Kapow! Volume 1 Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review Kapow! Volume 1, a two player dueling game published by Wise Wizard Games. In Kapow! Volume 1, each player is trying to defeat the others by rolling dice and activating powers.

Kapow! Just say the name and you already know what type of game this is (thank you 60s era Batman tv show). Kapow! Volume 1 is a comic book themed battler that will have you facing off against your opponent in a dice-rolling dueling game (for the main way to play). Six supers—three heroes and three villains—will give you unique powers as you try and be the first to beat down your opponent.

This is actually a reimposition of the original Kapow board game, releasing new this year.

The main way to play Kapow! is as 1v1 dueling game. Players will each get a screen, a unique hero/villain board, and an identical player board. Each super has its own special theming, such as Tough Nut’s defensiveness or Victor Kane’s consistent bonuses to attack.

Each round takes place over 4 Phases starting with Ability Selection. Behind their screen, each player rolls all of their dice (no automatic rerolls), and assigns them to powers on their player boards. A handful are immediate effects, but most will take effect in future phases. Once everyone is ready, players move to the attack and defend phase. In turn order, the first player can activate any attack powers they placed dice on. The other player may use defensive powers they have dice on to try and mitigate the damage. Then rolls are flipped and the other player attacks.

After attacks are finished, players move on to the power phase, which lets them build their dice pools. Many of the powers allow players to gain either trait dice (5 different types of dice) or action die faces. Any faces are attached