Thames & KosmosLegends of Andor: Eternal Frost | Cooperative | Fantasy Game | Kosmos | Strategy Game | Storytelling | Adventure Game

Having never played an Andor game before, I thought this would be a sort-of outdoor version of a dungeon crawl. But although there are indeed fights with monsters, it is not at all that style of game. This is really a very tight cooperative puzzle game.Like many other cooperative games, there is something like an increasing threat meter - a timer on your progress in the game. There are four scenarios to the game, which is played across a double-sided board, each involving the completion of multiple tasks. The game does a superb job of teaching the rules, by revealing them through objectives as you play the first chapter.This is a very tricky game! You quickly learn that you must ration your moves and attacks, and assign certain tasks to certain players. For example, one player might need to move across the board to retrieve an item, while another player fights encroaching monsters. If you spend too much time on something, the game progresses and you may fail your objective. Even fighting and defeating monsters can cost you, as each successful defeat advances the scenario and reduces your available time.There are four characters in the game with matching standees (in two genders, take your pick) that have unique abilities adding a bit of asymmetry. Some randomness in distributing tokens and an option to increase difficulty offers replayability, though it will certainly take multiple attempts just to win each scenario the first time through.Having never played an Andor game, I can tell you this acts as a great introduction to the series and makes me want to check out the other games. Highly recommended!

I don't usually give 5 stars, especially for games. In fact, I'm not much a game player as I don't have the patience for most of them. If I do play a game I usually go for the fast paced games that are over in minutes, not hours. So trust me when I say 5 stars took me actually playing this game and getting to understand it, then deciding I really like it.When the game arrived my teen son opened it up, read through the instructions and proclaimed: sorry dad, you won't like this one... it's gonna be complex as it has a lot of pieces and rules. After that I was kinda dreading playing it but that time arrived last night.Having played many coop games in the past (we have several) I was thinking it would be like some of those other ones where every time you play the same game it's the same thing, but maybe with some slight randomization. Nope, not with Andor. Andor is a cooperative story game. It progresses and the goals change. You think you're working towards something but that something will change, or there will be something beyond that that is the real goal. The format change was refreshing, a coop game that progresses. Cool!We played the first two "chapters" (they're not called that but suficeth to say that's what they are). Our family of 3 had a lot of fun, working cooperatively to kill the beasts while we moved across the board to meet our objectives.The fight mechanics are good. Though, one v. one fighting can be dicey. Once we teamed up with two heroes on a tile then beating beasts became easy.The game is complex... sorta. It's complex in the fact that there's a LOT to unpack and ready and things can change. However, the turn mechanics is straightforward and easy. Read the story cards and follow instructions. After a couple of turns things moved faster as we got the hang of things.The next time we will play it, which I'm told will be soon, we will be starting the next chapter. See, this is the beauty of this game, it's different each time you play.Overall, for someone that doesn't like complex and lengthy games I found myself really liking this one.If you like coop games then I recommend you give this one a try. Also, I'm aware there are other Andor games but this one does not have any dependence on any of the others. We don't have any of the others and picked this up and got after it. Great game, will recommend to a friend!

So ... I can't review this too in depth, because I don't want to spoil the story going on.I will say that it has an interesting 'action point' type mechanic, and it is not really meant to be played too much as a hack-and-slash game. The story line never changes, so that much limits replay ability, but there's enough going on with the puzzles and some of the randomness to combat that it doesn't play out the same way each time.Setup is pretty quick and easy, gameplay flows well, and the story is pretty good. Only point off is that the story is pretty fixed.

This was an interesting game. The art is pretty. The game mechanics were easy to pick up and learn. The story kept us interested and engaged. Plays like a lighter D&D or Pathfinder. Love that everyone gets to play and you don't need a dungeon master. Looks as pictured.