Game publisher Corvus Belli is mostly known for their cool looking minis and variety of skirmish games. Infinity and Warcrow are their two big names, depending on whether you’re into sci-fi or fantasy.
But this year saw them delve into the dungeon crawler genre with Warcrow Adventures. It takes players to the world of Warcrow but gives them a cooperative campaign-based dungeon crawler. Were they successful in making the jump? Let’s find out.
Gameplay Overview:
In Warcrow Adventures, you will take your party of 4 (out of 5) heroes out on a variety of missions. Each mission will set you up with a goal and some narrative text. The gameplay is actually slightly different depending on whether there are enemies on the board or not.
When there are no enemies present, it’s exploration time. You can move to anywhere on your tile or an adjacent one. The main thing you will do is interact with various tokens: searching, exploring, talking with NPCs, etc… Many of these involve skill tests that will have you rolling dice equal to the matching attribute and inputting your successes into the app (if you’ve played Mansions of Madness before then this part will feel familiar).
Once enemies show up, things change a bit. The initiative track is a rondel, with each player and monster placing their token on the space equal to their initiative value. Each round, the arrow moves one space and any tokens on that space activate.
When a player goes, they have a move action and 3 action cubes to spend. Action cubes are placed on one to the six rows on their character card, with each cube placed granting them some kind of bonus or penalty. Some lines will take all three of their cubes, granting them only 1 action for the turn, but more bonuses, while other lines will only take 1 or 2 cubes, which grant more overall actions but usually come with some downsides.
Monster activations are controlled via the app directions but mostly boil down to move and attack. Attacks are handled via opposed dice rolls. While there are no blanks, there are hits, open hits, switches (shown as !), and open switches. For the most part, the open symbols won’t activate unless you have a power or item that allows it.
After a player or monster has finished their turn, their initiative marker moves spaces equal to their initiative value. So, depending on how slow they are, it might be a couple of turns before they get to act again.
Game Experience:
I’m always up for trying a new dungeon crawler, doubly so when they do something unique. And for me, Warcrow Adventures was a mixture of some good ideas and some areas that could have used more time in development.
The highlight of the game must be its unique combat activation system. I really loved how each character has 6 different rows to choose from with their activation lines. Usually, the top row will require all 3 of your action cubes but provide the most benefit–i.e. you get to attack and place your hunter’s mark for the ranger, or taunt for the dwarf. These are usually centered around your character’s key powers, so most of the time, you’ll want to hit these first.
But there will be other times when you are willing to trade off these bonuses to get more actions. If you have a monster with only a couple of HPs left and you really want to kill it, you might rather have multiple attacks. So, you head down to the lower rows on your action lines that only require 1 cube to activate and get extra attacks. However, that may come at the expense of delaying your initiative or losing a bonus power. It creates some really interesting decision points.
Which also piggy backs well into the initiative track system. Being able to manipulate your spot on the initiate track either getting more attacks or going sooner creates some fun moments. It gives players a bit of agency as they can see when monsters will be activating and decide how much they want to risk on a current turn.
Yet, where things tend to drop off is with the actual combat. Between the two different types of icons, the open and closed versions, the opposed rolls, and character/enemy powers, it’s just a bit much. You are rolling your dice, checking which symbols you get, checking if they are open or closed, checking if you have powers to let you use the open ones, then comparing your results to the enemies’ rolls… and after all that, you do 1 or 2 points of damage. While many times you can do 3-4 points of damage, it’s not all that uncommon for you to roll a pile of dice and plink 1 HP off an enemy. I think the dice system in general could have used some streamlining
5 characters come with the core game, and while they do follow the traditional fantasy tropes: wizard, ranger, meat shield, barbarian, healer—they also each feel pretty interesting. The cleric has an aura that can get bigger and boost her allies’ or even her own attacks. Then you have the barbarian, who can rage into more powerful attacks. Or the dwarf whose ability to taunt will reduce the monster’s attacks against your allies. All in all, the core group of heroes each felt interesting,
Warcrow adventures is an integrated app game, which I know can be a bit of a divisive issue. I’m app friendly, and for the most part, I had no issues with the app. It was updated a couple of times during my testing, so it feels like they are working on quashing bugs when they can. The app handles the city phase, which is a character improvement—narrative section between missions, and also tracks your loot.
Speaking of loot, killing monsters is a bit lackluster. You might find 1 coin, a piece of bone fragment, or some torn cloth. These can be turned in in town for actual items, but when you are in the midst of combat and land a decisive blow to fell a tough bad guy only for it to drop 1 piece of torn cloth, it’s hard to get excited about that. If a game like Massive Darkness 2 or Hellbringer is a loot piñata, this is basically the opposite of that.
Finally, let’s talk about the narrative. As I’m not a Warcrow veteran, none of these people and locations were familiar to me. The narrative text is a mixture of voice acted and non-audio for some reason. It’s also quite long at times, which really depends on your preference. I’m not one for large swaths of narrative texts, so our group tends to skim over those parts. But if you like heavy narrative bits, then this might be right for you.
Final Thoughts:
Warcrow Adventures had some great ideas and has some unique game mechanics that work really well. Yet other areas could have definitely used more time in development. I loved the action cube system, the characters were all interesting, and the initiative track was clever. Yet the combat itself had too many icons, felt somewhat grindy, and didn’t really have exciting rewards once you finally killed that monster. The rulebook was also great in certain areas (like combat) with deep explanations and examples a plenty. Yet, the city phase is regulated to a couple of pages and left us scratching our heads a bit.
Overall, I think Warcrow Adventures could be a great game with more development. But as it stands now, it’s a good dungeon crawler, but one you probably won’t be rushing to get in a genre with no shortage of options.
Final Score: 3 Stars – Has some clever and unique mechanics but stumbles in other areas.
Hits:
• The cube system creates some interesting decision points
• Each of the characters are interesting and fun to play
• The initiative track works well
Misses:
• Combat is a bit grindy
• Too many icons on the dice
• Rulebook could be better
