Pandemic in Azeroth – “World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King” review

Wrath of the Lich King was the second addition to the famous MMORPG World of Warcraft . More than 13 years have passed since then. Now the Lich King is attacking Azeroth again! But not with a computer game, but a board game! So it’s time to head back to Northrend and fight the Scourge of the Undead!

To arms!

To start your adventure with the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King board game , read its story. Of course, WoW fans know it well, but other users probably not necessarily. So let’s introduce the story briefly.

We are moving to the world known as Azeroth, and more specifically to one of its continents – Northrend, far to the north. This is where the Lich King has returned. Using the cursed Blade of Frost, he steals the souls of the living and creates an army of the undead, known as the Scourge, and intends to take control of the world. The heroes of the Horde and the Alliance are not going to let this happen, however. In times of great danger, they push aside all feuds and unite to defeat their common enemy.

Have I played this before?

This board game was created on the basis of the well-known Pandemic players . So if you know the system, you won’t have much trouble understanding the rules. Also, the less initiated should understand them fairly quickly. On the board showing the mentioned Northrend, place the undead in the form of Ghouls and Abominations according to the rules and drawn cards. We also place the Ice Crown and the Lich King himself. Then we add a few tasks that we will have to complete before we undertake the last mission, i.e. the final defeat of the title enemy. Once we’ve set everything up, we’ll choose our heroes. There are seven of them here, and each of them has unique powers that will make it easier for us to deal with the Scourge. Let us note thatWorld of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is a cooperative game, so we will have to work together to win. And so we can go to the game itself.

Our main task here will be to prevent the spread of the Scourge by eliminating the aforementioned Ghouls and Abominations and completing three quests, the completion of which will allow us to get to the main Citadel. This will make us receive prizes that will help us win. During his turn, a player will be able to perform four actions – move, attack an enemy, complete mission objectives, or rest. It will be up to him to decide what he will do, because he may, for example, move four squares, which will end his actions. If, in turn, he decides to attack, he will have to roll special, six-sided dice that will determine how much damage he will deal and how much damage he will take.

Finally, he will have to draw two cards. They are the ones that will allow you to perform special tasks. At the same time, there are two special types of cards among them. The first is the “Stronghold”. It allows you to place a building on the board that guarantees additional healing points and jump between them as part of your movement. The second is “The Spread of the Scourge”. It causes new Ghouls to appear on the board, the Scourge marker moves, the Abominations move to attack players, and the cards are shuffled.

And that’s what it looks like in a nutshell. If we manage to complete three missions, enter Icecrown Citadel and defeat the Lich King – we win. In turn, we will fail when the despair indicator reaches us at the very end of the track. It will move when one of the heroes dies or we run out of figures of enemies to add to the board or cards to be drawn, and when more than three Ghouls would appear on one field. So you need to hurry so that the Scourge does not take over Northrend and watch over the lives of your characters.

It is also worth adding that the game also has a single-player variant. If you choose it, most of the rules will not change. You control three heroes simultaneously and try to defeat the Lich King. The difference is that the pool of hero cards is shared, and you can play them for both the active character and those who are about to perform their actions. However, we can only place as many cards as the number of team members remains on the board. So if any of them died, we must limit our possibilities.

It’s performance!

As for the look of the game, it’s almost perfect. The box itself is eye-catching and will tempt World of Warcraft fans in the first place . Thanks to the cooperation with Blizzard, it even has the logo of the famous MMORPG and pictures taken from the game. However, it is the interior that makes the greatest impression. First of all, we find in it figurines representing the Lich King himself, Ghouls, Abominations and seven heroes, i.e. Sylvanas, Thrall, Liadrin, Jaina, Varian, Muradin and Tyrion. Each of them perfectly reflects the appearance of individual characters. By the way, here you can give a small minus and regret that they were not painted. They are only divided into yellow and blue. However, they are still incomparably better to the original Pandemicwhere we only had a few dice of different colors and markers.

In addition, there are also three foldable Strongholds and the Icecrown Citadel. They are made of cardboard and while the first elements may not make a big impression, the second structure looks really good. The board itself depicts Northrend in detail and we can feel as if we actually got there. Here, in turn, fans (including me) complain that the names of the places have been translated into Polish. This is something that gamers will never get used to, despite the passage of years and the publication of many books with translations.

Numerous details also deserve praise, such as a marker for a single player game that looks like a cursor in WoW , or an extremely helpful slider to count the remaining health of team members. On the character cards, in turn, in addition to the description of special abilities, you will find single quotes spoken by the heroes. Some of them are also well known to users of the Polish version of Hearthstone .

The hero cards should also be appreciated. There are as many as 63 of them and they have been divided into four groups – attack, healing, defense and travel. In many board games, where we have several identical cards, we find exactly the same pictures on them. Here, however, the creators did not take the easy way. Each of them is decorated with a different illustration, and all of them, of course, refer to a computer game. After spreading everything out on the table, it gives an amazing effect and certainly encourages you to participate in the game!

Only for fans?

As a long-time player and World of Warcraft lover, I am delighted with the board game, released in our country by Rebel. I think, like me, many other fans could buy this title, if only to add it to their collection of WoW related stuff . Both the box itself, and especially the figurines, can boldly go to the shelf so that you can brag about them in front of your guests. However, this is primarily a board game, not a gadget. Therefore, gameplay is more important than release. And this one can be safely described as very good. The rules are not complicated and after the first two or three games we won’t even need an instruction. Especially that the creators also threw in cards with the abbreviation of the player’s movement options.

Ponadto dzięki ogromnej losowości i dużemu wyborowi bohaterów i misji, gra prędko nam się nie znudzi, gdyż z pewnością nie zagramy dwóch identycznych scenariuszy. Sam poziom należy ocenić jako trudny i przyjdzie nam sporo pogłówkować, jak by tu pokonać Króla Lisza i Plagę. Można natomiast założyć, że podobnie jak w przypadku Pandemiithe problem at the table may be a more experienced player who takes over and starts giving orders to the others. Then we will become somewhat redundant and instead of enjoying a good time, we will be reduced to the role of a person who moves the figurine and lays out the cards at the dictation of someone else. So remember that if such someone is in your group, try to convince him to let you enjoy the game. Anyway, for such people a great solution will be the one-man option, which will allow them to fully play with their own tactics.

Returning to the summary, however, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is certainly a very interesting title, which will be reached primarily by fans of the series. The others may want to try their hand at Azeroth, but at the same time they can reach for a regular Pandemic and get pretty much the same. So they have to decide which version they prefer, although each one is certainly recommendable.