It’s been 8 years since Mage Knight Ultimate Edition was released, way back in 2018. That was supposed to be it. No more content, everything in this one enormous box.
But then it just kept selling. And selling! And selling!
And all that treasure awakened a terrible Draconic Power. Now the Apocalypse Dragon is wreaking havoc across the Atlantean Empire (and card-sleevers everywhere). [That is not at all the lore of the Apocalypse Dragon, we know].
Seriously, though, I have no idea what sleeves I used when I gently tucked away my Ultimate Edition cards. I’m gonna have to re-sleeve this whole damn box, aren’t I?
The Apocalypse Dragon is a new expansion for Mage Knight, containing the titular dragon and a whole lot more. It is designed by Phil Pettifer and published by WizKids.
Expansion Overview:
The Apocalypse Dragon contains a ton of new content, in several modules that can be played together or separately. The new modules are:
- Coral, a new Mage Knight
- The Apocalypse Dragon, a 5-headed dragon that makes even Volkare quake with fear.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, new enemies and henchmen of the Dragon.
- Possessed Enemies, cult-controlled enemy tokens that get specific buffs/debuffs.
- Quests, add in specific timed quests for rewards and extra objectives.
- Campaign, a multi-game playable campaign.
- A new solo bot (Proxy player), replacing the Dummy Player, and actually interacting with the human player on the map.
- New scenarios, several new scenarios with co-op, pvp, and solo modes.
Each individual module is deep, with a huge amount of replay value. This expansion is on par with The Silmarillion in terms of breadth and depth of content.
Game Experience with the Expansion:
All of the content in The Apocalypse Dragon is modular. You can use as much or as little as you’d like. The sheer volume of content can be intimidating to start. Doubly so if you’re dusting off your copy of Ultimate Edition and need to brush up on the rules you already know!
Luckily, each module is fairly straightforward from a learning and playing perspective. It’s still Mage Knight, so there is some fiddle.
Coral is a new Mage Knight, an Atlantean local pirate wearing armor designed to actually shield her entire person. (Meanwhile, Arythea glares from somewhere within the pants section). She comes with a neat new ability called Set Aside. This allows you to leave the Quick Witted card out of your draw deck and choose when to take it into your hand (in place of drawing a card).
Coral is a pirate and thus can traverse water spaces quickly with her Commandeer Vessel Skill. Movement is particularly important when fighting the Apocalypse Dragon, as you need to find its lair quickly for the final showdown.
The Apocalypse Dragon itself is a terrifying enemy. Taking up 3 full spaces, it towers over the map, destroying (almost) everything that it comes across. The dragon’s 5 heads are each an enemy, represented by the same discs used for the Elementalist. But instead of one measly disc, this beastie has five. Four heads (the welcomingly named Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence) are enemies that directly attack. They have dynamic levels that change based on how many times you’ve hit them. The higher the level, the stronger the enemy.
The fifth is the Control Head, the brain of this Apocalyptic Operation. This head attacks players directly, but it also augments the other head’s attacks. And you can never hit it. The Control Head’s level is always equal to the highest non-control head. That means you’ve always got at least 2 different enemies to deal with as long as the Dragon lives.
This thing absolutely has table presence. With its enormous mini and five giant discs laid out on the table, I was nervous to go up against it. And for good reason. That damn Dragon ate Coral in the first game we played, and it wasn’t close.
The Dragon also has henchmen. Naturally, the Four Horsemen are unique enemies that also level and roam the land. They roam the map, hidden until you get close, and then they drop Cult Artifacts when you beat their wheels off.
There are also Possessed Enemies. When one of the Cults takes hold of an enemy, it buffs or nerfs their stats. Possessed Enemies also utilize a new type of attack: the Psychic Attack. This can only be blocked by Psychic Block or via Influence. Often found in Ziggurats or Pyramids (neat new Sites), these are a fun way to spice up the enemy token stacks.
Quests are an interesting way to mix up scenarios. They add flavor to your game while keeping you on task with the overall scenario. Quests function similarly to the Unit Offer, where they are drawn and stay out and available for a round or two. Even if you’ve claimed a quest, you can run out of time and fail it.
Quests have steps that must be accomplished in order to complete them. These can sometimes fit within your game plan, but often send you careening to some out-of-the-way Mage Tower where a villager left their wagon keys. I found it especially difficult to complete quests in some of the busier scenarios, like Against the Apocalypse.
The introduction of the Proxy Player adds another layer to solo games. If flouncing around the map chasing (and being chased by) the Apocalypse Dragon and its henchmen isn’t enough, you can jockey for position against another Mage Knight mini too!
The Proxy Player works similarly to the Dummy Player in that its deck is flipped and acts as a timer. The added layers are now that the Mini will move around the map, recruit units, conquer sites, and more. You’re essentially adding competition to the Market and the available fame on the board based on the last color drawn, and the available Source dice.
After a game or two, the Proxy Player is easy to run without much lookup for guidance. Personally, I am content to use just the Dummy Player. Probably because I am a dummy player. But I appreciate the delivery of an actual solo opponent that is more than a timer.
Finally, the Campaign. Long-awaited, this mode adds some flavor and overarching story to several successive games of Mage Knight, including beginning successive games at higher levels, shortening scenarios, and some other fun rewards. You can choose short or long campaigns, and the story will change depending on some choices you make.
The campaign supports all modes of play: competitive, co-op, and solo. Scoring changes very slightly between Competitive and Co-op/Solo, but does not impact the story.
It’s not a dense, audiobooks-required-to-get-through-the-sheer-volume-of-text style campaign. But the flavor of a paragraph or even a sentence or two before jumping into a scenario is a nice addition. You may even learn some Mage Knight lore!
Final Thoughts:
This expansion is primarily scenario- and enemy-focused. There are no new spells, units, advanced actions, or relics included. And they aren’t needed. The depth of choice and content already available for deck building in the main box is plenty. The new puzzles to solve, the new enemies to face, the new locations to explore, that’s what The Apocalypse Dragon is about. And it is superb.
WizKids also elected to change the font on the cards, which is a bit jarring at first but is ultimately a welcome change. It improves the readability of card text, especially on the very text-dense location cards.
The punch boards (and there are a LOT) also have a really nice touch in that most components are labeled for sorting while you punch. I loved that, and hope more publishers do this in the future.
The Apocalypse Dragon takes what is among the greatest games ever made and easily elevates it.
Hits:
• Enormous breadth of new content without many rules additions
• Magnificent new enemies
• Coral is an incredibly fun new Mage Knight
Misses:
• The font change is slightly jarring
• What flippin brand of sleeves did I buy again??
