This is a detailed play review of miniature adventure tabletop game, Arena: The Contest. In one sentence, this is the adventure tabletop game for strategy card gamers.

Last edit: 8/25/2021

History
– 8/4/2021: Pledge manager closing data added.
– 8/17/2021: Wishlist section is now split into ATC 1.5 and Wishlist because based on the recent direct replies from Dragori Games and Tanares RPG campaign content essentially confirmed to be solving many of my original concerns/Wishlist items.
– 8/25/2021: Miniature quality review wby King of Average is up. So I have adjust miniature scoring accordingly.

Disclaimers

I had been an avid digital card gamer over a decade with original interest in the genre started with Playstation 3 game called Eye of Judgment. Subsequently, I have played the big names like Magic the Gathering. My first pledged kickstarter project was the highest funded digital TCG on kickstarter HEX TCG, which raised over $2 million in 2013. Since then I have reviewed many others. However, I am fairly new to tabletop adventure style board game. For the game that can be categorized as miniature based tabletop adventure game, I currently only own Gloomhaven. So my review perspective here is from the card gamer point of view. I hope this is not an disadvantage but rather provide some unique perspective from traditional tabletop board gamers.

I have missed the first campaign and also Wave 1 shipping of current campaign so my experience with Arena: The contest so far is based on tabletop simulator (digital) version.

Table of Content

• Background
• Review
  • Aesthetics
    • Arts
    • Minitures
  • Gameplay
    • Variation
    • Depth of strategy
    • Complexity
    • Balance
  • Campaign
    • World Setting
    • Campaign Experience
  • Wishlist
• Tanares Adventure
• Dragori Games
• Conclusion

Background

What’s Arena: The Contest?

This is a tabletop, miniature based adventure game with multiple game play modes including Player vs. Player (PvP), coop and solo quests and campaign. This is the first game developed by Dragori Games and successfully completed its first kickstarter campaign in April 2018 where they have raised $730,271 with 4,255 backers.

The game was successfully delivered and perceived well by the board game community. On the Board Game Geek website, the game is currently rated with respectable score of 8.9 with 627 ratings.

Tanares Adventure Expansion

In February 2020, Dragori games launched second Kickstarter campaign. The latest expansion is called Tanares Adventures and it adds a true epic campaign mode. The original Arena: the Contest (ATC) to many player’s surprise, had great campaign and considered now as one of main appeal/strength of the game.

Dragori games described “Quest mode” as a different one time play setup of PvE mode while “Campaign mode” as “the narrative develops in-between quests.” In the original ATC, Dragori Games stated campaign take 13+ hours to complete for the first run. There are reportedly fun/difficult puzzles to solve. There were multiple pathways/endings and level up elements. So it all sounded great but Tanares Adventures take this to the whole new level. With it, the campaign receives true multiple ending with 100’s quests, city building elements etc.

Also in this expansion, Dragori games are re-selling revised, so called version 1.5 of the original ATC. The change is for good because the major complaints of the original version was quality of the miniature. So with version 1.5, Dragori games are revamping all prior miniatures and newer miniatures to better manufacturing process/quality.

This second Kickstarter was a massive success, raising almost $1.7M with 7826 backers.

The subsequent late pledge continues to show the game’s popularity. At the time of this writing, the game has raised $3.3M pledge with total 11,461 backers (not including myself yet).

What’s most impressive here though is the return backer rate.

Based solely on the pledge levels that are exclusively destined to returning backers, we can say there are almost 3000 (three thousand) of you back.

With only 4255 backers in this first campaign (550+ of them in the $1/$3 level), having 3000 returns is unheard of. Truly outstanding.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragorigames/arena-the-contest-tabletop-miniatures-board-game/posts/2747036

This number speaks the most to me as the vast majority of the players who have played the actual game enjoyed it to the point deciding to pledge the game again.

Can I still get it?

Although original and Tanares Adventure campaign has closed, Dragori Games is currently running Tanares RPG 5E campaign. Within this campaign you can actually pledge board games. It maybe a bit point of confusion for those who are new to this but despite the campaign is technically for Tanares RPG, which is Tabletop RPG game, they made board games available as the shipping of RPG and Board Game at this point will be the same.

So you can definitely still get any part of board game including previously kickstarter exclusive contents and stretch goals from prior campaign. If you are looking for all-in option, you may need to wait until pledge manager opens as Dragori stated they will make everything available in the pledge manager for those who wants to adjust their content.

Although kickstarter campaign was ended a while back, the late pledge manager is still open but it is not for too long. Hence, I am reviewing this game more carefully myself and writing this pre-review at this time so I can make proper decision.

Pledge Manager is closing on August 24, 2021

The pledge manager closing date is now officially announced as August 24, 2021. Hope you are reading this while the late pledge is still open.

Tanares Adventures PM/Late Pledges will be closing before we launch Tanares RPG (a hugely complete dnd 5e module, but with special content, like playable miniatures for those who wants to stay just at the boardgames), somewhere in mid-August, and that will be the last opportunity to get some of these coveted KS exclusives.

Email from Dragori Customer Service

Dragori games announced that they will be starting new kickstarter, which is Tanares RPG i.e. book based RPG in a world of Arena the Contest. This kickstarter is planned to lauch in August 2021 and the late pledge for the Arenas: the Contest Tanares Adventures will be closing before its launch.

