The 4 Squares Review - World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

[@Overbass8000]

The game will be super easy for WoW fans to get into. And it's a very decent Pandemic game overall, very well done. I'm glad Dice Tower guys liked it.

[@kellyhall877]

I am honestly surprised none of you guys played World of Warcraft back in the day! Lol I was excited to see this as the theme, because we no longer play WoW but it holds a sweet spot for us. Thanks for the reviews.

[@tiagomagalhaes7032]

Got the game a few weeks ago, and I do agree with the 8.5 score, it's a very solid pandemic-style game. But I will address two points: 1 - Replayability: the game does lack some of it because you always know your end-goal from the start; you might get different quests, different characters, but in the end you will be going to Icecrown to face Lich King, there is no other type of victory. HOWEVER, after more than 10 games of this at Heroic difficulty, the cards that you get might deeply impact the game, making two games with exactly same characters and quests feel completely different. So while it's not a game to play every single day, I do think it's one that has enough in it for several playthroughs with buddies, and for a strong replayability if you really love the theme. 2 - Strategy: the game might seem simple but at Heroic difficulty it does slap you hard if you do not plan things. While it might seem "just go there for quest and kill monsters on the way", at higher difficulty it might not be in your best interest to go straight for a quest zone, because you need to clean up some monsters before, or risk getting a bad draw that will put the board under strain. It is more straightforward than most Pandemic-style games, but if no thought is made you will lose hard.

[@user-fr1ys2wn4t]

I really hope that this is just a gateway game to see if former WoW players would want to get into board games. You could do so much more with WoW as a Sword&Sorcery style game.

[@dragonlance6027]

Roy, perfect quote for the end of the video!

[@stickandmud]

So good to see such a high score for a Warcraft game. Good job Z-MAN!

[@jasonjoyce2177]

Isn't Pandemic one of his all time favorites?

[@bobsteel1981]

Agreed with the picture of the mini being useful. One of the first things I do with any game that has minis is identify what each mini is and write who / what it is on the bottom of the base so it's easier for others. Also when I paint them I stick to whatever scheme is depicted on character cards to make it even easier to identify them.

[@richardsaunders9214]

A Defenders of the Realm comparison seems like it would have been relevant too?

[@Steve-L]

Especially Tom who is a big fan.

[@RedCubTX]

I just came here to make that same comment!

[@dbungart3044]

Thinking the same thing.

[@thedicetower]

I originally though that. But there are SO many differences. In Defenders, there are "Big Bads" heading towards the middle, and the troops spread like Pandemic. In fact, other than the fact that there are monsters instead of cubes, there isn't anything the same.

[@richardsaunders9214]

@@thedicetower Thanks guys! :)

[@LongTail8443]

Whoa! what a luxury board game. Another awesome snow theme.

[@ShelfStories]

I am a giant WoW fan from back in the day. Can’t wait to get this to the table and camera.

[@megalodon2012]

After watching them live play this I fell in love with it and pre-ordered it immediately. However I didn't get the vibe that the guys were having fun. Was very surprised at the gushing reviews, especially from Zee. Very happy to hear it!

[@thedicetower]

Sorry you got that vibe! We were having fun!

[@crystalheath6510]

I'm very excited to get a copy of this.

[@juvigoat2168]

Job’s done! Hahaha! Nice, Roy!

[@AuthorDiCristofano]

I'm surprised no one is comparing this to Defenders of the Realm.

[@dbungart3044]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@AuthorDiCristofano]

@@dbungart3044 Defenders is incredibly difficult and engaging. Biggest flaws are the player character designs. The player powers & abilities are mundane.

[@DeltaDemon1]

​@@AuthorDiCristofano I disagree. Defenders is much easier than many Pandemic games, and, while I agree that player character design is its biggest flaw, it's often a flaw because the powers are much too powerful.

[@baroldalt312]

@@AuthorDiCristofano I think the powers are fine. The flaws are that if you fail against a general, you're well behind. And it drags. You can know you're losing, but it will be a slow loss.

[@Sem5626]

yeah i got it this week to join my solo game collection it's solid like you say... pandemic games aren't ever really on the top of my list but they're fun enough for me to play, it'll be a game that i pull out every other month and do a couple of runs then put it back again it's not a game that would ever become a main go to all the time i think

[@udrevnavremena]

26:00 Ah, Roy the Warcraft III Peasant. Awesome!

