VERY happy that you tested it thoroughly and liked it! Also - we've listened to people suggest that, and we plan to introduce on KS something that will make each monster feel different.
Here a simple suggestion to make the monsters feel unique. Each of them could have 2 to 5 cards that would be added to the generic monster cards. It would give them more health while giving them a chance to draw unique attack card specific to the monster.
@@Renegade_KT actually they already said (in some video or some forum - I don't remember right now) that every monster will have 2 uniqe cards. Also (if I good remember) those cards may have some "passive" ability which trigger in case if that card is discarded due to damage taken
A small copy/paste error toward the start with the positive/negative notes - sorry about that! I worked all day on this huge review and I hope you guys like it! Let me know if you have any questions :)
How was learning it from the written rules? We put a lot of time into working the rules to be clear (and still happy to do more with additional feedback).
Rules are still a bit rough (I'd rank average for prototypes I've played) but I asked all the questions I had from my playthroughs with Łukasz so he's aware of the gaps I found :)
So basically its Runebound, but with a more thought out combat system, less interesting monsters, combined with cards being your health from Gloomhaven. Big thing that made me love Runebound is all the monsters were unique, and none were duplicated. The monsters also didn't have mini's, but if they weren't defeated the monsters card would go on this track at the top of the board, were you would take a simple 1-5 token and place it were it was. Then the monsters would move at then end of the turn and could attack you if they landed in your space. The events were also equally as great as they sound as this game (once again none were repeated). The one kind of event I liked was one that effected everyone on the board. Like for example everyone had to pay 1g to travel on roads, or a Flash Flood that made river spaces impassable. I am appreciative of this type of review.
It would also be nice to hear how the end of the game felt... and /or the lead up to it... climatic /anti/inevitable /frenzy /leaving with a taste for me (win or lose)
As for the rare cards - it would be nice to gain some unique cards when you max one of your stats - Max lvl at alchemy? Here's some tasty potion for you! Max def? Here's some fancy armor for you! Etc..
I like this idea better. Rare cards on the center board, could lead to one person having a huge advantage over the other based completely on when the card gets flipped up. It also makes your decision for you. You’re gonna take the rare card when one comes up as long as you can afford it, the only choice happening if there winds up being more than one on the field at a time. In order for this to work a significant portion of the cards would have to be rare to ensure everyone had some opportunity to acquire them and keep choice on the table. Getting a rare card when you max a stat lowers the number of required cards to creat and gives the player agency over which cards they want to go after.
Great review as always, and I was happy to see you mention the 2 “worries” I had about the game after watching the playthrough, namely the monsters sameness, and the exploration/quest repetition. I know Go on Board have addressed the monster worry, so very interested to see how they address this, and your suggestion of more cards for exploration is spot on, and in fact it makes me think of what we do in our house when we get a new Trivial Pursuit game, we only open on deck of cards, the games usually come with 3 packs, and play through multiple times until we start to get repetitions, then open the next deck and so on, until we get to all decks being open and which time we shuffle everything together to mix it up. New exploration and quest decks, along with new monsters could be a way to support and expand the game going forward. Anyway, definitely All-In on this day 1, must get my free mounted Wild Hunt mini (forgot his name 😄) , and then can’t wait to get to play it in the future.
2 ways to fix the cards problem: 1-More cards like they've done now during Kickstarter campaign 2- Double some cards and just write different outcomes. Same option but different outcome and effect.
I say it everytime I watch these but THANK YOU for the in depth review. These really help me see what the game is all about and what it's actually like playing it (really dislike watching playthroughs).
Glad to hear it! :) That's exactly why I always try to say if characters/enemies *feel* different. It's not enough to look at raw mechanics, how does it actually feel fighting a Fiend vs fighting a Ghoul?
I wish this was a story driven campaign game. I wanted to play as a witcher and make tons of choices that effect the story like in witcher 3. Not sure if ill get this one cause I have runebound 3rd edition and these seem very similar.
I'm pretty glad it's not. Story driven campaign games are neat but at the end of the day they're just so much harder to get to the table. I think for a lighter game like the Witcher which might bring in a lot of new blood to boardgaming, a standalone game is a better choice
I Agree with Adam. I for one have been thinking about this quite a bit.... and I think I like games with an emergent story based on your decisions more than campaign game. Why? because essentially a story driven campaign game is a video game 'on rails' whereas 'emergent story' feels more like an RPG (My favourite being Robinson Crusoe - where things you don't do get shuffled into your event deck and can bite you in the ass at any moment.)
Ah, loved the idea of a Witcher game but was waiting till it launched to look into it. Really appreciate the in depth, game on the table, review. So it's a well conceived card game with minis as playing pieces. Would really be nice to see a minis box option in the kickstarter, not going to buy a whole game of a type I'll never play just for the Witcher models. At least now I'm not mistakenly anticipating a mini based game for an IP I'm enjoying.
I'm so excited for this! I cannot afford to buy more games. I've spent too much money on it and I don't have the space for it all, but this I have to have! Thank you so much for the detailed review. Sounds like great fun and I'm sure I will bring this to the table often. I just love The Witcher lore!
Another entertaining and insightful review King, your take is invaluable. Just a little feedback on the upload: your voice volume dropped quite low in parts when you were making a certain kind of point. Possibly alter the gain function on your mic so it picks up variance in your speech pattern, boosting low volume and leveling high volume. Cheers
I'll take note not to whisper :) That's a post edit thing for sure. I can get pretty loud too so you gotta put the DB to negative else it'll "spike" up and flatline, making any gain added sound bad in those parts so you need to keep it in the middle. I'll pay more attention to the sound in low parts and adjust accordingly! More time editing for sure, but a video isn't much good if you can't hear it! :) Thanks for the feedback! Really helpful!
Great video! Although one quick thing: The catch-up mechanic you described is not a catch-up mechanic at all. Unless I misunderstood the way it works, everyone has to go through that same thing, whereas a true catch-up mechanic would only affect the leading player (or the losing player if it's a boost). This is more akin to a steep upward slope in a race; sure you get "closer" to the guy in front of you, but you're not really any closer to winning because you're slowed down by the slope as well.
I love this IP so much that I just watched an hour-long review. Damn. Great video, btw. Also, I'm glad most of the "cons" you had like monster minis, monsters feeling more different and more exploration and event cards are already covered in the KS.
Oh yeah they've been great in going over any cons listed and trying to make the game as great as it can be so that's awesome to see! Glad you liked the video :D They are long and in depth but hopefully it helps instill confidence in whatever decision you make around the game :)
I went all in on this pledge. By far the most expensive board game purchase I've made (by a couple of hundred dollars, with postage to NZ). I've only come across your channel now, but I have to say, I really, really appreciate your unbiased, non-paid for reviews. Wondering, do you take requests? I'd really love to see a review of Eclipse, second edition, especially comparing it to Twilight Imperium 4th ed. I'm looking at Fractal at the moment (loved your review on this) and trying to compare with Voidfall and the previous two, and it's so hard to decide :D (especially with the latter still only existing in Kickstarter).
