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Cadwallon: City of Thieves v2

Cadwallon: City of Thieves

Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?

The rules from the expansion The King of Ashes have been added to the Cadwallon: City of Thieves rules summary and reference sheet.

It’s a shame that Cadwallon: City of Thieves seems to have fallen between the cracks as it were, because it’s a fun, highly thematic fantasy boardgame that isn’t a dungeoncrawler, and there’s surprisingly few of those around. The King of Ashes expansion makes some serious changes to the original game and throws in a lot of extra stuff too, including a separate labyrinth haunted by a cyclops, and a bunch of new scenarios. If you enjoyed the original game but found it a bit too simple, the expansion puts some more meat on the bones. This rules summary and reference sheets update adds all the rules from the expansion.

16 Comments

  • razide says:

    Thanks for the update.
    My wife and I have enjoyed City of Thieves and unfortunately not played the King of Ashes expansion yet even though I’ve painted up the Cyclops ages ago.

  • CK Lai says:

    As always, thanks for this one, UH! It’s a very fun, light game that sees you doing in your fellow players in the closing stages. And it also has very nice minis… Especially for the expansion. But that’s to be expected from the folks at Rackham.

    And therein lay the problem. Thanks to the name, many people expected a different game (Cadwallon board game RPG?) and when they didn’t get that, they kind of crucified the game. FFG now has bigger fish to fry (koff * Star Wars * koff) so this is all we’ll get.

  • razide says:

    I must admit I was a little disappointed with the combat in the base game at first, after hearing it was supposed to be based on Okko. It has the marvelous appeal of how much treasure can you collect and still manage to escape with it all as the portcullis start closing.

    Pity the minis were made in bendy plastic and not some of the newer harder material but they are still pretty detailed.

  • Yeah, I think it’s had tough press. The designers were going after more of a Heroquest kind of game, and I think they managed to do that and yet make it much more interesting, plus with the variety of a scenario system of sorts.

    I’ll get it and the expansion to the table soon and see how the latter improves things.

  • CK Lai says:

    From all accounts, the expansion added the depth some of the earlier naysayers were looking for. Haven’t played it myself since there’s a fair bit of gameplay in the base game alone.

    @ Razide : yup. Bendy plastic. A few of my minis had horrendous flash, while others were perfectly flash-free. And bendy. But I’m still pleased with them.

  • razide says:

    CK Lai – all of mine were flash free but a few are at permanently bent angles on their stands.

    I have a vague recollection the original publishers (and later FantasyFlightGames) did a couple of free print & play expansions before King of Ashes came out. King of Ashes, I think incorporated more polished versions of some of these rules.
    Some were weapons or items you purchased on-lay-buy and were deducted from your loot at the end of the game while others involved some secret basements in particular rooms.

    There are some pictures and links on BoardGameGeek under expansions.
    https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/69120/cadwallon-city-thieves

    Cadwallon: City of Thieves – A Gamble in the Dark (Scriptorium & Gambling Den)
    (https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/city-of-thieves/support/gambling-den-dlc.pdf)

    Cadwallon: City of Thieves – Cry Havoc! (advanced rules for hitting and stunning, more equipment)
    Cadwallon: City of Thieves – Magic (magic rules)
    Cadwallon: City of Thieves – Run for Your Life! (secret chamber, fire and rubble tokens)
    Cadwallon: City of Thieves – The Duke of Cadwallon (card for the Duke)
    Cadwallon: City of Thieves – The Inn – (equipment cards)

  • CK Lai says:

    @ Razide: Yeah, mine came in bent as well. Did you try the hot water/ice water trick on them? Worked like a charm on mine.

    Thanks for the links. I downloaded those files off FFG’s site but haven’t played them yet. Maybe I could use the game board and minis to do a Cadwallon RPG. I downloaded the rulebook off the web site of the company that owns the copyrights to Confrontation sometime ago. 😉

    • razide says:

      CK Lai – I did the hotwater/ice thing originally but two of them decided to remember their previous bent form after I’d painted them.

      I think I’ve also downloaded the Cadwallon RPG book files. The physical book looked absolutely sumptuous but but hard to justify if you didn’t play the RPG.

  • CK Lai says:

    @ Razide: Ouch. how rude of them 😉 But amazingly enough (but also depending on what paints you used) the painted minis will usually survive a repeat of the hot/ice water treatment… usually. (Based on what posters on other forums have told me, and my personal experience with some Tannhauser pre-paints).

  • razide says:

    Mainly GW paints.

    UH – Rackham’s Cry Havoc magazine eventually cost me a fortune in minis and games. It positively oozes style and design excellence. The Confrontation & Dogs of War rulebooks are probably the most delicious looking game manuals around and they have gorgeously painted miniatures in them too.

  • CK Lai says:

    @ Razide: then you could try the hot/ice treatment again (with the caveat that it USUALLY works with no harm done to the painted mini. Usually). 😀

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