D&D Onslaught: First Impressions

This last weekend, I attended my second ever PAX Unplugged. It was for the most part, a fantastic experience - getting to spend some actual face time with friends I rarely get to see, meet other friends in person for the first time and make a bunch of new introductions that hopefully will eventually turn into yet more friendships.

As a result, I didn’t get a great amount of time to try out game demos, but one in particular did catch my eye and I was able to get a little time at the booth to run through a trial of the preview kit they had available.

So, let’s talk about D&D Onslaught!

What’s this all about, then?

First off, what IS Onslaught?

Set in the Forgotten Realms, Onslaught is WizKids making their entry into the competitive skirmish game sphere. From my conversations with the staff at the booth, this is a lot more than a simple “one and done” board game entry, they have plans throughout 2023 to add additional characters and factions as well as plans for Organized Play.

Designed for 2 players, each controlling a group of forces (the preview kit and initial release both include the Harpers and the Zhentarim, likely familiar to anyone who has run campaigns set in Waterdeep) across a set of pre-built scenarios.

My initial reaction was immediately to draw comparisons with another fantasy skirmish game set on a pre-printed board - Warhammer Underworlds. The two games aren’t dissimilar, with matches being determined by victory points and a number of potential environmental hazards on the board. Where I think Onslaught will stand out is as a way of potentially encouraging TTRPG players to dip their toe into the skirmish game world, if they can overcome a few key elements that I could see causing problems, which I’ll touch on here later.

So, how does it play?

For context, I was able to get my hands on one of the Preview Kits, which is significantly pared down from the game’s full release. While the full game will focus on each player having a party of 5 characters, the Preview Kit scales it down to two, and uses a significantly smaller game board. While they did have full scale demo games running at PAX U, they were obviously a much more significant time investment and so I don’t have a feel for exactly how the game runs at full scale. That said, the Preview Kit was enough to get the gist of things and I can see fairly easily how it scales up.

At its core, there are two main elements I think differentiate Onslaught from other options on the market currently, particularly what I consider its most direct competitor (Warhammer Underworlds, as referenced above).

Firstly, there’s the extra element of monsters being a third group, controlled by neither player. Taking turns as determined by the monster stat block, they operate under “AI” rules as determined by the scenario in play. The Goblins in the Preview Kit operate fairly simply, moving towards the closest possible character and attacking if within range. Knowing exactly when the monsters move and how means there isn’t any sense of randomness to them, but it does add an interesting extra element to plan around when considering your turn.

Secondly, and in my opinion most importantly, is how closely the character abilities and general playstyle mirrors D&D 5e. Anyone who has played 5e will be immediately familiar with the terminology used by the game, and will likely be able to quickly pick up what each ability does as a result.

For example, each character’s turn consists of:

1 standard action

1 move action

1 bonus action

Any number of free actions

Which can be exchanged downward (i.e. instead of taking 1 standard action and 1 move action, a player could instead choose to take 2 move actions), reminiscent of the turn structure in the TTRPG.

Along similar lines, the abilities of each character are going to be immediately recognizable, such as Bedlam the Warlock’s Eldritch Blast attack, or Grabbleshanks the Ranger (clearly the best character with that name) being able to Mark an enemy.

Reaction abilities are also present and determined by character, in many cases being a simple Opportunity Attack but some characters leaning into their archetype such as Bedlam, being a Tiefling, having Hellish Rebuke as their reaction instead.

Let’s face it, whoever is playing Grabbleshanks might as well just claim victory right out the gate.

There is also a leveling mechanic in the game, with experience being granted for hitting a target, looting a chest or satisfying the separate exp condition written on the character card - some being extra exp for defeating an enemy character, others such as Lightning-Dancer the Tabaxi Fighter gaining exp for getting hit, clearly setting their party role as that of a tank.

Upon leveling, a character unlocks an extra ability - the player has two options here, which seem to largely be split into defensive and offensive for most characters. It’s a neat mechanic which seems to encourage aggressive play, as waiting your opponent out will likely mean they’re racking up experience and will quickly outclass you.

Continuing the sense of familiarity from 5e, the only dice the game uses at present is two d20 - all rolls to attack are made rolling both (effectively perma-advantage), I assume to even out the curve and reduce the likelihood of a wasted turn, potentially being lowered to one if a target is in cover. Critical hits/misses are present as well, with a Nat 20 dealing extra damage based on the attack and a Nat 1 on either dice meaning the attack misses regardless of the other dice result (unless it was a Nat 20, which takes priority).

