Krosmaster: Arena - Gameplay Review

Hi all – Scott again.

Last time I promised a game play write up of Krosmaster Arena. Last week I got together with a friend, and got to grips with the game.

The rules

Each player starts the game with 4 characters represented by a figure and rule card as well as 6 "galleons of glory" (medals).

You win the game when your opponent has no medals left.

• A player loses medals to their opponent when one of the characters gets knocked out, 3 medals are handed over per knock-out.
• A player can buy (read steal) a medal from their opponent if they hand in 10 gold coins which can be collected throughout the game.
• Finally every turn two dice are rolled and if they come up doubles then each player loses a medal.

So you have two ways to win as well as a sort of random timer inbuilt into the game so the it doesn't go on too long.

Each character has scores in:

Speed – used to work out which player goes first and which character goes first in your squad

Movement – the number of squares this character can move

Actions – points to spend doing things during a characters turn, including attacking, casting spells and picking up coins and power-ups

Health – how much damage this character can take before being taken out of the game

The board is set-up itself with terrain pieces and coins scattered over it. Some of the terrain blocks movement, some blocks line of sight and some can even be climbed onto to give a height advantage.

The coins are spread out over the board and can be used to buy medals or can be used in different quantities (3, 6 and 12) to buy increasingly effective power-ups. The power ups include potions and one-time boosts to weapons and magic costumes. The player has to balance spending the coins on pretty trinkets and spending them on medals to get closer to victory.

How it plays

The game turn is quite quick, each character is simple to get to grips with and has only a few choices each turn. The challenging aspect comes later in the game – all of the characters are now in the thick of it and synergies between the characters can be used to get the maximum edge.

For example one character can throw down bombs. He can throw down two bombs, throw down a bomb and then shoot it, making it explode or just can wait the bombs will detonate automatically once his turn come around again. Alternatively the player could get one of his other characters to shoot the bombs instead.

Each of the characters played quite differently, and with 4 per squad and 8 to choose from in the box you can create enough different teams to keep things interesting without investing more into the game. Characters include an archer, a bomb thrower, a healer, someone who can summon other creatures plus some others.

The game gets quite frantic towards the end, typically with different power-ups in play in a large melee in the middle of the board, the games we played were all very close, and took between 30 mins and an hour depending on how we played and how up-to speed with the rules we were.

Try before you buy

If you are not sure if this is the game for you and want to see how it plays the game is also available to play online. You can play with some basic characters for free and all real-world figures come with a code to unlock that character online.

You can download and play using the following link: http://www.krosmaster.com/en. I have played the game, my PC is pretty old but the game worked perfectly fine.

If you think this is something you might like then I advise you check it out online first.

I really enjoyed playing this game it is certainly something we are going to have a copy of in the cafe and we intend to bring it along to pop-ups we are planning in the future.

I hope you found this review useful and I will do more in the future.

If there is a game you would like me to review please let me know and I will see what I can do.

Comments and questions are always welcome.

Scott from All Aboard.