Introduction – Walking the Slayer’s Path
“Slayers are the strangest and most deadly of all dwarf warriors in the Old World. They are outlandish doomseekers, individuals who have wholly dedicated their existence to the hardest and most destructive life of battle that they can possibly find.”
This quote from the Warhammer Doomseeker instruction booklet perfectly sets the scene, and sums up what this game is all about.
Warhammer Doomseeker is a competitive board game for 2-4 players, aged 14+, based on the Warhammer Fantasy universe. Players take on the role of a dwarven Slayer - dwarves in self-imposed exile, wandering the wilds seeking battle, glory, and - ultimately - their doom.
The gameplay is well-paced, and the variety of enemies your Slayer will face is quite impressive, with everyone from the Orks to the Skaven accounted for. There is some luck involved in the gameplay given the mechanics of card draws and dice rolls, but post-fight visits to the merchant offer a real sense of progression as your Slayer levels up round by round.
What's in the Box?
Don’t be put off by the range of components you’re presented with when you lift the lid; although there are a number of different tiles and card types, their use and place within the game are quickly made apparent by the well written and very nicely presented rulebook.
The set comprises a fold-out gameboard, 4x D6 dice, 8x Slayer cards, 60x Doom cards, 48x Treasure cards, 6x Grudge cards, 49x Fate cards, 4x Reference cards, 1x Saga card, and 57x assorted Gold, Rune, Renown, and Wound tokens.
Each component is well-made, and the design work which has gone into each is very impressive (more on that later…)
Game Setup – Prepare to Die
As with many games of this kind, the first time you set up the board, you’ll be checking the rulebook for the precise placement of each card deck, which order to place the Doom cards in, where the tokens should go, etc, so which all took me about 10 minutes the first time around; subsequent playthroughs were, of course, shorter once I knew the layout.
On that point, the main gameplay happens on the board itself, naturally, but you will need to allow space around the board - on your kitchen table, for example - upon which to place the tokens, dice, your character card, and the array of defeated enemies and upgraded items you will acquire as you progress on your journey to ultimate glory. And your doom, hopefully.
How to Play – Seeking an Honourable Death
Rounds of play involve taking a number of specific actions: first, you draw a card; next, from a selection of 5 (sometimes 6) enemies, or ‘Dooms’, currently on the board, you choose one to fight; you then resolve the fight using dice rolls and character/item-specific buffs and debuffs; after the fight, you get the chance to visit a merchant and buy new, better weapons, armour, and items (my favourite part of the game, incidentally); and finally, you round down your hand of cards to the maximum hand of five.
This may sound both simple and somewhat familiar; indeed, there are many such games where players must defeat enemies pulled from the ‘baddie’ deck - here named the Doom Deck - but it is in the interplay between players/Slayers, and the actions written upon the Fate cards which make up your hand where this game really stands out.
Each player has a hand of 5 fate cards, which they can play on their own turn or during an opponent’s turn, depending on the card. The cards grant buffs and debuffs, such as granting bonus strength to your Slayer, or removing strength from your opponent’s Slayer.
Other Fate cards offer you the chance to forcibly place your Slayer into an enemy encounter at the expense of the active player, thereby gaining the reward in his or her place. I find this to be very thematic; you can easily imagine one berserk dwarf Slayer barging another out of the way for the chance to pit themselves against - and potentially be killed by - a particularly brutal enemy.
This one-upmanship, actively messing with your opponents and stealing the reward out from underneath their beards is a great mechanic, and caused some great laugh-out-loud moments in our games.
I also really like the shop mechanic, whereby, immediately after a battle, the active player has the chance to visit the merchant and buy new items. A new, more powerful weapon, perhaps? Or maybe a piece of enchanted armour? No? Okay, how about a Runestone which grants you the ability to reroll a failed attack roll?
For me, this almost transcends the traditional board game experience and evokes more of a role playing element, something akin to Dungeons and Dragons, or even the Elder Scrolls video games.
Again, this may just be me, but it really feels like you’ve come away from your last battle, cut and bruised but otherwise unscathed, and you’re stocking up on items with one eye on your next encounter with the Skaven, Orks, Chaos, or whichever ungodly beast is going to come off the top of the Doom Deck next…
Which leads on to the levelling system. When you begin the game, you only have a strength (attack value) of, say, 2 or 3. Add to this your 1xD6 dice roll, and it’s either statistically unlikely, or in some cases literally impossible, to defeat the higher strength enemies.
This is what makes those post-battle trips to the merchant so important; adding weapons, armour, and other paraphernalia increases your attack strength, so you’ll soon be adding your dice roll value to a base strength of 4, 5, or 6, rather than the paltry 2 you often begin with. This obviously stands you in much better stead when taking on those harder enemies.
Complexity – How Hard Is It to Master?
For all that the game may look a little daunting when you first open the box, and while this feeling may persist during initial setup, once you get into a game of Warhammer Doomseeker, the gameplay loop becomes apparent almost immediately, and you’ll very quickly feel like you’ve been playing this game for years.
As stated previously, the inclusion of dice rolls and card draws adds a random element to the game, but this does not detract from the learning curve, nor does it lead to situations in which you’ll be frantically checking the rulebook to get yourself out of a tight corner.
