Flying Frog Shadows of Brimstone: Swamps of Death

Great game

Shadows of Brimstone is a great dungeon crawling game that does not require an overseer. Solo play is in! The heroes are really neat. Although the rulebook is long at 35 pages, there are online videos that show how easy gameplay is. FFG is known for nice components and Swamps of Death is no exception. Nice cards, oversized (and informative) oversized cards, cool miniatures (some assembly required) and nice stock for the board pieces are all here. There are missions in the adventure book that can be played, making games somewhat varied. Going to town can be dangerous. However, the town has some neat Western locales to buy goods from. Tokens and cards make handling the game's gear and other features really easy. Adventures can be strung together in a campaign. Heroes may level up, gain new abilities, go to town and buy more STUFF, and even become mutated by the Darkness of Evil! The campaign aspect is covered in the storybook and is really neat. Swamps of Death has different monsters and different heroes than City of the Ancients. This core set has good heroes. Shadows of Brimstone is a good investment and is fun!

Have finally played a few games of this and so far it is great. I have done the 1st basic mission a few times with the same goals, and so far every one of those games has been drastically different, and there are 5 more basic missions to go through and 6 campaign missions. I think this game has a lot of replay value and enough to keep interest for a long time. I am looking forward to purchasing the other base set, but I also am not in a rush because of the content in this set. My biggest complaint, and it is a complaint, are the models. While highly detailed, the models are all in pieces and need to be glued together, so you need model glue, a file, and clippers. The pieces come off of the sprue in some poor areas where they needed to adhere to other parts, and required much filing. I also found that huge enemy a little difficult to put together with only two hands, and after filing quite a few parts it still did not quite fit together well in some areas. They are not painted either, of course, and this is a little disappointing with the price. Other than the models, the cards, boards, and other game pieces are of great quality. What is also somewhat neat is the game comes with a soundtrack. I have not used it, but it is meant to help immerse the players into the game. I appreciate that. Whether I play this game solo or with three others, this game is really, really fun to play. I love the pressure the game puts on the players as well as the crazy things that can happen (mutations, injuries, etc.) are really fun. If my daughter, who doesn't like board games and western themed things enjoys this, then I think it can appeal to just about anyone. I highly recommend this. DISCLAIMER: I do not have City of Ancients, so I cannot compare these two at this time. If or when I do acquire that one, I will update.

Great game overall- there are some quirks and obscure rules... but you will smooth them out make it your own. Pros: -Cool themes and game play with a bunch of dice chucking (which I like). -Combines gameplay elements of Warhammer, D&D, and RPGs to create a simple yet multifaceted experience. -As per usual with a Flying Frog game, the rules are a bit vague and flexible, but I enjoy the ability to tweak the rules and add some home brew ones. -Lots of replay value and character customization in the campaign, or you can do one-off quick plays with the prebuilts heroes. -Lots of expansions to keep the game evolving and fun. Cons: -Subpar quality on the models and the resin can be a pain to assemble. (I have heard the newer expansions have stepped it up on the models). -A lot of the in town items and gear do not have cards available. (I resulted to making some of my own to help ease the amount of writing/erasing that had to be done on my charchater sheet.) Lots of fun to play for veteran RPG players and newcomers alike, the game is great but will require some time and effort to get the most out of it. This is not your typical board game like Monopoly or Clue where you whip it out of the box and just get going. Highly recommend it for those who would like to expand their gaming horizons and enjoy a well balanced and entertaining game.

Shadows of Brimstone is becoming my all time favorite dungeon crawler. There are tons of expansions, two core base sets, and tons of minerature so. The base mineratures require you to assemble them and glue them together and it's lots of work so be forewarne. I only wish I made the kickstarter pledge so I could've got the whole package. The theme is old west meats Cthulhu meats Stephen Kings Desperation.

The biggest complaint is that the figures are NOT assembled and require cutting and gluing (being unpainted does not bother me), and that the biggest one, once assembled can NOT fit in the box so it must be stored apart from the game. This is an awful design flaw, IMHO. Had I been aware of the figures requiring assembly, I would have likely passed on the game, but it does seem quite entertaining now that I have done that and can move on with actually learning to play it.

The game is a total blast! My group of friends are hardcore tabletop role-player's, but this is an exciting new alternative. First couple of games well be a little slow and set up takes a quite a bit of space and time. Highly recommend this game. Minis are cool, but require assembly. I really enjoyed that aspect though and are currently painting them. If you are thinking about buying this game, stop waiting and do it!

The quality of the miniatures and the components are really subpar. I was expecting a lot more, given the price. It has that bendy kinda weak cardboard with all of the components and the miniatures are not what was expected. I was expecting high quality miniatures. Usually minis that come unassembled on a sprue are better quality. But these are just a hassle for no reason. There were bubble holes in the molds and awful mold lines. They must've cut a huge cost from doing it this way. But this is just a first impression. I hope that the game play makes up for the quality.