Hmm. I wanted to like Dungeon Twister, but it seems (to me) like a less elegant version of Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. I like the theme (even though it can't really conceal the abstractedness of the game) and the revolving rooms mechanism is neat, but it seems like a lot of work for what it actually is (and ya it feels pretty fiddly - and I agree about the portcullises). I also like my two-player games to be a bit shorter than this.
LotR: TC pretty much seems to do the same thing (albeit with a greater luck element) in a much quicker and smoother fashion. Of course, that may just be me, or my lack of experience talking.
A coupla more games are still in order tho before I can decide if it's a keeper or not.
I personally find Dungeon Twister & LotR:TC vastly different. The only things in common are that they're 2-player, they're fantasy oriented, and they center around a pretty strong direct confrontation.
TC is a game centered largely around bluffing and outguessing your opponent. The tactical component is pretty low, while conversely DT is all tactics & clever moves and bluffing & second-guessing are pretty much oriented around that initial setup only.
You're right that TC is quicker & smoother, but it'd also get quite dull at the longer game length of DT, while I think DT remains fresh throughout its length, and thus pretty much has to have a higher complexity.
I guess part of it comes down to the issue of whether you like a 1.5 hour 2-player game, or you'd prefer it to stay at .5 hours.
The similarity he's talking about is that both games have as a key mechanic outguessing your opponent as to which combat card to play in each battle. It isn't going to matter how brilliantly you play either game if you pick the wrong combat cards and consistently lose battles by a hair (or once in a while "waste" a big card, winning a battle by a lot). This is the major form of luck in both games (since good strategy involves a random choice between several cards, not predictably always choosing the same one in the same situation). Indeed, the luck factor in DT combat is greater than LOTR:C combat, because you don't have the "special" combat cards.
I like all of the other aspects of DT more than I like this combat system.
The big difference that I saw in the DT combat is that it can very much be a war of attrition. Usually you can attack with superior forces if you work at it, and thus usually you can guarantee a wound/kill if you're willing to expend the appropriate card. Because there's the opportunity for a lot less fights than in LOTR:TC, this overkill stratetegy can work. I think this takes a lot of the randomness out, though it can give you resource problems down the road if you let the game go too long.
I'd actually say that the luck factor is considerably less in DT because you can guarantee a win where all the second-guessing of the special cards tends to prevent that in LOTR:TC.
You forgot to indicate what the Cleric's special power is in the characters section.
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