within the world. Its not really one set tournament but lots of duels by traveling champions. Its a combination of high fantasy with dragons and wizards alongside Steampunk, artifacts,high tech weapons,robots, martial arts masters and monsters. Whats not to love?
The art has a nice twist between a Anime style and a lush style you would find in a video game art book. Its pretty good if you like that sort of thing. Lucky for me I do.
Now if you dont like competitive one on one games where there is a winner and you could face crushing defeat after defeat this might not be the game for you. The more you play this game the better you will become. Its that simple.
Does it feel like an arcade fighter? It tries its damnedest and it has all of the trappings but when im really focused on playing it feels more like a card game. Not that its a bad thing because believe it or not it actually is a card game! Now for your own enjoyment I recommend that after you have broken your brain each turn picking an Attack Pair that you actually take a step back. Walk through what you did that turn in your head and tell your opponent that you jumped over him and used an awesome move. "I just threw my fucking sword at you and dragged you back with Chained Shot!" You could probably be a little more tactful with the way you explain things but thats the way my friends and I play. It just adds to the fun of being immersed in the world. Its probably the Dungeonmaster in me that finds it more fun than just saying "I move you and hit you. take 3 damage." Lame...
Is it fun? If you like fighting games or a good strategic card game then I cant recommend this game enough. It has a super addictive quality that I cant remember the last time I have felt this way about a game. I just want to play round after round of it. Im thinking about it when im not playing. Hell it made me dust off my joy stick and play some of the old fighting games I own. Hell I went and bought new fighting games like Blaz Blue Extend and Persona Arena just to try and quench the thirst for blood I have now. I devoured the lore that was scattered about online.Its been just under a month and I havent slowed down. I strong armed the game onto my group and no one complained one bit. The funny thing is since I play with 3 of my buddies on our lunch break we usually just squeeze in a 2v2 multiplayer game and its still really awesome. On the dark side of the spectrum though I played one game with my wife and beat her narrowly and she never wants to play it again. It is a razors edge my friends so be careful when introducing it to others. Learn from my mistakes and in case you were wondering no I didnt beat her brains out. I only had four life left at the end and got a narrow victory.
Crazy enough is that not only did I just stumble across this game recently but a Kickstarter just went up for a remastered version of the first game BattleCon:War of the Indines. Which im rabidly following as well.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/level99games/battlecon-war-remastered
If your still skeptical and dont know if you like that sort of thing D.Brad Talton the man behind the game itself urges you download the free Print and Play demo version found on there website or near the top of the kickstarter. Give it a try.
Final Review: I love fighting games and I love this game. Period. Be wary of playing with people that do not take loss well. You will feel the burn and maybe loss of friends.
Scale of 0-10 Quarters spent: 0= I wouldnt play this game once and 10 = Ive run out of money and have to go back to the change machine because its that damned good.
BattleCon: Devastation of Indines: 10 Quarters if you like competitive fighting and card games. It is worth the money and then some.The box is crammed with all kinds of fun probably more then most people will ever get to.
Roberto Bontemps
Dungeonslinger
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