RavensburgerDisney Villainous - Introduction to Evil Strategy Board Game - Compatible with Other Villainous Games - Be Maleficent, Prince John, Ursula or Captain Hook - Award Winning Line - Ages 10+

A good start

Such a fun game and made so well! Easy to set up and learn and the quality of the pieces is great. A very good deal for a great game that is well designed!

Good quality and as described. Fun game to play

Love this villainess series and I bought it for the Laura con card so that was a bonus.

For the price I was able to get this game for, it was worth it, especially with the included promo card. If you can get this for around $15, you're GTG

I was excited to see this game become available. I had seen Villainous before of course, but not being a huge Disney fan, I wasn't sure if I was ready to jump into one of the game's big boxes. (I am a Star Wars and Marvel fan, but am already oversaturated with great games in those worlds.)What Ravensburger has done here is taken "Villainous: The worst takes it all" and reduced it in size, price, and content. Whereas the original had six characters to play, this one has four (keeping Captain Hook, Maleficent, Ursula, and Prince John and losing Jafar and The Queen of Hearts). And to entice Lorcana players, the initial printing of the game comes with an exclusive Lorcana card.This makes it perfect for me. I only need four characters to find out if I like the game, and to play with the four members of my family. And as it turns out, I do like the game!There are countless summaries of how the game operates, but briefly, you choose a Disney villain and set in front of you a playing board with four locations from that villain's world/movie. I was mostly familiar with the ones in this set, but the family did re-watch Disney's Robin Hood, and I'm glad we did.You have two decks of cards, which can be described as helpful ones (the villain deck) and harmful/annoying ones (the fate deck). The location board and these cards brilliantly evoke the characters and events of the movies. Coded to each of the locations in front of you are a series of actions. Each turn you get to choose one of these locations to move to, using a very artistic playing piece, enabling you to take each of the actions visible there. Reminiscent of the board game Scythe, you cannot remain in your current location and take the same actions two turns in a row, you must move to a new space. The actions allow you to do different things, including playing cards.Villain cards will often have a cost in power tokens - you start the game with two and will accumulate more over the course of time. Power tokens are kept in a neat plastic cauldron, adding to the overall Disney flavor. You may also play a Fate card, against an opponent. Fate cards mostly represent the heroes of the opponent's story. They can remove some of the available actions for each location (literally, by sitting on top of them) and menace villains by having ongoing effects and being difficult to remove. Villain cards often represent henchmen and tools that are also played to the board, and can remove those pesky heroes.Most importantly, each villain (player) has a unique goal to achieve to win the game - this can involve moving cards to certain locations or gathering power tokens, for example. Once a player achieves that goal, the game is over and they have won. This makes the game highly asymmetrical; although the actions on the playing boards are the same for all players, they are in different locations (and some are on villain cards), all the cards are unique, and also of course, is the art and theme. The designer's goal in all asymmetrical games is to make sure there is balance - that there is a level playing field for each player. I am sure a lot of time was spent to assure this was the case, and as far as I can tell, each player is equally likely to win. One can only imagine how much play testing there must have been for the Villainous system, given all the compatible expansions for the game.So is it fun? Yes. The overall feeling I get is that I am trying to complete a puzzle, with constant roadblocks being placed in my way by other players. I feel removed from the other players in that we all exist in our own universe, and even when a player "attacks" me with a fate card, it is confined to my play area. This "take that!" element of interactivity may not be for everyone. But overcoming the impediments and making it to the end feels extremely satisfying. And the brilliant way the game recreates a Disney movie world for each player is brilliant. This makes it a MUST for any Disney fan who enjoys tabletop gaming. Maybe I'll try one of those Marvel sets after all!

This is a game that can be played between two to many players. All IP such as Marvel, Starwars, Disney etc can all be played together. So all the marvel versions, or starwars etc. You play your own board and the goal is to mess things up for eveyone else and come out on top. A fantastic type of game. Highly recommended.

Great addition to the ever growing Villainous universe. Game rules are slightly tweaked to make it easier for first time players.