Review: Dwarf Kings Hold Ancient Grudge

Huzzah, I finally get around to reviewing the bloody game!!!

Before you read this review of Ancient Grudge, you might like to read and familiarise yourself with my other reviews and articles on Dwarf Kings Hold:

OK so I have a confession to make here. Firstly I've had this boxed set sitting in my house for some time now, and I've promised a review of it for a fair old while... but... I felt there were some snags to me doing this review in the first place. Firstly it isn't a standalone game, it's an add on for two standalone games within the same series, as such it's a bit of a difficult one to review anyway. But it's also a bit of a game changer, because it's not just more of the same, it changes the games paradigm. Secondly I'm sort of invested in it personally. Inside the front cover of the rulebook you'll see my name under playtesters... so I wanted to be certain that what I was saying about the game wasn't being swung unfairly one way or the other by my involvement with its production, and that has taken some time to asses. Genuinely. Thirdly I really quite like Jake Thornton and I think he's a top bloke... and I wanted to make sure my 'mate' blinkers weren't on with this product review. So that's where I'm coming from, if you're are still interested in what I have to say about it then please read on...

Product Description

To the left you can see the view of the box as you open it to view the contents. I'm not going to lie to you here, there's not a lot of stuff compared to the other Dwarf Kings Hold games. There are 5 plastic spru's, these provide you with 2 Dwarf Ironwatch figures, 2 Elf Scout figures, 3 Zombie figures and 4 Ghouls, that's 11 plastic miniatures in total. That's obviously way down on the 30 or so miniatures you get in Dead Rising and the 28 miniatures you get with Green Manace! There is a 21 page black and white rulebook, which is the same size as all the other rulebooks in the series, and its the rules contained within it that is really what you are buying. You also get two floor tiles one 3 by 6 squares and a larger 6 by 6 square tile. Again these are significantly down on the amount of tiles you get in Both Dead Rising and Green Menace, which both contain 29 tiles each. There are also far fewer counters with Ancient Grudge having only 9, while its bigger brothers had 75 and 73 respectively for Dead Rising and Green Menace. There aren't any dice in Ancient Grudge, but given that you need the other games to make use of these rules, you'll have dice from those games... and almost certainly countless others too! Where Ancient Grudge scores a victory over the other two though is that it includes a very nice metal Dwarf Berserker. Result!
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