[@petergross7235]

I'm very excited to play this one having played world of warcraft on PC for years. Talk about it being a welcoming game, I traditionally do no like the pandemic games, but this theme has me giving the system another chance.

[@tylerdavis6389]

I only got into Pandemic-system games with Reign of Cthulhu, with this I'm very curious to see what future IPs they pick up.

[@grog3514]

Seeing the components makes me want to play wow again. I really miss questing in northrend and doing battle in tol barad...

[@riva0389]

Me too. Fav exp

[@SeanUCF]

I miss when Warcraft was an RTS and not a lame cash grab and when Blizzard had actual software engineers and game designers rather than executives and managers that sexually harass their employees.

[@koenwijnants6499]

Hope there will be some more expansions of this... looks good !

[@petergross7235]

Just more promo characters would be awesome...tons they could add to the game.

[@gordo6908]

@@petergross7235 i think they'd have to leave northrend for the eastern kingdoms at least if they want to really have legs. wotlk simply had the most subs

[@foxtayle683]

The Burning Crusade was a much better setting but it would have been harder to fit into a Pandemic style game.

[@krazikrucial707]

I'm surprised. I was not expecting this to be rated so highly by the whole group. Time will tell.

[@OPxZenith]

What's the promo character that Tom mentioned? Is that available to the public?

[@azizmandar]

I'm happy the name is what it is and not "Pandemic:WotLK". It probably could have gone that way but I'd be less interested.

[@ArnoVdVelde]

I think there was never any doubt. Pandemic is big, but World of Warcraft in giant letters draws 100x more eyes. I think.

[@Bleuchz]

Just a quick note: Wrath of the Lich King is *THE* WoW expansion for most people. Nice review :)

[@Wolforce]

100%

[@BoroMirraCz]

For many yes... but for just as many people MoP or Legion is THE WoW expansion.

[@foxtayle683]

The Burning Crusade.

[@dcristian5965]

There are some white dots on the board, what are they used for?

[@SoloBoardGamingKnight]

I finally got my hands on a copy! Hopefully I can learn how to play soon so I can check it out myself.

[@dallen052066]

Do you know if Argent Cryusade can be played during questing and if so can all 5 damage count as quest movements.

[@JoeyjojoShabadoo7]

Scourge Rises…reminds me of Forbidden Island. I think I’m really going to like this game, and, hopefully pick it up quickly

[@LalienX]

Bought this game just to paint the miniatures. Glad to see that it's actually fun.

[@mcstabba]

I never played World of Warcraft but I did play the Warcraft real time strategy games a LOT so the nostalgia for that (especially Warcraft 3 it seems) makes me curious about this game, always wanted to try a game in this board game series as well with a (for me) compelling theme (Cthulhu and Rome is also something I would consider). This might be for me, I'll watch the playthrough of it someday this week and think about it a bit.

[@retiredfromyoutubehehe]

Tom talked about he had a promo for this game, where would you get said promo?

[@crypticzz8333]

have you figured out where to get the promo?

[@retiredfromyoutubehehe]

@@crypticzz8333 For some reason my comment got deleted, probably because I put a URL in it. There is a website for a LGS called Stone Valley Games, they are selling pre-orders that include the promo.

[@javierulf]

Really thought you would have rated it a bit lower given your final thoughts

[@jenius00]

Was thinking the same. I thought there'd be at least one 7 and no one would be higher than an 8.

[@fathervader]

Wrath of the Lich King was the second expansion to World of Warcraft. You know... just... FYI. :) I played a lot of WotLK during the era! The lore and story lend themselves well to this Pandemic reimplementation. Looking forward to trying it out.

[@Steve-L]

I never played WoW, but played the original Warcraft, Warcraft 2, and Warcraft 3, I also played the beta Warcraft. Warcraft 2 was my favorite and played it for many years. I even enjoyed the movie. I never played Pandemic, the theme is a huge turn off for me, but would play this!

[@Neoradtz]

The movie was definitely underrated.. I enjoyed it too!

[@Quincyslayer]

I had no idea Mike knew how to speak Murloc.

[@renmaster7319]

For a new player would this game or the Talisman games be easier to get into?

