Nice! I've got this one set up on the table right now, to properly learn it. It seems like a pretty good game, but damn does it have one of the worst rules books and set of documentation I've ever seen! Push through though. I think it's worth the uphill battle.
@@TheDungeonDive Yeah, I've been hearing the same thing from reviews. I am literally sitting here at 00 AM sweating over the same rulebook cause I thought I could get a game in before bedtime 😂
Fortunately I've not backed this game. Skyrim (and The Elder Scrolls saga) it's one of my favorites adventures of all time. This year I haven't bought any board game yet. I'm trying to fing something like Skyrim, Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild, but without timers and a true sense of exploration and discovery. Maybe Sleeping Gods Distant Skies is something like that. But I liked to hear that you've never finished Skyrim. I've completed the game 3 times with 600h, more or less.
I have the base game, From the Ashes, Dawnguard, and the Miniature Upgrade Set. The base game rules are fine. I didn't have any issues with it. I think "gamers" were excited to play Skyrim the boardgame thinking it was as easy as picking up the video game and then realizing it wasn't. The quality of the cards are fine, not CMON quality but good enough. One needs to remember that Skyrim was probably "built" as the pandemic was slowly dying down. Going back to the rules, some are over-thinking the rules too much. I do have an issue with the expansions as to how to "install" them with the base game. Modiphius should've done a better job explaning the expansions.. Good intro video. No drama. Straightforward. No unnecessary sidecomments. Subbed!
This is one game I am really on the fence with, would like to play and own it, but have read a lot of mixed things about it, plus the fact I have Skyrim VR on the PS5 and a ton of fantasy campaign and crawler board games already.
@@TheDungeonDive I played the tutorial first and then used the rulebook to play the first campaign once. A few tutorial topics on BGG were very useful because of some errata. These same topics were especially useful to organize the game. In fact, I did not struggle with the rulebook that much. The hardest part for me was to organize and prepare the game / cards / mini expansions. Anyway I understand some of the disappointment (especially for the price tag).
Those cards with just a tiny sentence remind me a bit of some of the war games I've played. They just slap text and maybe a thematic silhouette on the card because they just don't have the funds to pay for art. Very surprising to see it here - not at all what I'd expect for a licensed product.
As one of the only fans of this game, I have no defense for the rulebook or art. Video game art doesn’t bother me at all, but I understand why some people don’t like it. Although, I will take video game art over Chip Theory Games and their art direction any day. (I used to own all of Too Many Bones before falling out of love with it. I really hate the look of Gearlocs.)
Really? I prefer CTG's art for their elder scrolls game. I like artistic interpretations of a setting rather than game (or movie) art. I liked FFG's LotR art for the same reason
it's like they was gonna put art on the card...and changed their mind at the last moment and a few had their place holder graphics left in. Not worth 150 from a visual level anyway.
even with all the rough edges, im hopeful the free roam mode is good. i actually didnt get the game because from what i saw it was campaign only. free roam actually piques my interest. i hope you do a review!
The game is a lot of fun once you overcome the hurdle of learning the rules. However, you need the Ashes expansion to make it a balanced experience. Unfortunately, that's about $200 for the base game and the expansion, which is ridiculously overpriced.
The problem with so many Kickstarter IP board games - make them big with second thought rulebooks just to get loads of money for a second rate game. £70 for an expansion I don't think so. I've seen games half the price of this game with way better artwork and maps and cards. I love Elder Scrolls and was interested but watched a few play throughs and felt meh and the price I'd rather get Frosthaven or DU lol
Really disappointing to see how Modiphius phoned this one in. Their RPG products I own are really very good, especially the Tricorder set for Star Trek Adventures
I've been wanting this board game, but worry about players getting lost in side quests and wonder how focus on scenarios is maintained--Skyrim is the next fantasy leap after D&D!
It has a pretty clever threat management system that I think works pretty well. At various points you will add threat tokens to cards, and these threats need to be addressed. It's one of the better parts about the game, as it works like a soft timer, but also keeps the players focused on important tasks.