Price

The original Arena core box is currently priced at $7579. If you are completionist, the painted All-in plus other add-ons (Full pledge with Harun, Medusa, Hero, Four Game Board Scenarios 1, Plastic Token Bundles) will add up to $637.54 with shipping in the US.

All-in-One Package

One of the sales point/attraction of this game is multiple play modes to make Arena the contest, all in one package. You can play ATC as Player vs. Player from 2 to 8 players or single scenario vs. story campaign by solo or 2-4 player coop.

Basically, the game covers pretty much all the play mode one can think of. Now the question is how good are they?

Campaign Mode – Highly rated campaign to Epic campaign

The original ATC campaign mode is highly rated by players and my short playing experience is concordant. However, the upcoming Tanares Adventure expansion will take the campaign mode into the whole new level. The creator stated on one of Youtube interview, the game play may now take 100-200 hours and perhaps infinitely more depending on how much you want to spend.

At the time of this writing, Tanares adventure expansion pack has not been publicly available and I see no reviewer have had a chance play it yet. However, I cannot imagine this would be anything less than competitors.

PvP Mode – Strategy based game

As a card gamer, PvP element definitely has a place for me. ATC sounds like a well balanced game in a PvP mode from the information that I gather. One of key design decision developer need to make for PvP game is “how much should the game be luck based?”

We will talk a bit more about this in the later section, but it is a user’s preference which type of game one likes. But I am certainly player favoring strategy and tactics over the luck. ATC designer decided to take this side as well.

Below is a link to casual but officially approved ATC tournament taken place in early this year.

Review

Now let’s take a closer look at what I consider core elements of miniature based tabletop adventure games:

• Aesthetics
  • Arts
  • Minitures
• Gameplay
  • Variation
  • Depth of strategy
  • Complexity
  • Balance
• Campaign
  • World Setting
  • Campaign Experience

Aesthetics

Arts

The preference of the art style is subjective, but independent of preference, we would all agree ATC arts are top in the quality.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I personally like these art style; therefore, this is an easy A for me.

Minitures

One of the major complaints I saw on the original version of the Arena the contest was the poor quality of miniatures. Even though I am a novice to the miniature games, this was quickly evident to me when I looked the game. Dragori games heard these voices and the second campaign emphasized this as one of the core change with all heroes getting redesign. Below are pictures from the official Facebook comparing the original and reworked hero miniatures.

Source: Dragori Games Facebook

Although they look improved, they do not appear to match the top level miniature qualities I have seen like ones from Lazy Squire’s Stormsunder. So this is a B for me. I hope I am wrong here and the real miniatures look as good as their rendering picture (ref).

Update 8/25/2021

Rather than going off by just pictures, there is now more formal miniature quality review by board game community well known reviewer, especially for miniature quality evaluation.

Talk about an improvement! I can finally deep dive into the new miniatures from Dragori Games. These would make some of the best D&D minis you can get, especially for the price!

From Crappy to Amazing: Tanares Minitures Unboxing! – The King of Average

Since I have missed wave 1 shipping and still do not have actual physical miniatures in my hand, I trust the king of average review. I know he has reviewed another adventure board game, which I thought has one of the best quality miniatures at least looking on the computer screen, I have actually asked him what he thinks about reworked Arena: the Contest hero miniatures when compared to the game called, Stormsunder. His very detailed response was followings:

Detail level of Stormsunder is better but considering the scale not by a big amount or anything.

However, I’d paint these before I painted stormsunder hands down.

Miniature quality to me is two parts. 1 is detail level, and really there I just need enough to capture your vision clearly and without issue. Both accomplish that. The 2nd, and harder to achieve (and more subjective) is overall sculpt design.

Stormsunder minis look nice, especially up close, but on the table the amount of detail work or what I call “noise” is too much and much of that vision is lost. It also makes it a chore to paint. The monsters are probably better in this regard but for me it’s all about designing based on final outcome, which is a tiny miniature on a game board.

It’s why I peg Limbo so highly. With the evocative poses and just right detail level it shows what it is and looks great on the table and up close.

Stormsunder minis are fantastically detailed. It’s really impressive stuff, but if I had to pick between the two of which one has the better miniatures overall I’d peg several of these (but not all) over Stormsunder minis I’ve seen. Both have fantastic ones, with Arena having a few ho-hum poses and a struggle around fingers and such, but Stormsunder has a few too that are overburdened with 5 layers of detail stacked on top of each other (like Ankh tends to do).

Hopefully that makes sense 🙂 Probably worth a video at some point where I talk about what I feel makes a great miniature both as a gamer and as a painter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1yJOAquEBw

Game Play

This is the most important part of the game. I believe tabletop miniature board game shares many core elements with the strategy card game; hence, I am personally interested diving into this genre.

In strategy card game genre, followings are four core elements of the game design where game creators/designers make their decisions, which in turn defines overall gameplay experience. I see these fit very well to the adventure tabletop game.

• Variation
• Depth of strategy
• Complexity
• Balance

Variance

Let’s start with variance.

Variance is “how differently a gameplay element plays out from one play experience to the next.” We can think of variance as a scale. If that element has a high variance, it has the potential to play differently each time it’s played. If that element has a low variance, it will play similarly each time it’s played.

Mark Rosewater from the Wizard of the Coast magic the gathering designer

The variance of the game can be introduced in several ways.

Playstyle variance

This type of the positive variance where players equate to the feel of “unique” gameplay from one match to another within a given game. In fact, this is one of the core element of what makes strategy card game different from strategy board game like chess.

