Quarriors! Light vs. Dark

A year ago I wrote a scathing review about how horrible this game was. In that review I pitted my feelings about the new mechanics vs the classic Quarrior rules. The game sat on my shelf for over a year collecting dust. Recently I dusted the game off and played it again. I'm glad I did. My review of this game went from 1 star to 5 stars with a new appreciation and understanding of the rules. I had a few minor misinterpretations that drastically effected my enjoyment of the game. For others like me that were quick to judge this little gem, do take the time to review the rules again. For new players interested in picking this game up, I will summarize the review and say it's a definite 5 star game. Labeling this game as an expansion is a disservice. It's much better to play and enjoy this game as a stand alone alternative to the original.In regards to quality, the dice are lacking. The dice themselves are nicely etched, but the paint job is terrible. I have several dice where the paint is blochy and others where you can't see the symbol at all. Thank goodness the dice are all etched. Over all quality the dice are nice, but paint detail is bad.Cards, creatures, spells, and variety. This is an area where I criticized the game before. After playing a few more games, I truly love the variety with the few creatures and spells there are. If the designers wanted to distill the original Quarriors game down to a handful of creatures and spells, I say they've done an excellent job with this game. Some say they look forward to more expansions to the Light vs Dark series. I honestly want to say I'm happy with the way it is. This game needs no expansions to fully enjoy. It's a great stand alone game with quick setup that's easy to teach others. If learning the game on your own, read the rule book over a few times. If any of the rules seem slightly confusing, do reread that section again. The rules are vague, yet very specific. Once you have an understanding of the game, you learn to appreciate that the rules are specific to how the game should be played.For those coming from the original Quarrior game, you'll know that house rules were key in making the game really work. For this new series, I want to say DO NOT add your own rules. Play the game as it's written and you'll observe how they've fixed many of the problems in the original in a very simple way. First and foremost, the culling aspect is a vast improvement over the original. In this game, culling can only be accomplished via special abilities. I do like it much better than the old culling rules of when a creature scored. This is something to get use to, but I like it much better.Gone are the Quidity dice. I miss that, but not really. Having the two large dice along with the probability of quidity on the creature/spell dice is more than enough. You toss less dice per turn, which some might miss, but in regards to keeping the game clean and moving fast it's been a great improvement. It's something to get use to coming from old style Quarriors, but something I've come to greatly appreciate.Spells, there's only two. But given three varieties of each spell is more than enough to keep the game interesting and unique for each play through. The same could be said of the creatures. Unlike in the original Quarriors where you play each game with a subset of the dice in the box, you will use all of the dice in the Light vs Dark game. I don't find this a disappointment. On the contrary, the new additions in the rules add nice variety to each game and make use of all the bits in the box. New to Light vs Dark is the addition the of Anchored Spells. I didn't understand them at first, but now love how having them in addition to the spell cards really gives many more options per turn. They also play into the Light vs Dark theme well. As opposed to just adding up quidity each turn and spending it all on creatures, you now have more options in your turn on how to spend it. The choices making each turn more interesting.The Light vs Dark aspect of the game. This was a big criticism in my initial review. I said it was a useless gimmick added to the game that served no purpose other than making the rules slightly more complex. I now feel different. I get it how Light and Dark quidity are integrated into the rules. For the most part, the Light and Dark only add a slight variety to the game, but it's that small addition that gives each turn a slight twist. Essentially providing an option to better use your quidity each turn. There are other things that help add to the theme, like having a Light creature who's ability protects them from taking damage from a Dark creature. It's the little things that do add a much appreciated variety to the game.I use to say the game was too fast. This was a complaint of mine with the original Quarriors too. You spend all this time buying dice and culling to build that nice deck only to have the game end before you get a chance to use them. That situation is slightly remedied in that you now spend less time focusing on culling. You WANT those spell dice as use them more as opposed to only investing in creatures. I want to say the game feels more balanced in how you form strategies.Like the original, the game is very luck biased, but in a fun way. It's true you can still buy an army of creatures only to roll quid each turn. The spells help balance that, but it's quite possible you can walk into a game and loose by no fault of your own. I've yet to win a game, but here I am giving this game a 5 star rating. I suppose that says something about my enjoyment even when not winning. The recent games I've played all had epic moments where fighting went back and forth. I even had a runaway scenario where I could not get any points, but it never made me want to give up. There was always that chance to turn things around. The short game time is nice because you can setup and play several games within an hour once you get into the pace. Each game providing nice variety with the minimal creatures and spells. Honestly, not a complaint now. It's adds to my overall appreciation to quick setup time.The only thing missing which really should have been included in the game is a play mat for each player. This is where details to the rules come into play. It's VERY beneficial to move your dice from one zone to the next and follow the sequence of your turn exact. Doing so will help with understanding the minor nuances of the rules and make it clear as to why they're written the way they are. It's worth the effort to make up play mats to be used for this game. At least for the first few games.This is a 1 star to 5 star review reversal. I regret the scathing review I gave a year ago. Perhaps it was my understanding of the original rules that prevented me from fully appreciating this new game. In regards to comparing Light vs Dark against the original, I want to say both are great. The original is fantastic once you add the Quartifacts expansion. The Quartifacts being a must have to the original. Light vs Dark on the other hand is better as a one off game. For the price, you get a lot of game. Unlike the original, I want to say Light vs Dark is best played if you follow the rules exact. I love the fast setup of Light vs Dark and how a typical game runs 20 mins tops. It's a great slimmed down version of the original that adds it's own tweaks to make one appreciate it as a whole new game.