Happy to have you here Groove! :) I do indeed take requests, this channel is all about helping you guys as best I can, would be pointless to make a video otherwise I feel :) However I can't accommodate everything sadly :( For instance I have 6 games in the review queue right now, so hard to fit in something extra right now (having to tell other companies that to which is a bummer, part of doing this part time I suppose). You might want to check out BoardGameCo's versus video of Fractal and Voidfall. Not sure he's actually played either of them but I'm sure regardless he's done some good research on them both. My take: If you want a heavy Euro space themed 4x with long play time, many mechanics to juggle, no luck and less player interaction (so, more puzzle orientated) then VoidFall is your go to. If you want a fewer mechanics but smoother and quicker gameplay, story/purpose a little bit of luck from randomness and more player interaction then Fractal is the one for you. Personally I appreciated the narrative stuff and streamlined play and no fuss setup/teardown of Fractal so I felt while it might not "review" the best, it'll hit the table more than one that might review better but not have those things. But that's my preference showing as I traditionally don't touch Euros as it's not really why I play board games so they aren't for me. Can't comment on Eclipse and only TI lightly to just say you could play 3 games of Fractal in the time it takes to play 1 game of TI, so if that matters then there's that :D
Hail to the King! I really appreciate the detailed review. I'd go one step further and say, you also completely changed my mind on the game. Generally I dislike games that import an IP into a new medium. However, I loved the fact that none of your description required any knowledge of The Witcher, and the game stood on it own strength.
Thanks from the game play video from Lukas was hard to gauge it as fun but after you explained it helped me to feel confident to back it . Will you cover the co Op vs ? I am getting it mostly for Co op
Not soled yet but will toss a coin for pledge manager :) For boss deck - they could do something like Gloom does, monster can have some unique special ability 1 or so, and the monster card would just say - monster activate special ability. No need to shuffle new cards to the deck.
Do you know the scale of the miniatures? I plan to use them outside of the board game as well. Are then 32mm to the eye, or to the top of the head? Do they fit in well with other miniature lines?
How easy is it to see/understand those symbols on the board if you sit on the otherside of the table so that the board is like upside down to you? Or if it sideways to you?
I love this type of games, but considering I will get Frosthaven, Oathsworn and Eon Odessy, all at the end of the year - it would be stupid to que up more kickstarters.
Aeon Trespass is still a year away, check the last update, also they are very different games, Frosthaven is almost a dungeon crawl, oathswort and Aeons are boss battlers and this is advenure level up your hero and be done with it in 2 hours.. then next time its completely reset.. all the others you mentioned are 100hours Campaign games
Hey Michael, thanks for the in-depth review! Even though I've already watched a complete play-through, I feel that I have a much better understanding of the game after watching your video. You mentioned that the game will support solo/coop. Do you have any details on how this will work?
Exploration cards are cool, but i would love a collaboration with Forteller app so that we dont have to read all that text on them. Maybe with a card number, inserting it in the app and reading the flavor text. I would love that in Etherfields too.
Could’ve been cool to have some random encounters cards to draw while wandering around: random treasure, side-quest or a fight with skills/equipment/deck check. Hyped for the game anyway.
That's pretty much what the explore cards are :) I've found treasure, a random fight, a sudden quest, a person to learn from, etc. And yes some have die roll checks! :)
I came to watch this AFTER pledging money for the deluxe version on day 1 of the kickstarter. I'm just a huge sucker for the IP and had to have it. Now I'm gonna be watching as many videos about it as I can. Glad I could learn more about the actual gameplay though, liked and subbed!
awesome review, the witchers fights sound really good, but as you confirmed for me, the monsters do sound a bit samey. There are so many ways to spice them up, maybe on the card back have 3 defense ratings and give the monster a column to use, a few special cards for some monsters, different piles to pull monster cards from, then monster pulls 4 from pile 1, 3 from pile 2 and 6 from pile 3 etc - each pile has a different flavour ... there seems to be so much that could be done. The game does sound and look really good though.
It's a lengthy review but full of all the detail us backers require. I for one appreciate it ! Seems like a solid back and if they have these basics right at the start then the only way is up ! Hope they put an index in ;)
Thanks for the review! I enjoyed the level of details. Was helpful in making the decision. Btw. what's the song that you are using for the outro from 1:06:27?, those guitar riffs are right up my alley.
I do not wanted to like the game and I see/saw so many potential flaws but because of you it looks like that I will have to follow along another Kickstarter campaign... To your requested feedback: I would not be convinced that the flaws I see, are minor issues if Tom Vasel or anyone else would like the game. I value your opinion more thus it is very beneficial to have such a comprehensive insight given by you. Thanks a lot!
As much as I enjoy a review I prefer a thorough playthrough and rule teach. I also enjoy watching other people play when I can't play it myself. Anyway, as far as this game goes it seems to me that they wanted to include so many things that it became too "much", too much of everything... I need to watch a good playthrough to make my final decision. Thanks for the great preview King!
I really appreciate this detailed review. I'm painfully on the fence about Witcher, since I play solo and coop. I'm suspicious of games where solo and coop are later add-ons. On the other hand, the ONLY way to get the solo and coop modes free is to pledge the KS, without knowing much about what they will be. Please, let's have some more detailed reviews.
I had him describe Co-op too me and it sounds very nice. He stressed that they spent a lot of time ensuring it wasn't some tacked on thing but instead something that was honestly fun and still worked really well mechanically. From what he described, it sounded cool :) But 100% always go in with some salt on ANY "alternative game modes" as you're right, 75% of the time it's poop.
Maybe there could be a better solution to the space problem than smaller cards (boo! card art = theme and we want that!) - what if you'd get some kind of Gametrayz system or so that you lift out of the box and has discards vertical next to the reg cards (or something like that - there are multiple ways to solve that). potentially making it slightly more expensive.... but would help with that problem.
Has there been any specific about number of monsters, trophies/items, as well as cost. I know its about to be revealed one way or the other. I know I saw a mention of solo/coop but I've not seen a lot of details
Great video, thank you. Love the level of detail you go into, much appreciated. All your points are very relevant to me, I hope they are incorporated. Very excited for this, I hope the price is relatively reasonable, I’ve already backed way more stuff than I should this year.
@@TheKingofAverage Re: scoring systems, I agree the scores on BGG don't mean much but a reviewer like you should have some kind of scale, I think. As we get to know you and your tastes, we also understand how that score relates to us. Of course having a score out of 100 is crazy but I'd prefer to know your totally personal score for that game. I'm a big fan of Alex's system (Boardgameco). But whatever you do, we love ya anyway :)
I dont understand why some companies make cards with non-standard size. It's just makes it harder to get our own sleeves for them. I bet it is not that hard to adjust 1-5mm and make them standard.
