Maul Peak Impressions

Two player games are pretty hard to come by, so when they drop on my doorstep I always hope it will be a lot of fun. While I definitely had fun with Maul Peak, there are just a few things I wasn’t loving about the experience. Still, with easy to understand rules and a bit of variety in the Guardians you can play as, and I think this is still one of the better two player games in recent memory!

In Maul Peak, players will play either the Hero or the Guardian. Using a deck of cards, both players will move their pawns around the main board – or the guardian board for the Hero – and attempt to deal damage and complete objectives. The Hero player wins if they wound the Guardian, and the Guardian player wins if they either defeat all the heroes OR fulfil their win condition.

The Guardian is limited to one character that moves around the central board, while the Hero player – the GIzzards – can bring in multiple different heroes with different abilities. These can be brought into play as a free action by spending the appropriate number of rage cubes. When you bring these heroes into play and how you use them is VERY important. Poor management will lead to the end of the game, quickly.

Most cards give players two options. For the Hero player, this could be moving their heroes, leaping / climbing up the Guardian board, attacking with Melee, using Magic, and a few other options. Likewise, the Guardian player can use cards to move, use abilities, and more.

The abilities of the Guardian are printed on the Guardian board, and if the Hero player is able to wound the Guardian sufficiently in specific areas, it can stop the Guardian player from using those abilities. This is really important, as being specific with your attacks on the Guardian is key to stopping him from doing certain things. Each location on the GUardian corresponds to one ability, and will have a number of health. Take that health down to 0 and that ability cannot be used until the Guardian removes a wound from that spot.

I said off the top that there were things about Maul Peak I didn’t like, and that simply comes down to the cards you draft. To be frank, this is a common issue in any game that uses a set number of cards per turn. When playing one of the easier scenarios, my father-in-law consistently pulled hands of cards that just worked REALLY well together, and the 40 minute suggested time on the box translated to less than 25 minutes on the table. The game was over so fast, and I wasn’t even sure what I did wrong as the Hero.

That being said, it does feel like that is an exception rather than the rule. In other games played, the experience has been a lot more balanced, and I enjoyed my experience more than I thought I would. I can’t wait to play more of the guardians and revisit these initial thoughts, but if you are looking for a fun and engaging two player game, this is worth checking out!