Ye who enter, abandon all hope.
Continuing the recent tabletop miniatures theme, Hell Dorado is the latest addition to the Esoteric Order of Gamers game library.
I’ve had my eye on Hell Dorado for quite some time, and those stunning miniatures have often beckoned. I also love the background concept: 16th century empires squabbling with demon hordes, and each other, for territory in the subterranean regions of Hell. I managed to put aside temptation for quite some time, and it did seem the game was fading away after it was dropped by Asmodee, but Cipher Studios picked up the licence and when I saw the rulebook was on special recently I grabbed a copy.
Since then I’ve been slowly amassing and painting two small companies—Demons and Immortals—but have yet to actually get them to the table. The miniatures are imaginative, still made of metal, often frustrating to assemble—some modelling experience is required—and the results somewhat fragile for tabletop gaming, but they are beautiful when painted up.
Like any tabletop miniatures game there are a ton of special abilities in the rulebook, so this rules summary and set of reference sheets should make life easier for players of the game. Unfortunately the unit cards that come with the figures are some of the most atrociously designed, unreadable messes I’ve ever seen, so I’ve already started to redesign them for the models I have—though I must forstall requests and say that I have no plans to take on the huge task of redesigning them all and making them available for download.
Whether I continue with Hell Dorado will depend on those first games and how well the system works in practice, but in the meantime, I’m enjoying painting its gorgeous, often weird miniatures.