Thanks for sharing and always thanks for your honest opinion! Definitely backing this one. Looks like it is true to the IP, has deck building, dice, double layered player boards, minis, good stories. Pffttt... it has it ALL ! ! ! :-)
When I played Witcher I would do all the side quests and get myself super-OP for the storyline and just waltz through it :D Having level 4 items could easily unbalance the game, but I get the appeal: searching for the legendary armour in Wild Hunt is a lot of fun and extremely satisfying when you get it. Maybe a solution would be to shuffle in a level 4 item per player? Or have a series of quests that lead to its crafting? The horse on a roof card has got to be a nod to Geralt's horse Roach who in the video game always seems to spawn in the weirdest places :D
Hi, love your videos, I have been following your for a month now, and I don't regret it :D. I have a question. I hear in your videos, that you talk about Bloodborne very highly. My local game store is having a pre-order to it, but due to budget reasons, I will be able to afford either The Witcher, or Bloodborne. With one do you recommend? To be honest, I prefer coop games, but I love the minis here, and the game(the witcher)looks really fun. Hope to hear back :). Keep up the good work!
Welcome Georgi! Glad to have you here :) First thing's first: I'm sure The Witcher will be retail after a while so in time you can have both if you choose :) Go with what you feel is a good deal if you think you'd like either game :) Now for Bloodborne: I reviewed it and you are free to check that out, but know this: I review based on what the game is as sold and as such it's a much more negative review than this. So why do I love it? House rules fix my issue with it :) While I can't review based off of house rules, the house rules I mention in the review make me enjoy it a lot more - it's a fun game! Lots of content too!
I watch this video every time I have my doubts if I did the right thing to go all-in on this game. I think I did. I love the fact they addressed every weakness you found in this game. I think it will be a great game. :)
Really love the look of this game but I feel like it's one where the novelty will rub off quite fast and after this the design seems a bit too shallow to keep me in. Not one for me, I guess.
oooh. I love games were you hunt evil supernatural baddies. (Okko, Solomon Kane, A Touch of Evil, Arkham Horror etc) Not familiar with The Witcher setting though to make this a must. If have the above me tioned games, what extra/different does this bring to the table?
The card system has been pinched directly from Fantasy Flight Games 2009 game 'Middle Earth Quest' - used for travel (icons), health (with three different card piles), and combat. That was a system that will be hard to be beaten as it was simple but also so precise and had no real holes in it.
Great review and content! I always, always look forward to your negative criticisms because you don’t hold back and call it like it is which I appreciate and value. And when you give examples, your justifications and explanations are sometimes hilarious. Lol. Cheers!
I play solo and coop games, and I think I have figured out exactly what to do about Witcher: Buy the SECOND edition! By then, we'll know whether the coop/solo modes are really good. By then, the monsters will probably be a lot less same-o to fight. I've got lots of great games in my queue; I can wait. (There surely will BE a second edition.) - Toby
@@TheKingofAverage try to slow it down as much as can. My only life regret was getting into 40k. Eventually I want to put together a detailed post outlining why you shouldn't run into that burning building. The models are outstanding and some of the lore is great but the rest is .... Let's just say there are many reasons you always find bundles from new and veteran players on ebay. Because, eventually, some are brave enough to overcome the Sunk Cost effect from the overpriced plastic and time spent hobbying en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost . I am glad I only fell in for a few months. I recommend you check out Legion, a much better game that right off the bat does not suffer the first turn leaf blower effect. cheers
Thank you for actually explaining the game play, how the cards work for travel, chaining the cards for fighting, etc. I watched the two gameplay videos from Go On Board and it was not clear. While I appreciate the release of the official videos, breaking down why you do something and how to do it is important. It wasn't highlighted. So now I have a better opinion of the game, but I think this is a pass for me, even if the minis look awesome.
Glad I could help out in your decision! It's not always natural to narrate or explain why you do something so I can understand them perhaps not doing that so well :)
@@TheKingofAverage my intention wasn't to be critical of the Go on Board team. Their level of interaction on BGG, YT videos, and other areas have been phenomenal. It's more of the fact that at this point in time, they have been involved with the game so long, that these basic items might escape their thinking of having to explain it. So a potential backer like me, who doesn't want to read a 35 page rule book just to determine if we like the game, is left a little lost. That's why I'm a big proponent of getting the games into the hands of reviewers who will go through it with explaining it in more depth/detail.
Michael, how do you feel about company's who run new kickstarters before their previous kickstarters finish delivering? I backed titans and still have not received it--wish I could see how their previous project turned out before I have to decide on this one--plus even once people get it they need to play and review it.
That's a tough one for one big reason: timing is hard. The idea is to "ride the hype" as I say where people get something you made, are excited to see it's good and they you come out and say "hey if you liked that then check this out!" Wait too long and they hype dies off (as hype always does). Too early and not enough hype has built up from delivery yet. 2nd part of that issue is delivery typically takes about 2-3 months before it's actually "completed" and even then there will technically be stragglers . The ship might land in Austrailia on the 1st, the EU on the 5th, America on the 16, Canada on the 18th, South Africa on the 3rd of the next month, but then there's a customs issue in the EU so the hub doesn't even get it until 2 weeks later, and the hub in America is swamped and doesn't even start sorting it out until 3 weeks later and sadly the ship for South America got stuck behind a beached ship in Egypt. The point being that even once you get your copy, there will be quite a few who still haven't. Now couple that with an IP rights holder who can (and they sometimes do) say "launch in May or you lose the license" - I've seen it happen. Anyway I totally, 100% agree in an ideal world everyone's got the game and has played it plenty (hopefully you play what, once a week? Once every other week? Once a month? Are you still in lockdown and can't at all?) and ideally the hype is still strong with it and they launch at that exact right time. But I am a fair bit lenient on this because of the logistical nightmare shipping globally and people's play rate are so as long as a company has delivered some and has a clear path forward to more then I'm generally okay with it. I hope you get your copy soon btw Jason! Titans is fun :)
After plying the game , what do you think a fair price would be to back this game ? Value for what you played ? It would be nice to have a second set of cards you place out 4 or 5 each game . That you can only buy one per game as a really high cost and or once you complete a certain milestone in the game ..
Great review as always!!! I understand that they are going to add cards that make the monsters feel different, which is good. However, the solution for the limited exploration cards seems to be buy expansions, but that is an expensive bandaid. You enjoyed dice poker, but I felt it was one of the many 50/50 things that really hurt the game. Dice poker, exploration cards (assuming you don’t already know them) and monster combat cards are all 50/50 choices. Sure, dice games and card drawing games always have luck, but the 50/50 nature of many things in this game can really ruin the game.
What i like in the book is the kind of fable that the writer was building up... Then the story star to becomes bigger and lost a bit the beauty of it. The videogame is something else is nice but took a total different direction keeping the character but pushing to the big story. This boardgame looks something in between but I'm not very convinced... İ will most probably back it but i wish was more into the Witcher world.
I really enjoy the review. The Witcher is a brand I loved but your review make me realise that's not a game I want. Not that the game doesn't look good but in the end I have other game I would prefer to play. Thanks for that.
Comment for the algorithm and a remark to card sizes. All card sizes have pros and cons and i must admit i have become quite picky with when game designers clearly sell you an inferior tactile experience just because they want to save some money (staring at you CMON with your unresonable use of microUS cards). In general if you have a lot of shuffling going on you should aim for as close to poker size as possible (those shuffle best) and stacks of 12+ cards. There is knowledge out there about the optimal use of gaming components in design but it is hard to find. i once read an amazing article about all the decisions that went into the dice design for king of tokyo, twas mindblowing.
