Set A Watch Digital Board Game Review

The digital version of Set A Watch is fun and challenging. It has a nice interface, good tutorial and looks excellent. The app does all the booking keeping so you can concentrate on eliminating the horde and keeping the Unhallowed at bay.

Set A Watch Digital Rules Description:

In Set A Watch you play a party of four adventurers trying to stop evil acolytes from summoning the Unhallowed. To do this you must visit nine locations and defeat the minions there that are trying to break the seals that are containing their evil master.

To begin you select four of the six available adventurers to add to your party. There is a warrior, cleric, ranger, beast master, rogue and wizard. Each adventurer has unique abilities that pertain to their class. Some adventurers have ranged attacks that let them attack the first two minions in the line while melee attackers may only attack the first one.

Each location you visit will have its own unique effects. It will also determine the number of monsters you need to defeat there.

Next you roll three dice for each adventurer. Some classes roll d8s and others roll d6. These results determine the strength of your attacks and other actions.

Before facing off against the monsters you must select one adventurer to rest. They will spend dice to take actions in the camp, like chopping wood for the fire (which determines how many cards in the line of monsters are revealed). Other camp actions include healing someone, swapping their skills, choosing the next location card or scouting ahead to see and arrange the incoming horde. Each adventurer also has a unique camp ability they can utilize. Each adventurer may only rest twice per game. In camp the resting adventurer can also spend two matching dice to trigger runes. One rune lets you discard the top monster in the Horde from the game. Another lets you re-roll dice for adventurers that are on watch. And the third lets you put an Unhallowed card in the graveyard to the bottom of the Unhallowed deck.

The remainder of your party must fight. You spend dice to attack monsters and do damage equal to the die’s value. Dice may also be spent on your special abilities. As you kill a monster another is revealed. Some monsters have abilities that trigger based on their place in the line or when they are revealed. Once all monsters are defeated you end the watch phase and move to the next location. If you are unable to defeat all the monsters, any remaining in the line will attack you. Taking damage removes special abilities and once all three are removed that adventurer dies. These monsters also go in the Horde deck.

At the ninth location all adventurers go on watch. There is no camp phase. After creating the line of monsters any Horde cards are added to the end. To win you must have at least one adventurer alive and no monsters in the line.

Quick Review of Set A Watch Digital:

Set a Watch is a fun, tactical, puzzle. You need to manage your dice well and have some luck to win. I have never played the physical version of the game, but from what I have read and seen, this digital adaptation is a good translation of the board game. After playing the digital version I am happy it takes care of all the bookkeeping for you.

The app looks great and the controls are intuitive too. The tutorial does a great job helping you understand the rules and they are readily available to review from the main page.

Set a Watch is a tough game. You can set the difficulty and even on normal mode it is not easy. Each decision matters and you can feel the tension as you try to survive the night. The aesthetic and music add to the immersiveness of the game.

If you like the physical board game, you will like the digital adaptation. If you are looking for a fun, solo puzzler, pick this up.

Set a Watch Digital is available on iOS and Google Play