F@#$ Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterderp
and the Waterderp FAQ

Plot:  gain glory for you Waterdeep faction by completing quests and constructing buildings!

Theme:  You can easily transfer the mechanics of this game into any other, but surprisingly the theme works very well.  The resource cubes represent 'adventurers', and you recruit a number of heroes matching some quest's recipe to complete.  Honestly this works just as well as 'gather 6 stone, 3 wood and a gold to build this monument.'  Plus you store your adventurers in a tavern, what could be more fantasy RPGish?


Mechanics:  You play one of 5 factions.  The factions are currently identical, but WotC loves expansions so no telling how long that lasts.  The first twist is you are dealt a Waterdeep Lord as your patron.  These Lords are kept secret, and gain bonus VPs based on the type of quests you complete.  More on that later.



Gameplay is a straight forward worker placement mechanic.  The spots have thematically themed names, but whatever.  Only one worker can be placed in a spot, and here's what you can do.

1. Recruit heroes.  Basic move is 2 fighters/rogues per action, or 1 cleric/wizard
2. Get quests.  4 quests are always face up for everyone to examine.  You can go grab one.  The quest grabbing will have an additional benefit like get more gold.
3. Get 4 gold.  
4.  Go first next round and draw an Intrigue card.
5. Play an Intrigue card.  Intrigue cards are action cards, the provide some benefit to you or some detriment to your opponents.  A lot of times by playing one gives your opponents benefits too.   There are 3 chances to play an intrigue card, and an agent placed here gets to go again at the end of the round.
6. Buy a building.  You must be able to purchase a building to play here, ie no cock-blocking.  This goes immediately into play and can be used this round.
7. Activate a purchased building.  A building generally provides an additional benefit to the above moves, like instead of getting 2 fighters you can get 1 fighter and 1 of anything.  If you move into a building, the player that purchased it gets a benefit too.

So you do these things to gather adventurers and gold to complete quests you have claimed.  Quests have recipes required for completion, like 1 cleric, 1 wizard and 2 fighters or 2 fighters, 2 rogues and 4 gold.  They give benefits upon completion, usually victory points.  It's a game about victory points after all.   Quests may also give some other benefits, like draw another quest, draw an intrigue card, get money, get more fighters, etc, etc.  Some quests, referred to as 'plot quests' give a persistent benefit you can use for the rest of the game.

Quests are typed, like Piety, Skullduggery, or Warfare.  That Lord you were assigned gives points at the end of game based on those, so pay attention.


Review:  I liked this game.  I have a feeling I liked it less than everyone else at the table last night, but I did like it.  The first game was brutal for people trying to figure out options, but it sped up immensely for the 2nd game.  There's some cool stuff going on, trying to figure synergies with your Waterdeep lord, quests and buildings.

There might be a Stone Age/Fresco type fatal flaw though.  Some buildings gives the owner adventurers when they activate.  7 or 8 free guys is a huge huge advantage.  Only one building can be built a turn, so that's often the first move.  Having said that, I have in no way played this game enough to know.  It's probably not runaway leader, because an equivalent building bought on turn 2 is only 12.5% worse, but in 5 player I suspect going 4th or 5th is a big handicap.

Anyways, I'd like to try with 3 or 4 players next time and see if that helps any.  Regardless, this will have at least a half dozen replays before we definitively decide if there is something broken.