Back in the year 2008, World of Warcraft put out its second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King. Independently, board game designer Matt Leacock designed Pandemic, a board game where the players team up to stop a global epidemic from wiping out humanity. Now, 13 years later, these two otherwise unrelated events have been married together to create a unique board game made in partnership between Blizzard Entertainment and Z-Man Games.
The World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King board game uses the Pandemic system, which originated with the eponymous game from last decade. This new spin on the original cooperative game sets the action in Icecrown Citadel, and puts the players in control of iconic heroes from the Alliance, the Horde, and the Argent Crusade, who must use their special powers to battle the Lich King and his Scourge minions.
The game set itself is well-crafted and evokes the nostalgia of first stepping into the frozen tundra of Northrend. In addition to familiar art, the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King board game features plastic miniatures of legendary Warcraft characters like Sylvanas Windrunner, Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, Muradin Bronzebeard, Varian Wrynn, Lady Liadrin, and Tirion Fordring, as well as the Lich King and several of his minions, like ghouls and abominations.
The Pandemic board game system has seen a lot of evolution, especially over the past five years, but they revolve around a similar mechanic; a slow, inexorable threat that must be confronted together as a team. What began as a game of medical professionals battling against disease and epidemic has seen itself evolve, with expansions and alternative settings that transplant the setting to different time periods and battle different threats.
With one pitting the players against rising tides threatening to reclaim the land, another against the decline of Rome, and yet another against Lovecraftian cosmic horror and the erosion of sanity, the system's setting and focus are extremely malleable, allowing creative adaptation of the ruleset. The deadly threat of the Lich King was a natural fit for the framework.
Fans of World of Warcraft are buzzing with the release of the Wrath of the Lich King board game, wondering if this could mean an announcement for the third expansion's addition to World of Warcraft's Classic servers, which originally launched just over two years ago. Though Burning Crusade Classic released just this year, many fans of the nostalgic experience are hoping that they will not have to wait another two years to experience Wrath of the Lich King. Until then, they will have to pick up the game from Z-Man Games and recreate their own adventures.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - A Pandemic System Board Game is available through the Z-Man Games webside, and World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available on PC.
Source: Wowhead