In the strategy card games like Magic the Gathering, combination of cards to make a deck is infinite but actual playstyle are generalized into archetypes such as aggressively going after opponents health i.e. Aggro deck vs. reacting to opponent’s attack until opponents runs out of fuel i.e Control. In the Arena, player controls party of four heroes during quest/campaign or standard PvP mode. So how is Arena achieving the playstyle variance?

Not surprisingly, this is by means of making each hero unique. In Arena, there are 8 classes (called combat roles) of heroes. Each has unique playstyle.

As an example, Morlough is a Brute role. This role can be seen easily as a melee aggressive striker with high damage capability. If this was in a card game, this is a clear “Aggro” card.

In comparison, Avelum is a hero from a shooter role. This is a ranged attacker. One can readily imagine selection of melee vs. ranged attacker lead to strategical difference. Avelum illustrates even more specific and perhaps better card game analogy with one of its special action.

Unlike all other actions, this action can be used during Enemy’s turn. Name and concept perfectly fits into paradigm card for “control deck” in strategy card games. There are heroes in other roles having similar actions. Although this may not necessary be competitive nor fun party to play but one have a potential to make interruption based team.

In PvP mode, unlike strategy card game each player plays a match with open hand (at least for actions). This means despite Counterspell being special action i.e. consumable, one-time action, it has full bluff power because opponents see his/her special action could be negated by Counterspell.

Luck based game vs. Strategy based game

The second type of variance relates to the unpredictability based on the luck. This can be seen as positive or negative depending on the types of game and even within a given game it could be situational. In the card game like Magic the Gathering, this is what the designers consider as necessary evil to give “epic moments” in the game but as a trade-off it can result in infamous mana/resource screws.

This concept directly translates into tabletop adventure board games and I personally categorize the board games into two types based on the luck elements.

The game can be strategy driven vs. luck driven. Two are in the inverse relationship but rather than mutually exclusive, designers decide which way a given game weight towards. If we need 100% strategy based game that is purely based on the players strategy and tactics i.e. skills, we are talking about games like Chess and Go. There is no luck elements on these games. In these games, I will lose to a decent chess player every single match.

The opposite extreme of the spectrum is games like family friendly dice board games where (nearly) everything is determined by dice rolls i.e. purely luck based. My 8 year-old can still win LIFE board game because of the luck of having good rolls or perhaps due to other players bad rolls.

In adventure tabletop games, most prefers strategy element but some luck factor to give the “epic moments”. This is analogous to the Magic the Gathering. For example, if you have only 1 health left and thought about to be defeated but enemies repeated bad rolls and you survive and in the end win the game, you may feel its an epic moment/game. However, if it was too heavily luck driven i.e. you win or lose just because of your rolls, many will quickly lose interest to the game as one’s game skill does not really matter. You might as well pretend getting good rolls and keep reading campaigns. Perhaps, it may be better to just read campaign book.

PvP game requires even more strict balancing of the strategy and luck as both sides of table are actual players and lopsided game due to luck would ruin the whole game experience for everyone.

Similarly, if the game is completely strategy based, your friend who is playing the game for the first time won’t probably have much fun with you who have played the many times before.

In the Arena the Contest game, dice roll determines a character’s attack whether success or miss. So there is certainly luck element but to what extent?

The rule here is simple.

Key design decision Dragori Games made here I see are two:

• Defence stat
• Residual damage

Hero’s base defense values are ranging from 6 to 8. With 20 dice and success being equal to or greater than the defense value, this equates to success probability of 65% to 75% i.e. 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 chance of missing. This is indeed the sweet spot for players to notice the luck element existence while not dominated by it. Card game like Magic, the winning rate of 60-70% is considered really good. Even a pro player could potentially lose to casual player 30-40% by a chance (probably a little bit lower).

However, complete miss of an attack at the wrong time could easily ruin the entire tactics or even a game, especially some of the attack cards in the Arena is only one time use.

So to alleviate the “miss” event, Arena has decided to give residual damage. This way nothing is a complete waste.

The luck element can be made into true game mechanics/tactics only if one can manipulate it. This is what the purpose of “draw engine” in the Magic the Gathering. The purpose of which is to increase card draws so you can draw a card you need/want. Simply including 4 copies of the same card in a deck will still give you at best 60% chance you will have the card in your hand during a given game.

In Arena, the luck factor is manipulated by means of various conditions.

As you can see above, some condition/effect changes defense by +/- 3. This equates to 15% change in probability of hit. Rolling twice and take the best/worst of the two also affect probability significantly. For example, rolling 6 or more by a single dice is 75%, but if you roll two dice and pick the best result it is ~94% (ref).

• 

• 

Above is a sample synergy using the probability on your favor. Normally, 5% chance of rolling critical hit (must be 20) can be improved to 20% by Angelic voice. If you add double roll condition, it increases to 36%.

What I really like about the game is that methods to apply these conditions are not just by hero’s prime actions (cards) but these can be adjust by terrain element (altar tile) as well as positioning of your heroes (mob and focus).

Arena the Content is a well balanced, controllable luck driven game and such design allows for many “epic moments”.

Overall, I see variance elements in this game is analogous to that of Magic the Gathering in the strategy card game genre i.e. the best in design. Arena the Content is a well balanced, controllable luck driven game and such design allows for many “epic moments”.

