Second Look—Legends of Andor

I had originally posted about Legends of Andor in October of last year. Shortly after that I received a copy of the base set and its two expansions, New Heroes and Star Shield, in the mail to take a look into. It took a while to get this one to the table, but I’m glad I finally was able to sit down and play.

Legends of Andor is a cooperative fantasy adventure game with a built-in narrator. The game has you jumping in right away with a short introductory adventure that lays out the basics to you, then has you jumping into a full adventures. There’s a Legend Deck that lets you know how to setup for each adventure, and has cards that are activated from a timeline that progress the story and game conditions. It’s a great mechanic that makes you feel like you’re playing a fantasy narrative.

Each character in the game has its own strengths and weaknesses, and players will have to constantly weigh their options and figure out who is going to tackle what tasks in any given adventure. The adventures build in scale, but each never really takes more than an hour of time to play through.

My kids and I ate it up. The game has a strong RPG feel with all the convinces of a board game. The New Heroes expansion gives players more flexibility with character choice, but also opens the game up to more players. Sadly, we haven’t gotten to the Star Shield adventure yet.

Legends of Andor is a structured way to get an epic RPG adventure in much less time than you’d think. The Legend Deck is a great mechanic for moving the story along, whether the players are prepared to do so or not. I can’t wait to see what else KOSMOS has in store, and I’m hoping we’ll see more small box expansions, and maybe a large one or two.

Legends of Andor and its expansions, New Heroes and Star Shield, were provided free for review by KOSMOS.