Ah very interesting! I *love* and appreciate the focus on so much art, reused or not it's a very pretty game but you shuffle a lot and sleeve shuffling is so much better.
Great job as always King! I was on the fence and you gave me the nudge I needed to back this one. I love the theme, but wasn't quite sure how the actual gameplay would translate. After hearing your description and seeing the publisher make the alterations with the way monsters work I jumped all in!
I sold Conan unplayed, for other reasons, but your #1 thing is a concern for me. The closest I have to that are the Pathfinder Adventure Card games where the deck is also your life. However, in those games, you can heal to recover cards from your discard. Is there such a thing in The Witcher? Also, spending 2-3 cards to gain one seems like a losing venture.
You reshuffle your cards constantly (every single battle you start with a fresh deck for instance) so those higher up cards come in real handy :) I mentioned it a bit, but yes exactly you can recover cards from your discard, essentially offering a "heal" :)
with the events couldn't to fix that issue of seeing them all make 2 of the card with the same start but 4 different outcomes, that way you think you pulled the same card but its not the same card. then once you've done it all you may know all 4 outcomes but you still wouldn't know which card you have drawn
Also: Are there no dice cups or anything to obscure view with dice poker? No bluffing, no raising, etc? That takes the whole "poker" part out of it, making it just a single round of yahtzee.
It's slightly more interesting as you both get re-rolls but depending on circumstance, they might re-roll before you so you know exactly what you have to be. Changes what you might attempt to get. But yes it's not some long drawn out thing with bluffs and such, a very quick/rapid fun little dice rolling for money you can do on your turn :)
@@TheKingofAverage Yeah, I think Mini games are a bad idea in multiplayer board games to start with because of the downtime issue. Even saw some people complaining that they did not include Gwent, like that's not a horrible idea 😅 Still think this Mini-Yahtzee is not justified, since it's not interesting and really luck-dependent and also not something from the games or books, at least in this form. I understand why they broke it down to what it is, having players wait for other players to finish their side game would be awful, but I'd have cut it completely then I think.
I think having something to obscure the dice and a single chance to raise and/or bluff before the rerolls would not really draw out the length too much but stay true to the source and make it much more exciting.
at first I was skeptical it would be yet another Gloomhaven-miniature cashgrab, but happy to see they went into competitive adventure genre. sadly have too many I am not bored of yet, but hope they do succeed. interested to see how fixed map holds up after a few plays.
@@aligalahan it's about "gloomhavens", dungeon crawlers with lots of miniatures you see only once in 20 games. hence a cashgrab for sculpts pretending to sell a game, GW style. Gloomhaven is widely acclaimed game and obviously is not a cashgrab, just like you observed, but others do that a lot. gloomhaven is just the most recognizable of the genre, and also the game to chase.
IMHO, the large board and the larger cards are fine since there is so much text and my eyesight is not that great. The larger board makes it easier for everyone to see. I am hoping the monster deck is just to demo the game and more will be coming as unlocks. I do not know if rare cards would throw off balance unless they have a one and done aspect. Otherwise, if you have a rare card and your opponent does not, you have a potential in knocking them or the monster our too quickly. For the monsters, from the several reviews and play throughs I have watched, I would like to see the Monster scale in difficulty as your character goes up in strength.
Ok pro: cards are for everything, chars feel different, game scales well and Catch up mechanics seem nice... still i am not convinced. Probably because i did not get the fight mechanics completely or because i do fear that drawing the same Exploration cards over and over again may turn out boring...
Yeah sadly the combat is something I think you have to experience, hopefully the can have a TTS mod or something available. It's quite straightforward but I found it quite enjoyable and more nuanced than I figured at first glance.
@@TheKingofAverage fighting is important for enjoyment... need to experience that first. Competitors are strong these days... pledging for Eldfall Chronicles. Did you take a closer look at that project?
These are great videos, so please keep them up. It is rare to get some proper analysis... and supporting points on why various aspects of the game work well /or not. Now time to disagree: having smaller cards.... noooo ... i do love the witcher art, and more tables space is a small price to pay for seeing these bigger and not having to strain my eyes to read tiny text. Also, Roach (horse) on a barn is a take on the video games ai mechanic, which often saw your horse appear on crazy places. There is a great art piece for it in the witcher art book, and cool to see here imo.
I do love the art as well, but my cards are already damaged I've shuffled them so much. They need sleeves to last whether you special order them or buy standard sizes.
@@TheKingofAverage Since sleeving is so important for this game (due to the amount of shuffling involved), making the cards a standard size would be *very* helpful. Have you given this feedback to the developer?
I'm not sure I like the "deck is your health" idea. I think in deck-builders it was always an interesting decision when to get new cards to combo and when to stop buying or thin your deck to make drawing into combos more probable. With the health mechanic, this decision space is gone since it'll always be better to get a card, if even just for health, than not to get a card. Also, with cards going out of your deck randomly because of damage and such besides cards that a less curated going into your deck the deck- / combobuilding seems pretty unreliable. I think the reliability of eventually seeing every card of your deck is major for deck-building, and discarding cards randomly ruins that.
Yes and no, again it's more deep than it might first appear. Gaining a card each level ensures that yes you naturally get stronger over time no matter what, but that decision point to discard cards to get higher/better cards is still very much there. If you fill your deck with 0 cost cards you'll have more every turn as you aren't discarding any, but you have the same health as someone else but worse cards so when you draw them you get worse options. Alternatively you can try to focus on those really useful 1 and 2 cost cards at the expense of less options for your turn that next round, and less defense/attack should someone attack you before your turn comes again. So there's this constant pull of wanting to be better prepared for your turn next, better prepared for being attacked before your turn comes again (or for your own attack during your turn) and getting stronger cards so you don't have a deck of worse cards. Couple taht with being able to get cards for quest rewards, trading low level cards for higher level cards at a certain location and being able to use low level cards to activate items you might gain and there's still plenty of thought and nuance around which card you pick before you even get to what's on the cards themselves.
Toss a coin to your Witcher O' Valley of Plenty O' Valley of Plenty I actually really like the card size. Only thing I disagree with. Anyway, I am saving up for Sankokushin, and Wild Assents new campaign. I need to not want this. So I hope they don't add Geralt of Rivia.. or I hope they do. Because I'm all in if they do.. 🙃
Hi King, are you sure this game has depth in it? it looks to be pretty shallow, roll and move around the board. specifically there are no exploration with dungeon delving, or hard story telling, as it is mostly PvP. i am also disappointed it takes place earlier than our Witcher time, so none of our favorite characters miniatures are here. and there are no female minis, this last one is always a hard miss. so i am bit reluctant on this one.
