Crusaders Games

Campaign Stories

Co-operative campaign games are similar to fantasy dungeon crawlers and adventure games but are specifically designed for playing as a long linked story from a book or cards over multiple connected sessions where you save your game, and where game mechanics move away from a pure dungeon exploration focus. I try not to keep too many of these as they hog a lot of storage space :

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1. Oathsworn (2022) – Shadowborne

A co-operative campaign game which follows the free company as they seek to defend humanity from the horrors of the deepwood. The game mixes storyline paths and city interactions, interweaving with boss fight encounters on a large map. It is predominately a card based game, with the usual mix of weapons, equipment and abilities, however combat resolution is offered with both cards and dice options. The miniatures here are fantastic, huge creatures will be encountered, each with their unique intelligence to overcome and multiple body areas to attack, and its table presence is amazing. While you need to have four heroes playing, each character comes with a simplified version to make it easier to play with less people. Everything within this game is really well thought out and the atmosphere, writing and sculpts are some of the best around any games. My more detailed overview > Oathsworn
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2. Gloomhaven (2017) / Jaws of the Lion (2020) / Frosthaven (2023) – Cephalofair

A co-operative tactical campaign adventure with a dungeon setting and branching storyline pathways. This is a legacy game and more of a series of strategy combat challenges than a roaming dungeon crawl, and is less miniature dependent, as enemies are all standee represented. It’s greatest strength is driven by the card hand management combat system, where your deck has a limited lifespan each game, making your decisions throughout meaningful and often tense towards the end of a scenario. This is an ideal campaign for players liking a deeper and longer term co-operative challenge, and is the best larger group game that i have played. Jaws of the Lion is a smaller box game version, with an improved set up time, a better story and a book of scenario maps rather than separate tiles. My more detailed overviews > Jaws of the Lion / Frosthaven
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3. 7th Continent (2017) / 7th Citadel (2024) – Serious Poulp

A solo or co-operative game where you investigate a strange island to solve a series of curses. This exploration game works by revealing a landscape map of cards as you move around the land, uncovering new areas, learning skills and crafting tools to help you. You will constantly be faced with decisions, which actions to take or objects to keep or use, and the game builds a storyline, with some of your decisions becoming permanent game changes. Your life energy is a deck of action cards, which you deplete as you explore, making every decision vitally important. This game contains many neat touches, from amusing you to making you sigh with desperation, and you will always be second guessing your decisions. This is a clever and unique story exploration gaming experience which works best solo or with two players, and was improved for the later Citadel release. My more detailed overview > 7th Continent
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4. Machina Arcana (2019) – Adreama

A solo or co-operative Lovecraft themed horror tactical adventure, which evolves over a number of story chapters progressing during the game. Set in a steampunk world, with themed equipment and upgrades, explorers will be navigating underground complexes, fighting off spawning creatures and learning the secrets behind each mission. It is very story driven, and there is a lot of tactical interaction within the map tiles which enable you to trigger traps, explode barrels, use workbenches and initiate events, which is all really fun, and it also self balances for the number of explorers. The 2nd and 3rd editions improved the rules and production of the dashboards, and all the artwork and components are excellent, making it an even more engaging horror experience. My more detailed overview > Machina Arcana
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5. Tainted Grail (2019) – Awaken Realms

This is a solo or cooperative story adventure experience, where you will play as a flawed hero in a dying land which is sinking into wyrdness. Guardian menhirs are huge statues which have held back the destruction for many years, but they are failing, and as they are the only way to ensure safe travel throughout the realm you must keep them lit while you explore. The story game is built in chapters, each requiring you to complete one or more quests by uncovering remote locations, finding secret artefacts or learning hidden truths, there will be puzzles and branching paths, with difficult decisions to make, often with ongoing consequences within the game. The world is created by large beautifully illustrated map cards, and the general artwork and model component quality is really nice. My more detailed overview > Tainted Grail
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6. Trudvang Legends (2022) – Cmon

A solo or co-operative fantasy adventure with Nordic fantasy world theme. This game has a branching story where you interact with areas of a world map, encountering locations, characters and enemies. As your adventure progresses, you will sleeve new locations and effects into the main boards, which bring new interactions into play. Adventures are broken down into chapters, which are not too long, and you can follow a main story path or embark on side quests that you unlock. Your heroes each have their own combination of runes which are then drawn from a bag for combat or character tests, and these runes can be added to during each chapter. Alongside this you will update your feats or skills across the campaign. The game is a really easy to play adventure story and has proven itself to be engaging and popular, withlovely artwork and strong theme, blending with some nice miniatures to create a neat story gaming experience. My more detailed overview > Trudvang Legends

 
Previously Owned / Group Played Campaign Games … due to space and funding restrictions i regularly trade out games to fund and try newer ones, producing an ever changing favourites list, but one of these games may be right for you …

Sleeping Gods (2021)  campaign exploration adventure where your ship is lost in a strange world. One of the best implementations of a storyline adventure experience, and seemed better played with two players. Only sold once completed > Sleeping Gods

Middara (2019) – a huge anime based miniatures campaign adventure game, driven by a giant storybook, where you will undertake linked adventures which may result in slightly different story paths. Swingy combat and youthful writing somewhat let it down > Middara

Sine Tempore (2019) a miniatures based co-operative space campaign where a party of four heroes are scouting out planets in search of a new homeworld. A really nice game with three dimensional terrain and great models. Only sold once completed > Sine Tempore

Kingdom Death: Monster (2015) a miniatures heavy co-operative campaign set in a nightmare world where you take settlement survivors on a journey through many lantern years fighting strange creatures. Sold to invest elsewhere as the relative price v other campaigns is too high > Kingdom Death