The only thing I got a bit stuck on was the fact that some of the Fate cards - the cards which make up your core hand throughout the game - don’t make it clear when, nor upon whom, that card can be played. Others, however, do make this distinction, which led me to the conclusion that the ones that didn’t have this info must therefore have no restrictions, and can be played at any time, upon any player.
Player Interaction – No Honour Among Slayers
The key question to ask in this section, I suppose, is whether Warhammer Doomseeker does a good job of making it feel like you're fighting against the other players, rather than simply playing alongside them.
In a word: Yes.
Your Fate cards directly impact other players and their battles, often rendering their victories hollow as you yourself snatch away the renown and the reward out from under them. While you don’t necessarily attack your opponents directly, inflicting wounds, you do actively undermine their efforts and - for want of a better expression - screw them over.
While players do have every opportunity to forge alliances and fight together, where’s the fun in that? One of the most fulfilling aspects of Warhammer Doomseeker is playing the right card at the right time to completely scupper your opponent, often taking their reward for yourself in the process.
It often results in loud roars of raucous dwarven laughter amongst players who see their work undone by a cheekily-played card, and this devious rivalry is definitely in character for the Duardin.
Replayability – Ready to Die Again?
While the core gameplay will of course remain the same on a second or third playthrough, Warhammer Doomseeker still offers a ton of replayability.
First and foremost is the need to challenge your opponents to a rematch - especially that crafty sod who managed to swindle you out of your gold and take all the glory last time around.
More than this, however, is the chance to choose a different Slayer to play as this time, as they each have their own unique stats and abilities. In addition to this, the random nature of the card pulls, the dice rolls, and the order in which the enemies are drawn from the Doom deck ensure that no two games will be entirely alike. This random factor, coupled with the aforementioned merchant interactions, evoked - on more than one occasion - a Roguelike RPG video game, where each run is different from the last.
Artwork – Does It Look Like Warhammer?
It’s fair to say that the illustrations and artwork for Warhammer Doomseeker, by artists Dan Dussault, Shen Fei, and David Lanza, are nothing short of stunning. The care and dedication which has gone into each enemy on the Doom card, the weapons and armour sets upon the Treasure cards, and the perfect encapsulation of the Doomseekers themselves, emblazoned proudly upon the oversized Slayer cards are truly a sight to behold, and capture the gritty fantasy feel of Warhammer perfectly.
They do say, however, that one should never judge a book by its cover; ironically, I must say that the cover art is possibly the weakest example of the entire set - particularly since the sides of the box do not carry the logo, meaning it just gets lost on gaming your shelf.
Component Quality – Built for Battle?
If you’re anything like me, one of the first things you’ll do upon taking the cards out of the box is to place them lovingly into plastic sleeves. However, for those more normal folk out there who lack this weird obsession, you’re in for a treat. I have already described the quality of the artwork, but the actual cards, game board, and tokens upon which the art is printed are of equal quality.
The tokens are robust enough to cope with the constant handling and swapping which occurs throughout the game, and the cards themselves are also high quality, and will not tear, bend, or peel despite the constant handling.
The fold-out board is made from a high-quality, rigid card, and at no point throughout numerous games did I ever feel nervous when handling any of the components. It’s clear that Ninja Division felt a certain level of responsibility when handling the Warhammer IP, and they certainly did not skimp on the components.
Likes & Dislikes
👍 Likes
- Strong Warhammer theme – The Slayer premise gives the game a distinctive identity.
- Push-your-luck tension – Risking everything can create some memorable turns
- Character variety – Different characters can give subsequent games a different feel
- Plenty of player interaction – You're not simply playing your own game beside everyone else, but are actively trying to thwart your opponents
- Quick enough for repeat plays – A relatively short game length makes a rematch realistic
👎 Dislikes
- Luck can be frustrating – Particularly when you lose a battle against a low-tier enemy on the strength of a dodgy dice roll
- Potential imbalance between characters – As not all Slayers are created equal, you may end up with one of the weaker characters
- Can feel chaotic – The type of players who want precise tactical control may find the randomness frustrating.
- A little more variety? - The Treasure cards in particular seem to contain a lot of duplicates
- Box art - Okay, I’m getting nitpicky now, but the sides of the box lack the Warhammer Doomseeker name and logo, meaning it looks a bit rubbish stacked on a gaming shelf.
Final Thoughts – Is Doomseeker Worth Dying For?
What Warhammer Doomseeker does particularly well is capture the reckless spirit of its Slayers.
The combination of push-your-luck combat, character variety, progression and, above all, downright spiteful player interaction creates plenty of memorable moments. The merchant system is a particular highlight, giving each battle a satisfying sense of progression as your Slayer grows stronger.
Its biggest (and really only) weakness is the randomness; dice rolls and card draws create plenty of tension, but can also leave you feeling that victory was decided more by fortune than clever play, and leave you flabbergasted at your failure to defeat a seemingly easy enemy.
There’s also some repetition among the Treasure cards, while the differing Slayer abilities may occasionally feel unbalanced.