@@TheDungeonDive Thank you! In my group, I'm the one who teaches others how to play, and keeping things on track isn't always easy. Skyrim looks amazing--happy playing!
Hi Dave, thank you for your video. I bought the base game back in January. I've done solo campaign & I'm thru Campaign 2 Chapter 2. It's fun & challenging. I've also played a 2 player & completed campaign 1. I've also played 2 different 3 player campaigns, not thru with Campaign 1 yet with either, and played a 4 player game and only thru Campaign 1 chapter 1. All of us who've played this really like the game a lot. But the rule book is terrible. I've already complained about it on board game geek and also sent an email to Modiphius about it. That was back in I think February and Modiphius never responded. I think this is the first game that I've had to go to board game geek at least 30 times to get help on rule clarifications, etc. Other games at most 2 or 3 times. They need to re-do the rule book and they need to come out with a rules reference guide that I've seen with other games. But my biggest complaint has to be that I bought the From the Ashes expansion and the 5-8 player expansion that arrived last week. On the 5-8 player expansion box it states everything you need to play in free roam mode with up to 8 players, and it makes note that not a stand-alone game, must have base game. That makes sense and is fine. But when I opened the box, they gave you the main 6 character cards you got from the main game (so now you have 2 of each of those) and they give you the 4 new player character cards. BUT they don't give you any of the miniatures!!! I don't need duplicates of the main ones that came with base game, but they should have provided the 4 new character miniatures. How can you play with 7 or 8 players if you don't have those other miniatures? B/c the base game comes with 6 minis. This is just outrageous and false/misleading advertising. I sent an email to Modiphius this past Friday to complain and I'm awaiting a response. Note for others, that if you buy the Dawnguard expansion, those 4 minis are included in there. So you're telling me I had to pay $120 for the base game, I paid $40 for the 5-8 player expansion & $57 for From the Ashes expansion, and now I have to pay $80 for the Dawnguard expansion just so I can get the other 4 minis? Really? Or if you purchase From the Ashes expansion $57 on Amazon, you do get 10 ghost minis of all of the characters. So technically you could use the ghost minis of the 4, but what if you're playing one of the mini-campaigns where you have to face the ghosts and you're using that mini? Just seems stupid and forcing you to spend more money. I'm completely frustrated and upset about this. Hoping they respond and do the right thing and send out the 4 minis, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I want to end by saying, I've really enjoyed playing this game and it does have replay-ability. But there are things Modiphius needs to fix and address and they really need to fix the 5-8 player expansion with the mini's.
Hi there, So I got a response to my complaint I sent to Modiphius. Chris Birch is the one that responded to me and here is the response. I'm really disappointed with this response. "the 5-8 player expansion does not show any extra miniatures or list them on the contents. By owning this box you can play with up to 6 players with the base game using the miniatures in that box, and up to 8 if you substitute any token or miniatures you have. If you have the Dawnguard box which comes with the extra 4 minis you can then have 10 minis to chose from for up to 8 possible players. Extra copies of the player character cards are provided so if people have the base game, or the Dawnguard box they have two of each in case players want two Nords in their party for example. They are provided as a bonus so in fact you don’t need the Dawnguard box to play the four characters from the box, you can simply use any token or miniature you have to represent the character."
Hi Daniel, Daniel here! I would like to see a review opand/or even a gaming session of D100 Space by Martin Knight. Checked your video archive and couldn't find one. Is this one still on your radar and Todo list? I found a video on Deborah's geek gamer channel, but I would really also like to know your opinion on that game.
I gave this a near miss - I had Call to Arms, and couldn't make sense of it (although I am new to skirmish games, so that could be on me). But it had the same problem - the art on the cards and general vibe was so off-putting. Shame, because these games are probably going to be a lot of peoples gateway into bigger or more complex games - they needed to smash it out of the park.
Could but agree more. This game should have been one of the best gateway games of all time. I imagine this was probably many peoples’ first big board game because of the IP. And the publisher totally botched that introduction.