Great questions! I'll answer in semi reverse order: This is an IP game and as such it's a balancing act between Game On Board wanting the freedom to be creative (100 years in the past allows that a bit more than if it was in the main timeline) and following what the actual rights holder allows. Perhaps Game On Board pushed to have a female witcher and the holder said no? Perhaps they didn't, perhaps it was in the contract they signed to not buck any norms of the world, perhaps they didn't want to undo Ciri's almost sort of kind of witcher training - sadly we'll never really know the inner workings there :D Okay so depth: I found this to have more depth than some entire dungeon crawlers actually! Go looks mundane and boring but we all know how advanced of a game that is for decision making, even computers struggle with it! To put the comparioson back on Small World since it's an easy target: The single most important decision you'll make in a game of small world isn't in the more "advanced" tactics of which race to pick or where to go on the map or how to spread out or use your race powers or any of that. The biggest decision there is when to retire the race and lose a turn. It doesn't seem that way when you read the rulebook and honestly not the first few plays of the game either but you soon realize that can make you lose the lead or gain it more often than not. It's always TEMPTING to keep going and get that 6 more gold with your current race but it turns out the proper choice was to retire them before not after. Using these actions cards are much the same here. Choosing where to go and what actions to do and what monsters to fight seem like the more "advanced" parts of the game, but the most important decision you make is do you spend your cards on an expensive one, having a slow turn after, or go for a big turn and get a weaker card. That decision will be with you for the rest of the game as your deck is shaped by it. Anyway, just my two cents. I'll go play a whole session of some dungeon crawler and have a blast, but not make any real TOUGH decisions, but this game gives that every single turn.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
VERY happy that you tested it thoroughly and liked it!
Also - we've listened to people suggest that, and we plan to introduce on KS something that will make each monster feel different.
So happy to see this :)
Hyped!!!
Very good to see the developer watching videos
Here a simple suggestion to make the monsters feel unique. Each of them could have 2 to 5 cards that would be added to the generic monster cards. It would give them more health while giving them a chance to draw unique attack card specific to the monster.
@@Renegade_KT actually they already said (in some video or some forum - I don't remember right now) that every monster will have 2 uniqe cards. Also (if I good remember) those cards may have some "passive" ability which trigger in case if that card is discarded due to damage taken
A small copy/paste error toward the start with the positive/negative notes - sorry about that! I worked all day on this huge review and I hope you guys like it! Let me know if you have any questions :)
How was learning it from the written rules? We put a lot of time into working the rules to be clear (and still happy to do more with additional feedback).
Rules are still a bit rough (I'd rank average for prototypes I've played) but I asked all the questions I had from my playthroughs with Łukasz so he's aware of the gaps I found :)
@@TheKingofAverage Awesome, we'll get them fixed up; thank you for the feedback!
"Quest with a horse on a roof." Me "Darn it Roach!."
So basically its Runebound, but with a more thought out combat system, less interesting monsters, combined with cards being your health from Gloomhaven. Big thing that made me love Runebound is all the monsters were unique, and none were duplicated. The monsters also didn't have mini's, but if they weren't defeated the monsters card would go on this track at the top of the board, were you would take a simple 1-5 token and place it were it was. Then the monsters would move at then end of the turn and could attack you if they landed in your space. The events were also equally as great as they sound as this game (once again none were repeated). The one kind of event I liked was one that effected everyone on the board. Like for example everyone had to pay 1g to travel on roads, or a Flash Flood that made river spaces impassable. I am appreciative of this type of review.
It would also be nice to hear how the end of the game felt... and /or the lead up to it... climatic /anti/inevitable /frenzy /leaving with a taste for me (win or lose)
Going to follow the kickstarter thanks to you, curious to see what it will offer. Variation and replayability is very important for me.
Great video... also for the time stamps, but the time first, then the description to get them working.
They work fine for me?
As for the rare cards - it would be nice to gain some unique cards when you max one of your stats - Max lvl at alchemy? Here's some tasty potion for you! Max def? Here's some fancy armor for you! Etc..
Good idea!
I like this idea better. Rare cards on the center board, could lead to one person having a huge advantage over the other based completely on when the card gets flipped up. It also makes your decision for you. You’re gonna take the rare card when one comes up as long as you can afford it, the only choice happening if there winds up being more than one on the field at a time. In order for this to work a significant portion of the cards would have to be rare to ensure everyone had some opportunity to acquire them and keep choice on the table. Getting a rare card when you max a stat lowers the number of required cards to creat and gives the player agency over which cards they want to go after.
You get a trophy, which is unique and powerful.
Great review as always, and I was happy to see you mention the 2 “worries” I had about the game after watching the playthrough, namely the monsters sameness, and the exploration/quest repetition.
I know Go on Board have addressed the monster worry, so very interested to see how they address this, and your suggestion of more cards for exploration is spot on, and in fact it makes me think of what we do in our house when we get a new Trivial Pursuit game, we only open on deck of cards, the games usually come with 3 packs, and play through multiple times until we start to get repetitions, then open the next deck and so on, until we get to all decks being open and which time we shuffle everything together to mix it up.
New exploration and quest decks, along with new monsters could be a way to support and expand the game going forward.
Anyway, definitely All-In on this day 1, must get my free mounted Wild Hunt mini (forgot his name 😄) , and then can’t wait to get to play it in the future.
Ah that's a great idea about the cards!
2 ways to fix the cards problem: 1-More cards like they've done now during Kickstarter campaign 2- Double some cards and just write different outcomes. Same option but different outcome and effect.
I say it everytime I watch these but THANK YOU for the in depth review. These really help me see what the game is all about and what it's actually like playing it (really dislike watching playthroughs).
Glad to hear it! :) That's exactly why I always try to say if characters/enemies *feel* different. It's not enough to look at raw mechanics, how does it actually feel fighting a Fiend vs fighting a Ghoul?
I wish this was a story driven campaign game. I wanted to play as a witcher and make tons of choices that effect the story like in witcher 3. Not sure if ill get this one cause I have runebound 3rd edition and these seem very similar.
I'm pretty glad it's not. Story driven campaign games are neat but at the end of the day they're just so much harder to get to the table. I think for a lighter game like the Witcher which might bring in a lot of new blood to boardgaming, a standalone game is a better choice
I Agree with Adam. I for one have been thinking about this quite a bit.... and I think I like games with an emergent story based on your decisions more than campaign game. Why? because essentially a story driven campaign game is a video game 'on rails' whereas 'emergent story' feels more like an RPG (My favourite being Robinson Crusoe - where things you don't do get shuffled into your event deck and can bite you in the ass at any moment.)
They have an expansion that has a story element called the the "Wild Hunt"
Ah, loved the idea of a Witcher game but was waiting till it launched to look into it. Really appreciate the in depth, game on the table, review.
So it's a well conceived card game with minis as playing pieces.
Would really be nice to see a minis box option in the kickstarter, not going to buy a whole game of a type I'll never play just for the Witcher models.
At least now I'm not mistakenly anticipating a mini based game for an IP I'm enjoying.
I'm so excited for this!
I cannot afford to buy more games. I've spent too much money on it and I don't have the space for it all, but this I have to have!
Thank you so much for the detailed review. Sounds like great fun and I'm sure I will bring this to the table often. I just love The Witcher lore!
