Mage Knight Board Game: The Lost Legion (Expansion Set)

Reviewed by JD Woody, host of "Live and Let Dice" on adrenalineradio.com.For the purposes of this review, I am assuming that you are already familiar with Mage Knight Board Game from Wizkids and NECA. Most likely you know enough about this game to ask why on Earth there would be a need to expand it? And for whom was this expansion designed? Let me explain what scenarios and rules are added to the game, the new character, and the new components.First, you get General Volkare. He is the new enemy of the Mage Knights in this game, and he includes his own miniature (very beautifully constructed and designed and it has a clix base), as well as his token (similar to a city card: it indicates what type of attack he has given a mana die roll), and his round order token.You get a 20 page rulebook including a scenario list for how to play either cooperatively or solo (you don't need a dummy player now!) against Volkare. It also includes new enemy abilities (unfortified, cumbersome, elusive, assassination, multiple attack, arcane immunity) explains thugs and heroes, and new map features (walls, mazes/labyrinths, deep mines, and refugee camps). A few pages are also devoted to detailed game concepts, which is handy especially if you are teaching the game!You get a new Mage Knight! Wolfhawk comes with her own miniature, a deck of 16 basic action cards, command tokens, skill tokens, round order token, and shield tokens. Note that because this adds a fifth player, more components are needed therefore she has 20 shield tokens (instead of 15) and an 11th skill token (interactive, but cooperative). For the other Mage Knights, this means:All four of the original Mage Knights get 5 more shield tokens, and a cooperative interactive skill (which can replace the interactive skill you would remove in solo or cooperative games). In addition, each MK gets a new basic action card to make his/her deck even better!There are three more countryside tiles, two more core tiles, and a General Volkare camp tile to accommodate more players. Each of these tiles has the new features that are covered in the new rules. There are also 14 new mana tokens (3 of each: white, blue, green, and red, as well as another black and another gold token), another mana die, and 12 more wound cards.More cards! You get new regular unit cards (2x Utem Guardsmen have been replaced, and you get 2x Scouts, 2x Thugs, 2x Shocktroops, and 2x Magic Familiars), new elite unit cards (3x Altem Guardians have been replaced, and you get 4x Heroes, 2x Sorcerers, and 2x Delphana Masters), new advanced action cards (Agility, Refreshing Walk, Blood Ritual, In Need, and Magic Talent have been replaced, you also get 12 new advanced actions), new artifact cards (Banner of Fear and Horn of Wrath have been replaced, you also get 8 new artifacts), new spell cards (Whirlwind/Tornado, Wings of Wind/Wings of Night, Demolish/Disintegrate, Space Bending/Time Bending, and Energy Flow/Energy Steal have been replaced, and you get 4 more spells). You also get 8 new cards for day tactic, cooperative skills, and site descriptions. These are either for the new features or they are replacement cards from the original.More tokens! You get new city garrison, new draconum, new orc marauders, new ruin garrison, new monsters, and new mage tower garrison. You also get 3 new ancient ruins tokens!Nothing has been left out of this expansion. A new enemy gives an expansion to cooperative city conquests, as well as new cooperative scenarios to fight him, the entire game has been expanded to allow more players, there are more tactics and mechanics, a new mage knight for players to choose from, and a lot more variability with the deed cards. If the price seems steep, it is the best expansion you can buy and it is what it says it is and does what it says it is. Highest recommendation. Best expansion ever for the best board game ever.

Probably my favourite board game of all time. Big call I know, but it has so many elements to it, it is a rich, engrossing monster of a game. It is similar to the likes of Warhammer Quest, with the major differences being that the board represents the world outside, you're wandering the landscape and not dungeon-crawling and it utilizes a deck-building mechanic that work so well. Instead of choosing your strength (magic, brute force, archery), you have opportunities to use all these skills, with a focus on using mana to power them. Leveling up doesn't require thousands of gold pieces and a treacherous trip into town. How fast you level up is dependent on what adventures you undertake and how famous you become along the way. You can do good deeds for the people or be a tyrant, burning monasteries, etc. your fame will still increase but your reputation will suffer, and people will not want to follow you. Taking wounds is problematic, as wounds are then shuffled into your draw deck and you can do less on your turn with wounds in-hand. There are a bunch of challenging scenarios, seemingly impossible to complete in the beginning but dont give up! You will improve your skills at playing Mage Knight and soon you'll be throwing down multiple attack combos with all sorts of interesting and devastating effects. You can also recruit more units to fight alongside you as you level up (provided your reputation isn't too low). If you are an experienced gamer, like reading lots of rules, don't cry if you can't resolve everything in one turn, love RPGs, dungeon crawlers, and more complex deck building games, this game is for you.The Lost Legion expansion - Adds an incredibly powerful new Mage Knight who is now my favorite character, and provides the option of playing with 5 players! Which is perfect for my board game group. There are more challenging scenarios and a new dangerous NPC character with a legion of his own armies! Rule-tweaks, new monster and unit tokens, make the seemingly hefty price of this expansion worth paying for. It certainly has a lot more included than a typical game expansion.