Trudvang Legends

Trudvang is not a shelf from a popular furniture store. Although the game itself consists of many parts that we will assemble ourselves.

Trudavang Legends is an elaborate paragraph game, which is decorated by CMON figures. Our adventure will consist of several scenarios and various side missions. The gameplay will mainly boil down to wandering around the map, visiting different locations, reading walls of text, making a lot of decisions and defeating the same monsters over and over again. However, there is something interesting in all this. Something that convinced me to learn more about the history of this world.

It draws you in like, a swamp

I don’t want to spoil too much on what the plot of this game is about, but I’ll tell you that it starts off rather cliché. Because we get a typical revenge story. Something bad happens, and we have to catch the culprits. However, the longer I play it turns out that nothing is as simple as it seemed.

So far, I’ve gone through 8 missions and I’m strongly drawn into Trudvang’s story. Because I keep pushing forward to find out what will happen next. However, the best part is that it’s my choices that shape the world. At the beginning of the journey, we get an almost empty map. As the plot progresses, we’ll fill it with new locations and sometimes even replace the ones that were already there. Everything we discover goes into subsequent scenarios, so it’s worth being curious and venturing even into the deepest corners of this land.

Unique atmosphere

I love the atmosphere and graphics that this game has. It combines a bit of such a Viking-Celtic-Conan style. On our way we will encounter numerous tribes, atmospheric locations and enemies that feel like they are part of this world. On top of that, there are beautiful minis that turn up the whole atmosphere.

A little different combat

In exploring the plot, we are disturbed by the combat. There is quite a lot of it but the most important thing is that it is different but in a good sense. Because it combines bag building with push your luck.

At the beginning of each clash we will select feat cards, and later we tempt luck by drawing elementals from the bag to use our skills. We can stop drawing at any time, but what’s the point? After all, it’s worth using everything. Well, no! Because if we can’t place an element on a skill, we fill up the failure track. If it reaches the blue zone then we get a small bonus. If we reach the red zone then we get burned.

Then we exchange attacks with our opponents. If our blow is fast then we will attack first. On top of that we get various items and defense abilities. I like the fact that each hero is unique because he has his own skills and is good in a different element.

By this I would like to say that the combat is quite unique. Unfortunately, the basic battles feel like such a grind as if we were beating boars near Stormwind. How many times can you fight the same trolls that are goblins and draugr that are skeletons? I’ll honestly admit that at some point I started to skip over these regular skirmishes because I just didn’t have the energy to reach into the pouch.

However, that doesn’t mean the combat is bad. Because Trudvang throws various bosses and elite opponents in our path. Then it’s at least interesting and I feel like doing these extraordinary feats. It would just be useful to have more diverse opponents.

A feat without development

You have killed the same minis several times then surely you are ready for wild development? Unfortunately, I have to disappoint you. Because the only thing our heroes get is the ability to replace their skills with the stronger ones, which from +3 attack make + 5. Maybe we will hit a little bit harder to kill those basic monsters. However, that would be about it. I don’t feel that my character became more powerful or gained some interesting ability. By the way, leveling is quite random and those skills that we are supposed to get will eventually find a way to our deck. No matter what we do. In this aspect Trudvang disappoints me.

Tests not to pass

The same happens with the elements we use for our attacks. Our bag always resets after each scenario no matter how we develop it. This leads to the fact that we have a hard time passing some tests in the game. Because if most heroes have a base 2 in some element and the test requires at least 3 we already know that we have failed anyway. Even in D&D if we have a difficulty in sneaking through armor penalty then we always have a chance to roll a crit. Here, unfortunately, there is no such thing.

CMON Insert

It feels like this is something I once wrote about with Zombicide or Rising Sun. Again, we have a situation where you don’t know where to put all the game tokens. There is no room in the box for them and we have to stuff them under the figures. So annoying. That’s why I play two games in a row every time to forget about this pain at least for a while.

Summary

Trudvang Legends definitely stands by the plot and the atmosphere, which is simply amazing. It makes me crave for further development of my world and to know what will happen to my heroes. Combat is quite unique despite the fact that sometimes we feel a certain monotony from grinding the same mobs. Unfortunately, the game neglects the development of the heroes and the unpassable tests. It should be better developed mechanically.

Final verdict: Trudvang has fallen mechanically, but has risen in history

Pluses
Compelling story
Amazing atmosphere
Constantly evolving world
Unique combat,

Minuses
which quickly becomes monotonous
Lack of character development
Tests that are impossible to pass
Where should I put my tokens?

[Game provided by Galakta]