Disney Villainous – Introduction to Evil

Welcome one and all, today I will be giving you (pause for dramatic effect) an Introduction to Evil! Mwhahahaha. Wait, it’s a board game? We’re not taking over the world? Ugh, fine, I’ll do this instead. Welcome to Introduction to Evil, the latest box in the Disney Villainous series of board games. Except not really because it’s more like a new intro box. But we’ll get to that, for now let’s dive into what Disney Villainous actually is and if it’s worth playing.

What is Disney Villainous?

Disney Villainous is a game where, you guessed it, you play as the villains! While in recent years Disney has got in the habit of redeeming its villains, this isn’t just those. It’s all of them, even the very worst. I mean, is there any redeeming Scar for what he did? Anyway, so you play as the villains and you are trying to help them achieve their evil goals. Meanwhile your opponents are trying to achieve their goals before you and sending the heroes of your story to slow you down.

Each villain has a villain deck to help them out, plus various spaces they can move to on their board. The actions available on these spaces will vary depending on the villain being used (but will usually come from a general pool), and each villain’s board layout is entirely unique. One of the actions you can land on and use is fate, this lets you pull cards from your opponent’s other deck, the fate deck. This contains heroes that can cover up parts of the opponent’s board, plus other cards to slow them down and frustrate them. But be careful, they can also do this to you. You can use allies from your villain deck to defeat heroes by using a vanquish action.

And that’s essentially it. It’s simple but also takes a fair amount of thought. Do you try to rush your objective and win before your opponent can achieve theirs? Or do you try and prepare for those heroes that are coming your way so you don’t get overwhelmed? But then you have to make sure you’re fating your opponents as well so they don’t win too quickly. There are several different ways to go about it, and since every hero is unique in their objective and board layout, they will all play differently. I personally usually only play 2-3 games with a villain before switching out to a different one, even if I’m not as good with that one. Keeps things interesting.

Who is Introducing us to Evil?

The villains in Introduction to Evil are Maleficent, Captain Hook, Ursula and Prince John. A good selection I feel, although we are missing Queen of Hearts and Jafar from the original set, and Jafar is a personal favourite. Still, for getting into the game this selection is pretty solid, there is a good balance of different goals so it gives you a sense of different play styles. Let’s take a look…

Maleficent – Wants to curse the entire realm. She has a special type of card called a Curse card and she has to get one in each location then she wins immediately. Sounds easy, but she also has to have an ally in a location to play a curse there and the curses have conditions in which they are removed from play. So it’s a balancing act.

Changes

Tweaked from her previous incarnation as there was no ally requirement, but you also only won at the start of the next turn, so your opponents have more chances to stop you. Balanced change I’d say.

Captain Hook – Wants to defeat Peter Pan of course. Quite straightforward, you need to bring Peter Pan out of the fate deck and into your realm, move him to the Jolly Roger and defeat him. Sounds easy, but unless your opponent is nice and plays him from a fate, you can only summon him using the Neverland Map, so you really need to focus on finding this card and having allies ready to defeat him.

Changes

Minor changes from previous incarnation. There is no longer a locked location in your realm to deal with first, but Pan also doesn’t automatically get played, so you have to draw him out. So pretty balanced.

Ursula – Wants to rule. All she has to do is get the Trident and the Crown into her Lair. That’s it. But first you have to find them, then play them to the locations they specify, then move them. It could be easy…if your opponent doesn’t frustrate you too much with heroes. So you best be prepared to deal with those as well.

Changes

Very different to her previous incarnation. You are now moving the Trident and Crown a lot more but don’t have to defeat King Triton. Plus the board and various card abilities have been rearranged and the lock on The Palace removed (Seems to be a running theme, just making things a bit simpler not having to go through that unlocking step). I think it works much better for an introduction set however, more straightforward.

Prince John – Wants money/power, obviously. Most villains use the power they collect to further their goals. For Prince John, power IS the goal. He has to gain 20 power to win instantly. That said, he must also lock up that pesky Robin Hood too, who can be slippery and has some annoying friends. Quite different to play and someone your opponents have to be careful with, as he has plenty of cards to gain power quickly and surprise you with a win.

Changes

Both easier and harder than his previous incarnation. Power requirement is the same but he now wins instantly rather than at the start of the next turn (another change which seems to be a general theme, perhaps because having ‘won’ and then being denied before your turn feels bad). However, now also having to lock up Robin Hood means you can’t ignore the heroes as much.

Other changes

There have been a few general box/rules/design improvements in Introduction to Evil compared to the original. The rules are written better and easier to understand, featuring a common FAQ that answered a few questions I always had. The fate decks are slightly coloured to their faction now, which is small, but a nice change. And last but not least, the link to learning the game through a video rather than reading the rules is now a QR code instead of a load URL. This is much appreciated as nobody likes having to type out really long URLs.

Rules wise the only other changes to mention are:

● Villains now start on their portraits not on the left most location (honestly we played it this new way anyway, just made sense).

● Each player starts with 2 power, rather than the player going second getting 1 and the player going first getting nothing.

● There is no fate token. Which was previously only used in games with more players to stop one person being spammed fate at. Not sure how this will play out but since I play exclusively 2 player I’ll never know!

Generally there is nothing major here, just some tweaks to keep things even and make balancing easier for them when creating expansions going forwards I think.

Conclusion

Introduction to Evil is a really good place to start if you are new to the world of Disney Villainous. It’s a reasonable price and has a balanced array of well known characters that you will have fun playing. Because each player is essentially playing their own game while slowing down the opponent, it doesn’t feel so bad when you lose, you can just try again with a new strategy, or switch things up for a different villain that fits better for you. The only reason to buy the original is for Jafar and Queen of Hearts, which aren’t available elsewhere currently (but likely will be eventually). But that’s roughly £10 more for 2 villains and less balanced villains overall. I would recommend going for Introduction to Evil and keeping an eye out for them being re-released in the future. If you already own the original box however, this isn’t really a necessary purchase for you unless you really like these 4 villains and prefer how they’ve been updated. I hope I have been of some help and I hope you enjoy playing Villainous!