Lords of Waterdeep Description
The city of Waterdeep, in its endless depths, arcane machinations, and hidden scandals, is not run by the politicians who rule the noble class in public. You and your friends are the actual Lords, who run the underbelly and machinations of the city. Who among you will cleverly allocate their adventurers, agents, and schemes to claim dominance over the city of Waterdeep?
Lords of Waterdeep follows the adventures of various Lords who hire adventurers and deploy agents throughout the Waterdeep setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Accumulate as many points as you can by completing the endless list of quests, constructing buildings of all kinds, and sabotaging your rivals with your intrigue.
The Review
How do I summarize Lords of Waterdeep in a mere review? I guess the best way I can think of is this: it is the feeling of Chess, wrapped up in a neat little package of desperate clawing for Victory Points, followed by dragons, magic, swords, and tentacled monstrosities, all with the added pressure of a limit to your moves that keeps your strategic mindset on a constant overdrive. So, Chess, but even more nerd.
It’s a great game that tests your ability to think ahead, plan, and to outmaneuver your opponents to get to the places you want. Hire the right kind of adventurers, take the right kind of quests, and just maybe you’ll have enough points to right behind your partner that seems to go for the EXACT QUESTS YOU NEED-
Apologies. This game involves many small details that come together, so this review will strive its best to summarize and simplify the details of this political soiree that replaces House of Cards with the more fantastical House of Bards.
The two primary means of earning “points” is by completing quests and purchasing buildings. To complete a Quest, you pay whatever costs it demands. Pay it to the bank, the rewards are yours to obtain. “Buildings” create new spaces for Agents (yours AND your rivals), and accumulate more bonus points the longer they remain unpurchased.
The game revolves around players deploying their Agents to accumulate resources and new Quests, after which they all recall and start a new round once everyone has deployed every single Agent they could.
The game also employs an exciting mechanic known as “Intrigue cards”, which allow you “half-turns” and an ability to re-assign Agents later in the round. These are beneficial to you, attacks particular players, attacks the whole table and benefits you, etc. Intrigue allows you effectively extra rounds of moves that can potentially earn you more points, which is vital to your success. While Intrigue isn’t required to win, it helps immensely.
Lords of Waterdeep is a lot. It’s overwhelming to new players, to be sure, and the immersive setting is empowering to its themes and yet inhibits its readability. Personally, it required a “test game” or two for my group to fully grasp the many nuances of its gameplay. HOWEVER, this is remedied immensely with a Game Master who understands all of these minute machinations that comprise it. Give it a game, and the city will be yours to command, should you not have dumped all eight Gold you started with on a building no one even uses.
Do not be afraid to employ subterfuge and schemes to your advantage. While it employs no ongoing “trade” mechanisms like other games, it still requires a deft form of diplomacy to survive the onslaught of your peers. After all, would you sit idly by while your friend takes the Quest you’ve been eyeing this entire game? Would you really look upon a rival with disdain should they kindly offer you a “Good Faith” cleric at no cost? Lords of Waterdeep believes diplomatic relations are simple: support your friends, and bury your enemies alive underneath six feet of bureaucratic obligation so roundabout, it almost makes them wish you simply torched all of their buildings instead.
Friendship is expensive, though, and alliances are temporary. Do not be surprised if your friendship is traded for an extra Wizard or two.
All in all, I rate Lords of Waterdeep an extra Agent out of zero Gold I have left after spending it all on a Quest I picked up just to screw over my friend over that took the Quest I wanted earlier. Good game, needs some serious explaining first though.
Game Raiders Rating Scale