Practical Experiences

PvP

My first PvP experience of the ATC was with my 11 year old son. It was his first play of the game. I myself had played the game about 6 or so solo quests/campaign. Since it was my son’s first game, I chose to use the basic rule (ignoring what’s Dragori identified as advanced/full experience rules).

He picked his team and I had my 8 year old pick my team based, which was completely based on the art. Otherwise, the play followed official rule. I thought I had the game easy when all my 3 heroes were alive and my son’s first hero died. At this point, two of my heroes had unused revival special attacks so I felt this was going to be a one-sided game.

The first game defining moment happened when I missed my roll for my hero’s revival ability. He also rolled multiple critical hit (natural 20 roll) consecutively while I got none. Eventually, what appeared to have one sided game became really close. The very last turn of my son’s attack, he had missed the roll. At this point, my last standing hero’s health became 1 HP due to non-lethal damage rule of the ATC. In the end, I ended up winning the game.

We both felt this was fun and epic battle. Could one blame my son’s last miss? Well, we could but I could then blame on my revival roll miss. In reality, the luck element of the game resulted overall positive experience to both of us. One sided game would not have been fun for either of us.

PvE

After playing a half dozen of solo quests with the first couple being just self-tutorial, I can truthfully say all the other games (2 loss and 2 win) had several “epic moments”. One such example is following.

As the last battle of the first stage in campaign mode, I had the best setup going agains the Warlord (stage boss). I had all 4 allies on the board including one I just revived on the previous round with its health all way up to 41. To make it even better, I used heroic action (below) to provide a “damage immunity” to the hero.

The basic strategy of enemy in this game is choose their target based on the closest distance. So with immunity to the damage, I have positioned the hero with immunity the closest to all enemies so he will be a focused target but takes no damage.

The AI card I have drawn for enemy’s round was…

It ignores the “damage immunity”. Furthermore, “blessed” means they roll dice twice and pick the best one so the chance of them missing attack is far lower. With four total enemies, there were total potential of 45 damages to my hero i.e. it is enough to kill my hero.

First I moved the boss and it was a hit. Next, one of troop again a hit. The third enemy rolled first a miss… Then even second a miss i.e. full miss. In Arena, this reduces enemy the enemy attack to 5 (residual damage). In the end, my hero survived with 2 health points.

Perfect setup gave me the feel of accomplishment. Drawing the worst AI card for the turn gave me terrible moment. Then the double miss roll on one of the enemy created the “epic moment”.

Depth of Strategy

this is more tactical than the Magic the Gathering

This game is highly strategic and tactical. In fact, this is more tactical than the Magic the Gathering. Despite what may initially appears as less choice due to less cards than game like Magic with 60 cards per deck, this is not true.

In a big picture, ATC allows user to choose movement and Prime Action during each turn. Having hero’s ability open to opponent is something one can think as playing card game in open hand. This takes out unknown factor but bluff element still remains. For example, each special attack can be only used once during a match and player must have special token ready to use this. So whether opponent CAN use interrupt or not is visible and it is all tactical decision if you would take the risk so opponent will use up the attack this turn and your future more important attack will go through. In fact, there are many players feel frustration when playing against control deck where player keep negating everything until opponent exhaust thing to do and then finish off the game. Although control decks in Magic involves skills, they just aren’t seen fun to player playing against because not much you can do given lack of choice in your hands/deck.

Positional Strategy

The positional element in this tabletop miniature games are core part of tactics, thus movement plays a big role. In fact, ATC allows some mechanics for movement itself like side step, mob, focus, and double move, and of course area of effect based on combatants positioning etc. This element is simply not part of typical strategy card game.

rather than using a card, positioning/movement of heroes can create statistical manipulation effect.

For example, mob mechanics puts enemy “exposed” condition, which increased the chance of hitting enemy by 15%. I won’t be surprised certain games have a dedicated card, “Target combatant is exposed.” Here, rather than using a card, positioning/movement of heroes can create statistical manipulation effect.

Another example of positioning playing tactical role is from my second PvP against my son. He had cleverly placed his hero to a spot where one of my hero had no way to get to his range hero as this game does not allow your hero to move through enemy heroes. So I had to go around by using two movement actions i.e. waste a full turn. This illustrated importance of start positioning and terrain positioning for the game strategy and tactics.

4 heroes, 4 action = 60 cards magic deck

When it comes to prime action, the game provides each hero 2 primary attacks and 2 special attacks. This means a full team i.e. 4 heroes have 4 x 4 = 16 options/cards. Additionally, each player chose two most powerful cards called heroic action and hide them in hand until the time of use. This means we are talking about 18 cards to choose from during a game match.

In games like Magic, 60 cards deck consists of ~20 lands, which are often not directly action generating cards. So typical deck have 40 action type cards. But it is a game of draw one card per turn, so to improve statistics to get specific cards in one’s hand, we put 3 or 4 copies of many cards. So in reality, typical deck have 10-15 unique cards. Therefore, cards/options ATC matches that of game like Magic the Gathering.

Artifact = deck customization

Furthermore, ATC adds another layer of depth/variation analogous to deck building/customization experience in the game like Magic via means of Artifact and Scroll cards for more experienced users.

• 

• 

• 

Instead of improving Stats, Artifacts grant extra powers or circumstancial bonuses to Heroes, allowing you to discover new combos and to have different strategies with the same teams.

SU #18 – Thalia; Artifacts

Artifact cards can customize heroes; hence, even with same 3 or 4 hero party, artifact selection can have impact on overall game strategy and one may feel playing different variant of the team (= deck).

