Well no doubt about it, this one was an impulse buy. I loved Homestar Runner and Trogdor was my favourite back in the day, so I bought this based on pure nostalgia. I was pleasantly surprised when I played the game and found I actually liked it. The idea of the game is you are Trogdor and have to burninate everything to win. That’s pretty awesome. The game consists of tiles with burned or unburned sides and you can place the tiles based on different levels of difficulty which is pretty nice. This is a cooperative game since everyone takes turns getting to move Trogdor which also makes it a really nice solo game as well. The cottage roof when burned turns upside down, and there’s a fire piece that sits on the peasants head for when they run around. The pieces are amazing.

Trogdor is a 30 minute game for 1 to 6 players, ages 14 and up.

The game components consist of:

• Trogdor
• 7 Peasant
• 3 cottages
• 2 knights
• 1 archer
• 1 Troghammer
• 1 flame helmet
• Trog meter
• The Void Card
• Action Cards
• Movement cards
• Keeper cards
• Item Cards
• 25 map tiles

The objective of the game is to burninate the countryside, peasants and cottages without losing all your health. This game has a lot of luck to it so sometimes it will be easier than others.

I recommend reading the rulebook and watching their how to play videos, they are entertaining.

The game is set up with tiles.  There’s different setups based on complexity, match your grid with the easy setup and then place 3 peasants, 2 knight and the archer onto the board. Add 3 cottages to the cottage tiles.

Set up the trogmeter with four remaining peasants, they represent your health. Also place the troghammer and flame helmet on the Trogmeter. Nearby set out the Void card. That’s where destroyed villagers will go.

Set aside the Troghammer cards and shuffle the remaining action cards to form a deck. Shuffle the movement cards to create that deck. For the first turn, deal each player a keeper, an item and an action card. All these cards will give special abilities.

• Keepers can be always used on your turn
• Items will need to be recharged
• Action cards will be used on a specific turn

Finally Place Trogdor on the centre tile.

Now you are ready to start, there are two phases per turn:

1. Trogdor attacks
2. The land defends

In Phase one, first draw an action card. If it’s a troghammer card draw another action card after you deal with that. Next play an action card from your hand. If you’d rather not you can discard it to gain 5 action Points with no special ability. The card you pick will have its action points written on it. Follow what the card says and then use your action points.

There are a few ways to spend those action cards:

Move – 1 action point per tile

Most points will be used by moving. Trogdor can step onto an adjacent tile, just not diagonally unless that is a special ability.

If Trogdor is on a Knight’s tile, Trogdor takes 1 damage.

Chomp – 1 action point per peasant

If Trogdor is on the same tile as a Peasant he can chomp him and gain health. The peasant will be added to the trog meter.

Burrow – 1 action point to use the tunnels

Trogdor can move from one tunnel straight to another tunnel. This will get you around the board quickly.

Hide – Trogdor can hide from the Knight and Archer in the mountains and not receive damage in the next phase.  Lie Trogdor down on the tile.  This offers a layer of protection for the turn.

Pass – Trogdor can pass if he has unused points.

BURNINATING – This is the big one

Trogdor can spend an action point to burninate an unburned tile, cottage or peasant where he is standing. This is by far the best part of the game. To show that a tile is burned just turn it over.

The only tile that can’t be burned right away is the lake.  The lake can only be burned once all adjacent tiles, North, South, East and West are burninated or if there’s a helpful action card.

To burninate a cottage, the tile the cottage is on and the 8 cards surrounding tiles must be burninated first.

When Trogdor burninates a peasant or if a peasant steps onto a tile with a burninated cottage, place the flame helmet on the peasant so he can catch fire and run around, setting everything in his path on fire. Draw a card from the movement deck and use the direction on the right to burn everything along that path.

If the peasant runs onto a lake tile, the peasant lives and is no longer on fire. It’s usually still worth taking the risk of doing the movement.

If the peasant runs into a cottage he burns the tile and if all the surrounding cards are burned the cottage will start on fire as well. The benefit of a cottage on fire is no new peasants can spawn there.

If the peasant runs into another peasant, a chain reaction is started and the second peasant gets a movement card when the first peasant is done. Again this is so awesome.

Once all the burning is complete, the peasant will go to the void and is gone for the remainder of the game. Keep that in mind, you don’t want to destroy all your peasants since they also represent your health.

Phase 2 – The Peasants fight back

Next on your turn you will draw a movement card.  In the upper left corner there will be a number of peasants.  If you have this many peasants on the board you do not have to add any more.  If the card has more than what’s on the board you will add from the Trog-Meter to the unburninated cottages.  Each cottage can only spawn one peasant a turn.

Now move the peasants one step in the direction of the arrow on the lower left of the movement card. If the arrow says “Move & Repair,” the tile they land on will also be repaired.

The Knights use the movement path on the right side of the card. The knights can wrap around the board. If a Knight moves through or stops on a burninated cottage, it will be repaired.  If the Knight enter’s Trogdor’s tile, Trogdor takes one damage.  When Trogdor is damaged, move one peasant from the Trog-Meter to the void. If the Trog Meter already has no Peasants left, the damage destroys him.

Once you’ve moved the Knights, you can move the Archer. The Archer follows the same path as the knights and won’t damage Trogdor if they land on the same tile.  Instead he shoots arrows in front and behind him in the direction from his last move.

The Troghammer is basically a really strong Knight.  The Troghammer cards are taken out of the action deck at the beginning of the game.  The first time Trogdor gets damaged, those cards will be shuffled into the deck.  

The first time a troghammer card is drawn, he is placed in the centre tile from the Trog-Meter. The Troghammer moves when his card is drawn and also when the knights move. To move Troghammer, draw a card from the movement deck and just use the movement path. If he stops on a tile with a knight or archer he will move again.

There are a couple ways Trodgor takes damage and you keep track of that with the Trog-Meter.  When Trogdor is damaged a peasant is removed from the Trog-meter and placed in the void.  Spawning a peasant removes it from the Trog-meter but since its still in play on the board it doesn’t count as damage.  It does lower your health though.  If everything including peasants and cottages are burninated before running out of health, you win!  When Trogdor’s health hits zero you can still play but if he gets another damage while already at zero, he loses. 

What makes this extra fun is Trogdor doesn’t like to lose. If he is defeated you will get one last chance to win. Draw 5 movement cards and move him along those paths in order, letting him burn the tiles in his path. In this moment he is able to wraparound the board and all burns the cottages and peasants as he passes. If you burninate everything on the board you win! If you don’t well… that’s unfortunate.

For a game I had assumed would just be a novelty, there’s a lot going on here. This game plays great solo and with others. There is a lot of randomness in the cards and tiles so no two games are the same. I like that even after you lose there’s still a chance to win. It’s lot less depressing when things start to go downhill and keeps you engaged to the very end. I’m happy I did decide to buy it, it’s a great game for my collection. It is a lighthearted fun time and I love how excited people get when they recognize it on my shelf.

If you like Trogdor try:

Nautilion

Flashpoint: Fire Rescue