Don't want to leave the world of Azeroth even when the servers are down or you're having connection issues? Want to take the quests of World of Warcraft with you for a quiet cabin retreat with some friends?
Blizzard has you covered with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - A Pandemic System Board Game, with pre-orders now open.
Adapted from z-Man Games' popular Pandemic ruleset - but tweaked extensively - Wrath of the Lich King takes the best one of the most popular expansion packs for Blizzard's seminal MMORPG and reworks it for the tabletop. Quests, artefacts and plenty of gameplay adjustments to make it truly feel like a Warcraft experience have gone into the game.
Instead of being set in the broader, full map of Azeroth, the Wrath of the Lich King board game restricts itself to the new continent introduced in the expansion, Northrend. As opposed to creating your own character or playing as generic adventurers, players take on the mantle of major players in the storyline like Thrall, Varian Wrynn, and Sylvanas Windrunner, all of whom come with intricate miniatures to move around on the huge board depicting a complete map of Northrend.
We also get a cute little paper model of Icecrown Citadel as the centerpiece of the board, which doubles as a little pedestal for your character miniatures to stand on when you confront the Lich King himself. How this will work with the actual game mechanics remains to be seen.
Distributed by both Z-Man Games and Blizzard, the game costs $59.99 with pre-orders open. It's expected to ship by November 30th this year, making it the perfect gift for the Warcraft fan in your family this holiday season.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - A Pandemic System Board Game officially supports 1-5 (how does 1 person play...?) players with an estimated play time of 45-60 minutes, so it isn't a particularly long haul - maybe you'll even get your family members who don't care about Warcraft to stick around for a full campaign.
The announcement of this board game comes during a turbulent time for Blizzard as its parent company is embroiled in a sexual harassment lawsuit that's currently affecting the development of World of Warcraft.
