Mike Haverty
United States
Owasso
OK
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This is the seventh session report in my ongoing Solitaire Journey. I've actually covered this game already in my CCG Journey as a multiplayer game, but we've been playing a ton of it lately at lunch at work, to the point that I bought a little somethin' somethin' to try out solo at home.
Also, SPOILER ALERT in case anyone is thinking of playing this dungeon and doesn't want to know what's in the deck.
The Game
World of Warcraft CCG is primarily a dueling game -- a head-to-head game with each player using his own deck of cards to defeat the other. Previously, WoW released something called raid decks. These allow a group of players to team up against a strong deck modeled after one of the iconic raids in the MMOG, such as Onyxia's Lair or Molten Core. Recently, WoW has come out with a new twist called a dungeon deck.
These are still modeled after instanced dungeons in the online game. This first set of releases include the Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep and the Scarlet Monastery. These differ from the raid decks, though, in that it is purely cooperative. Raid decks require one player to "play the dungeon" using the premade dungeon deck. In the Onyxia's Lair raid, for example, one player actually represents the dragon Onyxia. Each of the raids also has some rules unique to itself.
The new dungeon decks, by contrast, play themselves and have no special rules between each dungeon. Each features a "dungeon hero" that determines how many cards are turned up from the dungeon deck each turn. These cards are costless and enter play automatically, be they abilities or allies, so the higher the "flip" rating on the dungeon hero, the tougher it is. The dungeon heroes also level up as they inflict damage on the players, resulting in more attack, health and flip rating. After flipping cards, all the dungeon characters execute attacks against the randomly determined target player.
That's about it. The dungeons are designed to be played against 3 players using precon starter decks. In theory, you should also track the XP you earn in these dungeons so that your character (deck) can level up as well over the course of several dungeon plays, allowing you to customize your deck with additional cards of your choice based on the rarity allowed by your level.
I've been getting plenty of face to face play at work, but thought the idea of soloing a dungeon at home sounded good since it was all WoW all the time. I no longer had any out-of-the-box starters assembled, though. The rules suggest you simply start the dungeon hero at a higher level if you use your own constructed deck, but since I planned to try soloing it (rather than play multiple decks at once), I started at the beginner level. Being a little weird, though, I made a commons-only Druid deck to try out. Don't ask why.
The Play
I entered the Deadmines with Jasmia, Nature's Chosen. She's a worgen druid with 27 health and, after paying 4 to flip, an ability that heals all damage from an ally each time another ally enters play under my control.
The level 1 dungeon hero was "Captain" Cookie, a murloc of some renown in these parts, with a nature 0 ATK and 50 health. He also has Long-range (takes no damage from his target when attacking), Assault 3 (+3 ATK on his turn), Flip 2, and Level-up 10 (gain a level when a single player hero has 10+ damage on it).
Round 1
I dropped a quest and played a little 2/1 ally named Scaramanga. He didn't have Ferocity so that was it for my turn.
Level 1 Cookie has Flip 2, so I did so. First up was a frost ally named Vapor who was 4/2 with Stealth and Untargetable. That looked ugly already, heh. Next up was another ally, Defias Watcher, a 5/5 Mechanical Golem. His text was very interesting, though: When this ally is dealt damage by a raiding hero or ally, if this ally has exactly 4 damage on him, that character's controller gains control of him. I was pretty sure I had some 4-damage attacks in my deck, so I was looking ahead to trying to get control of this guy.
Neither of the dungeon allies had Ferocity, so just Cookie attacked me for 3 damage.
Round 2
I drew another quest and played it, then spent both resources on Nathar Wilderson, a 1/2 worgen druid ally with Protector and Aberration (takes no non-combat damage). I then sent Scaramanga after the Vapor and they both died.
Cookie's first flip this turn was "I'm Taking You All With Me!" It makes each raider discard his hand, then draw 1 card and take 1 fire damage for each discard. Ouch. So I discarded all 5 in hand, took 5 fire damage (8 total now), and drew 5 new cards. That sucked, but one of my draws was "Moonshard," a 4-damage ability I could use on the Defias Watcher next turn.
The second flip was a Defias Pirate, a 4/1 melee ally with Ferocity. Cookie attacked me for 3 damage (11 total now) and I had Nathar step in to protect against the pirate, both of them dying.
(Note: did Defias Watcher not attack me this round?)
Round 3
I dropped a third quest and then paid 2 for "Moonshard," dealing 4 damage to the Defias Watcher and gaining control of it.
Cookie has "Level-up 10" and I had 11 damage on me, so he flipped to the level 2 dungeon hero side, which is still Captain Cookie with all the same stats, except he went from Assault 3 to Assault 10. Wow.
I played "Maim" with my last resource to exhaust Cookie.
Cookie's first flip was "Defias Gunpowder." This entered play under my control, with the text: On your turn roll a die, destroy this item. Your hero deals that much fire damage to target hero or ally.
The second flip was another Defias Watcher. No attacks this round without Ferocity and Cookie being exhausted.
