“Few know the secret trails that lead to Wylemuir. Isolated upon a vast mesa, this remote and ancient land is divided by an escarpment into the Highlands and Wyldlands. The Highlands are covered with dense, evergreen forests, and rocky valleys cut by pure streams of phosphorescent liquids. The Wyldlands extend across an expansive dry lake bed littered by rough shale, and punctuated by delicate spires of living silica.
“The Highlands are where immense conifers serve as sylvan castles for the Wyverns; dragon-like lizards possessing both ferocious strength and powerful intellect. Reclusive and distrustful of strangers, their bodies are covered in coruscating scales providing the gifts of both camouflage and flight.”
That is part of the ‘fluff’ in the rulebook of Wyverns of Wylemuir.
It was back in March when I wrote about how crokinole remains at the top of my list in terms of favourite games.
And about while not exactly a board game, Dungeons & Dragons also rated high on my favourite list as well.
So I was lamenting I had missed out on Catacombs when it released back in 2010, but had fortunately latched on to a third edition copy of the game released in 2015 since the game very nicely married crokinole and D&D.
It might seem an odd couple pairing, a finger flicking dexterity game such as crokinole merging with adventurers on a dungeon crawl, but designers Ryan Amos, Marc Kelsey and Aron West managed the union flawlessly.
And now there is an expansion; Wyverns of Wylemuir.
This set includes four heroes, two representing the Aldioss Tribe of Warrior Maidens from the land of Wylemuir, part of the Heroic Forces, and two from the Metozore army, part of the Catacomb Forces. These heroes can be used in both of the earlier releases of Catacombs and Catacombs & Castles.
There are lots of neat things in this expansion which make it intriguing to fans of the overall franchise.
For example, this set includes a double-sided game board that may be used with either title, but is the standard size for Catacombs. Have board options for any game is a very good thing, as it provides replay value.
And there be the dragons, which is the real heart of the expansion.
“Once a Wyvern is in play, a character climbs onto a Wyvern’s back by hitting it with any character shot,” explains the rules.
Remembering this in a finger flicking game the idea of ‘capturing’ a wyvern by accurately making a shot is simply very cool.
“If the character shot successfully hits the Wyvern disc, then the character’s disc is placed on top, in the centre of the Wyvern’s disc,” notes the rules.
As one might expect when in control of a winged dragon to ride, the rules change once your character is mounted.
“If any shots remain in the character’s sequence, they are immediately skipped and the character performs a shot sequence listed on the Wyvern card instead,” this means the game mechanics for a mounted player are just a bit different as it should be if you are riding a mighty winged-lizard.
Of course you can lose your mount too.
“When there is an existing rider on a Wyvern (regardless of which team they are on), that rider must be knocked completely off that Wyvern’s disc, landing flat on the game board in order for the attacking character to assume control,” explains the rules. “If the existing rider’s disc is balancing against the Wyvern disc and not lying flat on the game board, then the attempt to unseat the rider was unsuccessful and the existing rider’s disc is placed back on top of the Wyvern’s disc.”
As you might imagine once mounted a player is likely to draw a lot of attention.
Catacombs is a blast itself, rating high on my dexterity games list, and adding dragons just makes things more interesting. A must own for Catacombs players.
Another gem from the Canadian company Elzra Corp (www.catacombs.shop)