I have played a fair amount of Quarriors and own all expansions, and I feel that this version has a lot of depth and stands well on its own.Light VS Dark is a great option for anybody who is new to the Quarriors realm or a veteran. The basic game mechanics are the same as the base Quarriors game but there are some notable variances:-There are no basic quidity dice. Instead dedicated dice are used each turn (they are larger than all other dice in the game so it is easy to keep track of them) so the player will always have something to spend. At the end of each turn players set these dice aside to be used in following turns, so they aren't mixed in to the discard pile and bag. This is nice because it guarantees that creature dice and spell dice will be rolled each turn increasing the chance for combat.-There are three forms of quidity: basic, light and dark. Creatures and spells can be bought for a discount if a player uses at least one light or dark quidity in the transaction for the corresponding card. Also anchored spells (described below) can be activated if a player spends the appropriate amount of light or dark quidity once per turn.-There are "Anchored Spells" on some flavors of creature cards which allow players to spend a specific type of quidity (light or dark) to activate the spell. What is interesting and unique about these anchored spells is a player may activate one once per turn and doesn't even need to own any of the creatures from the card to do it. These can quickly tip the scales of a game of used effectively.Pros:-Works as both a stand alone game or expansion to the regular Quarriors game-Uses the same basic game mechanics of Quarriors so players already familiar with it can start playing after learning only the new mechanics-As with other Quarriors games and expansions there is a lot of variability as to the flavor which is used for a spell or creature-The light vs dark aspect of the game does a good job augmenting like factions or hurting opposing factions-All creature and spell dice are used each game if not playing as an expansion-Basic quidity doesn't clutter a player's roll as it can in the base gameCons:-As with other Quarriors games the paint on some of the dice can be a bit off. but there is always a corresponding card which shows all faces for each die.Overall I think this is a great stand alone game and is well worth playing if you are a dice game fan and especially if you already like Quarriors. I haven't tried it as an expansion yet so can't comment on that.

This is a fun stand alone version of the game, with different rules from the original. I really like it, and I'll be adding the base game in soon to change up the play.

The game is more steamlined since there are dedicated quiddity dice each turn, but at the same time the game is more complicated because of the light vs dark mechanics. The original game is easier to pick up for people who are completely new to Quarriors. The original game also has much more variety due to having more dice.Some of the dice had shoddy paint jobs, but none of them were deformed, and none were bad enough that I felt the need to send in a replacement request to the company.I hope they make expansions using this Light vs Dark as a base set because it's not fully compatible with normal Quarriors sets due the light vs dark setup.For someone just starting Quarriors, buy the original base set instead. It comes with more dice variety, is easier to learn, and is compatible with the other expansions.

This games is great and fun to play. A must have for families with children and parents that love to spend time together.

good

I love quarriors i never had the chance to buy one and this time i was able, i am thankful

Great game - I own the previous sets. I like the change with the quiddidity, it makes the game a little more playable and less variable (skill is more easily applied).I ordered it with normal free shipping and it came in under 3 business days later (wednesday, arrived monday). Super pleased.

It was bought as a xmas gift and they love it

This game works well as a standalone game. As an expansion it has changed some of the rules which make some of the cards not work as intended because of this the game feels more complicated. There may be a way to combine it as an expansion to allow 8 player games with teams of 2?

Great add on :) it was more fun with the 2 large dice which guaranteed quiddity of all kinds, it meant even if I pulled all monsters from the bag I could still use 1 of them at least.