(Note: not sure why I didn't attack with Defias Watcher this round. At least I'm consistent, heh.)
Round 4
I was out of quests so I threw down a copy of Kor Cindervein as a resource this round, then paid all 4 of them for Ruby Protector, a dragonkin that gives all my allies Protector. I also used the Gunpowder and, since I rolled a 4 for the damage, directed it to the new Defias Watcher, letting me gain control of it as well.
Cookie flipped Lumbering Oaf, a 4/8 melee hobgoblin warrior Boss ally. The "Boss" trait has a special function in the dungeon decks: when a boss is on the table, you cannot attack the dungeon hero. Lumbering Oaf also had an ability called Summon Helix, which digs out another boss by that name and places him atop the deck, which I then flipped as the second card this round. Helix Gearbreaker is a 6/6 fire goblin rogue boss who is also Elusive, Ferocity and Untargetable while Lumbering Oaf is in play. Ugh.
Cookie attacked and I protected with one of the Watchers, who died. Helix attacked and I protected with the other Watcher, who died but did hit back for 5 damage.
Round 5
Placed "Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer" as my fifth resource, then played a copy of Kor Cindervein, and "Entangling Roots" on the Oaf. I was really just treading water at that point, heh.
The first dungeon flip was "MY FATE IS MY OWN!" which attaches to the dungeon ally with the highest printed health (Oaf, in this case) and the ongoing effect: When attached ally deals damage to a raiding hero, his controller discards two random cards. Good thing the Oaf was entangled already.
The second flip was "Nightmare Elixir" that attaches to a raiding hero, with the ongoing effect: dungeon heroes and allies have Assault 5 while attacking the attached hero. Sigh.
Cookie attacked and I protected with Kor, who died. Helix attacked and I had to throw Ruby Protector under the bus. He died, but did finish off Helix, who was worth 2 XP as a boss.
Round 6
I placed "Strength of Will" as a resource, then completed "Essence of Enmity," revealing five cards from my deck in search of an ally. I chose Ruby Enforcer and then paid to play him.
First flip was Defias Squallshaper, a 3/2 frost mage who hits each raiding hero for 3 frost damage when she enters play, putting me at 14 damage. The second flip was another Defias Pirate (the 4/1 Ferocity ally).
Cookie swung at me for 15 damage (his own Assault 10 plus the Assault 5 on the attachment on me), killing me.
I earned 5 XP for my first attempt at this dungeon, for a total of 7 XP. Just 3 more would let me add to my deck, were I using the starter rules.
That was relatively quick, so I wanted to make another go of it. I decided to try soloing with the commons deck again, but tweaked it a bit by removing the buffing attachments (no time for those) and adding more protectors and card draw, like Bizzazz.
Take 2, Round 1
Dropped a quest ("A Matter of Time") and played Kelsa Wildfire, a worgen ally with Ferocity, and hit Cookie for 1 damage. YES!
Flip 1 was "Cookie's Stirring Stick," a weapon that adds 3 nature damage to Cookie and also heals 5 damage when it enters play, putting Cookie back at full strength. Flip 2 was a Defias Watcher.
Cookie hit me for 6 damage.
Round 2
I played an ally as a face-down resource and then hit the Watcher with "Moonshard" for 4 damage, taking control of him. Apparently, I remember to attack with him this time, hitting Cookie for 6 damage with him and Kelsa.
Flip 1 was "I Always Excelled at Poisons..." -- each raider chooses and destroys allies he controls until he controls exactly one. I destroyed Kelsa and kept the badly injured (but 5 ATK) Watcher.
Flip 2 was "The Captain's Command" -- the dungeon hero does 3 melee damage to the marked hero (the hero with agro, which soloing is always me, heh) for each dungeon ally in play. Even though I controlled the Watcher, he was still a dungeon ally and in play, so I figured that was good for 3 damage on me (9 total). Cookie then attacked me for 6 more (15 total), meaning he'd level up next turn if I didn't get any healing.
Round 3
I drew and played a quest ("Rescue the Earthspeaker!"), played a Myrmidon Protector, and hit Cookie for 5 more damage with the Watcher (Cookie at 11 total).
Cookie leveled up, then flipped the Defias Squallshaper for 3 frost damage to me (18 total) and the "Defias Cannon." The Cannon is another one of those cards that helps the raiding heroes by entering under their control, with the effect "When an ally enters play under your control, it may deal 2 fire damage to target dungeon ally." Nice!
Cookie attacked for 13 damage, which I sent the Myrmidon out to absorb.
Round 4
Played a face-down resource, then payed 3 for Bizzazz, who let me draw a card, plus triggered the Cannon to kill the Squallshaper. My trusty Watcher swung for another 5 damage on Cookie (16 total).
Sadly, I flipped the Lumbering Oaf again, who brought out Helix. Cookie hit me for 13 damage, killing me. Brutal.
But you know, since I had all my cards out, I had to try just one more time. It went pretty similarly to the first two tries, though, including flipping the Lumbering Oaf in round 4 for the 3rd consecutive time. WTH?