Another entertaining and insightful review King, your take is invaluable. Just a little feedback on the upload: your voice volume dropped quite low in parts when you were making a certain kind of point. Possibly alter the gain function on your mic so it picks up variance in your speech pattern, boosting low volume and leveling high volume. Cheers
I'll take note not to whisper :) That's a post edit thing for sure. I can get pretty loud too so you gotta put the DB to negative else it'll "spike" up and flatline, making any gain added sound bad in those parts so you need to keep it in the middle. I'll pay more attention to the sound in low parts and adjust accordingly! More time editing for sure, but a video isn't much good if you can't hear it! :)
Thanks for the feedback! Really helpful!
Awesome detailed review ! You hit all the good/bad points of the gameplay. Curious about the KS and the next videos :-)
Great video!
Although one quick thing: The catch-up mechanic you described is not a catch-up mechanic at all. Unless I misunderstood the way it works, everyone has to go through that same thing, whereas a true catch-up mechanic would only affect the leading player (or the losing player if it's a boost). This is more akin to a steep upward slope in a race; sure you get "closer" to the guy in front of you, but you're not really any closer to winning because you're slowed down by the slope as well.
I love this IP so much that I just watched an hour-long review. Damn. Great video, btw.
Also, I'm glad most of the "cons" you had like monster minis, monsters feeling more different and more exploration and event cards are already covered in the KS.
Oh yeah they've been great in going over any cons listed and trying to make the game as great as it can be so that's awesome to see!
Glad you liked the video :D They are long and in depth but hopefully it helps instill confidence in whatever decision you make around the game :)
What a review!!!
Well done King!!!
I hope too see more of that type of reviews!
Glad you liked it Felipe!
I went all in on this pledge. By far the most expensive board game purchase I've made (by a couple of hundred dollars, with postage to NZ). I've only come across your channel now, but I have to say, I really, really appreciate your unbiased, non-paid for reviews.
Wondering, do you take requests? I'd really love to see a review of Eclipse, second edition, especially comparing it to Twilight Imperium 4th ed. I'm looking at Fractal at the moment (loved your review on this) and trying to compare with Voidfall and the previous two, and it's so hard to decide :D (especially with the latter still only existing in Kickstarter).
Happy to have you here Groove! :)
I do indeed take requests, this channel is all about helping you guys as best I can, would be pointless to make a video otherwise I feel :) However I can't accommodate everything sadly :( For instance I have 6 games in the review queue right now, so hard to fit in something extra right now (having to tell other companies that to which is a bummer, part of doing this part time I suppose).
You might want to check out BoardGameCo's versus video of Fractal and Voidfall. Not sure he's actually played either of them but I'm sure regardless he's done some good research on them both.
My take:
If you want a heavy Euro space themed 4x with long play time, many mechanics to juggle, no luck and less player interaction (so, more puzzle orientated) then VoidFall is your go to. If you want a fewer mechanics but smoother and quicker gameplay, story/purpose a little bit of luck from randomness and more player interaction then Fractal is the one for you.
Personally I appreciated the narrative stuff and streamlined play and no fuss setup/teardown of Fractal so I felt while it might not "review" the best, it'll hit the table more than one that might review better but not have those things. But that's my preference showing as I traditionally don't touch Euros as it's not really why I play board games so they aren't for me.
Can't comment on Eclipse and only TI lightly to just say you could play 3 games of Fractal in the time it takes to play 1 game of TI, so if that matters then there's that :D
Hail to the King!
I really appreciate the detailed review. I'd go one step further and say, you also completely changed my mind on the game.
Generally I dislike games that import an IP into a new medium. However, I loved the fact that none of your description required any knowledge of The Witcher, and the game stood on it own strength.
Thanks from the game play video from Lukas was hard to gauge it as fun but after you explained it helped me to feel confident to back it . Will you cover the co Op vs ? I am getting it mostly for Co op
Not soled yet but will toss a coin for pledge manager :) For boss deck - they could do something like Gloom does, monster can have some unique special ability 1 or so, and the monster card would just say - monster activate special ability. No need to shuffle new cards to the deck.
Do you know the scale of the miniatures? I plan to use them outside of the board game as well. Are then 32mm to the eye, or to the top of the head? Do they fit in well with other miniature lines?
"Feel so boss. I pop my collar and walk off and get a soda." LMAO. PREACH KING.
I'm livin' large here :D
How easy is it to see/understand those symbols on the board if you sit on the otherside of the table so that the board is like upside down to you? Or if it sideways to you?
We've had no issue with that :)
I love this type of games, but considering I will get Frosthaven, Oathsworn and Eon Odessy, all at the end of the year - it would be stupid to que up more kickstarters.
Aeon Trespass is still a year away, check the last update, also they are very different games, Frosthaven is almost a dungeon crawl, oathswort and Aeons are boss battlers and this is advenure level up your hero and be done with it in 2 hours.. then next time its completely reset.. all the others you mentioned are 100hours Campaign games
@@JanFrensin I was just talking about how much time I would have over, for other games
Hey Michael, thanks for the in-depth review! Even though I've already watched a complete play-through, I feel that I have a much better understanding of the game after watching your video.
You mentioned that the game will support solo/coop. Do you have any details on how this will work?
Really glad I could help! :) I do, but I'll wait until my Details video to discuss it as I was told in confidence. It sounds good though honestly!
Exploration cards are cool, but i would love a collaboration with Forteller app so that we dont have to read all that text on them.
Maybe with a card number, inserting it in the app and reading the flavor text.
I would love that in Etherfields too.
Could’ve been cool to have some random encounters cards to draw while wandering around: random treasure, side-quest or a fight with skills/equipment/deck check. Hyped for the game anyway.
That's pretty much what the explore cards are :) I've found treasure, a random fight, a sudden quest, a person to learn from, etc.
And yes some have die roll checks! :)
@@TheKingofAverage great, then I am supporting you thesis on expanding the number of cards.
Great review, as always! I appreciate the detail you go in to, and your honest pros and cons for the game. Thanks!
You are very welcome :)
Hello TKoA, what is the difference between the City and Outskirts explorations? Is there any strategic choice involved in these two types?
From what I could tell no, but I wasn't counting them either. Looking back I think outside resulted in more fighting type events
I came to watch this AFTER pledging money for the deluxe version on day 1 of the kickstarter. I'm just a huge sucker for the IP and had to have it. Now I'm gonna be watching as many videos about it as I can. Glad I could learn more about the actual gameplay though, liked and subbed!
Welcome Kovich! I hope my video helped set some good expectations for you on the game and at least help build some confidence in your decision :D
Said it before and going to say it again. Love that I can look at the timestamp and watch the summary for a good review =)
That takes some time to put together well (down to the second) so really glad to hear it's a positive for ya! :)
Just backed it. I was on the fence, but your review helped me decide. Thanks for the review!
You area very welcome!
Thanks for the great video, your analysis of the gameplay and the mechanics was really valuable for me!
awesome review, the witchers fights sound really good, but as you confirmed for me, the monsters do sound a bit samey. There are so many ways to spice them up, maybe on the card back have 3 defense ratings and give the monster a column to use, a few special cards for some monsters, different piles to pull monster cards from, then monster pulls 4 from pile 1, 3 from pile 2 and 6 from pile 3 etc - each pile has a different flavour ... there seems to be so much that could be done. The game does sound and look really good though.
