I finished Dawn of Peacemakers and here are my thoughts! – Review

dawn of peacemakers feature 2

Disclaimer: Dawn of Peacemakers was provided for free by Snowdale Design, although the writing and opinions of this article are my own.

If you’re looking for a full review of Dawn of Peacemakers, then you may be in the wrong place. This is a sister article to the original review. This article started there with a comment:

Great review, and I do look forward to seeing how you feel about it at the end as well.


whovian223

Now after four months, I’ve finally completed Dawn of the Peacemakers and can tell you definitively what I think. Before you continue, know that while I’ll make this post as spoiler free as possible, I will give away some mechanics.

Sorry!

The Macaws are out in force, it shows the Macaw warriors, leaders, and sprinters.
My feathered friends and I are just about to drop a new EP.

Dawn of Peacemakers writing stays strong throughout

Throughout the campaign, the strongest of part of Dawn of Peacemakers continued to be the story. It has its high and low points, but it managed to balance on the intricate line between the series nature of war, and the frivolous world of animals that is Daimyria.

This story is both well-written and sucks you into the world like a whirlpool of wondrous adjectives and delicious exposition. It took me on a journey, and by the end, I was making in-game decisions based on emotions brought forth by the overarching story.

The biggest change from a gameplay standpoint was the introduction of leader characters. These characters were used as focal points for change in each scenario. As they’d every leader had a unique ruleset.

This, to me, was an inelegant method of bringing in new mechanics, and often they felt bolted on like a pair of antlers on a car. Also, when some scenarios had three to five leaders on the board, there was just too much introduced and trying to remember all the effects in play was stressful and ineffectual.

However, the more interesting change found throughout the campaign is the Agendas. Where in each scenario every player is given a personal objective, on top of the scenario objective. Now, for players to win they had to complete both.

I adored the tension and distrust this mechanic brought. It puts you in a position where you can never tell what someone is up to. These agendas ramp up in the later stages of the campaign as traitor cards are introduced.

Fortunately, if backstabbing your friends isn’t your bag – Dawn of Peacemakers also allows the team to play with cooperative Agenda cards.

The Macaws are out in force, it shows the Macaw warriors, leaders, and sprinters. Along with a hero figurine from Dawn of Peacemakers.
Take no prisoners!

The good, the bad, and the weird

By the end of the campaign, I was tired of both the setup time and the bookkeeping between rounds. While the inactive playstyle of watching two warring sides makes for an interesting experience, the novelty of it runs dry towards the back half of the scenarios.

The sole reason it took me four months to finish Dawn of Peacemakers is the setup time. It’s a chore. And I ended up dreading it every time I wanted to play. I started actively refusing to take it over to my friend’s house because if I couldn’t pre-game the setup. We’d spend too long setting it up, that it would affect the time we got to play.

Which is an absolute shame. As when the game got going I enjoyed it a lot.

This leaves me in the same weird position I was last time I reviewed Dawn of the Peacemakers. The game gets so much right, and so much wrong. But if you’re able to work your way around wrongs, you’ll find a gem of a game.

The biggest takeaway for me is having seen the writing produced in this game. There is so much potential, and hype, for Sami Laakso’s next story-driven game: Lands of Galzyr.

Designer: Sami Laakso

Publisher: Snowdale Design

See how Dawn of Peacemakers compares to all of the other board games I’ve reviewed.

In the distance the Macaws are fighting the Bear army. The camera is focuses on two Ocelots on a stealth mission.
Ambush in progress.

4 thoughts on “I finished Dawn of Peacemakers and here are my thoughts! – Review

  1. Dale of Merchants is one of my all-time favourites, and couldn’t put my finger on why i wasn’t pulling Dawn of Peacemakers off the shelf. Your follow up review really clarified it for me: in my (so far) one play, i enjoyed myself so much but indeed the set up (and tear down) was much too long.

    Now that i know that though, i guess i can stick to solo play or make sure i get to set up before everyone else shows up. Or maybe i could pull DOM Collection off the shelf instead, like i usually do.

    1. Glad to be of service. I definitely think it’s worth playing it through solo if you already got it.

      I’m still waiting on my Dale of merchants collection to arrive. How are you enjoying it so far?

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