Into the Catacombs

Tonight, I had my first experience with the "dexterity game" genre. Well, I'm talking about niche board games, not mass market stuff like Jenga. The game was called Catacombs, and it simulates a group of adventurers on a "dungeon crawl."

The majority of the players each take on the role of one stereotypical D&D party member (with appropriate abilities), and team up against one player who represents the "big boss" of the dungeon. The players work their way through a series of rooms, defeating smaller monsters and gaining useful items to take into an epic final confrontation against the big bad himself. Either the evil wins, or the party wins.

The dexterity element comes in how combat works. One of the observers likened it to marbles. You lay out a game board and flesh it out with immovable "columns" that serve as obstacles. Around them, players position wooden discs that represent the adventurers and monsters. And when your turn comes around, you literally flick your discs into an adversary, sliding it across the board. A hit is a hit, and causes damage. A miss might just leave you in a bad position for a counterattack.

I'll be honest... it's more of an "activity" in my mind than a game. Though it can be enjoyable. Certainly the spectators that gathered around (finishing their "parallel board game" faster than we did) were enjoying it perhaps just as much as we were. But the game also seemed too long for what it really offered. The final confrontation was an epic 20 minute battle that was pretty fun and had satisfying moments for both sides. But it was preceded by an hour long preamble that did little more than get all players more accustomed to flicking the discs around with a modest degree of accuracy.

Someone suggested perhaps it would have been more fun to just do three "boss battles" in the same amount of time, without all the unnecessary ramp up, and I have to agree. I'd take it even one step farther and say that just a single boss battle could be the right cap on a long game night where everyone is a bit brain-fried, not interested in starting another deep-thinking game, but not quite ready to call it a night yet.

I can't say I'll be looking to pick up a copy to play with my regular game group, but it certainly was goofy and different, and was kind of fun too.