Doom: The Board Game

DOOM!!!! It’s such a cool word, and of course one of the most iconic first person shooters in video game history. No discernible plot worth mentioning, just you, a ton of cool guns and the demons of Hell rushing at you for you to obliterate into as many chunky pieces as possible.

It’s the very definition of mindless fun and the reboot in 2016 on the PC, which I’ve just actually completed last night – again, is mindless, adrenaline filled, fun, though you have to get used to listening to heavy metal music! Although here’s a tip, play on the hardest difficulty you can when you first load it up, it doesn’t lend itself well to repeat plays.

Fantasy Flight Games released a tabletop version of the franchise a long time ago, but I never really saw much of it and I don’t recall a lot of buzz either. Now they’ve rebooted (the word of the year it seems) it for a new board game release, very much in the same vein as every other one vs all style tactical miniatures game out there.

Personally I’m starting to get a little bored of these springing up everywhere, but it certainly looks like they are being faithful to the franchise from the cover alone. . . . . . which you have to admit looks AMAZING!! Does the rest of the game follow suit?

Hell Never Looked So Good!

Oh my word, did it ever look this good! DOOM carries a hefty price tag, but you are getting quality for your purchase. The map tiles are reminiscent of what you get in Imperial Assault, solid, chunky, fully detailed and double sided. All the cards are littered with stills as opposed to artwork, but they’re all gorgeously rendered straight out of the 2016 PC game. And the miniatures, ooooooooooh those miniatures. If you like painting, you’re in for a treat as these are some of the best miniatures I’ve seen FFG put out. Great detail, large and exactly how they appear in the PC game.

The Cyberdemon is a three-part, easy to assemble behemoth of a model that is reason enough alone to want to play the Invaders, hell even purchase the game to begin with! Shame he’s so easy to kill in the actual video game. . . .

Everything within the box is designed with the intellectual property at the forefront. The attention to detail to represent the theme is at a level that would give Gale Force Nine games a run for their money. Certainly so far by looks alone, it is a straight up port from PC to tabletop. Everything from the iconic Cacodemons to the BFG (Big <Censored> Gun) can be found here and we’re only getting started. In fact the only thing we’re missing is a Spider Mastermind model . . . . .wink wink FFG.

Playing Doom

You’re probably already familiar with how most of DOOM will operate. You point your gun at an enemy, check if you have line of sight and roll for damage dealt. That’s the same here, but DOOM does offer a couple of twists compared to other games.

Each Marine player will have a deck of cards based on what weapons they are carrying plus some standard ones. If they pick up extra weapons along the way, they will add several more cards from that weapon set to their deck. This has the effect of adding more options, but also diluting the various maneuvers you can perform. Want to focus on a particular tactic? Simply toss away a gun and the respective cards. It’s a very cool system of flexibility that mimics the Invaders own deck of cards that they use based on the scenario. You don’t get very many in each set however so expect a lot of repetition.

There’s a varied system of customisation pre-match. You can use the basic setups in the book, but eventually, you’ll want to tap into the rules for choosing your own load outs. There are some suggested setups based on combat styles with squad names and designated roles, which are really cool and diverse. On top of this, before the match the Marines will select from a deck of “skills” which grant them a unique special ability. For example, a Medic will be able to heal, a Ranger will have boosted movement.

The Invader in contrast doesn’t have as much variety. They can customise their deck of nasty effects, but each monster group has only one card associated with them and most have limited abilities. You’ll quickly flood the map with a lot of models though.

Nightmare mode But For Which Side?

A problem with skirmish miniature games is how long they run for. Many of them carry a two-hour time limit not including setup and take down. DOOM is unfortunately no exception. You can’t jump in for a quick bash, however as much as it’s a bugbear for me, most of you know what you’re getting into already.

DOOM aims to scale the difficulty when you have less than four Marine players, but the results are very hit and miss. I’ve had to pool together experiences from other players here with my own, but it seems to be a consensus that the perfect balance is with a full player count. Each Marine gets one action, does his thing and that’s it. No extra buffs to hit points or double actions etc. Three Marines seems to be reasonable also though a little tougher on the Marines so far.

But when you get to two Marines or even a solo experience, it’s like you’re playing the original DOOM PC game from the previous century on the easiest difficulty. The Invader just seems to have such a hard time when the Marines are buffed up so much that they can literally take down Barons of Hell in one round without any retaliation or several Imps in a Glory Kill frenzy.

The missions get tougher as you go, but even then I’m not as keen to play DOOM without at least three Marines present. This has an effect on the campaign mode as it’s the first to four victories out of six missions but the first mission feels like an auto-win for the Marines and even the second isn’t that hard so the Invader is on the back foot always. I prefer to choose one of the later missions and make it a one-night bloodbath.

Final Thoughts On Doom

If you’re looking for a direct tabletop version of the PC game, then look no further because this represents the theme to such a strong level it’s unreal. Everything looks gorgeous and justifies the price tag with a decent amount of replay ability in the box to cover the scenarios presented and allow for custom maps in the future. Customising your weapon, load outs and special skills in preparation can lead to many different play styles and just adds to the replay value.

It’s not without its flaws however. Firstly games will run long as do all skirmish miniature games. You’re looking at two hours for most games at least with all the tactical decision making, probably longer and so if you want a quick skirmish, you won’t get that here. The biggest problem is difficulty balance though. With only one or two Marine players, the Invader will just get obliterated especially in early missions. With three, it’s a bit more balanced, but your perfect amount is four and that means you’re in for a long night!

DOOM therefore annoyingly requires a specific setup to really shine, but when you have it as well as the spare time, it’s one of the better multiplayer skirmish miniature games on the market. If you’ll now excuse me, I’m off on my holidays to my timeshare in Hell……. (cocks assault rifle). . . . . .

Editors note: This blog was originally published on 22/06/2017. Updated on June 30th, 2021 to improve the information available.