Dwellings of Eldervale

Dwellings of Eldervale was another one of those games I did not back on Kickstarter because it did not catch my eye, only to regret it and rush to find it later. Once I got it on the table, I understood why: it may be the best-produced game in my collection—and that is not a small collection. Its table presence is genuinely impressive.

At its core, it is a very clever area-control game in the Cthulhu Wars school. Players spread across the map, contest space, and try to establish their presence, while the game carefully finds the golden balance between playability, difficulty, and rules overhead.

Interaction comes directly from that fight over territory and progress on the score track. There is a slight issue when someone has already pulled ahead: stopping them is not always easy. Still, in the overall experience I consider it a minor blemish rather than something that ruins the game.

For me, it is a huge game. And yes, in the Legendary Edition the little monsters go “grrrr” when they move, which fixes no mechanism whatsoever but makes an already lavish experience even more delightful. Its only real problem is the price, which simply hurts.