by Yasha
I have Wrath of Ash. It is good, but at the same time I find it kind of lacking. I'm looking for a game that fills the space I found lacking in WoA, and wondered if you could give me some thoughts on if Descent 2 was that game.First, WoA. It feels like 95% of the time the players can only choose between at-will attack 1 or 2 and a move. The move has some tactical element but it's not very deep. Also, there seems to be a lot to keep track of. It has complex rules like say chess, but whereas chess can play fast once you know the rules, in WoA there is always one more little thing to remember. Then there are the encounters. They seem to play far too high a role in the game. Indeed you can start a game with all characters dazed/half dead before anyone has had a chance to attack a monster. Character progression is pretty much nonexistent. It just doesn't feel right somehow. A game session for us is usually the thief storing up his tornado and ferocious strike for the boss and trying to survive the encounter cards and some unlucky rolls until we get to the end, and if all goes right basically one-shot the boss. Every game also feels like, ok let's get to that dungeon tile with the goal on it....Maybe what I am trying to describe is that there feels to be little skill involved, there seems extremely limited room to improve your game through skill, while the game feels dominated by the drudgery of the rules and luck.
So after reading many reviews, watching it played on internet etc, I found three possible games that might be more fun for me: 1) descent 2e, 2)super dungeon explore, and 3) dungeon command.
So I know that DC is quite different, but the pretty minis, tactical and seemingly deep gameplay and possibility to breathe new life into WoA with some new monsters appeals to me.
With Descent 2e, what worries me is that with just 2 players (usually I only play 2 players), there will be too much to track. I also am not sure if there is much tactical depth, and I don't have a clear picture on the character development potential and scope for interesting choices for players each move (especially compared to WoA). It also seems exceedingly luck based from what I can see. I also wonder if it plays more smoothly than WoA and is not so "stagnate".
Super dungeon command looks like fun, but also it looks to have limited replayability. I like how the heroes seem to have lots of powers and how you can get potions and other treasure quickly, although it lacks character development and the monsters seem limited, also some people have said the game pretty much plays out the same way each time or descends into a boring game of rolling to attack over and over without much real purpose.
Thanks for reading this long post, if you have any feedback that would be much appreciated. Each of these games is quite expensive, and also takes up a lot of wall space so I don't want to buy each of them only to find that I only like one (or none) of them, or I only play it a few times.