Thanks go to Steven Wall for Christening this feature that will pop up whenever a man in a van brings me a new game. Why should I get all the box opening fun? I’m the sharing type. The only thing I can’t give you is the vague solventy new-game whiff or the farty noise that happens when you struggle to get the lid off for the first time. What? No farty noise? Is that just me? ¬_¬
Asmodee’s Claustrophobia has just arrived. A tactical survival game for two players that sees player one leading a group of humans through dark tunnels and catacombs, fighting their way through legions of terrifying Troglodytes. The other player is the leader of the demonic forces that are out to destroy the human adventurers.
And here’s what’s in the box!
Map tiles. 36 of them. Pretty big they are, too; almost six inches square. It may be time to break out the foldable banqueting table to play this. These tiles represent the various rooms and tunnels that make up the catacombs beneath the ancient city of Lost Jerusalem. Nice and thick and durable. None of the papery nonsense that’s included in the Zombies!!! games for example. This is 1/4cm thick card.
The cards that will come in to play will vary depending on the scenario. Some games will be played on a predefined layout, whereas others will require the placement of a card with each turn. Whichever way you place them, they fit together almost seamlessly. Great little touches have been painted in, too: like fossils, skeletons, or the abandoned pick axe and rope of a previous adventurer. That Claustrophobia is played on tiles makes this a ‘modular’ game? Am I right?
There’s your rulebook of 24 pages. Pretty exhaustive and full colour. The high production value of Claustrophobia runs through every page. Six extra, finely plotted scenarios are included at the back (with more on the website apparently).
Your reference cards are also there to be pushed out of a cardboard sheet with all the necessary tokens, too.
I’ve done my best here to show you the kind of cardboard that these push-out tokens are printed on. It’s as thick as a penny and textured giving a nice matte effect.
Here is one of the reference cards ‘in play’ for one of the human characters. The plastic holders feature a die well and holes for damage pegs to be slotted into.
Twelve six sided dice (12D6?… did I do that right?) and one ten sided die (1D10… I think), 25 plastic damage tokens and 50 cards.
Artistically fanned. Also card back.
What do we want? Monsters! When do we want ‘em? NAOW!
Right, these little fuckers are the Troglodytes. These are the main strike force of the demon player and will be skittering around the tunnels like amphetamine fuelled gremlins, and generally being a pain in the arse for the human player. Maybe a centimetre tall each and plastic. There are eleven in the box.
Towering above the Troglodyte horde is Demon. His sole aim is to destroy the city of New Jerusalem from the foundations. This is the guy that has to be killed in many scenarios to result in a win for the humans. Demon will use the Trogs as much as possible before entering a fray, but once he’s face-to-face with his human quarry “there are few Demons who will not fight to the death.”
I don’t want to be in the fur-lined boots of the humans who have to go toe-to-toe with this guy. But then again. It looks like they can look after themselves:
Oh, tough guy, eh? Nyuk nyuk. This is Condemned Brute and there are two of them. He’s the heavy muscle in the human team. Pretty terrifying by himself and bulky enough to fill a tunnel, wall to wall, preventing enemies from passing him. A good guy for the Redeemer (he’s coming up) to hide behind.
Condemned Blade for Hire. Vicious and light on his toes, the ‘Blade is the human player’s scout. Perfectly capable of tackling a single foe, and fast enough to sprint back to his team to warn of an advancing Trog rabble. There are two Blades for Hire in the box.
The head honcho. The Boss. Numero Uno. The big cheese. The Redeemer is the leader of the underground expedition in the name of New Jerusalem. Armed only with a hammer, a lantern and his faith, this holy man leads his flock into the heart of Hell. He is the human characters main warrior and in not expendable. His death means end of game for the player. He has healing and unspecified ‘magical’ powers.
So, that’s it. Hopefully I have given you a fairly good idea of the quality items contained within the Claustrophobia box. It is all sufficiently high quality and, so far, well worth at least forty quid of anyone’s cash.
I’ll be posting my thoughts once it’s had a play through, which I’m quite looking forward to actually.
Until then, tweet me @SonAndGames.
KJ
Oh, and I kind of rushed through this post so if the pictures don’t format well on particular browsers, let me know so I can align them again. Ta :)
