Disney Villainous: Despicable Plots

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Disney Villainous now has a fourth expansion/stand-alone game, bringing the total number of playable Disney villains to a whopping 18! Disney Villainous: Despicable Plots brings to the table 3 new villains, including Lady Tremaine (“Cinderella”), Gaston (“Beauty and the Beast”), and the Horned King (“The Black Cauldron”).

Since the last expansion set was hard to find when it came out, I vowed that next time I would be at the store bright and early to get my copy. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn about Despicable Plots until the day after it was released. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to find it in stores (I checked store inventories online), I simply ordered it online. I now have my copy, so let’s dive right in!

Inside the Box

As always, the player tokens take on semi-abstract forms to represent each villain, and each look great . . . mostly.

Lady Tremaine’s token reminds me of Gary Oldman’s “Dracula” hair, and Gaston’s token looks like he was drawn, quartered, and beheaded. The coolest token by far is the Horned King with his head emerging from the Black Cauldron. The piece looks like it’s made out of green apple Jolly Ranchers, which is one of my favorite candies.

The rest of the components are the same: boards, power tokens, reference sheets, rule book, cards, etcetera. But, there are also many new tokens that come into play.

Gameplay

I played solo (check out the updated rules), which allowed me to take my time and really study the play style of each villain.

Gaston

Gaston’s goal is to remove all 8 obstacle markers from his realm (diamond-shaped tokens with the Beast’s face on them). These tokens are abstract representations of the obstacles keeping him from convincing Belle to marry him.

While the obstacles are easy to remove, they are equally easy to be put back onto the board by heroes. It was a tug-of-war that I to be on top of. I lost.

The Horned King

While “The Black Cauldron” is generally regarded as a flop, it has an iconic villain with a very dark purpose. I like the film’s visuals, but the storyline makes it slow and boring. Thankfully, Despicable Plots focuses on the best parts of the film, the Horned King and his sinister takeover of the world.

The Horned King’s goal is to find and use the Black Cauldron to turn his ancient soldiers into Cauldron Born. Spread the Cauldron Born across the realm, and the Horned King will rule supreme. But, if the Black Cauldron is ever deactivated, the Cauldron Born begin to die.

The Horned King is fun and straight-forward. There are several chances to find and activate the Black Cauldron quickly, and the Cauldron Born are powerful. Smiting heroes was a breeze.

Lady Tremaine

Dracula’s—I mean, Lady Tremaine’s goal is to marry one of her daughters to the Prince. There are several sequences that have to happen for that twisted fairytale to come true. First, an invitation is needed to unlock the Ballroom (one can’t go uninvited), Drizzella and/or Anastasia have to get dressed for the ball (they can’t show up in their day dresses), there have to be wedding bells, etcetera, all while having no glass slippers in the realm.

What makes playing Lady Tremaine challenging is that she doesn’t have any vanquish actions. She has a few cards that can remove heroes, but her main defense is locking them up, which removes their abilities. Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother, and the two glass slippers are particularly troublesome as they have unique abilities that prevent you from winning. Luckily, I was able to marry Drizella to the Prince in the last few turns.

Which Version Should Newcomers Buy?

Since Disney Villainous: Despicable Plots is a standalone board game (2-3 players) in addition to an expansion of the core Villainous board game (2-6 players), Wicked to the Core (2-3 players), Evil Comes Prepared (2-3 players), and Perfectly Wretched (2-3 players), which version should newcomers buy?

If you’re a Disney villain fan and a board game geek, I still say you should go for the core game. You’ll have twice the villains to choose from (compared to one of the expansions), which is great for replayability, and you can have more players in a single game. You also get the nifty cauldron to hold your power tokens. Comparing online and in-store prices, the core game doesn’t cost much more than the expansions, and you’re getting more than twice the content.

If you’re only curious about the game, any of the expansion sets will give you a taste of the gameplay. When you tire of playing the three villains, either graduate to the core set or purchase another expansion.

Personally, I say buy all of them!

How Many Players Are Too Many?

Try out our own set of solo play rules!

Combining every edition of Disney Villainous (to date) means that there can be up to 18 players playing across multiple games (the instruction book specifically states no more than 6 players per game). I recommend that players be broken into groups of 3-6. I personally wouldn’t go more than 4 players, although I’ve never played a 5-6 player game—I’ve heard that it isn’t as fun. Three to four players just feels right as there is a lot that you have to pay attention to.

With these small groups, players can have a tournament. Who can play the best and rise above all of the other Disney villains!?

Verdict

Disney Villainous: Despicable Plots is another must-buy whether you own the core game, the expansions, or nothing at all. It’s fun, it’s beautiful, and the tight integration of both gameplay and mechanics with the villains’ storylines will make you fall in love with the game again and again. This is a truly original game—a love letter to the Disney villains—and not a lazy Disney overlay of an existing board game.

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