Hello, Chaz Marler from Pair Of Dice Paradise, and we’re counting down my Official Top (And Bottom) Three Games of 2014. These are the standouts that I played this year for the first time. In this installment, I divulge disappointing game number two: Blue Moon Legends.

In Blue Moon Legends, players harness the awesome power of the sun and the soil to battle each other for control of four dragons. This is done by selecting combattants and supporting them best you can, while your opponent does the same. Each battle will be determined by how well you wield the current active power source, with the victor clawing their way one step closer to the total allegiance of the dragon horde.

Sounds cool, eh? And it is. In fact, Blue Moon Legends is not a bad game. I still own it, and I look forward to playing it again. Wait, that sounds like good news. We’re doing the disappointing list today, right? Okay then, Mister video board game man, you may ask, what made Blue Moon Legends a disappointment?

The main thing that disappointed me about Blue Moon Legends was that I went in expecting a different experience. And that’s totally on me, I should have done more research into it beforehand. See, from the descriptions I heard, the gameplay sounded a lot more tactical. But, it turns out that it’s basically an elaborate version of the card game War. Albeit, a fancy prancy souped up version of War, but War is really the cake that’s under all this frosting. I was expecting a game that was more scenario-driven, with heroes you could equip, level up and grow attached to, like Magic: The Gathering meets capture the flag.

The other source of disappointment, and this may be nitpicking here, is that while the game comes with three beautifully sculpted dragon figures, the goal of the game is to lure FOUR dragons to your side. But there’s only three provided. During the course of the game, you collect these dragons on your side of the board, in a tug-of-war struggle, and win the instant that you would collect the fourth one. So, yes, technically, you don’t NEED a fourth plastic dragon, because the game ends immediately when it would join your ranks, so there’s no reason for you to harbor it on your side of the board for just a microsecond before the game ends. I’m not crazy, I realize this.

And, I understand that excluding this fourth apocryphal plastic component probably saved tens of thousands of dollars on production and shipping over the product’s lifetime, but... c’mon, when I finally successfully win the allegiance of this fourth dragon that I’ve worked so hard to lure over to my side, and have done so only after repeatedly correcting my opponent that, no you don’t win after placing the THIRD dragon on your side of the board, there is, in fact an imaginary fourth one we’re fighting for as well, and, no, I am not just making rules up as we go in order to keep you from winning, and then, there’s nothing for me to physically grab and place on my side of the board triumphantly when I finally achieve victory?!?

Well, it’s just a little disappointing, that’s all.