Elden Ring Board Game Review – A Deep, Challenging Adventure on the Table
Elden Ring Board Game offers deep exploration, tough combat, and stunning miniatures—a challenging adventure for board game fans.
Elden Ring is one of the most talked-about video games of the last decade. With its huge open world and challenging combat, it was only a matter of time before it became a board game. Steamforged Games, known for making board games like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter World, and Dark Souls, took on the challenge. Elden Ring Board Game After a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2022, the game is almost ready for supporters & is already available for preorder.
A campaign-style game is Elden Ring Board Game. This implies that as plot develops you and your buddies go through various scenarios, level up & get stronger. Steamforged created three campaigns – Realm of the Grafted King (the base game), The Weeping Peninsula, and Stormveil Castle (both standalone expansions). You can start with the base game or jump straight into the expansions. Characters and progress can carry over, giving you a sense of growth and continuity.
Each box offers different character classes. For example, Grafted King includes the Vagabond, Samurai, Astrologer, and Prophet. Weeping Peninsula adds the Hero, Prophet, Astrologer, and Bandit. Stormveil Castle features the Confessor, Prisoner, Samurai and Vagabond. You can choose who you want to play and build your team.
The game comes in large boxes packed with monster miniatures, hundreds of cards, tokens, map tiles and rulebooks. It feels huge and intimidating at first, especially with the detailed miniatures and high-quality components. The production value is excellent, making every piece look and feel premium.
The game offers a good variety of scenario types. Some are narrative scenarios, where you read story parts, make choices, and perform skill checks. While they are well-written, too much reading can slow the game down. If you prefer storytelling, this might appeal to you, but if you’re more into action, it might feel a bit slow.
My favorite part is the Exploration scenarios. These perfectly capture the excitement of discovering new areas, just like in the video game. You build the map tile by tile, uncovering enemies, items, Sites of Grace, or surprises. This random setup keeps the game fresh and highly replayable. It mixes combat, exploration, and story without feeling overwhelming.
Then, there are three combat-heavy scenarios – Gauntlet, Dungeon, and Boss fights. Gauntlets throw you into tough fights with many enemies. Dungeons are similar but end with a boss. Boss battles are the toughest, testing your skills and teamwork. Despite the challenge, combat is well-designed and enjoyable.
Fights happen on grids made of ring-bound map books. Some battles need multiple pages, creating large battlefields where positioning matters. Ranged attacks, spells, and melee all have specific areas of effect. Depending on your position, you can gain bonuses like extra damage or better defense. Planning your moves is important, but even the best plans can fail because enemies hit hard.
Enemies have simple action cards showing their moves, making turns easy to follow once you understand the symbols. Bosses are much harder, with their own action decks. Sometimes, they attack first, sometimes last. Either way, these fights are intense, but not unfair. Boss health adjusts based on the number of players, keeping battles balanced and fun.
Elden Ring: The Board Game is a huge, challenging, and beautifully made experience. It offers deep strategy, tough combat, and a real sense of adventure. Whether you’re a fan of the video game or just love big board games, this is worth checking out. Get ready to rise, Tarnished, and face the Lands Between once again – this time on your table.
Elden Ring Uses Cards, Not Dice, for Battles and Actions
One surprising part of Elden Ring: The Board Game is that it doesn’t use dice at all. Instead, the game runs on a card-based system. Players use cards based on their equipped weapons, skills, and gear. But the damage, defense, and special effects like Bleed are controlled by a separate Attribute deck. These Attribute cards show stats like Strength and Dexterity, and some decks work better with certain stats.
Like the video game, character upgrades are very important. You can level up your class, change weapons, armor, accessories, and Attribute cards, and boost your stats using Trait cards. All this is limited by your Rune count – which grows as you progress. Sadly, tracking your Runes is a bit messy. The game gives you small Rune cards, but they aren’t enough and make things cluttered. A simple tracker like the one used for health would’ve been better. Right now, the best option is writing your Runes on paper, which isn’t great. Hopefully, the makers or players will find a better way.
At first, my experience was frustrating – not because the game was bad, but because I started with the Stormveil Castle campaign. It’s made for players who have already completed earlier quests and have better gear. For beginners, it’s confusing and hard to set up. So, if you’re new, I strongly suggest starting with Realm of the Grafted King.
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Pros and Cons of Elden Ring Board Game
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
|---|---|
| 🌍 Big world to explore | 🧩 Setup feels heavy and complex |
| 🎨 Amazing miniatures and good quality pieces | 📖 Too much reading slows the game |
| 🃏 Uses cards, no dice needed | 📝 Tracking Runes is messy |
| 🗺️ Fun exploration with map tiles | 🚫 Hard for beginners if starting with expansions |
| 🎭 Different scenario types (story, fights, exploration) | 📚 Rules can be hard to learn at first |
| ⚔️ Battles are strategic and fair | 💥 Enemies hit hard, tough fights |
| 🛡️ Level up and customize your character | 🗃️ Too many cards create clutter |
| 🎮 Standalone campaigns available | 🤔 Some expansions are not beginner-friendly |
| 🔄 Good replay value | ✍️ No proper Rune tracker – paper feels clunky |
| 🎯 Feels like the video game | 💰 Expensive because of premium components |
Conclusion
Steamforged Games has turned one of the biggest video games into a board game, and it mostly works well. Elden Ring: The Board Game brings the thrill of exploration, tough battles, and character upgrades while keeping the challenge fans expect.
Despite some flaws, the detailed miniatures, strategic combat, and deep customization kept me hooked. Steamforged has a history of expanding their games, so more content may come.
If you love board games—especially Elden Ring—this is an easy recommendation. Just start with Realm of the Grafted King. Now, rise, Tarnished, and begin your journey!
