Legends of Andor

Today's review is of the 2012 release, Legends of Andor.  For 2-4 players, it takes 60-90 minutes.

Overview
You and your band of heroes (this is a cooperative game) are the stuff of legend.  In this game, you'll undertake one of five unique legends (each with a deck of cards which contain events that unfold as you progress).  A narrator token advances on the legend track (right side of the board) with each new day AND whenever a monster is defeated.  Some letters on the track (as indicated by your chosen legend deck) trigger additional legend deck cards to be played (they generally add objectives or monsters to the challenge).  Complete your legend before the narrator reaches "N" to win!

Each legend is played over a series of days.  Each day, your heroes will take turns taking one of two actions: move or fight.  Each has an 'hour' cost based on the situation (example: if you move 5 spaces as your action, you advance your marker 5 hours).  Each day has 7 hour's worth of actions, plus 3 more hours if you're willing to take a hit in willpower (willpower is like your total hit points).  Fighting monsters advances 1 hour per round of combat.  When all heroes have used their 7 (or more) hours of actions, they rest.  An event card is drawn (giving something good or bad), all monsters on the map advance one space (arrows on the board indicate direction), the narrator token advances, and the next day begins.

game in progress; image from here

legend cards; image from here

There are several free actions (they don't cost you hours) that can help- you can buy things on marketplace squares, trade with other players, uncover fog tokens (which may help you- or not).

Your legend will invariably involve fighting monsters.  Fighting involves rolling dice (quantity depends on your character and willpower level), and adding only the highest-value die to your strength (which you can increase through a variety of mechanisms).  Another player rolls two monster dice, and adds the higher-value to the monster's strength (which varies based on monster- an included table reveals everything).  Whoever has the lower of the two values loses willpower equal to the difference.  Whenever one participant reaches a willpower of 0, they are defeated (in the monster's case, they're removed from the board, and the narrator token is advanced one space).

Will you become stuff of legend?

Review
This is a mixed bag.  The art and storytelling are great, I really like some mechanics or concepts (like the legend track and hours concept), it's definitely tense and engaging, and the combat is okay.  But:
- It's more of a puzzle (with one real solution) than a game.  There doesn't appear to be multiple paths to victory (at least in the intro scenario); it's more like "figure out the only way this can work and execute it."  That limits exploration and overall enjoyment.
- It has poor replayability.  Once you've done a legend once or twice, you'll probably get bored, as you'll have solved the puzzle (or not- even the intro legend was quite difficult).  Monsters move on printed and known paths, limiting the variability and challenge.
- Defeating monster can hurt you (by advancing the narrator).  Perhaps that's part of the tension or challenge, but it results in the rather unsatisfying reality that you:
   - may have to leave monsters on the board and ignore them to complete objectives in time
   - won't have time to explore the map- every move counts

Overall, it is a decent game, but deficient in enough areas that it probably won't see my table often.

Rating: B