20 Strong: Too Many Bones Deck Expansion – Dice Battles, Tyrant Encounters & Strategic Gameplay

Great single person game for fans of Too Many Bones. Very challenging if you use your dice too fast

This was a requested gift for someone. He loved it.

If you're new to the 20 Strong game, like I was, it's basically a solo play dice management game where you battle monsters/bosses using a set of 20 dice. You need the base game to play and the base game comes with the "Solar Sentinels" deck. This "Too Many Bones" deck is an expansion for the original game. The expansion has a completely unique deck of cards and bosses and plays as its own unique game, but it uses the same core dice mechanics and dice as the original game. The really cool thing is all of the expansions include some universal character cards that you can use within any of the expansions ( so I could use one of the elves from this deck to play in the Solar Sentinels deck). The game itself is really well designed and is a ton of fun for those game nights where you just can't find anyone else to play with. I'm still working on my dice management and still find it a bit difficult to get all the way through to the bosses but I still have a blast with it. The game components are all top notch. The cards in this expansion feel like they are made out of a plastic-like material and feel sturdy and durable. The deck also includes an instruction book that tells you the directions for this specific deck (there are also some good tutorial videos from the manufacturer available online). Overall I'm loving these expansion and I would definitely recommend them if you're looking to expand the fun of your 20 Strong games.

I'm played the Solar Sentinels deck included with the 20 Strong base set a few times and this is the first alternate deck I've tried. It was a little confusing to get into the flow as there are some notable differences, but I stumbled through an initial play to get the basics, then found a play-through on youtube which clarified a few things for me. Have played a few more times since then and I'm quite enjoying it. Similar fighting system overall to SS, but the back-up plan system is pretty cool and offers some nice choices. The progress of how many baddies to fight each round is kind of cool as well - you can strategically decide when to face the encounter deck to avoid battles as needed. Pretty smooth gameplay overall once I understood the rhythm, and just like SS so much of this is about managing dice. As with everything Chip Theory seems to do, the component quality is excellent and these cards are just a delight to touch. Art is great and graphic design is very well done. Overall, great game and happy to have another deck at my disposal. Looking forward to now trying the Hoplomachus deck!

This expansion adds a taste of the Too Many Bones world to the 20 Strong system. While it’s a step up from the base deck in terms of theme and challenge, it doesn’t fully deliver on the depth I had hoped for. Having heard great things about Too Many Bones, I was excited to try this expansion for 20 Strong. It seemed like a nice introduction to that world without the big investment in the original game. The thematic tie-ins, like gearlocks and the backup plan mechanic, are interesting, and the deck does a good job of distilling some of the flavor into a faster, more accessible solo game. Compared to the base 20 Strong deck, this one is more engaging and feels a bit meatier in terms of decisions. I especially enjoyed the balance of risk and reward as you try to maximize your dice rolls while dealing with the challenges presented by encounters. However, the game did start to feel repetitive after a handful of plays. The limited pool of gearlock abilities and encounters means you’ll see the same elements frequently, which diminishes the replayability somewhat. Overall, while this deck didn’t completely blow me away, it’s a solid addition to 20 Strong.

Like the base 20 Strong game, the production value on this is excellent. Artwork, plastic cards, foil and treatment all look great. Best of all, this doesn't have the gasoline smell that the base game had. Since it's an expansion, you still need the base components, manual and chip from 20 Strong to use this. But this plays quite a bit differently from Solar Sentinels. I like this quite a lot. I actually feel that both this and Hoplomachus Victorum over Solar Sentinels that was included in the base, but that's just my personal preference. Slightly less luck dependent than Solar Sentels, but more so than Victorum. I've played a couple of times and still haven't won yet though. I've never played the full-fledged version of Too Many Bones, so I can't speak for how well this replicates that experience, but this has made me curious about giving it a whirl.

If you read other reviews you'll see that the component quality in this (as with all games from Chip Theory) is awesome. This is an expansion/variant deck for the base 20 Strong so it is just cards, but they are high-quality, waterproof PVC cards with awesome artwork and foil highlights. Like the base game's Solar Sentinals deck, this is designed for solo play and features the same combat system with a few tweaks. Solar Sentinals is pretty straight-forward battling bad guys until you reach the boss at the end. In the Too Many Bones deck there are a few additional layers: namely Encounters and Backup Plans. You also use the counter to keep track of turns and the amount of baddies you encounter each round increases. Overall the changes add some complexity to the game flow and decisions, but I felt that the overall experience was very similar to the base game. The additional elements didn't change how I felt playing the game much, thus the four stars instead of five. I think I'd have preferred something that felt like a new use of the existing system as opposed to a variant on the same experience. But for you, the TMB deck might be enough of a change. Encounters come in three types, one that increases the current battle difficulty but decreases the final boss difficulty (usually, depending on the boss), one that gives you a choice between increasing the current battle difficulty and paying a cost/penalty to get a reward, and the third that requires specific dice to be applied to unlock an ability. The Backup Plan lets you save dice with misses for later battles in order to use your character's special ability. This can often come in handy when used at opportune moments, or can also be used to upgrade your character's stats and other abilities. There are a few other minor changes to the standard game, too, but they are fairly minor. After playing several games of the Solar Sentinals deck and the Too Many Bones deck I feel like the changes are fairly superficial. Yes, they add some extra layers to the game but they don't really change the overall experience or feel of the game. You are still trying to progress through a series of bad guys until you can fight the boss. If you like the TMB theme and want a little more complexity then you might want this deck. Or if you play a lot of solo games and want something just a little bit different, then this is fine. For me it really scratches the same itch. My summary for the Too Many Bones deck is pretty much the same as my summary for the Solar Sentinals base deck, which is essentially: I've found 20 Strong - Too Many Bones to be a fun, if pretty standard, solo monster combat game. It's pretty typical of the genre (think Unbroken, Mini Rogue, Tin Realm, etc.) but does a few interesting things. As with most of these types of games, lucky combinations of characters, rewards, and dice rolls can make a game pretty easy, but an unlucky combination can be really punishing. As you play more you'll get familiar with the strategies and card combos required to succeed, but luck will still play a big factor. I've enjoyed both 20 Strong decks so far and still have to try out Hoplomachus: Vindication to see what it does differently. I'm also curious about the new decks coming out this year for Cloudspire and Tanglewoods as they seem to push the boundaries of the 20 Strong system even more. If you enjoy this style of game, definitely check out 20 Strong. It's a great title in its genre and has a lot of potential for different experiences with different decks.

Rulebook It changes many of the core game rules and does a good job explaining the adjustment. Well done for the amount of information in a small pamphlet. Components Just a nice deck of cards. No issues here. Gameplay Very similar to the 20 Strong core game rules and follows the same method of play, but with a few tweaks. The biggest to me is that any baddies that are not defeated during combat are not discarded. Instead, you keep them out until you beat them or they beat you. You are rolling dice a lot so your luck can make or break you at any point, but the modifications you can make to the dice help you plan better. Another big change is the encounter stack that allows you to use/defeat/earn a card with various rewards/punishments depending on the card. If you choose to do an encounter then you skip the combat phase. A few other minor changes but nothing too complex. Overall, this is a good expansion but I think I like Solar Sentinels in the core game better. I have never played the regular game of Too Many Bones so I can't comment on the comparison between that one and the 20 Strong version. I would recommend this to give you more variety for the game!