Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 45 min
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time: 10 min

Dwarf King’s Hold Rules Description:

Dwarf King’s Hold: Dead Rising is a two-player miniatures war game. One player will be the heroic dwarfs trying to reclaim their home. The other player will play the necromancer Mortibris and his undead minions.

The game has 32 miniatures representing different ranks and units in your force. These units must be assembled and you can paint them if you like. There are six scenarios in the rule book. Each scenario adds more units (and thus rules) as you play through them.

After setting up the board to match the scenario’s map you are ready to begin. You start the game with certain number of action tokens based on the scenario. On your turn you will play these token to activate your units.

You must spend at least one action token every round. Each unit may only take one action per turn. An action grants the ability to move and attack. A single action token may give you up to four actions to the undead or up to two actions if you are the dwarfs. To balance this, the dwarfs also get Follow On action tokens.

Follow On actions are similar to regular actions except you may play as many on one unit as you like. They are limited to either moving or attacking though.

Attacking consists of rolling a number of dice based on the unit you are activating. When defending you also roll dice based on the unit. You must lose one die if your unit is outnumbered, injured, being attacked from behind, or running away. You will always roll at least 2 dice so if you go to remove one but you only have 2, you lose a point of armor instead.

For example, a Dwarf Warrior (which rolls 4 dice) is outnumbered, injured and being attack from behind. He should lose 3 dice but he can’t as that would bring him to 1 die. Instead he rolls 2 dice and has an armor of 2 instead of the usual three.

After both the attacker and defender roll their dice you match the attacker’s highest roll with defender’s highest roll. After pairing all dice, if the attacker’s highest roll is higher than the defender’s highest roll and higher than the defender’s armor then the defender takes one damage. For each die rolled that beats the defender’s roll and their armor the defender takes one hit.

If you have more attack dice than defend dice then treat the defense roll as a 1. Defenders never inflict damage so their extra dice do not matter.

Three points of damage will kill anything in the game. Less damage will injure some units and kill others. You consult a chart for damage results and there is separate chart for movement rate, attack dice, and armor rating.

Things get a bit complicated if a fight has multiple units on from both the undead and the dwarfs. In order to resolve the fight you must split it. Each figure that has an enemy in its front arc must be allocated to that opponent

You also get special actions as the dwarf player and can influence the battle as the necromancer. These abilities allow the dwarfs to hide, undead to move without using an action and more.

Dwarf King’s Hold: Dead Rising six scenarios will dictate each player’s goals. You must use your units’ advantages to claim victory.

A Quick Review Dwarf King’s Hold:

Dwarf King’s Hold: Dead Rising is a medium-weight miniature-based war game. The combat system is fairly straight forward and offers some tactical depth.

One if the things I really like is how you not only compare die to see who rolls high, but you must also beat the unit’s armor. On top of that losing dice is quick to figure out and adds more strategy for the ways you’ll want to move and attack. Here is a great video with the creator Jake Thornton playing the first scenario. It should answer most any rules questions you have.

This game does seem to tilt more toward the miniature war gamer than your typical boardgamer. Be aware that the miniatures must be glued together before playing. It is not hard but it will take some time.

I must comment on the components too. The box seems flimsy and there is no compartment inside. This can be solved with plastic bags. Also the tiles and tokens are just a bit on the thin side. Not fragile but they may show wear after a lot of play.

The game also comes with seven green dice. This is fine but since you are comparing dice I wish there were two separate colors. Again this is easy to fix as I have tons of dice lying around my house (not literally a ton or everywhere, my kids would eat them).

The game could also use a reference card so beginning player’s can more easily access stats and view the turn sequence. Someone made a decent one you can download from BGG.

All that said the miniatures are high quality and if you want to paint them I am sure they will look even better. The artwork on the tiles and tokens are well done and fit the theme perfectly.

This game will definitely improve with expansions and I was happy to see the first is on the way. If Mantic continues to support the line there will definitely be more variety and fun for owners in the future.

Dwarf King’s Hold: Dead Rising is fun and although the components aren’t fantastic the gameplay is very good. Combat is quick, easy to resolve and has some tactical depth. If you enjoy building and painting miniatures and are looking for a fun war game, Dwarf King’s Hold: Dead Rising is for you. Even if you are a boardgamer looking for a medium-weight war game you won’t go wrong with this game.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 3 out of 6