Board Games Top 10: Featuring Villainous
Everyone loves a good villain. Sure, justice and honor are great and all, but you gotta admit it feels so good to be bad.
The Weekly Board Games Top 10
“The Hotness” on BoardGameGeek is a list of the currently most popular games, as based on views. This week brings us these winners:
| 1. Tiny Epic Mechs |
| 2. Root |
| 3. Villainous |
| 4. Gloomhaven |
| 5. Inis: Seasons of Inis |
| 6. Everdell |
| 7. The Stygian Society |
| 8. Brass: Lancashire |
| 9. Terraforming Mars |
| 10. Spirit Island |
The Hotness this week has a fair number of regulars that we’ve seen before: Gloomhaven, Terraforming Mars and Spirit Island. Just off the chart at #11 is Azul, riding not quite high enough off of it’s Spiel des Jahres win.
It was a close decision on whether to feature the newest entry in the Tiny Epic series of games or Disney’s new game, Villainous. But as much as I do love the Tiny Epic games and as great as that game looks…. I mean… c’mon, this is a no brainer, right?
Who is the more exciting character here? Can you even NAME the prince??
Villainous
Villainous is a competitive card game featuring hand management and take-that mechanics with a Disney villain theme.
Each player takes the role of one of the classic Disney Villains. Ursula, Maleficent, Captain Hook, Jafar, Queen of Hearts or the literal best one ever, Prince John.
A lot of games will offer unique player abilities and decks, but Villainous goes beyond that and grants each player a unique victory condition. This asymmetric gameplay is very difficult to find and I, for one, am a huge fan on the idea. However, it does make the game difficult to explain as drives and goals are different for each player. Still, basic turn order remains unchanged. Each player’s board has a number of locations found within that villain’s realm.
The player will note their location within their realm using their colored Mover, which represents their character. On each turn, the player must move to a new location within their realm, then may activate any or all of the action icons on that location.
One of the main mechanics of the game is the Fate deck. Each villain has a Fate deck which represents the heroes of the story and their attempts to thwart the villains at every turn. When a player takes the Fate action, they may draw from the Fate deck of any other player and add one of those cards to that player’s realm. The Fate card is placed covering the top half of the location in which it is placed, which prevents that player from using those action symbols when they move their on their turn. The Heroes will have to be removed before the player can gain access to those actions again.
After taking any and all chosen action from their location, the player draws back up to their full hand size and play continues.
Once a villain has completed their personal victory objective the game ends and they are the winner!
From Wonder Forge
Villainous – $49.95 – Available August 2nd
In this epic contest of sinister power, take on the role of a Disney Villain and strive to achieve your own devious objective. Discover your character’s unique abilities and winning strategy while dealing twists of fate to thwart your opponents’ schemes. Find out who will triumph over the forces of good and win it all!
- 2 – 6 Players
- 45 Minutes
- Ages 10+
~I borrowed a lot of pictures from Watch It Played. Sorry, Rodney.
