[Board/Tactical Game]: Dragon Lairds, reviewed by ShannonA (3/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13809.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

A nicely strategic game by Tom Wham and James M. Ward.

Go to the full review for more information.

[PaulK]

I played this once, yesterday and I wasn't impressed. The Lairds seem dominant as they give decent incomes in addition to good VPs. Other cards give similar cash incomes at a similar price but, excepting a few Resources, insignificant VPs.

Imagine changing St. Petersburg so that the incomes of the three types of card were all similar, for a similar cost, and you have the idea.

It may be that the game improves with further playing or adding the "Saurian Cup" optional rule, but I don't believe that that basic flaw will be overcome.

[ShannonA]

I suspect that if you've ever played <i>St. Petersburg</i>, then you're probably not the right audience for <i>Dragon Lairds</i>. It really stands out as a thematic American game design that has some strong mechanics too. If I were looking at it from the European side of things, I'd say it were an average game.

With that said, I've never had problems with the lairds being overpowered. They offer good VPs, bu the resources offer great end-game VPs, and the commoners ... well I'm not totally sure what their advantage is.

As I said, in my last game the player with all end-game points <i>almost</I> won.