Need bluff, more surprise? Scroll Cards

If one is looking for more bluff and more surprise element in the game, Scroll cards are perfect mechanics for that.

• 

• 

Like artifacts, Scrolls add a new strategic depth to matches, but they also bring unpredictability and even some bluffing to games, and the possibility of acting to the benefit of your team outside of your turn (forget about looking what’s on the fridge or taking a nap while it’s your friend’s turn!).

Scrolls are a free action (contrary to Heroic Actions, for example, you do not spend a Prime Action to use them), and, as such, you can use them in a larger number of circumstances. That’s why the card’s first entry describes the “Usage”, that is, when you can interrupt the match to invoke the Scroll’s power. Some even allow you to modify the result of a roll (after knowing what the result is!). They also do not demand range or vision between the hero using the scroll and the target(s) suffering its effect.

SU #19 – First print sample; Scrolls

Synergy & Combo

No game should be considered strategy game if there is no synergy/combo whether they are intentional or unintentional synergy i.e. by game design or by player’s discovery. Here we don’t need to worry. ATC have a strong “synergy” between heroes.

This Minotaur’s blow is very dangerous, due to the damage dealt and the possibility of a powerful critical hit. Jade greatly increases the chances of dealing a critical hit, in addition to recovering the HP that Morlogh loses when he makes this attack. If you can apply the Blessed Condition on Morlogh (by Jade´s Special Attack or any other way such as being positioned on an altar) it is even more effective! The critical hit chances go from 5% to more than 35%!

Team build and synergies

Combo and synergy have slightly different definition to certain players at least in the world of strategy card games. Combo is considered a stronger version of synergy where one can potentially end the game or create what’s called “lock condition” to the game i.e. opponent player cannot do anything anymore. Obviously, achieving such powerful effect should not be an easy and may not even be practical, but having such option exist in the game can be a potential “epic moment” for some players who wants to create one’s own secondary objective in the game.

• 

• 

In ATC, heroes have unlimited number of use for their primary attacks during the game, but each special attacks are limited to one time use. Also, PvP rule must follow heroes to take specific turn order. Therefore, memory theft and requiem of spirit combo have theoretical chance of taking both primary attack from a given hero. Once the hero loses primary attack, it has only special attacks; otherwise, it becomes limited to movement but no more primary actions. Such hero within a team lose momentum.

Multiple other synergy examples were given on official kickstarter pages like followings:

• Hero Spotlight: Jade, the Bard
• Hero Spotlight – Uster the Necromancer
• Hero Spotlight – Nakral, the Death Knight

Complexity

This is similar to lack based vs. strategy based argument, game designer need to make design choice/decision. The game can have many different options/components as if it has infinite possibility but achieving that via numbers of core game element pieces and rules will make the game too complicated. This is the main reason why new players experience steeper learning curve with games like Magic the Gathering compared to Heathstone. However, Magic the Gathering players often finds the game like Hearthstone lacks depth. So there is balance of simplicity and depth of game play.

One major thing ATC has done really well here is step-wise approach. First, they created a 6 page quick guide to start game right away. They recommend players to ignore certain advanced core rules e.g. reaction attack, mob and focus. However, these elements add more tactics so as player becomes comfortable, these are recommended pieces for true game experience. Then, there are artifacts and scrolls for even more play variance and depth of strategy. At full blown rule, ATC is deep enough to allow high tactical and strategic game plays but step-wise approach allow easy immersion without confusing rules. If you are interested in knowing about the game, you can check official site, especially quick guide to get you overview of the game play rule.

my 11 years old son has never played or even read rulebook but we used quick start rule guide and he was playing the game immediately under the rule.

In fact, I myself is one example here. I am fairly new to tabletop miniature except a few plays of Gloomhaven. I spent initial couple games learning rules and eventually read and still reading official rule book in detail. But my 11 years old son has never played or even read rulebook but we used quick start rule guide and he was playing the game immediately under the rule. In the second PvP match, we used standard rules i.e. reaction attack, mob and focus. That also went very well.

this is one of the better rule book we can see.

Overall, the rule book of this game is well written. There are many questions I had were answered within the rulebook though sometimes not in obvious/expected section and still several areas that are not clear. I believe this is one of the better rule book we can see.

Tracking Effort

These game unavoidably involve tracking of health, stats and conditions. Overall, the game does a decent job. For the most variable parameter during the match i.e. health point, Arena uses board edge counters with a tracker.

This is one the easiest way to keep track of highly variable parameter. Applied conditions are kept track using effect applying card (action card) placed over the target hero pad. This can be/will be replaceable by condition specific token, which will be more readily visually discernible with Tanares Adventure expansion.

For the given complexity of the game, the game appears to have done well to keep bare minimum user data tracking. However, adding the level up cards in campaign still introduces the level of data tracking one could hope slightly better e.g. perhaps use of health tracker type tool on Gloomhaven for attack, defense stat change. Though I still think, overall management is not bad for the depth of game.

Overall, this is simply A+ presentation and implementation. The game will satisfy those looking for deep complex game while it won’t hinder new players.

Balance

So far my play through of this game for couple rounds of PvP and half a dozen of solo quests, I am fairly impressed with the game balance. Despite or perhaps because of lack of overall selection/design mechanics, PvP is harder to balance the game. When one is playing against AI, designer can adjust difficulty level by creating new rule and add stats to enemies. What appears unfair balancing is treated as hard encounter by player and may seen as benefit upon defeating such challenge as a reward of accomplishment feel.