A round is determined by Initiative, which instead of rolling is determined by a deck of cards. Players swap off the first initiative position after each turn, and then the remaining cards are shuffled and dealt out. In the game I played, with only 2 character each side this only ever resulted in one player going on initiative 1 and 4 and the other 2 and 3, but would add a lot more variance in a full 5v5 game. Each card is assigned to one character and does not have to be revealed until that character’s initiative order, adding an extra element of strategy as while you know which initiative rounds your opponent has, you won’t know which specific character will be activated.

The monsters also feature in this initiative order but are not random, instead having their own initiative card which is always x.5, to remove any confusion as to whether a monster or player goes first. The goblins in the Preview Kit for example have an initiative of 10.5, meaning they will always be last to go in a given round.

How did it feel to play?

The demo game I played was against another random con-goer, with a booth staffer giving us the initial rundown and being summoned back whenever we had questions. For the most part I found things extremely easy to pick up thanks in part to how well the flow of play mirrors combat in 5e, with my biggest issue finding it hard to remember the various things which generate experience or victory points - however that’s more an aspect with how my brain works, and given that I didn’t need much of a refresher for anything else, that’s a big plus mark in the game being easy to pick up.

I felt satisfied with the strategic elements - I was playing as the Harpers, so Grabbleshanks the Ranger and Lightning-Dancer the Fighter were my two characters and it was satisfying to use them in tandem to lure in my opponent only to lock them down in place with Lightning-Dancer’s abilities. As the game expands, I’m curious to see how it will evolve with the ability to customize your party for competitive play.

So all in all I found my time with it to be quite positive - but I did mention earlier some elements I could see causing problems. Which leads into my big question about Onslaught…

Lightning-Dancer and Grabbleshanks prepare to hunt down their Zhentarim prey

Who is it for?

Now, (hopefully) obviously I don’t mean that in a gatekeeper-y way - of course, anyone who has an interest in the game should give it a shot! But I do have a feeling that Onslaught as it stands, might have some difficulty finding its niche.

They’re clearly approaching this game as a viable Competitive Play skirmish game, with plans for tournaments etc in future. Based on my conversation with the booth staff, one element of this which appealed to me personally as a miniature artist is that they will allow you to swap out the miniatures and use your own painted ones instead - as long as it’s another WizKids offering, such as the Nolzur’s range, it’ll still be viable for official play which was extremely welcome news to me.

The very well done blending of 5e terminology seems to position it well as a game to try and bring in people who haven’t tried Skirmish games before, which is where I think the biggest issue arises - the price point.

The core set of Onslaught will retail at a not insignificant $140. While that does include 21 minis and all the various game components, it’s not exactly a low barrier of entry - especially when considering that its most direct parallel on market today, the aforementioned Warhammer Underworlds, has a retail price of $95. Granted with far fewer miniatures, but I do wonder if the price comparison alone is going to cause Onslaught an issue.

Honestly, I wish they would put the Preview Kit on sale for a lower price point. I think giving people the chance to try it out before making that large investment will be a significant help, as from conversations I’ve had with people I’ve tried to bring into the wargaming world myself, the initial cost of entry is a significant sticking point.

On the flip side, I wonder if existing players of skirmish games will find a massive desire to pick it up? For me personally, the minis being pre-painted is a detriment. One solved by the knowledge that players can swap in ones they painted themselves, but I only know this because I specifically asked about it, I haven’t seen this referenced in marketing material as of yet.

To that end, I suspect the most straightforward audience will be those who already enjoy skirmish games but don’t enjoy the painting process? Portability is perhaps another large aspect in its favour - considering other Skirmish games such as Malifaux, Kill Team or Warcry, the fact Onslaught doesn’t need a terrain setup certainly makes it a game that can be set up far more quickly.

Final Thoughts

So, what’s my tl;dr takeaway for Onslaught?

I think it’s a game with a lot of potential. The way it uses a lot of D&D 5e elements makes it easily accessible for players who are familiar with that system and want to try their hand at skirmish games but find the rule sets to be daunting. It felt to me like it sits nicely in that “easy to pick up, but lots of strategic options” area where I love my skirmish games to be.

My only real point of concern is how easy it’ll be for it to find an audience. Ultimately, that will boil down to how WizKids support it going forward and how well they’re able to market it. I sincerely hope they’re able to find footholds in both the existing wargaming space as well as bring over new people from the TTRPG side. Their plans for expansion and tournament play certainly seem to be pointing at solid long term plans, as long as they’re able to attract a sizeable enough playerbase.

I hope they do. It’s a fun game, and you’ll absolutely be seeing me at those tournaments in future.

With Grabbleshanks, of course.