We die and we pump, we die and we pump. Dragonfire Game Review
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Dragonfire is a game with deckbuilding, color matching, missions, campaign, grind and RPG elements (in that order) from Catalyst Games. Those who have played Shadowrun: Crossfire (another game from Catalyst Games) will find many similar features in Dragonfire. However, I personally have not played it, so I will not make comparisons.
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS
Dragonfire is good for 3-4 players, hard for 3-6, and 1-2 is only worth playing if you really like excruciatingly difficult resource management games, as the 2 player mode is very difficult.
At the start, each player chooses one of the many heroes available in the base (from a gnome-cleric to a half-elf-wizard), chooses his past (a card that gives a small bonus), makes a starting deck from the base cards listed on the character's tablet, takes the specified the amount of gold, and puts the HP marker on the specified division - and you can play.
EDUCATIONAL MODE
Dragonfire has a training mission designed to teach the basics of the game to newly minted heroes who are excitedly waiting for an exciting game... by poking their faces into the asphalt. Seriously: only a perverted sadist could make this up. It is better to skip it, or play, knowing in advance that you will definitely lose. And for the sake of everything holy, don't try to replay it over and over again on the principle: "Well, since we can't even complete the training mission, how can we play further?". You can play. Just a training mission is a very bad example.
PREPARATION
Players still debate exactly when you start a game of Dragonfire. Some say that when you build your starting decks and shuffle your market deck. Others say that when you have discussed the role and turn order. Others say it starts in high school, when you're either developing the social skills you need to make friends, or you join a bunch of inhuman nerds and start playing geeky games. Personally, I think the game starts with character creation.
CHARACTER CREATION
There are a bunch of heroes to choose from in the base, but it's usually best to have one character with a focus on each of the 4 colors (blue, green, red, black), with high starting HP and a large or medium starting hand. This allows you to deal a lot of damage from the start and survive many attacks. A dead monster is harmless, a dead hero cannot play cards. The amount of starting gold does not matter; 2 extra cards in hand or 2 add. HP is much more important than 2 gold. After choosing a character, it's time to choose a sticker: it's time for the character to acquire skills.
UNIQUE CHARACTER TRAITS
Your hero is pumped at the expense of magical items (but they will not be available immediately) and at the expense of stickers with features that are glued directly to the tablet. The first distinguishing feature is the origin of the character, which gives a small bonus. Their effect is minor, and you'll usually get rid of them when you've earned 5-10 XP worth of stickers after a few dungeon crawls. So choose whatever you like or thematically for your character; it is not fundamental. The only thing is that traits that allow you to scroll through the market deck are very useful, and at least one of the characters should have one.
CAMPAIGN
So, you've chosen your character and sticker - it's time to start the campaign mode! Dragonfire has an art book that describes the adventures of your heroes and the enemies that get in the way. Each section of the campaign has its own card that lists the special rules and gameplay elements unique to that section. So, you build a starting deck of said cards, collect gold, shuffle the encounter, market, and dragonflame decks and start playing... oops, and here comes the first death. Yes, the Dragonfire campaign is very difficult, and you are unlikely to get through the first chapter until each character has stickers worth 10 experience points and until you develop optimal strategies (more on them below). Therefore, it is wiser to start with the mode of the trip to the dungeon.
HIKING IN THE DUNGEON
This is what the educational regime should have been like. Everything is very straightforward. The game even says outright that you will most likely grind this adventure multiple times for experience points. However, at first you will still definitely lose, but the experience is calculated depending on how many scenes (3 of them in total) you started to pass, not how many you successfully completed. Completing all 3 stages nets you extra experience and a magic item that you'll probably want to include in your deck right away...but don't. Magic items are issued only for the first successful completion of any of the adventures. So it's wise to save the healing potion for the campaign.
GAME PROCESS
Dragonfire can seem confusing in places, but overall the gameplay is very simple. You determine the leader (usually the player with the most HP) and the turn order (usually from the leader to the player with the least HP). At the beginning of the adventure you:
- take 6 cards from the market deck, which will be available for purchase at the end of each turn;
- draw several cards from the encounter deck (usually monsters) depending on the rules of the current scene indicated on the adventure card;
- draw cards from your hand in the number indicated on the character tablet;
- lay out the top card from the deck of dragon fire - new ones are laid out every round.
The structure of the move is as follows: draw cards - inflict damage - receive damage - purchase on the market - end of turn. Your job is to play enough cards (each monster needs to deal damage to certain colors in a certain combination) to kill the monsters before they do too much damage to the heroes. For killing monsters, you will receive gold that can be spent in the market. That's the whole process. If you do not want or cannot buy one of the cards from the market, then you replace one of the cards lying on the market with a new one from the deck. But in reality, everything is not so simple because...
STRATEGY
Being a hero is not easy. Exhausting battles await you. If you want to survive the onslaught of 3-5 animals whose sole purpose is to tear you to pieces, you will have to think through your moves and kill enemies quickly. The optimal solution is to focus on the monster that your party can kill before they are harmed. Thus, if your turn order is Warrior-Cleric-Thief-Wizard, the Warrior and Cleric should play their cards against the attacking Thief and/or Wizard monsters so that they die before they can harm the wounded members of your party. The worst possible solution is to hit only the monster attacking you, or spread the damage thinly over several monsters each round. Focus your fire on one or two enemies, because the longer you kill them, the worse the situation becomes.
DRAGON FIRE
The game's title is also one of its most annoying mechanics. At the beginning of the group leader's turn, the previously revealed dragonfire card is sent to the reset (the dragonfire level is equal to the number of dragonfire cards in the reset) and a new card is revealed in its place. 99% of the time these cards are just mocking you. They can make you practically helpless, prevent you from buying cards, buff enemies and even summon new monsters (which often means game over). The longer you go through the adventure, the higher the level of dragonfire and the more dangerous the cards with "If the level is higher than X then this happens" effects become. In addition, at the start of each scene, level 2 monsters equal to the level of dragonfire are summoned from the deck. Tier two monsters are durable, dangerous, and/or yield less gold when killed. If 5 level 2 monsters visit you at the beginning of the third scene, you are most likely finished.
END OF THE ADVENTURE
So, you either narrowly won, or fell again under the blows of dragon fire. You earn experience points equal to the number of stages you started with, plus bonuses if you complete all stages. You buy new stickers and get ready to hit the dungeons again, or if you're feeling up to it, mix up the magic items in your deck and get ready to go through the campaign. And so in a circle.
CONCLUSION
Dragonfire is a game that is complex in appearance, simple in practice, but complex in terms of strategy. Passing Dragonfire is a long and painful process; the game does everything it can to make you want to close the lid of the box and never take it out again. But if you don't give up, a very exciting gameplay awaits you. If you are a fan of Dark Souls-type games where you have to sweat a lot to win, playing the game over and over again, then this is just for you. If you're a Dungeons & Dragons fan who wants to be heroic without a gamemaster, stay away from this game. Dragonfire is not for casuals looking for a simple adventure. I highly recommend the game to hardcore fans.
USEFUL LINKS
Dragonfire on the BGG portal
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/226501/dragonfire
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