This is what Modiphius do, unfortunately. 😥 Having strong (and, as I've heard, family-related) contacts in AAA IP game dev, they brought us a few tabletop roleplaying and board games, which are... mediocre at best. As for the rulebook, when I read it the first time, I could not believe it was written in the modern age, where the writers had so many great examples and benchmarks.
My wife and I are currently playing the first campaign. The game's definitely overpriced, the graphic design is awful (disagree about the board... think it's one bright spot) and the rules have problems, although I didn't find them to be too bad. The game really does shine in questing and story progression. The quests are fun, varied, memorable and, I think, on the whole some of the best implekented that I've seen in any adventure game. I also like that (like the video game) you can work through the main quest line as slowly or quickly as you'd like, with some nasty timed effects to create tension but nothing catastrophic. It's a truly open experience. The other core mechanics (combat, character progression, etc) are all serviceable and good enough. It's the open world flexibility that pushes it from being an OK game to a pretty good one.
You talk about Skyrim board game art being "uninspiring", which is fair because Skyrim video game's default color palette and world is also "washed-out" and drab, hence why there are so many mods to enhance the colors to add more greenery, so it seems they made it very similar.
I was on the fence on this one for a while, but ultimately decided not to jump in. This game is made upon an idea to capitalize on an existing IP rather than to create something new. Unfortunately Chip theory games are also going down this road. Are they lacking new ideas or what is happening?
Alot of companies take on filler work like this to get the money they need to make products they actually care about. At least I hope that's what's happening here.
I love a good game based on an IP I love, when the game is good. I'll always take more things based on things I like. Originality is, IMO, highly overrated.
@@TheDungeonDive Valid point! I do hope the gameplay actually is good and that you like the game. Looking forward to a review later on. Keep up the good work👍🏻
Wow I’m so disappointed with the card art! Compared to Descent 1.0 or Runebound (which was a great series of yours by the way!) this is just so bland. I’m going to pass on this one. Hopefully the game is fun though for those who purchased it! If a game is great, poor art doesn’t matter too much imo. Cheers!
Aggressively ugly 😂. Put that on the box modiphius! Have you seen the chip theory games elder scrolls game thats crowdfunding now? That also seems ugly and uninspiring to me. Maybe you feel different. I know chip theory is beloved so im sure if you like too many bones and the like you will like their elder scrolls game but to me it just looks dull as hell. Maybe its the playthroughs. They need to give it to a professional youtuber to show off. i have the fallout fantasy flight game and from what i hear this is similar. So i feel no need to purchase it even though i like skyrim and all the elder scrolls games.
I avoid Chip Theory games like the plague. I intensely dislike how everything in their games is made of plastic. I'd check out their games if they offered cardboard versions.
Just got this game for christmas, and seeing my favourite dungeon dive channel having already released a video on it is another christmas present!
Nice! I've got this one set up on the table right now, to properly learn it. It seems like a pretty good game, but damn does it have one of the worst rules books and set of documentation I've ever seen! Push through though. I think it's worth the uphill battle.
@@TheDungeonDive Yeah, I've been hearing the same thing from reviews. I am literally sitting here at 00 AM sweating over the same rulebook cause I thought I could get a game in before bedtime 😂
The Kershaw Leek is my personal favorite for everything from opening boxes to slicing apples on the porch.
It's a fantastic knife. Practical, well made, good looking and affordable.
Fortunately I've not backed this game. Skyrim (and The Elder Scrolls saga) it's one of my favorites adventures of all time.
This year I haven't bought any board game yet. I'm trying to fing something like Skyrim, Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild, but without timers and a true sense of exploration and discovery. Maybe Sleeping Gods Distant Skies is something like that.
But I liked to hear that you've never finished Skyrim. I've completed the game 3 times with 600h, more or less.