[@alessandraceli2326]

The games are very different, it depends on what you are looking for. In Talisman you have to beat all the other players, and you don't really need to pay attention to what all the other players are doing all the time, while in WoW all the players play together against the game, and of course they will interact more. Also Talisman in my experience can go on for several hours, especially for new players who don't know very well the cards or the board. WoW is a fairly short game. Talisman in mainly based on luck, WoW can be more strategic, while luck sure plays a part. I love Talisman, it helped me to introduce a lot of my friends to board games because it's easy to explain and to play, you don't have to think a lot of what you are doing, wich I get that it's frustrating for the most experienced gamers, but I feel like it makes the game less intimidating for new players. I think wow is pretty simple too, so it really depends on how long you want to play for, and if you prefer a competitive game or a cooperative one.

[@renmaster7319]

@@alessandraceli2326 can you play this can solo?

[@baroldalt312]

@@renmaster7319 Pandemic can be solo.

[@vonwoolf9963]

I could very much see fanmade expansions being made, with things like miniatures from WoW the board game for example.

[@AlmightyCow1]

Who's the promo character and where can I get it????

[@crypticzz8333]

have you figured out where to get the promo?

[@JarradShaw]

I love Pandemic, and absolutely in love with this style and mechanisms of this pandemic

[@thepardoner2059]

Wrath of the Lich King is a fun game, but we (like Mike) prefer Reign of Cthulhu.

[@Galloglaoch]

The real question here is Small World of Warcraft or Wrath of the Lick King if you can only pick one WoW themed game to have?

[@baroldalt312]

Small World is boring. Pandemic depends on how annoying the other players are.

[@Galloglaoch]

@@baroldalt312 This doesn't answer anything... So a boring game and a game with varying annoyance as per your output...

[@baroldalt312]

@@Galloglaoch So if your group has annoying people, probably stick with Small World boredom

[@foxtayle683]

Get the original FFG WoW: the board game.

[@DeltaDemon1]

In a 3 player game of cthullu pandemic, we lost the game before the third turn (not the third round, the third turn, the last player never played) because of die rolls.

[@harryofgo]

We won on the very last card to be drawn. It was one of the best gaming moments I've had.

[@keychainere]

…how? You only roll if you encounter a shoggoth or use a relic.

[@dannyteoharov8298]

Job's done 🤣🤣🤣 Thank you for that!

[@RadishTheFool]

The theme really isn't for me, but I'm very happy that the WoW fans got a solid and fun implementation of the pandemic mechanics. Now here's hoping that they paste this on some more properties. My personal recommendation: Adventure Time. Has a big fandom, looks colourful and fun so will even attract people outside of that fandom, and is suitable to play with kids.

[@ChrisKoehn]

I think as the Geocaching tokens travel about, more scenarios and characters will be released for the game? That could greatly address the replayability factor some of the guys brought up.

[@jeffreydeguzman8005]

I have not played WoW. I only played base pandemic, it's not one of my top games, but i did enjoy it. But I played a lot of warcraft 1, 2 and 3, Dota2 , Hearthstone. I enjoyed the movie as well. Now after seeing this review with scores that high, this will probably go into my maybe/got to have, just to see Thrall/Jaina have that epic battle with Arthas. Frostmourne hungers!

[@exiledsonofhawaii3934]

Makes me wish pandemic fall of Rome had minis. Would've made the theme stronger.

[@thedicetower]

Well, the Dice Tower library does now. :)

[@82ndmi]

I'd put it under Iberia rome and legacy, but above cthulu.

[@KickstarterRadio1024]

I'm a huge World of Warcraft fan... and for me the huge circles covering Northrend are hiding over 30 to 40% of the map. What is this adding to the game to cover the art up?

[@SanjuroSan]

Zee! Review year of molach NSH 3.0!

[@johnnovotny5074]

Only a 1 point spread and an average score between the 4 of you at 8.1.

[@foxtayle683]

I can understand why they picked WotLK for this game but would have loved it much better if they had made a way to fit The Burning Crusade in this instead.

[@CK-mi3sd]

Looks like Horrified. Not strategic enough but good for new gamers.

[@filiplazov5895]

I am usually not a coop fan and play more complex games, but as a wow fan I will get this one as my guilty pleasure board game.

[@TheSverVe]

Jobs done from roy 😂😂😂😂

[@animodeoh]

What do you mean?

[@jeffreydeguzman8005]

@@animodeoh It's a reference to the warcraft RTS video games. The peons/workers would tell you "Job's done" after they finish builsing things to let you know they're available.

