Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This game has been around since 2002. It is a very well produced game, I think I have had it for over 5 years, and I just played a game of it this week with my kids (age 10 and 15). When I first bought it around 2004, I played it quite a bit with kids I babysat, and they would ask for it a lot. It says ages 9-99, I think a 7 year old could get it, albeit they may not have a great strategy yet.
First off, it comes with great bits. The box art is stunning and sturdy. There is a nice plastic insert inside the box which holds everything in its place.
There are 57 gemstones (not made of stone, but instead a high quality plastic), wooden playing pieces, and other good stuff, but the fun thing is the dice tower. Kids love this, you assemble 3 sturdy, printed cardboard pieces together and fit them into a plastic tray and this is your dice tower. Now the dice (2 of them)don't go all over the table when you roll them.
Game play is easy,no cards to handle, but instead various tokens which give your 3 pawns different abilities, which you don't have to use if you don't want to. The tokens have illustrations on them to make them easier to figure out. One has a boatman on it, which allows your pawn to go down one of the rivers on the board instead of using the stepping stones. Another token has 3 steps on it to indicate you can move 3 more spaces. Movement is controlled by 2 dice. On your turn you roll the dice, and then move 2 of your 3 pawns according to the dice. Say you roll and 3 and a 4. You move your red pawn 3, your green pawn 4. The big moving rule is that you can't move the same token twice in one turn. Easy.
The brightly colored game board has 15 volcanoes on it. Each volcano is supplied with gemstones, dragons eggs and a token. The volcanoes are connected by spaces and waterways. The goal of the game is to collect items off the volcanoes. Your red pawn collects rubies (red gems) off the volcano, blue collects sapphires, green gets emeralds and any color can get a diamond gem. You also have to acquire dragon's eggs and rings for your pawns. So, the strategy part is deciding which pawn to move to which volcano, and then when you get there, you have to decide if you take the matching gems, the dragon egg, the diamond, or if you should get the ring for your pawn. Meanwhile someone else may land on your volcano and take what you want.
The game ends when the last dragon egg is taken off the board. By then you will have obtained dragon eggs and gems. A full set is an egg + emerald + ruby + sapphire....that gets you 10 pts. The diamond gem can be substituted for a colored gem if you are short one. There are one or two other scoring rules, but it is EASY, and the rulebook is very clear. I think a game of this lasts 30-40 minutes at most.
In all, it is a really pretty game, kids generally love dragons, gems, volcanoes, rolling a dice and racing around a board. This is a step above the basic roll and move games. This game is not dependent on rolling good numbers, but making good choices. Plus there doesn't have to be a lot of screwage in this game if you don't want it. You can choose to avoid the other players pawns, or mess with them and take the items you know they want or need. We all know how kids get upset if someone messes too much with their game plan.
This game is a keeper to me, and it is really well made that it still looks brand new.
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Dragonland Board GameAdventure in Dragonland! The dragons hide their treasure in the numerous volcanos, but their treasure is in danger - the volcanos will soon erupt! To save the treasure, the dragons have asked the dwarves, elves, humans, and magicians for help. Each group competes with the others to be the most successful at gathering treasure for the dragons. Using strategy and cunning, each player moves his group of companions from volcano to volcano collecting treasure. All their movements are under the control of the tower of destiny, which sometimes arranges for a companion to reach his destination a bit too late....
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