I didn’t know a thing about this game until I saw it on a BoardGameGeek advertisement! Fate: Defenders of Grimheim is a cooperative tower defense game for 1-4 players. A tower defense game is when monsters move towards a “tower” with the intent of wrecking it! Your job, as the players, is to defend said “tower”!
This is a game from Fryx games; I ordered directly from the website (and had to pay some extra money because of Tariffs, so that was stinky). This is the same Fryx games that gave us the enduring Terraforming Mars, the great Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (see our review here), and not-as-great Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game.
Let’s take a look!
Unboxing and Gameplay
This is pretty standard sized box; see Coke can above for scale.
Players each assume the role of one warrior protecting the homestead! Bjorn, Alva, Embla, or Boldur. See above.
The homestead is at the middle of the board! See above. Every time a bad guy makes it to the homestead, the players lose one (or more) of the homes there. Lose too many homes, and the players (collectively) lose the game!
At certain points during the game (including the start of the game), a bunch of bad guys are placed into the game at the edges of the board. See the card (above) describing where the bad guys go …
… and see the same bad guys on the board! Note that the arrows denote how they move during the move phase! (If they hit a trail, they start following the trails).
There’s three different flavors of enemy: the Dead (coming from the northwest part: see above).
The Trollkin, coming from the northwest (see above)
And the Fire Hordes, coming from the South.
This is a tower defense game! You have to kill the bad guys before they make it to the center of the board!
Each player (hero) has a bunch of tools to help them stop the bad guys; these tools are all special to that hero!
There’s abilities (like above) which can help the player in many ways. These abilities are paid for with experience /gold.
There’s upgrades the players can get (if they do the quest at the top of the card).
Generally, each player has a starting main weapon and starting ability, plus a special ability. See above.
As the game unfolds, the player quickly upgrades and gets new abilities and weapons! See above!
If you can keep at least one structure left (the fountain is the last thing to go) before the timer runs outs and/or you kill all enemies, you win!
Rulebook
I liked this rulebook. Except for one thing.
The rulebook is just too big; it almost fails the Chair Test. See above as it droops heavily over the edges of the chair. The only reason it doesn’t fail the Chair Test is that it stays open, and is easy to read. I can barely use on the chair next to me: this gets like a D on the Chair Test. Honestly, this rulebook could have easily gotten an A on the Chair Test if it hadn’t been so droopy.
The Components page is nice and well-labelled: see above.
The first few pages didn’t jump int set-up, they talked about the cards and components. This worked well to get you familiar with the components of the game.
The Set-up is pretty good: the picture’s a little small, but it does work. See above.
Generally, though, this rulebook was really good. I had no real grumpiness as I read it.
It’s only about 12 pages, but it’s pretty easy to read. There’s no Index, but I think that’s okay for this game. This game is pretty straight-forward and I don’t think it needs an Index.
Generally, good rulebook. I just wish the form factor were smaller.
Solo Game
The solo game is very well-defined on page 11: see above. Basically, there’s no rule changes! This is a true solo game, where the player takes control of a single hero in the game. The game is self-balancing: the number of monsters that come out are essentially a function of the number of players. This is a fantastic solo mode with no real changes to the rules! Thank you for following Saunders’ Law! This gives us a solo mode that scales to cooperative mode with NO CHANGES!
After the solo modes for so many games have left us underwhelmed lately (Lord of the Rings, I am looking at you), it’s great to see a simple and scalable solo mode.
I took control of Alva for my solo game.
Her cards and figure come from the Alva/Bjorn box. It’s a little hard to find the starting cards, but once you know what you are looking for, it’s easy enough.
Basically, the solo game starts with fewer homes in the middle and only one set of enemies come out at first!
More enemies will come out when we hit the Axes (above) on the timer. You draw one card of enemies for each player (that’s the scaling part).
Over the course of the shorter game, I had to go and kill some enemies before they reached the homestead!
One of the best parts of the game is how quickly you gain new abilities and new weapons and new upgrades! Generally, you seem to be able to get something new every other round or so, which is great! Your character really feels like they are progressing as you play!
Near my solo end game, I had at least 3 new weapons and new abilities (some of them upgraded!)
It was a pretty quick game; the box says 30 minutes per player, and my experience says that’s accurate.
It was very easy to jump into this game, a lot of fun to perform upgrades, and some strategy as I tried to figure out the best way to kill the bad guys before they invaded!
The solo game works great. And it’s trivial to apply the lessons of the solo game to the cooperative game, since it’s essentially the same game!
