My Review (with Tips) of the Deep Rock Galactic Boardgame

Miners,

3 of our fellow dwarves and I embarked on a dark journey to Hoxxes with the purpose to carry out mission control's orders. For us, this would be our first time to journey into the dark unknown with the board game. Outlined are my thoughts and things I learned as we embarked on the journey.

The Crew: We had a full drop pod as we descended into the darkness of Hoxxes. I and 2 others are seasoned dwarves who have played Deep Rock Galactic for 3 years), were together with a true greenbeard who has never played DRG... ever. However, he would tell me he had a blast playing this board game. But, he had to endure the biggest challenge of the game... the first time set up.

Set up: Like all greenbeard's first time playing DRG, you will need to be endure the challenges of the first steps on Hoxxes which in this case will require time and space. It took my fellow dwarves and I 1 hour and 40 minutes to go through the boxes, take out the pieces, set up the board game, and read through the rule book. I strongly recommend a full sized dinning room table because you will need a lot of space to spread everything out. As a little tip, you can modify the layout of the board game by placing shadow blocks (the deep pits), stalactites, and other items on top of the board game pieces. The haz indicator is the black dice with nothing on it. And, we were not able to find the token to indicate someone was down, so we improvised by tipping their character on the board. Once we got through the initial set up, the worst was past and we were ready to leave the drop pod and descend into the heart of Hoxxes.

The First Mission: Since we had no idea what we were getting into, we started with mission 1, running it on Haz 2. It was a lot of fun for us! We learned part way through the mission what our weapons could do, as well as skills and talents. I was Scout, so I had to remember to use my flairs when it was appropriate. The driller was pleased to use his C4, but the engi forgot about his sentry. The gunner, who is the true greenbeard among us, did a great job understanding how he could support our crew, and started to catch on understanding the ropes of the game. We found this mission to be the perfect balance between difficulty (not to easy and not too hard) to help us get acquainted with the game. One thing we learned half way through the game is to pay attention to the event cards. We forgot to move the bugs and have them attack us for part of the game. The first mission took us 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete.

The Second Mission: Aft completing our first mission, we understood how this game worked, and it took us less than 15 minutes to ready up and descend in the drop pod back to Hoxxes. Mission control was confident in our ability, so they sent us to the expanded part of Hoxxes where the Goo Bombers reigned supreme. (We added the expansion pack, which was super easy to understand). We chose to do the second mission in the Mission Book at the difficulty of Haz 1. Now understanding how the game works and the movement of the bugs, we found the mission to be a little more challenging (those Goo bombers...) with a few close calls. Miraculously, with the help of Karl, we all made it back to the drop pod where each dwarf had 1 health to spare. We are proud no dwarf was left behind! This mission took us 1 hour and 50 minutes to complete.

After this, it was late, so we disbanded our crew to the abyss bar (the fridge) where we celebrated our victories.

Final thoughts:

Overall, this game was great. It was complex to get started for the first time, but you have to stick with the nuances of learning a new complex game in order to get to the good stuff (it's like eating broccoli before eating dessert). Triple check to make sure you have all the pieces you need before you throw anything away. Use the back of the box to see a picture of what each piece is. Don't be in a hurry and endure through the first time set up to get this game rolling. Once you do, it will be a lot of fun.

My friend who has never heard of DRG until tonight told me after playing 2 games that he really liked this game and it was one of his favorite games ever. So, I think if you backed the board game, you will find it to be everything you hoped for.... dwarves, darkness, danger, and fun!

Rock and Stone to the Bone!

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TL;DR - The board game takes a long time to set up for the first use (1 hour, 40 minutes). Read through every rule. Give yourself plenty of space on the floor or on a full-sized dinning room table. Do not be in a hurry. Use the board game box to see a visual of all the pieces. You can stack pieces of the board game on top of each other to create the terrain you need to complete the mission. Loot bugs, shells, red sugar, etc, go on the flares. The bugs move so pay attention to when they move to attack. Work together as a time. Rock and stone, and have fun!