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Thorsten Schneider
Switzerland
Liestal
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This is my first review and thread on BGG so play nice with this new face
Game Overview
Dungeon Lords is a "build'n'place" game with two rounds of combat to "test drive" a player's dungeon build after each build phase. The player has a full year to plan and construct his dungeon. He can add rooms, hallways, traps and monsters to his dungeon setup. He pays for those things either through gathered resources from his dungeon or he goes to town and gets what he needs from there.
Throughout all this he has to watch an Evil-o-Meter. This shows how evil a dungeon lord currently is. While this adds to his overall victory points at the end of a game the problem is that at a certainl level of "evil" a player could attract the attention of a paladin, a mighty warrior with the ability to fling spells and heal damage.
At the end of the first year a band of heroes enter the dungeon lord's lair and try to conquer it. It is now the task of the dungeon lord to prevent this by placing cunning traps and brutal monsters in such a fashion that he can put all heroes into his prison as fast as possible.
After this fight the player has another year to build, plan and prepare for the second and last fight. The second year introduces new rooms and new monsters. Unfortunately the heroes that will enter the dungeon will be more powerful as well. Just let us not talk about the paladin. He is too good to put it into words....
After the battle of the second year it is time for the headcount. You get points for the dungeon you have built, the heroes you have put into the prison, monsters, traps, etc. You also get titles based on certain criteria, which in return give you points as well.
"Play-Test-Review"
Players: Thorsten (Juppstein), Corinne, Benni, Läbi
I bought Dungeon Lords a few weeks ago but did not have the time to play it until last weekend. A good occasion came up when of our PnP RPG players in our current group of 5 had to cancel out so we were left with 4 players not knowing what to do 
The day before game day I flipped through the manual just to get an overview of the game. It certainly was not an in-depth study of the rules because I wanted to do a learn-as-you-play session. From what I’ve seen while flying through the manual it seemed to be possible to play like that.
First thing we did, as suggested in the manual, was to go through the 4 introduction combat scenarios. We read through the text first and then went through all 4 fights. That took us about 1.5 hour or so, including reading rules and all that.
First Year
Next was going through the whole aspect of building and planning the dungeon. We went through the rules step by step while playing the game. The manual is structured quite well and all the information is in the right place. Though I would have preferred that the monsters, cards and room descriptions had been placed at the very last page instead in the middle of the manual. That would have saved us a lot of flipping pages. Otherwise everything was laid out logically. (Since we had 4 players and thus did not cover the NPC rules I cannot comment on them).
The first year took us about 2 hours to go through. That is mainly because we learned the game as we played it. If someone did a move that was not allowed by the rules he was able to correct his approach and go on with the game. I think this happened 3 times throughout the whole year. Not bad for a game being played the first time with no one knowing the rules. To me that means that the rules are easy to understand and logical.
Combat First Year
Combat was quite easy and fast since we went through the test fights already. In the first year combat we helped each other out a bit when it came to rules and setup of fights but that happened only once or twice. Overall combat went through very smooth and we all made it into the second year without too many losses.
Second Year
The second year building and planning phase went through like a breeze. It really speaks for the game if it only takes one round for everyone to understand the mechanics. We only had to refer to the manual when it came to the new monsters and room descriptions. Otherwise it was pure gaming. The second year building and planning phase took us about 30-40 minutes or so. Though we were not really forward to the upcoming combat phase, given the heroes that showed up in front of our carefully built dungeon. 
Combat Second Year
Combat phase was done in about 15 minutes. Then it was time for the headcount. Calculating the points was quite easy and Corinne was elected as the winner of the game. She only lost one hallway in those two years and had most resources left. The rest of us was close behind her.
Too bad I totally forgot to make notes and pictures of the session but we were all too tied up with the game to think about that 
Final thoughts:
I really like this game. The rules are not too complex to frighten new players away but they still allow for a lot of tactical and strategic gameplay. The manual is well written and explains everything in the right place at the right time. We only had 3 questions left after the game that mainly came from the wording in the German version of the rules. But some searching in the forums and in the official FAQ has solved them all.
The production value of the game parts is quite high. The boards are very solid and most of the cards are sturdy enough to withstand the wear and tear of years to come. I also liked the wood pebbles and the blood cubes. Such things always add to the game experience. The game boards, monsters, heroes, and all the other parts of the game all have beautiful graphics and pictures on them and the vivid and colorful theme goes through all parts of the game. It is as fun to play this game as it is to look at its different parts.
We all agreed that Dungeon Lords is going to find its place back to the table at our next board game day. I give Dungeon Lords a rating of 8.5. For us it’s a keeper 
Scores:
Components: 9/10
Rules: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Fun: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10
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Manuel Pasi
Switzerland
Zürich
Almost through playing my Essen 11 purchases...
...so bring on Essen 12
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Well I offer a Grüezi & nice first review!!
another Swiss Dungeon Lord! Cool
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Alain Marti
Switzerland
Utzenstorf
Bern
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So I join in as well
Grüesech from Bern!
Great to see some swiss around
Best regards
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Marco Pix
Switzerland
Zurich
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Nice review.
As I normally play with English-speaking gaming groups, I am still waiting for the English version of the game 
Cheers from Zurich!
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