Cooperative Game
My friend Teresa and I played the cooperative game!
We each took control of a separate hero. Now, the monsters, scaling for the player count, come out twice as fast!
It was interesting to see how the cooperation unfolded. Generally, each player is different enough and has very different cards that’s there’s not really much chance for Alpha Players. The cooperation that happens in the beginning of the game is more coarse discussions about which sets of enemies to handle. “I”ll go over there and deal with the enemies to the South, you deal with the enemies to the North”.
In the beginning stages of the game, the game is more multi-player solitaire as each player handles some part of the board.
As the bad guys get closer and closer to the homestead, some more cooperation unfolds as players may need to back each other up. “Can you please get that stray bad guy for me?” “I suppose…Sure!”
There’s not tons of cooperation, but there is enough interaction as players talk and even lament the task ahead!
I got Grendel (one of the really big bads) later in the game, and it was good to have Teresa nearby so I could complain how hard he looks!
Generally, each player is very involved in their turn as they try to figure out how to activate all their abilities and cards and weapons. It’s kind of cool in the later game just how many directions and how many options you have for killing bad guys!
In the end, the cooperative game was fun and engaging! There was no real chance for the Alpha Player, but there was still some high-level cooperation (with a smidge of low-level cooperation in the later game). Good times.
What I Liked
The shapes: The enemies of the same flavor are all the same shape (see above). This makes it VERY easy to see which types of enemies are which. This is a small touch, but it really helps players quickly distinguish enemy types without having to squint.
Well-Labelled board: In the same vein as the shapes, the board is well-labelled with a big font describing the enemies special abilities! There’s no need to consult the rulebook … the rules are on the board!
Well-Labelled Enemies: The enemies themselves are well-labelled: how much damage does the bad guy above do? 5 axes! How many hit points? 6! How many experience from killing it? 3!
The board is gorgeous: I really like the art and how clean this board is. It’s clear where mountains are, it’s clear where forests are, it’s clear where trails are, and the art just looks fabulous.
Upgrades Happen Quickly! As you play, your hero very quickly gets new cards, upgraded abilities, and new weapons! This allows the player to build something of an engine as they can use abilities to power other abilities to make stronger attacks! The feeling of upgrade is strong and very fulfilling for a game that is only 30 minutes per player!
Easy to get to the table: This game is very easy to get to the table. There aren’t a ton of rules and the board is well-labelled, so it’s pretty easy to start into a game.
What I Didn’t Like
Dice and Randomness: At the end of the day, all combat is decided by dice … and that can be frustrating when you are rolling badly. There are some mitigation techniques, but generally you just hope you roll well enough. I didn’t hate the dice, but I didn’t love them. I guess they are a necessary evil to keep this game “interesting”.
The Character Art: The Character art reminds us a lot of Red Dragon Inn … it has a cartoony vibe to it (see our review of Tales From Red Dragon Inn here). My friend Teresa didn’t love the art; it wasn’t quite as good as Tales From Red Dragon Inn, and it was also a little inconsistent with the art on the board (which we loved). I thought the art was ok, but the character art can be a little off-putting for some people? Shrug?
Minis: I went out of my way to spend extra dollars to get the minis for the Legend monsters (see above) … and you almost never use them. You may get a Legend monster in your game, or you may not. I don’t think it was worth getting those extra minis, especially because I probably had to pay way too much for them because of the tariffs.
The Cover: I didn’t love this cover. I think if I saw this in a game store, I might pass it over. But my friend Teresa said she liked it. Art is in the eye of the beholder.
Conclusion
I liked Fate: Defenders of Grimheim. The game is very easy to get out, very easy to explain, and very easy to play! While playing, there are so many opportunities for upgrades and doing clever things with your weapons and abilities that make you feel smart! The cooperation isn’t through the roof in this game, as most players are engaging in multi-player solitaire activities, but there is some interaction and cooperation (moreso in the later game). I also don’t think you’ll really have to worry about the Alpha Player ruining your game, as each character is very different, causing each player to be very independent.
This game sits in a nice niche; it’s got enough meat-on-its-bones to be interesting, but easy enough to play quickly. I think this would be a perfect cooperative game for a convention! You can pull it out and quickly jump into it for engaging play!
I think the only reason I don’t adore this game is because the dice can be unforgiving … they can be a touch too random for me. Still, I liked this solo: 7/10. I’ll call the cooperative game 7.5/10, and I would point out that this would be great convention game where you can get strangers together and quickly playing a fun cooperative game!
coopgestalt 