Review: Claustrophobia

Demons vs Christian zealots? Poppy will have some of that!!!

Well it's a game that many readers of my blog and personal friends have suggested I should get for review. It's been described as a 'dungeon skirmish game' also as a 'sort of dungeon crawler' and a 'wargame on a board' by various people I know and respect, who are normally far more eloquent. I can see elements of all three statements in the game if I'm honest, although for me it certainly has felt more like a skirmish board game. Claustrophobia is produced by Asmodee, the company originally behind the Hell Dorado wargame, and this game too is set in the very dark Hell Dorado universe. So I was very keen to get on and play the game.

Product Description

It is a board game in a box, what can I say? I'm addicted. Given the price of the game, and the fact that the miniatures are pre-painted I think there's a fair amount of stuff in the box. There are 36 floor tiles, single sided but seriously 36 is more than enough and they're a decent size too. There are about 50 or so card tokens, 17 pre-painted miniatures, 5 reference cards for the human faction (the Westerners), 5 plastic stands for those reference cards, and 13 dice split between 1D10 and 12D6. There are also 25 plastic damage tokens that you stick into the player reference cards to denote wounds. Finally we get a rulebook, a vitally important component to any game!

Claustrophobia unboxing

'Yers, iz moar pleesing syez bocx, ver gud'

No the irony of that title didn't pass me by! Any who, when I plumped for the D&D Adventure Games all those months ago many people told me I should give this little box of wonders a blast. So I did, and I found it interesting, even in spite of the boring person who ran me through it as an intro. Even his dull monotonous voice and lack of communication skills didn't manage to kill the joy that the game contains, so I thought I'd get it. So here it is, and I'm looking forward to playing it with human opponents, as opposed to the sub-human fun sponge I had my into game with. Word of warning to all those people who intro games to people. If your not enthused how the hell do you expect the customer to be? Beggars belief, any way onto the unboxing:

Huzzah!!! A Good Hell Dorado Rulebook.

Firstly I have to say a HUGE big thank you to the guys at the Maelstrom for sorting my water damage Hell Dorado Rulebook out so professionally and quickly. You see if you read my blog yesterday you'll have seen I finally got my copy of the English Hell Dorado Rulebook. However my joy was short lived as the Hell Dorado 'curse' had struck my book down with a severe case of water damage *shakes first at Hell Dorado curse*. This possibly made me the saddest panda on earth. Even sadder than the looters having to return stuff to the Games Workshop!

However two things I need to clear up:

1. Despite the book looking perfectly OK in my picture, I assure you it was very badly damaged and at points impossible to read. So I'm not being a 'big cry baby' and a 'whinger'. I'll post some images to prove it!!!
2. No, the irony of me having some Naval based miniatures in the shape of my dystopian Wars stuff turn up undamaged by water hadn't escaped my notice and no it wasn't funny at the time, but now I have my new rulebook it has raised a wry smile.

So onto the evidence for you all:

On the right we have the new rulebook, on the left however...

I almost died today!!!

No but seriously the post women turned up with a package in her hand, nothing unusual in that. What was slightly more unusual was that it wasn't a package of nail varnish or shoes for the missus. So what could this strange rulebook shaped package be I thought. Surely not? It can't be! It is!!! Yep I've got the lesser spotted incredibly rare English Edition Hell Dorado rulebook from Cipher Studios. The shock to my heart nearly did for me. To say its been a long wait is an understatement of the highest order, I've been waiting for it since 2008 when the game was Asmodee's responsibility. While it felt good to finally have it in hand, there was a huge kick in the teeth waiting for me when I tried to open the damn thing.

Although it might not look like it here, the book is actually seriously quite badly damaged. You see there have been rumours flying around the interweb that there was a flood at a warehouse in Chicago where the Hell Dorado books and indeed the latest copy of Privateer Presses No Quarter magazine were being held. Some people poo pooed the idea, but I thought it sounded infinitely plausible. Turns out my Hell Dorado rulebook is just yet more proof of that very fact. You see the pages in the book were stuck together and while carefully trying to tweeze them apart a few tore and well, its a mess. This book should never have left that warehouse, the UK distributor should never have pushed it onto the shops and the shop in question probably shouldn't have sent it onto me!!!

Things that I play (well collect) Hell Dorado

Website ( Cipher Studios )

The second of the two Cipher Studio games that I'm collecting, it's probably fair to say has had somewhat of a turbulent life in its brief existence. Initially released by Asomodee in 2008 (I think, although I'm sure if I'm wrong an angry Frenchman will correct me), it never quite made it to the English speaking world, as no official English rulebook was released, although Asmodee and others did publish some OK translations. It was a real shame an English version didn't make it out of the doors as it had a wonderfully dark (read at times perverted) and rich background and an even better set of miniatures. The game system started to hit trouble probably due in no small part to the fact that without an English rulebook it was missing a fairly large chunk of potential sales from the huge gaming markets of the States and the UK, not to mention the Aussies and Kiwi's. Sadly I think it became quite clear that under Asmodee the game was doomed.

So it was that Cipher Studios picked the game up after Asmodee decided to cut their ties with Hell Dorado. I think its fair to say that Cipher would probably have wanted things to have gone a little smoother, as they initially planned to have the English rulebook shipped by the end of 2010... we still haven't seen it (26/05/2011) although it is apparently at the printers now ( Cipher press release ) so perhaps there is  light at the end of the very dank, dark demon infested tunnel. They've started to release some new miniatures for the game as well ( Husaym al Din preview ) which I think is pretty cool!!! Its fair to say though that I've hardly played the game and its been difficult to keep people interested in whats going on with it. Since the rulebook just isn't out yet and rulebooks are the first thing would be gamers want to see. Its a shame because it really is a clever and fun little game system and given the professional job Cipher have done with Anima Tactics I have plenty of faith in them to do a good job with Hell Dorado.