Dungeons & Dragons: Onslaught is a competitive skirmish game where each player takes control of one faction of characters. During most games, players choose only five characters from their faction. There are no points to count, just select your five for the fight. I liked the game so much that it was awarded our GeekDad Approved designation. The core game included two factions: the Harpers and the Zhentarim, each with six characters. Since that time, more factions and expansions have been released to add more characters. Now a large expansion has been released which adds new monsters, new maps, and a new campaign: Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven.
What Is the Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven Expansion?
Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven is an expansion for Dungeons & Dragons: Onslaught and the core game is required to use them for play. You do not need any of the previous expansions, though Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven does allow you to use them. The expansion includes 8 miniatures, one of which is a large miniature. It also takes the game out of a dungeon and into a swamp with a double-sided map board. A new campaign lets players follow a new story with their characters. Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven is currently available from your FLGS or from Amazon for a suggested retail price of $89.99. Dungeons & Dragons: Onslaught was designed by Nicholas Yu and Travis Severance and published by WizKids, with graphic design by Richard Dadisman and art by Gong Studios. Now let’s take a look at each of the expansions.
Here is what you get in the box:
- 1 Double-sided map
- 8 miniatures
- 1 Froghemoth combat dial card
- 2 Character initiative cards
- 8 Monster cards
- 18 Item cards
- 60 Tokens
- 9 Terrain elements
- 1 Scenario guide
This expansion includes 8 miniatures. These include three Bullywugs, a Sea Hag, a Green Hag, a Night Hag, Yuan-Ti, and the large Froghemoth. This comes with four detatchable tentacles and a detachable eyestalk, each of which can be attached to one of the five water effect bases. Each of these miniatures are fully painted and ready for play.
The map comes with two different sides. The Ruins terrain side has four main platforms with water barriers around them. The Swamp terrain side has two small main islands and some tiny islands along with a lot of water making movement more challenging.
The monster cards have two sides, allowing for two different types of each monster. They are included for the Yuan-Ti, the three different Hags, and the Bullywugs, as well as the tentacles of the Froghemoth. There is also a card for Zombies which use tokens for the game and for the Kobold miniatures which came with the main game. The Froghemoth has its own combat dial card with two sides–one for while it is submerged and the other for when it is above the surface of the swamp.
The 18 new item cards replace the item cards from the core set when playing the scenarios in this expansion. A few of the item cards have a darker background and have the ‘Cursed’ keyword on them. When a character loots a chest and one of the item tokens corresponds to a cursed item, a cursed item must be chosen and immediately equipped. Cursed items cannot be unequipped, dropped, or given to another character. Also, if it is a cursed weapon, the character must use it if able.
Two new initiative cards, numbered 11 and 12 are included and allow players to bring six characters into some of the scenarios instead of only five.
Since there is a lot of water which acts as hindering terrain, the expansion includes 9 bridge terrain elements. There are also 9 conditions tokens, 41 wound tokens and 10 double sided tokens that can represent either prisoners or zombies.
Why You Should Get the Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven Expansion
I have enjoyed playing Dungeons & Dragons: Onslaught for nearly a year now. I like that the game includes pre-painted miniatures that look great, pre-created characters that have unique abilities and stats, and combat dials to easily keep track of everything. In addition to the core set, I have added the two new factions (Red Wizards and Many Arrows), the Sellswords characters which can be added to any of the factions, and the expansions for the original Harper and Zhentarim factions. Each of those added more characters which could be played with the original scenarios. Now with the Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven expansion, you get new monsters for new challenges. The Froghemoth is a really cool miniature. The eyestalk and tentacles can be removed and attached to water elements. In some scenarios, the tentacles act as individual monsters while in other scenarios, the tentacles and eye stalk represent the submerged Froghemoth. In my opinion, this is one of the best looking miniatures in the series.
What I like about the Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven expansion is that it not only has new types of terrain and some interesting new monsters, it also has a great new story told over six scenarios. There are two additional scenarios set outside of the story. One is the Paddle Royale which can be played with 3-4 players instead of only two. The other is a solo scenario called The Plague where one player using only 3 characters must defeat all the zombies before they infect all of the victims. What makes this challenging is that the victims become zombies themselves when they are infected. The new item cards are interesting and the addition of cursed items that you are stuck with until the end makes looting treasure a risk. I have already highly recommended Dungeons & Dragons: Onslaught. I also highly recommend the Nightmare of the Frogmire Coven expansion. It does a great job of adding a new adventure to a great game.
For more information, visit the Dungeons & Dragons: Onslaught page!
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
