One good thing to come out of yesterday's kerfuffle and letdown, was suddenly finding that I had some free time on my hands. Quite a rarity at the moment with how hard I've been pushing to get myself back into work these past couple of weeks.
Being quite the scarcity, there was no way I was wasting it; and given that I had been hankering to do some gaming for days, I knew exactly how to unwind. I also saw it as a prime opportunity to tick a couple of more games off of my 10 x 10 Challenge.
Up this time was a return to The Red Dragon's Dungeon, but the dragon wasn't home. Instead the Glowing Plasmapede & Magic Computer had taken up residence; bringing their pals to the party. These were games that I had been looking forward to playing since I took on the challenge, as whilst I had played a few games of The Red Dragon's Dungeon prior; I hadn't yet introduced any of the Dungeon Builder Sets.
First up, The Red Dragon's Dungeon combined with The Glowing Plasmapede's Dungeon Builder Set.
The introduction of this Dungeon Builder Set (DBS), didn't seem to change the flow of the game; but it was interesting to see some new cards in the dungeon. Something that was a first however, was the Awkward Sword actually being useful; giving me just the boost I needed to take down a Torch Skeleton.
I was also able to make good use of the Sleepy Potion to manipulate the Space Guardian, and therefore the dungeon to ensure that the A.I didn't get the best of the loot.The fungus at the front door issue that I encountered in the last game (which screwed me over royally), happened again; but learning from the experience I took the initiative and killed it the very turn after it wound up there.
The session ended with me facing down the Glowing Plasmapede, which I had no difficulty in taking down thanks to a favorable draw. That said, I had drawn pretty well all game; which meant I had a whole deck full of pretty impressive swords.
One thing that I did find a little weird about this setup was the boss itself. It has a strength identical to that of the Red Dragon, with some additional requirements to defeat it; but is worth less Gold (VP). Not that it really mattered in this particular game, as I beat the A.I on Gold, 55 to 43.
Next up was The Red Dragon's Dungeon, combined with The Magic Computer's Dungeon Builder Set.
This one changed the tempo of the game considerably. One of the cards in this set provides you with additional energy, when you use it for energy; whilst another discounts all of your future energy expenditure during your turn, making items easier to retrieve. Unlike the previous two configurations, the Magic Computer is both a boss and an item.
So the emphasis in this DBS is all about recovering as many items from the dungeon as possible, and it gives you the perfect tools to do just that.
Another new feature added by this DBS is the introduction of cards worth negative points. This didn't really impact my game, as the item that introduces this effect (the same item which discounts all energy expenditure during the turn in which it is played) came out within the first couple of turns; so I easily offset its penalty. In fact, thanks to it the dungeon was completely cleared at the end of one of the turns. Something extremely rare to see in my experience.
The game ended with the A.I taking out the boss, and me winning 55 Gold to 46. Remarkably close to the score of the previous game; which suggests to me that the two sets are incredibly well balanced.
It'll be interesting to see if the last two Dungeon Builder Sets are as balanced, and just how they change the flow of the game. The Glowing Plasmapede's Dungeon Builder Set did very little to the core gameplay, whilst the Magic Computer shifted the emphasis towards items over monsters.
Oh I wonder what wonders await us.
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