Burn the towns and dominate the world!
Flashback to the first time we ever went to PAX: East. My husband and I stumbled upon this vibrant game all about DRAGONS! We were already hooked. In Dragoon, players take the role of dragons who have been angered by human interference on their land. Outraged, the dragons are on a mission to obtain the human’s gold by claiming their villages or burning them to the ground!
Whichever dragon’s cave is overflowing with the most gold at the end of the game wins! There are also a couple of expansions to purchase that can bring more players and new mechanics into the mix. Dragoon is such a simple, lightweight game with a lot of fun, tactile components that keep us coming back for more.
Mechanics: Tile placement, Randomness, Area Control
ART: 7/10
Dragoon is a simple game on a map with a flat, geometric art style. I generally love flat designs and neutral tones, and this game’s primary colors are dark orange and grayish teal. The complementary colors blend really nicely with each other.
Since the game is about territory, the geometric style is perfect for cartography. The simple black and white, minimal sketches are stunning and make me feel like a child in a fantasy world. The dragons and the fabric map also bring a nice pop of color to the experience.
STORYTELLING: 6/10
Even with this game being so simple, something about the art style and the plastic figures being replicas of dragons and their caves pulls me into a fantasy tale. The fabric cartograph immerses me into the ages of castles and dragons while the dark villages and bright city tiles continuously covering the land express a sense of infestation and annoyance to the dragons.
The golden skull and treasure chest also add to the theme of thieving gold. Though there is no character story, the cards you play throughout the game truly put you into the mind of a dragon whose land has been taken from them. You are soaring the skies or catastrophically burning down buildings.
The raid cards depict the villagers rising up and defeating the dragon to defend their lands. All aspects of this game were carefully crafted to create a unique fantasy experience for players. Pro tip: this is another excellent game to play beside some beautiful landscape with a pint of mead!
COMPONENTS: 10/10
I know I tend to purchase games with higher quality components in general, but this game has, hands down, some of the best components and user experience of any game I have ever bought. Bear with me; this might be a doozy.
Let's start with the box; it's much thicker than your average game. Once inside, the components insert is 100% flexible foam. Everything has a place, and each piece is protected by the foam. The cards are synthetic. There are golden geometric-like plastic figures for the pirate skull and his treasure chest. The village/city tiles are thick and double-sided with a nicely textured print.
The dragons and their components are also hard plastic figures: a tall dragon, a cave home base, a dragon skull, and several castle-like tower tokens. But get this, they EACH come with their own tiny canvas drawstring pouch.
But wait, there’s more. The board game board isn’t a board; it’s fabric! And if that wasn’t enough, the score tracker is also not a board. It's a massive canvas drawstring pouch to put the entire game into if desired! The front of the pouch has thick ink depicting the score tracker and the name of the game.
Did I mention everything has a place? The board and scoreboard can be nicely rolled up to fit into a nice small slot in the game box. Whoever would have thought? Oh, and one final thing: the rule book is nice and small but reads like a storybook, with one page displaying artwork and the other describing the rules.
If these components didn’t make you happy enough, don’t worry. At conventions, they sell transparent colored dragons (“ghost dragons”), as well as a “gold edition,” in which all the components are metal painted in gold, silver, bronze, and copper.
COMPLEXITY: 3/10
The rule book is relatively small, and you can only take three actions each turn. Though there are a lot of actions to take, they are all as simple as moving here, destroying that, and stealing from them. Not really much to it. The cards are pretty clearly described, and orange cards you can play on other players’ turns.
This game has quite a bit of randomness, so you never quite know who will win. There is some level of strategy since it is an area control game, and whoever is in last place gets to decide which player goes first in the next round. This could definitely impact how well your turn plays out. I don’t think there is a lot to “master” in this game, but there are ways to optimize and play well, so it is not as simple as roll, move-style games.
TRAVEL-FRIENDLY: 10/10
One of this game’s boards is literally a canvas bag large enough to fit all the components. The box is already small and the foam insert leaves me no concern about its beautiful parts getting damaged. Nothing is rustling around in the box. If you want to just throw the game into a backpack, you can do that too! Maybe less secure, but everything easily fits into the canvas scoring bag, so you can bring this game with you wherever you go!
Maybe a nice hiking spot with a break for lunch? Though I haven’t, I suppose you could wash the map and bag if they got dirty on your travels. We have taken this on every cruise as a great filler game waiting for dinner or having some time before the next activity starts.
UNIQUENESS: 8/10
I’m honestly surprising myself with this one. The game seems to have nothing to it; place a tile on a rolled coordinate, move around the board, collect gold, and that’s it. Yet I can’t seem to think of a single game like this at all. As someone who loves dragons, I don’t even have many games about this elegant creature. I am sure there are many, but this is based on my current experiences as a gamer.
As you’ve read, the components are astounding, which already makes this a unique experience to begin with. The tile placement mechanic is interesting, and the way dragons can claim or destroy them and take them off the board makes for unique gameplay every time. I’d definitely be interested in learning about other tile placement games like this.
Final Comments
I have nothing else to say but: buy this game. You will not regret it. The art, the theme, and the components are just beyond comparison to any other game I have come across thus far. Dragoon is excellent for lazy nights where you don’t want to think hard but still want to play games and have a good time. I also love that it can be bundled in a drawstring bag. However, I do want to make a note about randomness.
I don’t really like games with a high level of randomness like this game, as there is sometimes nothing you can do strategically to get yourself out of a bad state. That being said, the odds balance out that if you are unlucky at some point, your opponents will be too. My most significant pain point is playing this game with two players.
The area control aspect of the game can cause you to be so spread apart from your opponent that it becomes difficult to try and destroy their villages. The randomness can make for some one-sided games. Playing with at least three players evens the playing field, and the randomness is quite fun because you won’t know who will win until the very end. Having multiple other players’ territories to conquer or destroy allows you to come back from unluckiness easily.
Despite the difficulties with randomness, I am always down to play this game. Dragoon is beautiful and easy to set up, I can bring it anywhere, and it’s also an excellent entry-level game for newer players. I have tried the rogue and barbarian expansion once and have yet to buy Might and Magma, but I am excited to continue my Dragoon adventures in the future!
Mash Up Of: Scythe
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Publisher: Lay Waste Games
Game(s) Pictured: Dragoon
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