However, this is not true when PvP is designed. On the both side, there are player. If one player feels the game is lopsided due to unbalanced game design, the game loses full appeal either for winner or loser. It simply is not worth playing anymore. Despite such big franchise and company, Magic the Gathering to this date still see power balancing due to unintentional synergy, and eventually those cards get banned for official competition.

If certain heroes always dominates the game; hence, go to choice in this type of game, it will also kill the play style variance of the game. I have played only 2 PvP match so far, but each match ended up just one more turn or if one dice roll was different, the winner could have been different situation between myself and my son.

During the second match incorporating advanced/standard rules, we each chose our heroes. All different from our first game. I had 6 or 7 consecutive turns from the start of missed attack. I also missed important special attack to negate’s opponent special attack. It felt terrible. This was the feel I got when playing games like Magic the Gathering and get the infamous “mana screw”. Nonetheless, we continued playing the game.

The game was 2 hero left on both side but my son had nearly full health heroes while both of my heroes were either in or about to be in red zones. I then had 3 consecutive rolls of critical hit. In the end, if my son had missed his last attack roll, I may have been able to take his last hero down, only except he was smart enough to anticipate such potential and held back his special attack, which was interrupt, so technically he had to miss two rolls in raw for me to win. At the end, he succeed his attack roll so I ended up losing but the game was much closer than we both anticipated initially due to “dice screw” on my part.

I feel these experience speaks balancing of heroes as well as overall game. I would not have felt epic moments if I didn’t have “dice screw” preceding. I am sure my son would not have felt the adrenalin rush if I didn’t roll 3 critical hits in raw in the game he thought he could have won easily.

All these moments come from the core game design decision such as residual damage. In ATC, the residual damage avoids complete in vain turn due to dice roll, but also residual damage is non-lethal i.e. the last HP cannot be taken away by the missed attack.

Campaign

World Setting

In a world unified by The Empire, where it is forbidden to raise armies and make war all major conflicts get solved in the Arena. There, the best fighters represent the destiny and interests of entire nations. Such fighters are, deservedly so, called Heroes, and their battles, the epicenter of the society. But with an ancient mystery about to be unveiled, how long can this delicate balance of power be sustained?

https://dragorigames.com/games/arena-the-contest/

if you like the world setting of Game of the Thrones, you will like this

In short, if you like the world setting of Game of the Thrones, you will like this. This is a medieval fantasy with dragons and magics. To be honest, when I saw the word “Arena” and reading intro paragraph, I thought developer has forcibly retrofit the world setting and lores to the PvP style game. However, if you read actual lores, you quickly find that the world is designed to be highly expansile for player’s imagination and continued future content development. To prove this, Dragori will be running 5E RPG campaign very soon.

If you are interested in reading about the world setting of Arena the Contest, they have 200 page world and art book.

Campaign Experience

I have played about 7 solo quests with 3 being unique as I lost first two stages once each, and the other couple were training plays. Each of the 3 quests I played felt completely unique and in the end I felt accomplishment rather than grinding because they at perfect difficulty level. Initially, I tried first two quests trying to achieve all secondary objectives but both times I failed. So I switched to just focusing on primary objective to move on to the next stage. Even such decision, I was still only barely able to beat each quest. However, this barely beating the quests was not due to unfair game balance, but rather all the steps I chose. I had to think each turn what to do exactly. In retrospect, I felt I made many suboptimal decision. However, this barely beating the quest at the end gave me the feel of accomplishment. If it was too easy or difficult, I would not have felt such.

Immersive, easy read narratives

Besides the match, campaign takes us through the immersive narratives. Outside of battling, there are choices to be made that branches path. The mount of texts seem to be just right amount. So one does not feel reading 30 minutes of text before one can start new quest nor too little providing zero immersive feeling. I am not an avid reader and English is my second language. Even for me, Arena’s writing are easy to read and follow. I basically need far less dictionary search than other game like Stormsunder or Oathsworn.

Beyond the table

The game also has multiple puzzle elements outside of quest/battles. I enjoy these. Some are easy and some are challenging. If you are not able to solve it, it won’t end the game. So it is optional but these elements allow you to think about ATC beyond quests.

I am truly enjoying the ATC campaign mode and plan to continue playing.

Setup

Analogous to card game, too much tracking of conditions can be negatively impact the game. One of the unique part of tabletop game is also setting up the scenario/quest before starting or when certain event happen during the quest. This is another design balance developer has to make. Extreme example would game like Reversi. Game is ready to play in a few second without any board setup. Chess requires slightly more setup time but now each piece have own rule. In fact, Magic the Gathering ensures each block/expansion to keep number of new keywords/mechanics under certain number so the game won’t become too complicated and people won’t be spending more time tracking data than actually playing.

Arena the Contest claims 1 min PvP setup and 5 min Coop/campaign quest setup on the original kickstarter page. Since I am using Tabletop simulator, it take much longer than this but I think above numbers are realistic estimate if it were physical.

the game requires player to continue referencing back to quest guide during the actual quest match e.g. looking up enemy stats and quest specific rules. This feels to dilute immersive experience.

However, as mentioned below in “Things can be improved” section, the game requires player to continue referencing back to quest guide during the actual quest match e.g. looking up enemy stats and quest specific rules. This feels to dilute immersive experience. This feels a potentially fixable shortcoming.