They said they'd add more variety to the monster fights! This is why early reviews are so helpful to BOTH sides I feel :)
It's a lengthy review but full of all the detail us backers require. I for one appreciate it ! Seems like a solid back and if they have these basics right at the start then the only way is up ! Hope they put an index in ;)
Glad it's helpful! :) Index is indeed required - I was told there would be one or I'd have mentioned it ;D
Thanks for the review! I enjoyed the level of details. Was helpful in making the decision. Btw. what's the song that you are using for the outro from 1:06:27?, those guitar riffs are right up my alley.
"Everyone's relationship's different." Made me actually laugh out loud.
So excited for this game to launch.
Sounds like I'm not alone in that situation :D
I will be backing this. It looks interesting and it's the Witcher after all.
I do not wanted to like the game and I see/saw so many potential flaws but because of you it looks like that I will have to follow along another Kickstarter campaign...
To your requested feedback: I would not be convinced that the flaws I see, are minor issues if Tom Vasel or anyone else would like the game. I value your opinion more thus it is very beneficial to have such a comprehensive insight given by you. Thanks a lot!
Amazing review and super helpful. Thanks Michael!
Glad it was Enrico! :D
Sweet shirt! Where did you get it?
As much as I enjoy a review I prefer a thorough playthrough and rule teach. I also enjoy watching other people play when I can't play it myself.
Anyway, as far as this game goes it seems to me that they wanted to include so many things that it became too "much", too much of everything... I need to watch a good playthrough to make my final decision. Thanks for the great preview King!
I really appreciate this detailed review. I'm painfully on the fence about Witcher, since I play solo and coop. I'm suspicious of games where solo and coop are later add-ons. On the other hand, the ONLY way to get the solo and coop modes free is to pledge the KS, without knowing much about what they will be. Please, let's have some more detailed reviews.
I had him describe Co-op too me and it sounds very nice. He stressed that they spent a lot of time ensuring it wasn't some tacked on thing but instead something that was honestly fun and still worked really well mechanically. From what he described, it sounded cool :)
But 100% always go in with some salt on ANY "alternative game modes" as you're right, 75% of the time it's poop.
Not sure if I missed it, but have you tried the solo/coop? How was it?
Maybe there could be a better solution to the space problem than smaller cards (boo! card art = theme and we want that!) - what if you'd get some kind of Gametrayz system or so that you lift out of the box and has discards vertical next to the reg cards (or something like that - there are multiple ways to solve that). potentially making it slightly more expensive.... but would help with that problem.
Really good review as usual. Still undecided on whether to back as it feels overly simple. But that's my problem. Thanks for a very in-depth look.
Has there been any specific about number of monsters, trophies/items, as well as cost. I know its about to be revealed one way or the other. I know I saw a mention of solo/coop but I've not seen a lot of details
You should totally review the updated version+the expansions.. It's much more improved! Especially the monsters!
Getting the game itself, so excited to see that first hand! :)
@@TheKingofAverage super!! Can't wait for your review! Big fan of yours!
Thx for the review. I think its kind of like runebound 2.edition without the dice combat and moving.
Great Review! A lot of great suggestions too!
Great video, thank you. Love the level of detail you go into, much appreciated. All your points are very relevant to me, I hope they are incorporated. Very excited for this, I hope the price is relatively reasonable, I’ve already backed way more stuff than I should this year.
Critical early reviews are helpful for both sides - they said they'd add more variety to monster fights for instance! :)
@@TheKingofAverage Re: scoring systems, I agree the scores on BGG don't mean much but a reviewer like you should have some kind of scale, I think. As we get to know you and your tastes, we also understand how that score relates to us. Of course having a score out of 100 is crazy but I'd prefer to know your totally personal score for that game. I'm a big fan of Alex's system (Boardgameco). But whatever you do, we love ya anyway :)
Seems like an amazing game!!! Another great video, thank you King!
Hey nice review. What is the total card count for everything in the box?
I dont understand why some companies make cards with non-standard size. It's just makes it harder to get our own sleeves for them. I bet it is not that hard to adjust 1-5mm and make them standard.
i think its more of a "table real estate" thing. I like standard size or at least Japanese size (Yugioh).
Thanks for sharing and always thanks for your honest opinion!
Definitely backing this one. Looks like it is true to the IP, has deck building, dice, double layered player boards, minis, good stories. Pffttt... it has it ALL ! ! ! :-)
When I played Witcher I would do all the side quests and get myself super-OP for the storyline and just waltz through it :D
Having level 4 items could easily unbalance the game, but I get the appeal: searching for the legendary armour in Wild Hunt is a lot of fun and extremely satisfying when you get it. Maybe a solution would be to shuffle in a level 4 item per player? Or have a series of quests that lead to its crafting?
The horse on a roof card has got to be a nod to Geralt's horse Roach who in the video game always seems to spawn in the weirdest places :D
Now I want to know what the horse was doing on the roof! XD
This is a reference to a funny glitch in the video game where you would summon Roach and he’d appear on the roof. 😂
What is the size of the main game board?
Hi, love your videos, I have been following your for a month now, and I don't regret it :D. I have a question. I hear in your videos, that you talk about Bloodborne very highly. My local game store is having a pre-order to it, but due to budget reasons, I will be able to afford either The Witcher, or Bloodborne. With one do you recommend? To be honest, I prefer coop games, but I love the minis here, and the game(the witcher)looks really fun. Hope to hear back :). Keep up the good work!
Welcome Georgi! Glad to have you here :)
First thing's first: I'm sure The Witcher will be retail after a while so in time you can have both if you choose :) Go with what you feel is a good deal if you think you'd like either game :)
Now for Bloodborne: I reviewed it and you are free to check that out, but know this: I review based on what the game is as sold and as such it's a much more negative review than this.
So why do I love it? House rules fix my issue with it :) While I can't review based off of house rules, the house rules I mention in the review make me enjoy it a lot more - it's a fun game! Lots of content too!
@@TheKingofAverage Thank you for the advice! :)
Anytime dude :)
I watch this video every time I have my doubts if I did the right thing to go all-in on this game. I think I did. I love the fact they addressed every weakness you found in this game. I think it will be a great game. :)
They very much took feedback to heart I feel :)
Really love the look of this game but I feel like it's one where the novelty will rub off quite fast and after this the design seems a bit too shallow to keep me in. Not one for me, I guess.
oooh. I love games were you hunt evil supernatural baddies. (Okko, Solomon Kane, A Touch of Evil, Arkham Horror etc)
Not familiar with The Witcher setting though to make this a must.
If have the above me tioned games, what extra/different does this bring to the table?
"Fought and lost to twice." ****uneasy chuckle**** :^)
haha there is a bit of animosity between us and a certain monster that's kind of a jerk :D
The card system has been pinched directly from Fantasy Flight Games 2009 game 'Middle Earth Quest' - used for travel (icons), health (with three different card piles), and combat. That was a system that will be hard to be beaten as it was simple but also so precise and had no real holes in it.
