Ages 13 and up

Players 2

Playing Time 30 minutes

Dreamblade is a collectible miniatures game from Wizards of the Coast. Dreamblade is played with two people who take turns moving their miniatures around the Dreamscape map, attacking and shifting their minis to position themselves to have more scoring points than their opponent after the end of the round. At the end of the round, the one with the most scoring points wins the round. The first person to win six rounds wins the game.

Each player creates their warband, which can consist of a maximum of 16 miniatures. Players can use up to three of the same Dreamblade miniature in a warband. Players roll a six sided dice for initiative at the beginning of each round. Add the points on both dice and that total becomes the spawn points for each player. You use spawn points to pay the spawn cost to bring miniatures from reserve to the Dreamscape. The first round you spawn in your portal. The next round you can spawn anywhere on the back row as long as you control a miniature in the row.

Players have two actions to take each round: move or attack. If you move, you can move any un-engaged ally one cell. You can move more than one miniature during your move turn. The same is true for if you decide to attack. You can attack in one cell with your creatures, then move to another cell and attack again. It's all considered the same round.

The Dreamscape map has a beginner's play side that explains the game in case new players get lost while playing. Scoring cells are marked and to earn the points of the cell, you have to be in the cell uncontested. So, if you have a miniature in the cell and so does your opponent, then you do not earn the scoring points. You also earn one point for each creature killed during the round. If you have a creature killed during a round, you get two bonus spawn points during the next spawn phase. Once both players have taken their turns, count up the points to see who won the round. Mark the victory on the Dreamscape map. Then it's time to roll for initiative again and start a new round.

Dreamblade features flexible game play since you can put up to 16 miniatures into your warband. There is no worrying about spending points to bring in creatures. Your only stipulation is that you can't have more than 3 of any miniature in your warband. Movement in Dreamblade is easy to calculate since the Dreamscape is made up of a 5 x 5 grid. Some miniature games have strict rules about movement. In Dreamblade, the movement is easier to do since you move by the cell. You can't move diagonally, and you can't move a figure if there is an enemy in the cell with you. You can move into an occupied cell.

Certain Dreamblade figures have blade abilities. When rolling the custom attack dice, the blade ability can be activated if a blade is rolled. Some blades add to your attack damage while some blade abilities are good for defense by moving an ally one cell.

Dreamblade is a lot of fun and doesn't take too long to catch on to how to play. A starter box of Dreamblade comes with everything a player needs to get started playing.

Dreamblade has been discontinued by Wizards of the Coast. No new figures are being produced but can still be found at some gaming shops and online.

I bought Dreamblade for my own personal collection.