Arena: the Contest 1.5

This was originally my wishlist based on my ATC version 1.0 tabletop simulator version play. However, after receiving official email reply from Dragori Games, I found out many points of my wishlist will be fixed with version 1.5. So I decided to change the title and Wishlist section is moved to next section, which is now very small list.

Although some of following points will be/are addressed with upcoming ATC 1.5 version and Tanares Adventure expansion, I will list here as my personal experience is based on the current version of the ATC.

Lack of dedicated Enemy Stat card/pad

Currently, the game describe enemy stat in the quest book. This results in myself to refer back to quest book many times during the game to ensure I don’t make the game unintentionally easy/hard. This is especially inconvenient with tabletop simulator platform, but the same issue (though may be lesser extent) will be present in physical game. This step felt unnecessary cumbersome and degrades smoother, more immersive game play. This was confirmed to be fixed in Tanares Adventure expansion and now upcoming Tanares RPG will have Villain Pack addition that contains ATC boss getting their own cards/pad to keep their abilities/stats on table rather than in book

Lack of quest specific rule quick reference

There are quest specific rules like in other adventure board games in order to create unique experience for each quest. For example, in the Arena 1.0, there is a quest where the beginning of hero’s round there will be a damage X applied to the first hero activated. These are hard to remember since they are quest specific. Therefore, they require players to leave quest book open and keep referencing back just like enemy stat to get full experience of the quest as designer intended.

For example, I missed one text where referring that my heroes get certain damage EVERY round during the first play of the first quest. This ended up making the quest too easy and certainly game did not felt as intense as if I were to follow the actual rule. It was to the point, the game felt completely different second run when I followed the one text.

This will be fixed with ATC 1.5 using interest mechanics, “clock”.

to help always remind the quest’s effects, there is the clock on Tanares Adventures. So in all quests, something happens during the clock and it is very clear on the quest guide. So you will not forget. Also, on quests with stats for prisoners and allies, we tried to make it standard whenever possible.

Dragori Games official Email reply 8/17/2021

Too easy boss battle

I have only played one boss quest so far, but when compared to two other non-boss quests, I had expected boss battle would be even harder and more epic. It turned out, boss battle was easier.

This has already been officially confirmed to be fixed with Arena the Contest 1.5 (Update #42 Arena: the Contest – Modifications). You can read the link. They analyze and recognize why Boss battle felt easier than regular quest, which makes total sense.

Rulebook clarification

I have been using the latest rule book version, v11. While overall the guide is well written, the nature of these games have many potential unforeseen situations at the time of initial rulebook writing. As a new player, I have already encountered a few unclear description/rules. Here my hope was to have official online page, ideally Dragori website for FAQ/errata etc.

Q) Will there be any plan to have official forum/page addressing rule ambiguity that has been previously asked with OFFICIAL answers. I know BGG and Discord have players helping each other, but it would be far easier and trustworthy if there is an official page.

Yes, we are deciding where, but regularly Alex and Clayton, our directors will answer all questions.

Dragori Games official Email reply 8/17/2021

Wishlist: Things can be improved

No Stat card for regular (non-overload) villains?

The villain pack mentioned above will still not cover regular enemies like non-overload skeleton, orcs, vampires etc. So I am still a bit unclear if these enemies still need us refer back to the quest guide. However, I am putting this “?” here because of following response from Dragori games.

Q) Will Enemy/Villain pad change retrospectively apply to ATC campaigns e.g. Orcs, Vampires etc.

No, but you will use the new villain pack miniatures on Tanares Adventures too. Also, we are planning to create a pdf to allow players to play Arena the Contest using Tanares Adventures new rules.

Dragori Games official Email reply 8/17/2021

The latter part is interesting of its own but hard to say exactly what it means since we do not know how regular villains stats be treated in Tanares Adventure.

Tanares Adventure

Upcoming Tanares adventure expansion will take campaign mode to a whole new dimension. Some of my personal wishlist items are addressed with Tanares expansion.

For example, the lack of enemy card is addressed by now having dedicated enemy card although it is uncertain if above will retrospectively applies to original ATC campaign enemies (I hope they will).

Too easy boss battle will also be reportedly be fixed as mentioned below.

Bosses are intense fights where you see your HP simply melt, but they are, in fact, easier than missions. At least that’s the feedback we’re receiving.

UPDATE #42: Arena: the Contest – Modifications

Although I cannot say exactly how it would feel to play Tanares Adventure’s campaign, many players including myself feel ATC campaign is already awesome so I can only imagine when Dragori Games putting full emphasis/effort on the epic campaign, Tanares Adventures must be truly “epic”. New campaign is said to be lasting 100 hours range.

The Tanares adventures expansion have almost all if not all RPG elements checked:

• Side Quests
• Multiple ending and now starting – replayability
• Character development – Skill tree
• Equipments
• City building

Side Quests

Tanares adventures have 100+ side quests. Other add-ons can affect side quests.

An entire arc of sidequests involving the dragons — and Queen of Dragons — found in the Dragon Collection. You may even play against — or with — them, according to your moment in the campaign, performance, and decisions.

Some Legendary Box monsters may appear in missions, especially sidequests related to these legendary heroes (e.g., Orcs, female vampires, and others).

Related to the previous topic, Hydra and Baleroth (both bosses from the Legendary Box) appear in special Sidequests.

