therese blog

A solo miniature board game made to make you cry tears of woe. And not because of the tragic story but because of how impossible the game is to win.

Hercules had to best 12 labors to be able to chill with the gods. After killing his wife and children in a tragic event beset by the gods, Hercules went to the Oracle and was sent on this path with the labors. They were supposed to be ten, but of course someone bent the rules a bit and in the end it became 12 labors.

The game is easy enough, you throw a bunch of dice, manipulate them with the rewards you’ve gathered and the place the dice to cause damage to the labor or gain spirit, health or something else. Sounds easy, right? But no, cue the mood card which could potentially kill you in like three rounds and even though there are som with positive effects, the gods aren’t always with you when you draw them. It is well balanced and a quite quick play but even if there are a few strategic choices it is also down to chance.

The first time I played I didn’t get past the first labor since i didn’t roll anything above a three in my first three rounds, and then the time ran out.

It’s a quick setup, you sort out four of the mood cards (these will replace other mood cards during your progress). Then you shuffle the remaining nine mood cards and place them close by. You gather your health/spirit card and place the little heart and fire on their starting places, you gather your bow of Hercules and then you lay out the first labor, The Nemean Lion. Read the story (it’s a really nice layout). Draw a mood card that will sap your health or alter something for the duration of the labor. Then pull out the dice and hope you’ll roll those 5 and 6. When (or should I say if) you defeat the Nemean Lion, you get a reward that will enable more abilities to place your dice upon. Easy peasy.

Even though I’ve still not made it past the sixth labor I think it’s a good game. It’s a little hard getting the health up once you’ve had the bad luck of drawing three mood cards in a row that sapped a total of 9!!! health from you. And you have to keep a close eye on the spirit as well as health while you also take out the labor before it reaches the skull.

I do recommend the game, it’s a small – easy to grab – game with beautiful artwork.

I’ve rated the game 7 out of 10 on BoardGameGeek