Just wanted to share my absolute LOVE of Dark Venture: Battle of the Ancients, in case anyone was on the fence about backing the second printing (or didn’t know a second printing was happening.
When I was first starting to explore indie games way back in the dark days of the pandemic, I stumbled on to Iron Helm and Dark Venture because of the Dungeon Dive. While the original DV game out was of print, Battle of the Ancients was up for grabs… the artwork floored me. The weird science storyline is intriguing. The game itself is absolutely packed with content for the price (And size)
I’ve only played the game solo, but am about halfway through the main campaign. I’ve also tried the Underground Mode, which is more of a “roam around and discover quests and threads” sandbox. Both are really fun. It’s the easiest way for me to scratch the “skirmish” game itch without having to bring out a ton of minis and terrain. The AI for each of the factions is thorough and offers meaningful threats — I’ve lost plenty of games to the auto-enemies in this game. All of this has just been with the base game so far, even though I have the other expansions.
I’m excited to back this new expansion, which adds some factions and more unique mechanics. There are also some “upgrade pack” quality of life changes. As someone who has been casually playing this game for two years now, the first printing came out fairly flawless IMO.
The Dark Venture world is really fun. It’s been compared to Dungeon Degenerates, but I think that’s a miss (don’t confuse two games with colorful artwork). It’s much weirder and wilder and worth a look!