I have the base game, From the Ashes, Dawnguard, and the Miniature Upgrade Set. The base game rules are fine. I didn't have any issues with it. I think "gamers" were excited to play Skyrim the boardgame thinking it was as easy as picking up the video game and then realizing it wasn't. The quality of the cards are fine, not CMON quality but good enough. One needs to remember that Skyrim was probably "built" as the pandemic was slowly dying down. Going back to the rules, some are over-thinking the rules too much. I do have an issue with the expansions as to how to "install" them with the base game. Modiphius should've done a better job explaning the expansions.. Good intro video. No drama. Straightforward. No unnecessary sidecomments. Subbed!
Looking forward to your review after you have played it. It is on my radar, but would love more info, before sinking funds.
This is one game I am really on the fence with, would like to play and own it, but have read a lot of mixed things about it, plus the fact I have Skyrim VR on the PS5 and a ton of fantasy campaign and crawler board games already.
Check that sticker on the front of the main box. special figurine
Bottom tray is for storing the tux boxes (game saves, one box per player). Great video, despite it flaws, I am immensely enjoying the game.
What's the best way to learn the game? I can't make heads or tales of the rule book.
@@TheDungeonDive I played the tutorial first and then used the rulebook to play the first campaign once. A few tutorial topics on BGG were very useful because of some errata. These same topics were especially useful to organize the game. In fact, I did not struggle with the rulebook that much. The hardest part for me was to organize and prepare the game / cards / mini expansions. Anyway I understand some of the disappointment (especially for the price tag).
@@jarldjevel6111 Same with me. The organization was stressful and I relied on a BGG thread. Tutorial and rules were fine... not good, but fine.
does it comes with a button to say "Until I took an arrow to the knee"?
Those cards with just a tiny sentence remind me a bit of some of the war games I've played. They just slap text and maybe a thematic silhouette on the card because they just don't have the funds to pay for art. Very surprising to see it here - not at all what I'd expect for a licensed product.
Take a drink whenever someone says Grahkrindrog.
As one of the only fans of this game, I have no defense for the rulebook or art. Video game art doesn’t bother me at all, but I understand why some people don’t like it. Although, I will take video game art over Chip Theory Games and their art direction any day.
(I used to own all of Too Many Bones before falling out of love with it. I really hate the look of Gearlocs.)
I 100% agree about Chip Theory's art.
Really? I prefer CTG's art for their elder scrolls game. I like artistic interpretations of a setting rather than game (or movie) art. I liked FFG's LotR art for the same reason
I like and prefer that too. I just don’t like Chip Theory’s art. Especially TMB.
it's like they was gonna put art on the card...and changed their mind at the last moment and a few had their place holder graphics left in. Not worth 150 from a visual level anyway.
even with all the rough edges, im hopeful the free roam mode is good. i actually didnt get the game because from what i saw it was campaign only. free roam actually piques my interest. i hope you do a review!
I will eventually. I'm waiting for a BGG user to finish a fan made mod that makes dungeon crawling better.
The game is a lot of fun once you overcome the hurdle of learning the rules. However, you need the Ashes expansion to make it a balanced experience. Unfortunately, that's about $200 for the base game and the expansion, which is ridiculously overpriced.
What do you think Is added by the expansion that is missing?
The problem with so many Kickstarter IP board games - make them big with second thought rulebooks just to get loads of money for a second rate game. £70 for an expansion I don't think so. I've seen games half the price of this game with way better artwork and maps and cards. I love Elder Scrolls and was interested but watched a few play throughs and felt meh and the price I'd rather get Frosthaven or DU lol
Really disappointing to see how Modiphius phoned this one in. Their RPG products I own are really very good, especially the Tricorder set for Star Trek Adventures
Yeah. They usually make great things. It’s so weird how botched this is.
I've been wanting this board game, but worry about players getting lost in side quests and wonder how focus on scenarios is maintained--Skyrim is the next fantasy leap after D&D!
It has a pretty clever threat management system that I think works pretty well. At various points you will add threat tokens to cards, and these threats need to be addressed. It's one of the better parts about the game, as it works like a soft timer, but also keeps the players focused on important tasks.
@@TheDungeonDive Thank you! In my group, I'm the one who teaches others how to play, and keeping things on track isn't always easy. Skyrim looks amazing--happy playing!
