Barbearian Battlegrounds

Let’s be honest from the start, BarBearian Battlegrounds is not the deepest game in the world, relying heavily on the roll of dice, but if you are looking for a fun, well thought out, game of dice combat it’s hard to think of many better games. King of Tokyo is, for many, the king of this genre, and while it’s crown remains safe, BarBearians offers more than enough differences to join your collection.

There is no Yahtzee style rolling and re-rolling here, rather dice placement is the name of the game. Each player has a player board representing their camp that is hidden behind their player screen. Each round you will publicly roll your dice, before privately assigning them to your camp. In general you can assign one die to each slot, unless they are the same number. You may choose to put dice into attacking another colour, which also defends against them, or into general defence. You may also gather three types of resource depending on what numbers you have rolled. Resources can be spent on temporary or permanent extra dice, various upgrades to your rolling or your camp, and on Victory Flags.

The first player to reach seven victory flags wins the game. There are various way to get and steal these but you can also spend a rolled six locking your victory flags so they cannot be stolen. The game flows well and gives you more choice than these types of games usually do due to the open rolling of the dice - you know what numbers your opponents are going to be allocating. It’s also great that you assign dice to attacking a specific other player rather than just general attacking. This gives you more options than you expect from the brightly coloured and cartoony art.

BarBearian Battlegrounds, then, is not a game that will blow you away with innovation or depth, but for the 20-ish minute run time you will laugh, curse your luck and other players, and have a great time win or lose.

Player Count: 2-4
Time: 20-30 Minutes
Age: 8+