The Verdict
I like the dungeon deck system. Yes, it is pretty tough to solo, heh. I have since tried it with 2 and 3 people, using constructed decks, and I think we're about 50/50 against it so far. I might eventually pick up another dungeon or two for those times when I feel like some solo WoW action, or as a sort of yardstick to measure deck performance, though it is limited in some regards, such as Stealth being useless because there are no Protectors in the dungeon (at least, I didn't see any) and you can't stealth past the Boss requirements.
Notes on the Journey
Total plays, and (plays since last report in parentheses).
Lord of the Rings LCG = 4
Free Trader = 4
Field Commander: Alexander = 4
World of Warcraft TCG Dungeon Deck = 3 (+3)
Space Hulk: Death Angel = 2
Pocket Civ = 2
The Kaiser's Pirates = 1
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Bryan Ward
United States
Houston
Texas
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Great idea, thanks for doing the write-up. Looking forward to trying out the dungeon decks with some folks soon.
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Lord_AndraK ????
Australia
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Thanks for writing such a detailed account of your solo attempt.
It's good to hear that a constructed deck has such a hard time, it promises to be a fun experience for just 2 constructed then.
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Mike Haverty
United States
Owasso
OK
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I think the dungeon works pretty well, and it's really nice not needing someone to play it the way the raid decks require.
Also, if you start at "beginner" level like I did and you beat handily, you can up the difficulty level. Basically, start the dungeon hero at a higher level (there are 4 levels in this deck -- the first 3 are versions of Cookie, and the level 4 dungeon hero is Vanessa VanCleef) and let it go first.
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fightcitymayor
United States
Pittsburgh
Pennsylvania
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Dammit, now you have me wanting to try this Dungeon thing solo.
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Don Hiles
United States
Maryland
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Cool write up and was just thinking about testing my mettle against one of these solo. Finally getting the chance to check them out multiplayer this weekend at an organized play event for a good distraction if I lose horribly in the tourney! Keep your series coming, the CCG Journey was great and I dusted off some of my old stuff to follow along!
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Julian Jimenez
United States
Antioch
California
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Sounds interesting. So you would need to have a dungeon deck and buy a starter deck separately in order to play? It looks like that would be in the neighborhood of $30 to $40. Would you say it's worth the price if someone was only interested in solitaire play? How would you rate the solitaire play of this compared to the Death Angel card game?
I was thinking of picking up all the death angel expansions to go with my base game, but this looks interesting enough to where I might want to try it instead of getting the DA expansions.
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Mike Haverty
United States
Owasso
OK
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Tough call. I think I paid $15 for my dungeon deck and starters can be had for $8-12 each. I think it is exremely hard, if not impossible, to beat the dungeon solo, so you'd probably need at least 2 starters. SHDA is better balanced for solitaire out of the box and has cheaper expansions. Of course, if you had at least a couple WoW starters, then you could also play the regular CCG game with a friend, and in the long run if you stick with WoW you'll have years of new content coming out. I doubt SHDA will have more than a few little expansions produced over the next few years.
If it matters to you, SHDA probably holds its trade value better, at least here on BGG where you're most likely to trade it, heh.
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Julian Jimenez
United States
Antioch
California
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Thanks for the input Mike.
I'll probably stick with Death Angel for now. Not worried about trade value though, I like to keep my games. Don't have many anyways.
I don't have any WoW cards already and not likely to play with any friends. None of them share my board game geekery. Only interested in Solitaire play.
How much replay value would you say is in a single dungeon deck and starter deck? If I went the wow route, would it grow tiresome playing the same dungeon and starter decks fairly quickly do you think?
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Mike Haverty
United States
Owasso
OK
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I like the dungeon deck as a viable solitaire alternative, particularly for someone who already likes the WoW card game, but I suspect if you kept playing it with the same starter that you'd rather quickly get into a rut of "this is how deck A plays best against dungeon X" and then it would be pretty much going through the motions. You do get to expand incrementally, though, with $15 dungeons and $10 starters whenever you want.
I think if you're looking at a CCG-like game to play specifically solitaire, then I think FFG's The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is probably a better route than WoW dungeon deck. The core set is $28 at ThoughtHammer, so you're looking at a similar price as 1 dungeon deck + 1 WoW starter, but the LCG core set has 4 decks (smaller than a WoW starter, but all playable), 3 different adventures, and scales better for solitaire play (and can play 2p coop or as high as 4p coop if you buy additional cards). You can play any of the 4 decks as-is solo, or you can build your own deck using all those cards, and there is an expansion pack each month for $10-15 if you really like the system and got tired of the core set. If you prefer Star Wars as a theme, then the Star Wars: The Card Game coming out later this year is supposed to be similar to the LotR game (in terms of solo/coop game systems).
I'm not sure if you've read all my session reports, but I covered the LotR LCG earlier in this series: Solitaire Journey Session 5 - Lord of the Rings LCG.
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