Disney’s Villainous – How to Play

The translation of brands into board games doesn’t always work as well as you might like, but when brands create their own games, the results are sometimes fantastic, if the right designer is brought in. Enter Villainous, a Disney villain inspired board game that has you rooting for the bad guys, instead of trying to take them down! In this article, we will examine the ins and outs of Villainous. Let’s find out how to play!

Setup

Once you’ve removed all the contents from the box – whether playing with the base game, or the expansion (which doubles as a smaller base game) – each player should select a Disney villain and collect the associated villain board, info booklet, and 2 decks of cards: the regular deck, and the Fate deck. Each player should also select the associated player piece and a turn reference card.

Lay the board in-front of you, and place your Villain on the left-most space. If the right-most space on the board has a small lock icon in the bottom corner, collect a lock piece from the box and place it over that space. NOTE that not all boards will have a lock symbol.

Shuffle both the villains deck and the Fate deck, placing the villain deck to the left of your board, and the Fate deck to the right. Then pick up 4 villain cards that will make up your starting hand. Put the cauldron – if playing the base game – in the middle of the table, and fill it with the Power tokens. If you are using the smaller set of Villainous, just place the Power tokens in the center of the table.

After deciding who will go first, each player in a clockwise motion, will select one more power than the player to their right. You are now ready to play the game!

Objective

Each villain in Villainous will have their own objective to complete, and once that objective has been completed, that player wins the game. No two villains will have the same win conditions, so being aware of what everyone else is attempting to do will go a long way to insure you have a chance at victory.

How to Play

Each player will have a set number of actions they can complete on their turn, and we will explain some of the games finer points as we walk through these actions. Let’s begin!

Move Your Villain

Your villain can move to any unlocked location on your board, but CANNOT stay in the location they are currently in.

Perform Actions

Each location will have a number of actions a player can perform, and as long as none of these actions are covered, they can all be completed, in any order the player wishes. Your reference card will provide you details on what each symbol means. There are 8 things total:

1. Gain Power – take Power tokens from the middle of the table equal to the number in the symbol.
2. Play a card from your hand – cards in your hand will have a cost associated with them, and these costs will be paid with Power tokens. An Item Card or an Ally Card can be played in ANY location on your board. There are 5 types of cards:
   1. Ally – these cards will help defend your realm when heroes come to visit. Heroes will be played by others when they Fate you, and come from your own Fate deck. When a hero is placed on your board by an opponent, it will cover a number of symbols on the top of a specific location. Allies are required to defeat heroes, reopening actions for players in the future. Allies can only be used on the location they are played, unless the card indicates otherwise. If an Ally is used to defeat a hero, it is removed from the board and discarded.
   2. Hero – hero cards appear in the Fate deck, and will be played by your opponents to your board. Hero cards will block certain actions from being available.
   3. Item – items can be placed in any location on your board when purchased, unless it has to be tied to an ally card. Items in the Fate deck always attach to heroes. If there are no heroes, the item cannot be used.
   4. Effect – these cards are in both decks, and will provide immediate results.
   5. Condition – these cards are played during opponents turns, to benefit yourself. When the condition is met, play the card and immediately perform the action.
3. Activate – chose an item or ally from your board with an activation symbol, pay the associated cost, and perform the ability.
4. Fate – choose an opponent and reveal the top two cards from their Fate deck. Choose one of those cards, and play it to their board, if possible.
5. Move an Item or Ally – choose an item or ally on your board and move it one space to the right or left. You cannot move anything out of a locked space, and items attached to an ally or hero must move along with and cannot be moved independently.
6. Move a Hero – move a hero one space to the left or right.
7. Vanquish – defeat a hero at a location. The allies used to defeat a hero are discarded. An allies strength must be equal to, or higher than, the heroes strength (as indicated in the bottom left of the card).
8. Discard Cards – you may discard as many cards as you wish; you do not redraw cards until the end of your turn.

Draw Cards

When you have finished performing all your actions, draw back up to 4 cards. If your villains deck is empty, reshuffle the discard pile.

This is how you play Disney’s Villainous. Thanks to Ravensburger, we will be reviewing this title soon, so stay tuned to GamesReviews!