Update #52: Unboxing videos and City Structures

Skill tree

Each Combat Role has its own skills; the characters will attain more (in quantity and quality) as they progress in the story. With each new mission, it is possible to reallocate your Level UP tokens within the skill tree, allowing you to try new strategies or adjust to a particular set of quest instructions.

Our favorite skill tree trait is that the vast majority of its skills are to be used outside of your turn. No, you will not brew coffee and wait half an hour for your turn to come, as any time may be the best time to use a skill that can change the course of the game. This greatly increases the sense of collaboration and harmony in a Team.

Update #49: Tanares Adventures – heroes

Equipments

Customization of hero with equipments are necessary part of RPG.

Heroes can equip weapons and armor with passive bonuses, to be acquired among more than 100 items. In addition, each hero can carry a single-use potion. These items also come in 3 levels.

Update #49: Tanares Adventures – heroes

City Building

Four City Structures evolve into different branches that players have to carefully choose, as they serve both teams. For example, regarding the item shop, you can choose whether to increase its network of armorsmiths or weaponsmiths. This choice will impact the types of higher level weapons available at an earlier moment in the campaign — and with reduced prices.

Update #49: Tanares Adventures – heroes

Dragori Games

This may not apply to everyone, but when I invested my money on strategy/trading card games, I always had hope it would be the only game I need and game I would play 100’s to 1000’s of hours. While the former is not a realistic goal, the latter can be. This is only achievable if the game continues to receive fresh expansion at certain timing.

Magic the Gathering went through multiple changes how often they would release new expansion in order to keep the game feel fresh. This is certainly not the game we expect the level of competitiveness as in the Magic, so every 3-4 months expansion is not only necessary but simply does not make sense. Nonetheless, I like to think the potential.

This is just one example of asking company’s track record and/or credibility. There is always a risk associated with crowdfunding games, especially from small indie companies. Arena the Contest is indeed the first game from Dragori. For those of us joining the Arena series at this point is fortunate that we know well enough about the game and company. If you are interested, you can try it for free so long as you have tabletop simulator.

After playing the game digitally, there are several points I thought the game could improve but many of these have already been addressed with upcoming version including:

1. Miniture quality
2. Lack of Villain card
3. Solo friendly option
4. Rule book improvement

Dragori is the company listening to player feedback and continue to make the game better. In fact, I have been receiving detailed email replies from the company about all the questions I ask. Some took a while (couple weeks to be precise) but that’s amidst of them preparing for new kickstarter campaign. Each replies I received were very professional and detailed rather than some ambiguous replies. They have been devoting all effort to the Tanares game series (Arena series) so far. They have already a track record that their game is not one time published and done.

Let’s take look at one example, which is addition of solo friendliness play.

Solo friendliness

It is a common practice to have group of characters forming a party even with a solo play mode. However, when each characters are designed to be played with depth e.g. skill tree and movement/attack etc. This can create an issue for solo player as controlling multiple characters may be a bit too much. With Tanares Adventures, Dragori game decided to introduce “escort” card system.

Let’s say you’re playing solo mode. You may choose a main character for you, which you will play as it is intended (with skill tree, items, Passive Power, attack cards). Your three teammates, however, can be played in a simplified way. Every Hero in the game will come with its “escort” card: a single attack (with two options) and a Passive Power that distinguishes each of our dozens of Heroes, an important feature to force you to maintain your tactical positioning zeal. Besides, each escort has a simple way to spend the power cubes they earn along the quest.

Update #64: Shipping and Solo Mode

This appears to be something Dragori games created after the original campaign. With my limited research of tabletop adventure games, I saw similar thing done by Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood. So I am grateful to see that Dragori games continue to evaluate and evolve the game for better.

Dragori has successfully completed first two campaign and the third campaign is coming soon. All in the setting of Arena the Contest world. This is another proof to me of their constant support to the game.

Conclusion

This review got much longer than I had originally anticipated. However, it still fails to cover the amount of content and value this game provides. From the card gamer’s perspective, this has potential to be Magic the Gathering equivalent in the tabletop game. The game uses luck element with 20 face die for the creation of the epic moment, just like Magic the Gathering. Do not mistake it though, this is not a game of pure lack. You have ability to manipulate the lack i.e. tactical and strategical control. At first it may appear relative scarcity of option due to each hero only has 4 attacks, the game has more options during each turn than any other card game. Position of your heroes and enemies have tactical impact e.g. applying specific condition just purely based on positioning/movement. Every turn, you can think what is the optimal move/action, which is only driven/proven by previous and subsequent turns. Whether you play PvP or solo campaign, the game has many epic moments because of the game design utilizing the controllable lack element at the perfect level of the balance between luck and strategy.

The arts in this game is the highest quality in any games you will play. What I initially thought the only major drawback of the game, the miniature quality is actually reportedly now quoted as “some of the best D&D minis you can get for the price”. Although the rulebook is very well written and certainly playable, it can still benefit from further clarification/revision.

This is from a new indie company that cares player. Arena will undoubtedly see continued support from the company. The world setting of the game allows that and company has already proven that with upcoming large expansion, and soon to be starting 5E RPG crowdfunding campaign. This is the game/franchise with a relatively well promised future and proven track record.

As an over decade digital card gamer, I have not had this much fan with games for a long time. Arena the Contest brought me back the excitements of my best gaming times, which were the times when I first played Eye of Judgement (my first true digital TCG), first time playing Magic the gathering (stepping up to the gold standard) and HEX TCG kickstarter (the highest funded digital TCG on kickstarter).