BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!!!
Battle as the Heroic Warriors, He-Man and his friends or Battle as the Evil Warriors, Skeletor and his “friends”?
Game overview
The game is played as a series of standalone missions, where the roles of the players are split between one player playing as the Controller (which can be Heroic or Evil) and the rest of the players playing as the Players (can be Heroic or Evil).
The Players get access to skills that emerge as the Mission escalates and the Controller gets access to Minions, strategy cards and the strategy board.
The Mission decides the layout of the map, what the victory conditions are and if there are any mission specific objectives. These missions can be anything from finding and escorting an NPC to an all out Team DeathMatch.
Components
The minis in this game are well crafted and are very detailed. The terrain tokens are double sided and are well used in the missions to add some variety since the main board of the game doesn’t change between the missions.
Both the Player and Controller dashboards are moulded plastic, with spaces for the Character cards, in the case of Player dashboards slots for skills, slots for power cubes divided for characters and skill/strategy cards.
The boulder tokens are a nice addition to the game adding both extra obstacles to move around but also a throwable weapon to aid either side in the battles.
Interesting Mechanics
- The Power System is an interesting new addition to the board gaming sphere, having the Power cubes used by the Player characters going to power the Controller Strategy cards. Adds a level of strategy to the game about when to use the Player skills for fear of the retaliation of the Controller.
- Boulder throwing is a neat mechanic which is an amusing addition to be more in line with the original show. Knowing when to throw the Boulders to stun your opponents or finish off your opponents at range or to leave it till later risking your opponent using it against you.
- Having Teela and Beast Man being able to call in Elite Minions, being the captain of the guard and being able to control animals to a degree, respectively, adds extra units for both sides to make use of during a mission.
Balance
Clash for Eternia is well balanced despite the Controller lean at the start of any mission, with the Players getting access to character unique skills as the game goes on to rebalance the game while the controller gets to upgrade their strategy skills and give a little boost to each of their characters.
At 2 or 3 players on the player side gives the Players an extra action for each character and an extra action between the characters, respectively.
Comments on AI
The AI seems to function well for an enjoyable single player experience, though there is obviously a serious element of randomness with the AI’s moves being decided by the cards. Sometimes the cards will be brutal, absolutely beating you down and other times the card comes and goes without much fanfare.
Better than trying to play 2 handed but doesn’t hold a candle to playing with human opponents.
Final Thoughts
Masters of the Universe Clash for Eternia is a solid adaptation of the original 1980’s show into a board game. The game is fairly easy to learn and play, the missions don’t overstay their welcome and are played over the course of 1 hour to 1 hour and a half.
Master of the Universe Clash for Eternia is a worthy investment for anyone who is a fan of the original mid 1980’s series or the early 1990’s series or even the last series, the early 2000’s series.
Lesson
In today’s review, we learned about the great Masters of the Universe Clash for Eternia game. This game gets lonely sitting on store shelves, give it a good home by buying it now. Till next time, Friends!