Hi Dave, thank you for your video. I bought the base game back in January. I've done solo campaign & I'm thru Campaign 2 Chapter 2. It's fun & challenging. I've also played a 2 player & completed campaign 1. I've also played 2 different 3 player campaigns, not thru with Campaign 1 yet with either, and played a 4 player game and only thru Campaign 1 chapter 1. All of us who've played this really like the game a lot. But the rule book is terrible. I've already complained about it on board game geek and also sent an email to Modiphius about it. That was back in I think February and Modiphius never responded.
I think this is the first game that I've had to go to board game geek at least 30 times to get help on rule clarifications, etc. Other games at most 2 or 3 times. They need to re-do the rule book and they need to come out with a rules reference guide that I've seen with other games.
But my biggest complaint has to be that I bought the From the Ashes expansion and the 5-8 player expansion that arrived last week. On the 5-8 player expansion box it states everything you need to play in free roam mode with up to 8 players, and it makes note that not a stand-alone game, must have base game. That makes sense and is fine. But when I opened the box, they gave you the main 6 character cards you got from the main game (so now you have 2 of each of those) and they give you the 4 new player character cards. BUT they don't give you any of the miniatures!!! I don't need duplicates of the main ones that came with base game, but they should have provided the 4 new character miniatures. How can you play with 7 or 8 players if you don't have those other miniatures? B/c the base game comes with 6 minis. This is just outrageous and false/misleading advertising.
I sent an email to Modiphius this past Friday to complain and I'm awaiting a response.
Note for others, that if you buy the Dawnguard expansion, those 4 minis are included in there. So you're telling me I had to pay $120 for the base game, I paid $40 for the 5-8 player expansion & $57 for From the Ashes expansion, and now I have to pay $80 for the Dawnguard expansion just so I can get the other 4 minis? Really? Or if you purchase From the Ashes expansion $57 on Amazon, you do get 10 ghost minis of all of the characters. So technically you could use the ghost minis of the 4, but what if you're playing one of the mini-campaigns where you have to face the ghosts and you're using that mini? Just seems stupid and forcing you to spend more money. I'm completely frustrated and upset about this. Hoping they respond and do the right thing and send out the 4 minis, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I want to end by saying, I've really enjoyed playing this game and it does have replay-ability. But there are things Modiphius needs to fix and address and they really need to fix the 5-8 player expansion with the mini's.
Hi there, So I got a response to my complaint I sent to Modiphius. Chris Birch is the one that responded to me and here is the response. I'm really disappointed with this response.
"the 5-8 player expansion does not show any extra miniatures or list them on the contents. By owning this box you can play with up to 6 players with the base game using the miniatures in that box, and up to 8 if you substitute any token or miniatures you have. If you have the Dawnguard box which comes with the extra 4 minis you can then have 10 minis to chose from for up to 8 possible players.
Extra copies of the player character cards are provided so if people have the base game, or the Dawnguard box they have two of each in case players want two Nords in their party for example. They are provided as a bonus so in fact you don’t need the Dawnguard box to play the four characters from the box, you can simply use any token or miniature you have to represent the character."
It simply sounds like they didn't put a lot of thought into this game.
Hi Daniel, Daniel here!
I would like to see a review opand/or even a gaming session of D100 Space by Martin Knight. Checked your video archive and couldn't find one. Is this one still on your radar and Todo list? I found a video on Deborah's geek gamer channel, but I would really also like to know your opinion on that game.
Eventually, but not in the near future. It's "on the list" but the list includes about 200 games. :)
Thanks! I can wait.
I gave this a near miss - I had Call to Arms, and couldn't make sense of it (although I am new to skirmish games, so that could be on me). But it had the same problem - the art on the cards and general vibe was so off-putting. Shame, because these games are probably going to be a lot of peoples gateway into bigger or more complex games - they needed to smash it out of the park.
Could but agree more. This game should have been one of the best gateway games of all time. I imagine this was probably many peoples’ first big board game because of the IP. And the publisher totally botched that introduction.