[@animodeoh]

@@jeffreydeguzman8005 oh yeah, I remember that now. I thought it was some weird joke about Roy being fired

[@itmejlee]

I can't quite put my finger on whats wrong, but I don't like the look of this game (though I'm sure it's fun)... the map itself looks good but the iconography and cards look a little plain to me and the color palette seems a bit too bubblegummy.

[@baroldalt312]

I was enjoying it until I got attacked.

[@user-fr1ys2wn4t]

The possibilities to use the WoW franchise are endless and they decided to use the pandemic system ... You've got a whole generation of previous computer gamers who now play board games instead and I betcha the backers for a kickstarter for a serious dungeon crawler with WoW theme would blow up to proportions never seen before... I feel like this is such a wasted opportunity.

[@kristiewonchalk5718]

Sad they didn't know what WOTLK was

[@ESCTom]

I love Warcraft, but im really disappointed by the aesthetics of this. I played Warcraft 3 to death and one of the things I loved about it was the bright vibrant colours in the art of the units - like the headhunters and the night elves etc. this colour palette is grey and greyish purple.

[@kaliban2747]

That's because it's Northrend

[@gordo6908]

@@kaliban2747 no, its the palette, especially when you consider the existence of sholazar basin, grizzly hills, coldarra, and howling fjord

[@kaliban2747]

@@gordo6908 which are all green/brown, no?

[@foxtayle683]

Burning Crusade would have been more colorful.

[@UmouMais]

Job is done 😂

[@kevinbhieey9188]

If this is the "easiest" Pandemic, then I'm worried because Rising Tide and Fall of Rome are extremely easy, at least compared to the others (at the 5-Epidemics level). I have to play all the Survival Series games at 6 Epidemics, so I hope there's a level that compares to that here.

[@pedroivooliveira6706]

Fall of Rome specifically says to add +1 "epidemic" ("revolt" cards, if I remember correctly) in comparison to base pandemic. So 5 would be "easy", 6 would be "medium" and 7 would be "hard"

[@marshwiggle8364]

StarCraft Legacy a pandemic system game

[@Oaklestat]

Zug, zug.....

[@jeffreydeguzman8005]

Dabuu!

[@tempestfury8324]

It's a "Pandemic" game...I get it. But here's my problem - you have a fantasy theme about this. And it fails because of the quests, which are needed to complete and finish the game. Moving a marker on a quest track loses me....it just isn't very epic. It would have been must better to have cards for the quest....go to this location, kill this, achieve this goal, solve this puzzle....or whatever. I want a little more story and actual quests to accomplish the goals needed to win the game..... especially in a fantasy-themed game!

[@Steve-L]

there are lots of those, this is to hit that theme but in a different way.

[@viborviskovic4314]

WoW Pandemic, WoW Smallworld....looking forward to WoW Catan, WoW Istanbul (Ogrimar), WoW Ticket to Ride (Stormwind tram), WoW Castles of Burgundy (Castles of Azeroth)...so many lazy options, skys the limit Blizzard!

[@baroldalt312]

Same

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

I would deduct a point off just for milking this Pandemic franchise again! Joking of course, There's already decent Pandemics, how many do we really need? It's difficult to top Iberia on my shelf right now.

[@korbyndallas]

That’s just not reasonable to deduct a point for “milking” a franchise. It’s more like taking advantage of an opportunity and paying homage to one of the most iconic and industry changing videos games of all time. (over 10 million subs at one time) As a fan of both pandemic and Warcraft, after this review it’s a no brainer for me.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

@@korbyndallas the comment was more of a joke so I made it more clear.

[@korbyndallas]

Oh ok. My apologies.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

@@korbyndallas nah its OK, I didn't make it clear. 👍

[@victorgonzalez2927]

I wasn’t impressed by this game. I love Reign of Cthulhu and Fall of Rome. I was hoping this was going to make it into my collection but it fell flat for me.

Weirdly enough, i played WoW almost daily for years, back when they had 40 player raids. I also played Warcraft3 online a lot. And yet i never liked the warcraft universe, did not care about the characters and all and these games never look interesting.

[@Aeravon]

The original Pandemic board game mechanic turned into Scourge Rises, but with the same completely random ever-escalating speed of that random card coming up means as with original Pandemic, you can do everything right and still lose. What a bad design decision, and what a mistake to carry into this version. Hard pass :(