I saw a prototype of Defense Grid: The Board Game at PAX South and while I didn’t get a chance to play, I marveled at its intricate recreation of the tower defense video game series. The upcoming board game is nearing the tail end of a successful Kickstarter campaign. It’s currently sitting at over $75k of $30k funding, which means it’s definitely happening.
Defense Gird: The Board Game is a 1-4 player cooperative game. Players take on the role of the defensive AIs against a horde of alien attackers. You can play 10 campaign missions that get progressively more complex, and award medals you can use to level up your AI between each mission. The board is made up of modular map tiles to create different maps as the aliens try to make their way to your core. Each mission is a lengthy game that takes over an hour to play.
Securing a copy of Defense Grid: The Board Game will set you back a whopping $80. That’s expensive, even for a big board game. However you get a large collection of neat minis: towers and aliens. The minis look fantastic and include a neat pillar system that let you track shot, hit points, and cores right on each figure.
Since the game uses a buildable map, the publishers have promised to provide 24 bonus missions as free post-launch downloadable content. They plan on releasing one free mission each month after launch. That’s an impressive two year commitment.
Defense Grid: The Board Game will become available to the general public upon its release. The Kickstarter represents the first wave, and is currently scheduled for an October 2017 delivery.