I’m seeing a new Ebay posting in your immediate future…….#savant
This is what Modiphius do, unfortunately. 😥 Having strong (and, as I've heard, family-related) contacts in AAA IP game dev, they brought us a few tabletop roleplaying and board games, which are... mediocre at best. As for the rulebook, when I read it the first time, I could not believe it was written in the modern age, where the writers had so many great examples and benchmarks.
My wife and I are currently playing the first campaign. The game's definitely overpriced, the graphic design is awful (disagree about the board... think it's one bright spot) and the rules have problems, although I didn't find them to be too bad. The game really does shine in questing and story progression.
The quests are fun, varied, memorable and, I think, on the whole some of the best implekented that I've seen in any adventure game. I also like that (like the video game) you can work through the main quest line as slowly or quickly as you'd like, with some nasty timed effects to create tension but nothing catastrophic. It's a truly open experience.
The other core mechanics (combat, character progression, etc) are all serviceable and good enough. It's the open world flexibility that pushes it from being an OK game to a pretty good one.
That sounds promising. I just wish I could make heads or tails of the rules! They don’t even tell me how to set up the game completely. It’s wild.
You talk about Skyrim board game art being "uninspiring", which is fair because Skyrim video game's default color palette and world is also "washed-out" and drab, hence why there are so many mods to enhance the colors to add more greenery, so it seems they made it very similar.
Yeah. That’s something that should have been changed.
I was on the fence on this one for a while, but ultimately decided not to jump in. This game is made upon an idea to capitalize on an existing IP rather than to create something new. Unfortunately Chip theory games are also going down this road. Are they lacking new ideas or what is happening?
Alot of companies take on filler work like this to get the money they need to make products they actually care about. At least I hope that's what's happening here.
I love a good game based on an IP I love, when the game is good. I'll always take more things based on things I like. Originality is, IMO, highly overrated.
@@TheDungeonDive Valid point! I do hope the gameplay actually is good and that you like the game. Looking forward to a review later on. Keep up the good work👍🏻
I totally get where you’re coming from. Especially with the history of IP games being bad. They’ve been better the last few years.
Seems like a quick money grab to me, copy and paste of video game assets to cards.
The game itself is reasonably entertaining but the rule book doesn't appear to have been edited or even independently reviewed, it's atrocious.
It's so bad. It barely even teaches the game. I don't understand what happened.
Glad I didn't buy this... almost did due to my love of The Elder Scrolls.
This should be at most half the retail price. Very underwhelming to say the least.
Sir, you are a masochist.
Stopped watching when you mentioned the price tag. That price in the current economy is outrageous.
Next.
Wow I’m so disappointed with the card art! Compared to Descent 1.0 or Runebound (which was a great series of yours by the way!) this is just so bland. I’m going to pass on this one. Hopefully the game is fun though for those who purchased it! If a game is great, poor art doesn’t matter too much imo. Cheers!
No Inigo? I'm out.
Right?
Aggressively ugly 😂. Put that on the box modiphius! Have you seen the chip theory games elder scrolls game thats crowdfunding now? That also seems ugly and uninspiring to me. Maybe you feel different. I know chip theory is beloved so im sure if you like too many bones and the like you will like their elder scrolls game but to me it just looks dull as hell. Maybe its the playthroughs. They need to give it to a professional youtuber to show off.
i have the fallout fantasy flight game and from what i hear this is similar. So i feel no need to purchase it even though i like skyrim and all the elder scrolls games.
I avoid Chip Theory games like the plague. I intensely dislike how everything in their games is made of plastic. I'd check out their games if they offered cardboard versions.
Thanks this game looks awful.
Some of the stuff in it seems useable in solo rpgs or maybe some fans will make some fun hacks but yeah...not worth price at all.
This is indeed one ugly and poorly designed game.
Sorry that art is just bad. Can’t do 2011 video game art it’s so sloppy.
Yeah. That’s why I said it’s an aggressively ugly game.