Publisher: Post Scriptum
Player Count: 2-4 Players
Game Length: 30-45 Minutes
Complexity 2/5
Compete against the world’s great explorers and treasure seekers as you visit legendary locations and pursue mythical prizes to prove your worth
Legend Raiders is a light, quick, family-style, adventure-themed drafting and set collecting game where players seek treasure and match sets to earn the most points. Read our review below to find out if joining the ranks of Montana John, Lana Soft and Lin Diana Jones is right for you.
ON YOUR TURN
Turns in Legend Raiders are fairly simple and quick, giving the game a nice, fast-paced feel and a bit of lounge-in-cheek humor to keep things light.
The focus of the game is build-up your tableau of discovering tiles, working to maximize points and achieve potential end-game objectives.
During your turn, players begin by rolling a die that applies immediate effect to the turn. While typically beneficial, there are some mildly negative effects as well as rolls that could affect all players.
From there, players take 1 of 2 available actions. The first action allows you to draw a pairing of discovery tiles and tool tokens from the headquarters board to your persona player board. There is limited space, so you have to be selective when it comes to your choices.
The 2nd available action has you full-filling one or more of your discovery tiles. Discovery tiles require specific tools to be full-filled, forcing you to spend available tokens from your supply. Once completed, tiles are placed face down on your player board covering 1 of the 6 available spaces. When a player achieves 6 tiles the end game is triggered. Additionally, players draw expedition cards for each full-filled tile.
There is a neat balance to completing tiles since certain spaces feature icons that earn you points when tiles are completed. Each of the 3 spaces reserved for tiles not yet completed score points (discovery area), but only when they don’t have a tile on them. So there is a fun balance between tiles you’re pursuing and points you score after each completed tile. Now some completed tiles will earn you points, but you have to be careful about overloading your discovery area since it minimizes your point potential, but also affects your reserved discovery tiles available to you.
Expedition cards earned have the potential to score additional end game points based on sets of completed discovery tiles. Ultimately, the player with the most points is the winner.
ARTWORK & COMPONENTS
I’m really attracted to the fun, cartoony, Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style artwork. It really immerses you in the theme and helps elevate the game’s fun-factor. The individual characters are all based on pop culture explorers and give you a fun persona to embrace throughout the game. Components are fine—the cardboard is good quality and definitely gets the job done.
PROS & CONS
➕ Light-hearted, brisk game good for families
➕ Fun theme with great artwork
➕ Simple, popular drafting mechanics create interesting turns that don’t bog down the flow of the game
➕ Game variant allows players to substitute die roll if you aren’t into luck-based games
➕ I really like the balance between loading up your discovery area, giving you more tile options and limiting those pursuits in an effort to maximize points when a tile is completed.
➕ The expedition cards add a nice additional layer that earns points for certain tilesets affecting your choices.
➖ Fairly basic mechanics don’t do anything new
➖ Simple game play may feel too basic for some players. This includes a limited number of choices.
➖ While not a negative, luck plays a large role in the game and can lead to some less than stellar games for certain players
WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?
This is a family game that introduces some fun, tested mechanics and some variation thanks to the different tile and token pairings. There are some additional layers with the die rolling and card drafting that supplements the game play and adds a little more interest and replayability, but it best serves as a gateway game for players who find the theme intriguing.
WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?
The best thing about the game is finding the right balance to reserving discovery tiles, completing tiles and maximizing your score. A lot of this needs luck to properly work out, but there are mitigating factors at play so you’re still in charge of your own destiny.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Legend Raiders really goes as far as the theme works for you. I’m a fan of that pulp-y adventure style and I think that’s why I’ve enjoyed my multiple plays up to this point. It also helps that I’ve been able to play with my kids and it’s something that gives them interesting choices without being overwhelming. The rules are quick to teach and fairly easy for anyone to grasp.
This is a light, gateway game and it’s probably not going to satisfy more serious gamers. The drafting mechanics seem very popular right now and don’t necessarily bring anything new to the board game world. If you haven’t played too many drafting games, you’re probably going to enjoy this more. The game does run smoothly, plays quickly and is overall, a satisfying experience with the right expectations. I don’t have a problem recommending this for the families and kids who find the adventure theme exciting.