Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria Review, a dice drafting, engine building, worker placement game

Description provided by Tabletop Bellhop on YouTube:

Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria is a one to five player worker placement game that has you playing the baddies of the Valeria Universe. You move your Warden to collect things, including troops in the form of dice, champions to help your battles, and other resources, all in a bid to be the most powerful faction. This review is one segment of episode 196 of The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, End Game, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/N4b6twNySwk If you dig our content, be sure to subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/tabletopbellhop?sub_confirmation=1 and consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tabletopbellhop. Disclosure: Thanks to Daily Magic Games for sending us a production copy of this game in thanks for doing a preview for their Kickstarter. ******************** Timestamps: 00:00 HAVEN'T WE BEEN HERE BEFORE? 02:11 SHADOW KINGDOMS OF VALERIA OVERVIEW 03:04 COMPONENT QUALITY IN SHADOW KINGDOMS 05:08 SHADOW KINGDOMS OF VALERIA OVERVIEW OF PLAY 07:54 WHAT DO WE THINK OF SHADOW KINGDOMS OF VALERIA TWO YEARS IN? 13:57 WHO SHOULD PICK UP SHADOW KINGDOMS? 16:34 CLOSING AND WHERE TO FIND MORE ******************** From the publisher: Valeria is a rich and wonderful world that you've come to know through Valeria: Card Kingdoms, Villages of Valeria, Quests of Valeria, Corsairs of Valeria, and Margraves of Valeria. Each game is unique and brings new experiences to the gaming space and to the lore of the Valeria Universe. Now it's time to look at the Valeria Universe from a darker perspective. The monsters are fed up with the Humans, Elves and Dwarves encroaching on their lands and slaying their populace. It's time for monster-kind to take back what was once theirs. It's time for the Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria! At its heart, Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria is an engine-building game where you'll draft Troop dice to complete battle plans, hire Champions to fire up your engine, and level-up your Warden's abilities to pull off amazing combos. What does Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria bring to the table? Action Selection. Move your Warden token to any of the five Shadow Shrines to take a specific action – Drafting Battle Plans, Harvesting Power Gems, Gaining Gold, Hiring Champions with Special Powers, and Launching Battles. Dice Drafting. Collect custom dice for the Gnolls, Orcs, Goblins, Undead, and Gargoyles to grow your army when you visit each Shrine. The value of the die you take affects your chosen action so higher values are not always your best option. Evolving Powers. Build your strategy by leveling up your Warden. Every battle you wage brings a choice on what new facet you'll unlock to expand your Warden's power. Battles also grant special bonuses and combo prizes to give you an edge. Resource Management. You'll need to balance your magic and gold to manipulate your dice, cycle cards from the draft lines, acquire powerful Champions, and build your influence so that each battle you wage can bring you more victory points. Turns are simple in Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria, but as the game progresses you'll find exciting complexity nestled within your decisions, making every game more interesting than the last. Do you focus on recruiting Gold producing Champions with On-going effects to create an unstoppable resource machine? Is your goal to recruit a horde of low-cost minions to help you race to your goal before your opponents and overwhelm them? How about unlocking additional Battle Plan slots, utilizing their powers to rapidly recruit Troop dice and hire Champions when there are no dice left at the Champions Shrine? Perhaps your strategy lies with achieving a monumental amount of Influence that allows you to dominate each Battle Plan and shoot for the elusive 21VP conquest? The choice is yours! The designer, Stanislav Kordonskiy, is know for such games as Dice Hospital, Rurik: Dawn of Kiev, Lock Up: A Roll Player Tale, and Endless Winter: Paleoamericans. The art for Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria is by our much-beloved illustrator, The Mico, and it’s everything you have come to know and love about his art. ******************** Links: Head over to the Tabletop Bellhop blog where you'll find more tabletop gaming content, including game and game night advice, reviews, and more: https://tabletopbellhop.com Pick up your own copy of Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria (affiliate links) US: https://amzn.to/3w2x0x7 Canada: https://amzn.to/3GCTBVZ ******************** Sign up for our newsletter: https://newsletter.tabletopbellhop.com Find us all over the web: Dice.camp: https://dice.camp/@TabletopBellhop/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tabletopbellhop/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tabletopbellhop Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tabletopbellhop/ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/tabletopbellhop