Previewing: Dragon’s Hoard

So many games out there involve dragons. Because, well, dragons are pretty cool. However, so many of these games seem to be based around avoiding the dragon, killing the dragon, or dealing with the dragon’s wrath.

How about being  the dragon?

As it happens, that’s exactly what Dragon’s Hoard is offering.

Dragon’s Hoard is a remarkably simple card-based game where players are dragons looking to amass the greatest hoard of treasure. This is done through cards. These cards in fact:

 

If you have ever played Ticket to Ride, you’ll be familiar with the basics of how this game works. There is a deck of cards that you will draw from that contain a number of different colored sheep. Every turn, you’ll get to draw (read: steal) two of these cards from the deck. Hey, a dragon’s gotta to eat. On the back side of the cards will be a handful of different types you can use in gameplay, but the majority come down to Treasure cards and Action cards. You’re allowed to use up to one of each per turn. You get Treasures through paying for its cost (on the left hand side) by discarding the amount of cards (sheep) of the appropriate colors, and then you place that treasure in front of you. The game ends when someone reaches 10 Treasure cards. Each Treasure has a point value, and at the end of the game the dragon with the biggest valued hoard wins. We don’t want to know what happens to the losing dragons.

Your alternative to discarding some of those sheepies is to play those listed as Action cards. Each of them do different things, such as drawing additional sheep, stealing sheep from other players, or forcing a player to skip their turn. And there are Action cards you can use to counteract those effects (unless there’s a pesky wizard involved), but you are spending that card resource to do it. So, you are constantly having to weight the usefulness of playing a card for its Action ability, or using its sheepie resources for your newest piece of loot.

Dragon’s Hoard is a fun, concise game that offers exactly what it looks like. And the artwork looks great. Dragon’s Hoard is like Ticket to Ride without the trains – but in a good way. The premise of the game is amusing and flavorful, it can be learned in just a couple minutes, and the games are relatively short. (Which is probably good since dragons aren’t known for long attention spans.) You are constantly having to weigh what cards to play versus what cards are better used as resources, and it is that mechanical tension that drives the game forward. Kidnapping sheep to do so is just sort of a bonus.

If this sounds like something you’d be looking to add to your own hoard, check out their Kickstarter page.