Village Attacks Review, Play In Under 90 Minutes
Village Attacks started as a Kickstarter Campaign by Grimlord Games and was funded in just 90 minutes. We know, crazy. They’ve since done another campaign for an expansion which funded just as quickly. There’s no doubt the campaign was a great success for the guys at Grimlord, but it was also a success with our very own board game enthusiast, Allen.
Convinced you can play pretty much every mission in under the same 90 minutes each, he’s written an in-depth review covering the setting, gameplay, component quality, and shares his final thoughts on the game. He also backed the expansion and can’t wait to let you know all about that one too!
Let’s get into the review!
Village Attacks Review - Setting
You know when you don’t always want a game that takes four hours to play. I mean sometimes you want an epic session that goes on all evening, but it can be nice to play something a bit more immediate. Well, Village Attacks falls into that category - almost every mission can be played in under 90 minutes
Essentially a Tower Defence style game, you play as one of five classic Monsters - each has a different play style - defending your castle against a horde of angry Peasants with pitchforks.
Clever combinations of skills yield a welcome depth of tactics, which you need to apply as the game gets going and things start heating up.
It’s an easy game to learn and plays one to five, with the Villagers being AI-controlled much in the same way as Zombicide with continuous spawning. Add to this Hunters, usually gunning for a Monster whom they're exceptionally effective against, and Town Heroes with multiple wounds and special skills (to spice things up some more) and you'll be sorely tested trying to keep your ancestral home free of invaders.
Village Attacks Review - Gameplay
Your Monsters will take actions dictated by a roll of six action dice. Beware!
One side of the dice activates a villager, bringing them inexorably closer to the Heart of the Castle. The other sides allow you to make ranged attacks, melee attacks or be reserved for defence or retaliation. Some of your skills may require the allocation of dice as well and the way you utilise your roll will be vital to attaining victory. As the game ramps up in difficulty, you can level up your monster through kills, adding or upgrading skills to keep those pesky Villagers at bay.
There are plenty of missions to keep you occupied, with a variety of different mission conditions.
The first five missions are effectively a tutorial, each introducing another element of the game and carrying over your Monster’s level from the previous game. It’s quite a clever concept to teach a game, and not one I can readily recall other games having.
Once those initial five missions are out of the way, there are a variety of different scenarios and challenges that you can pick and choose from, resulting in games of varying length and difficulty. Because of this, no two games play precisely the same, so there is a lot of replayability.
This is also a game where you can always add something extra, should you need to. Played through the main scenarios? Add the Night and Day dice (found in the core set). The Night and Day dice make Villagers more powerful while the sun shines and your Monsters come to the fore under Moonlight.
If you’re interested in how these dice work, check out the Gray Board Gamer’s videos below:
Even once you have had your fill of that, there are a variety of expansion packs available which introduce new Monsters and Heroes, new enemy types, and even a Troll (which randomly rampages through the castle attacking Monster or Villager as it sees fit).
Be sure to visit the Board Game Geek listing for more player recommendations and replayability ratings!
Village Attacks Review - Quality
The design of the game is excellent, and the quality is superb, the miniatures are highly detailed, and the player boards and cards are of a pleasing standard. Player boards come with some lore and design sketches on the back, which is a nice touch and is indicative of the care that Grimlord Games have put into the product. Even the coin that comes to randomise events is metal and weighty, not cheap plastic.
Some of the tokens are perhaps a touch too small for my liking; however, there are plenty of them - their size is the only gripe I can muster!
One could also argue that the combat is a bit simplistic with no roll to hit or wound required, but that is simply the kind of game that it is and as a Tower (or in this case Castle) Defence game it’s perfectly suited with depth and strategy as deep as the deepest darkest dungeon.
Sam Healey also reviewed the game on The Dice Tower Youtube Channel, he gives his opinion, pros and cons too - give it a watch here:
Village Attacks Review - Final Thoughts
There’s no denying, as a Board Game, Village Attacks is a blast to play. And, as a pickup and play game with minimal setup and micro-management, it’s hard to beat.
If you’re interested in purchasing the core game along with some Village Attacks expansions, you’ll find them available to buy here.
I hope you enjoyed this review of Village Attacks as much as I did writing and playing it!
