Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60-90 min
Age requirements: 13+
Set-up time: 5-10 min

Arcadia Quest is a campaign-based miniatures skirmish game. You must complete quests and fight off monsters and your opponents’ adventurers to win.

Arcadia Quest Rules Description:

Each scenario in Arcadia Quest gives you the layout of the board and where to place exploration tokens and monsters. It also tells you which monsters to use and the quests available to complete.

Once you select your heroes you must assign them Upgrade cards. These cards represent the equipment and spells characters use to fight and defend themselves. Each player starts with the same Upgrade cards, but more may be gained throughout the campaign.

To win a scenario you have to complete three quests. Some quests require you to gain guarded Upgrade cards (which you keep), kill a specific or certain number of monsters, or kill a character from another guild. More than one player may complete a quest. But if you are the first player to complete a quest you gain a coin.

You also gain coins for killing monster, finding treasure or when enemy characters die. Between scenarios you spend coins to buy more powerful Upgrade cards.

On your turn you may move and attack with one character. You cannot end your movement in a square that already contains two miniatures. When you attempt an attack you must use one of your equipment Upgrade cards. It tells you the number of dice to roll and once used you must mark it with a faction token. Likewise the defender will roll defense dice. Some symbols on the dice get you a success and another die. If you get more successes than the defender you hit them. Each extra success gives the defender a wound token. If you are attacking an enemy character once their wounds are greater than their health they are eliminated. But monsters have a kill and overkill stat. If you do not meet the overkill number the monster gets one last strike before it dies. Characters that die get a death token and respawn the next turn on their starting area.

You cannot use equipment cards more than once. So instead of moving and attacking, you may refresh them. This lets remove all the faction tokens from all your characters. But that is all you can do that turn.

After one player completes three quests they are the winner and the scenario ends. Any characters that died get a death curse for each death token they received. These may do nothing or may hamper the character for the rest of the campaign. Then players get their gold and in draft style may buy equipment before the next scenario begins. The winner of the last scenario chooses where the next quest will take place.

A Quick Review of Arcadia Quest:

Arcadia Quest is a fun miniatures skirmish game. It has great production values and can play quickly.

The components for this game are really nice. The miniatures look great, the tokens and cards are durable and the art is really nice. The rules are easy to read, understand and follow. There is even an FAQ to help you with any grey areas.

I like the quest systems and how it triggers the end of the game. You need to fight your fellow players in order to win. And the direct interaction creates some tension and memorable moments.
This game feels like a hack-n-slash RPG that has a bunch of PvP and no need for gamemaster.

Being a dice game you should realize it can be a bit random and chaotic. I enjoy the simplified combat in Arcadia Quest and really like the exploding dice. It creates an anything can happen mentality which adds to the fun.

This game is easy to teach and new players should catch on and be competitive fairly quickly. But selecting characters and Upgrades to buy in the campaign mode might be areas they lag in. You should make sure everyone gets to see all the characters and Upgrades before drafting them. This should help level the playing field some.

Arcadia quest shines in campaign mode. It is fine for one-off play but excels when you are upgrading your equipment and facing the results of your characters’ deaths. In this mode players might need to gang up on the leader as the rich tend to get richer.

Arcadia Quest is best with four players so if you have a group that wants to roll dice and play with miniatures, this game is for you. And if you know someone that has this game, give it a try. You just might want to buy it too.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6