IMG_0738The fine folks over at BrickWarriors were kind enough to send over a review copy of Chains to Champions for me to play. Many people already know of BrickWarriors for the excellent Minifig accessories they create. Chains to Champions takes these accessories one step further, and wraps a pretty interesting game around them.

The game is all about gladiatorial combat, and takes place in 3 phases. First, you need to bid on different gladiators. Gladiators are made up of 3 cards: Strength, Quickness, and Health. Once everyone has at least 1 gladiator, it’s off to the market to equip them. Using your leftover money you can purchase weapons, armor, special moves, and academy training. This is done “simultaneously”, meaning that no other player can buy from a shop previous players have bought from this turn. After 7 rounds of purchases, it’s time to hit the arena!

The game comes with an assortment of weapons, armor, and special items. It also comes with “practice dummies” since they can’t pack actual LEGO Minifigs in with the game. These dummies work perfectly fine for play, but some of the accessories that come with the game can’t be used on the dummies. Besides, it’s much more fun to supply your own Minifigs to equip.

Arena combat is fairly simple, yet the depth comes from the items, abilities, and training you purchase in the previous round. A bad combination of all those can lead to a complete dice-fest, so choose carefully!

With Chains to Champions, I was half expecting a very loose game fit around some awesome components. I was pleasantly surprised to find an interesting, multi-phased game with awesome components.

A copy of Chains to Champions was provided free for review by BrickWarriors