Preview 4

by Dan Clark

When traveling through the land of Azeroth, danger and excitement await around every corner. But it's not all glamor and fighting and loot all the time — well, it is. But in addition to all that stuff, there's also some more run-of-the-mill things to do in Azeroth. There are herbalists peddling their wares, flight masters maintaining stables of gryphons, and merchants eager to make a trade everywhere you look. Of course, there are also some less… benevolent discoveries one could make…

Resources

Almost every space on the game board features one or more resources. These represent the standard vendors and services available throughout the world. These resources can be used to heal damage, draw ability cards, take flight paths to distant lands, and place discoveries…

Cities have more resources than any other space, including unique resources not found anywhere else. At cities, you can visit the auction house to swap an item for a different item or talk to a quest giver to get a new quest.

Discoveries

Discovery tokens are drawn
and placed if a player lands
on a space with this icon.

Discoveries are placed by players using the place discovery resource. They represent the weird, wonderful, and random things that can be found all over Azeroth. Some discoveries are good. Some discoveries are bad. Since they're placed on the board face down, you have no way of knowing whether that's a pile of gold or a goblin bomb in the space next to you until you step on it and find out!

The draw discovery resource allows a player to draw a token from the pool and place it on any non-city space. As these tokens can be beneficial or harmful, they can be placed near your hero to help you out, or near an opposing hero to hurt him. As these tokens cover up a resource on their square they can be used to deny your opponents something, forcing them to choose between your possibly awful discovery token or going a different route. Quests may require you to travel to a certain location, so you can seed your path with good discoveries and throw bombs on your opponent's path.

Gold, False Map, Bomb

Gold. Who doesn't like gold? The gold pile is a discovery token that, when revealed, you keep to exchange for an item of your level or lower in town. Free stuff is always good. Messing with people can also be fun. If you turn over a false map token, the player to your right gets to move you up to two spaces in any direction they like. They can put you on horrible encounters, evil discovery tokens they played earlier, or many other fun spiky things. Previously only dwarves and goblins got to blow things up, well no more. The bomb discovery token deals two damage to whoever turns it over.

Overlords

Some of the awful things that can happen to your character seem to come out of nowhere. They might seem random, or be the result of scheming and plotting on the part of other players. But some of them are standing right out in the open waiting for you to drop by.

These are the Overlords, the most powerful foes you are likely to face in Azeroth. Enemies such as Hakkar the Soulflayer and Nefarian, greatest of the Black Dragonflight, await you in their lairs. Any hero who dares defy them and returns triumphant will be acclaimed by their people, but the dangers are immense! Each overlord is unique, and each of them is monstrously dangerous. But each has a reward that is worth the risk…

Nefarian is located in Blackrock Mountain. His special ability means that even the mightiest hero must beware his fiery breath! Each of the overlords is strong enough to defeat even the toughest heroes in a single turn, although each of them does so their own (dare we say it?)… nefarious way.

However, should a hero manage to defeat an overlord, he may carry out of that evil place a valuable trophy, such as Nefarian's Head!

Each Overlord has a similar reward. For those of you paying attention; this means two Overlord kills are enough to secure victory even for a hero who hasn't bothered to complete a single quest.

Go forth, be brave, and conquer!