I'm quite fond of it :)
Great review and content! I always, always look forward to your negative criticisms because you don’t hold back and call it like it is which I appreciate and value. And when you give examples, your justifications and explanations are sometimes hilarious. Lol. Cheers!
Thanks for the great Review, what do you think about the add ons ? Mages, legendary hunt etc. Worth it or Not? Greetings
I didn't grab them. Plenty of game here already with stretchgoals and at a really good price.
Oh and thank you, glad you liked the review :)
I play solo and coop games, and I think I have figured out exactly what to do about Witcher: Buy the SECOND edition! By then, we'll know whether the coop/solo modes are really good. By then, the monsters will probably be a lot less same-o to fight. I've got lots of great games in my queue; I can wait. (There surely will BE a second edition.) - Toby
Whats up Rockstar, What is going on with Necrons and Morty/DG on the background? Did you fall into the GW well? lol
I fell, and fell in hard :D
@@TheKingofAverage try to slow it down as much as can. My only life regret was getting into 40k. Eventually I want to put together a detailed post outlining why you shouldn't run into that burning building. The models are outstanding and some of the lore is great but the rest is .... Let's just say there are many reasons you always find bundles from new and veteran players on ebay. Because, eventually, some are brave enough to overcome the Sunk Cost effect from the overpriced plastic and time spent hobbying en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_cost . I am glad I only fell in for a few months. I recommend you check out Legion, a much better game that right off the bat does not suffer the first turn leaf blower effect. cheers
Thank you for actually explaining the game play, how the cards work for travel, chaining the cards for fighting, etc. I watched the two gameplay videos from Go On Board and it was not clear. While I appreciate the release of the official videos, breaking down why you do something and how to do it is important. It wasn't highlighted. So now I have a better opinion of the game, but I think this is a pass for me, even if the minis look awesome.
Glad I could help out in your decision! It's not always natural to narrate or explain why you do something so I can understand them perhaps not doing that so well :)
@@TheKingofAverage my intention wasn't to be critical of the Go on Board team. Their level of interaction on BGG, YT videos, and other areas have been phenomenal. It's more of the fact that at this point in time, they have been involved with the game so long, that these basic items might escape their thinking of having to explain it. So a potential backer like me, who doesn't want to read a 35 page rule book just to determine if we like the game, is left a little lost. That's why I'm a big proponent of getting the games into the hands of reviewers who will go through it with explaining it in more depth/detail.
There's a deluxe pledge with miniatures for the monsters...
Must not tell myself I should probably get it to use for D&D haha :D
Appreciate the break down, sounds good so far!
Michael, how do you feel about company's who run new kickstarters before their previous kickstarters finish delivering? I backed titans and still have not received it--wish I could see how their previous project turned out before I have to decide on this one--plus even once people get it they need to play and review it.
That's a tough one for one big reason: timing is hard.
The idea is to "ride the hype" as I say where people get something you made, are excited to see it's good and they you come out and say "hey if you liked that then check this out!" Wait too long and they hype dies off (as hype always does). Too early and not enough hype has built up from delivery yet.
2nd part of that issue is delivery typically takes about 2-3 months before it's actually "completed" and even then there will technically be stragglers . The ship might land in Austrailia on the 1st, the EU on the 5th, America on the 16, Canada on the 18th, South Africa on the 3rd of the next month, but then there's a customs issue in the EU so the hub doesn't even get it until 2 weeks later, and the hub in America is swamped and doesn't even start sorting it out until 3 weeks later and sadly the ship for South America got stuck behind a beached ship in Egypt.
The point being that even once you get your copy, there will be quite a few who still haven't.
Now couple that with an IP rights holder who can (and they sometimes do) say "launch in May or you lose the license" - I've seen it happen. Anyway I totally, 100% agree in an ideal world everyone's got the game and has played it plenty (hopefully you play what, once a week? Once every other week? Once a month? Are you still in lockdown and can't at all?) and ideally the hype is still strong with it and they launch at that exact right time. But I am a fair bit lenient on this because of the logistical nightmare shipping globally and people's play rate are so as long as a company has delivered some and has a clear path forward to more then I'm generally okay with it.
I hope you get your copy soon btw Jason! Titans is fun :)
how big is your table? (lol)
i wonder could you extend play time by increasing the amount of trophies needed ?
After plying the game , what do you think a fair price would be to back this game ? Value for what you played ?
It would be nice to have a second set of cards you place out 4 or 5 each game . That you can only buy one per game as a really high cost and or once you complete a certain milestone in the game ..
Great review as always!!! I understand that they are going to add cards that make the monsters feel different, which is good. However, the solution for the limited exploration cards seems to be buy expansions, but that is an expensive bandaid. You enjoyed dice poker, but I felt it was one of the many 50/50 things that really hurt the game. Dice poker, exploration cards (assuming you don’t already know them) and monster combat cards are all 50/50 choices. Sure, dice games and card drawing games always have luck, but the 50/50 nature of many things in this game can really ruin the game.
guess I'm backing another game. lol. great review as always!
Glad you liked it!
What i like in the book is the kind of fable that the writer was building up... Then the story star to becomes bigger and lost a bit the beauty of it. The videogame is something else is nice but took a total different direction keeping the character but pushing to the big story. This boardgame looks something in between but I'm not very convinced... İ will most probably back it but i wish was more into the Witcher world.
16:10 someone died, show goes on
Hah! It's do or die once the camera starts rolling :D
Love the shirt, great game!
If I end up backing it, this has been the best review :)
I really enjoy the review. The Witcher is a brand I loved but your review make me realise that's not a game I want. Not that the game doesn't look good but in the end I have other game I would prefer to play. Thanks for that.
So glad I could help you out! :)
Comment for the algorithm and a remark to card sizes. All card sizes have pros and cons and i must admit i have become quite picky with when game designers clearly sell you an inferior tactile experience just because they want to save some money (staring at you CMON with your unresonable use of microUS cards). In general if you have a lot of shuffling going on you should aim for as close to poker size as possible (those shuffle best) and stacks of 12+ cards. There is knowledge out there about the optimal use of gaming components in design but it is hard to find. i once read an amazing article about all the decisions that went into the dice design for king of tokyo, twas mindblowing.
Ah very interesting! I *love* and appreciate the focus on so much art, reused or not it's a very pretty game but you shuffle a lot and sleeve shuffling is so much better.
Great job as always King! I was on the fence and you gave me the nudge I needed to back this one. I love the theme, but wasn't quite sure how the actual gameplay would translate. After hearing your description and seeing the publisher make the alterations with the way monsters work I jumped all in!
I sold Conan unplayed, for other reasons, but your #1 thing is a concern for me. The closest I have to that are the Pathfinder Adventure Card games where the deck is also your life. However, in those games, you can heal to recover cards from your discard. Is there such a thing in The Witcher? Also, spending 2-3 cards to gain one seems like a losing venture.
You reshuffle your cards constantly (every single battle you start with a fresh deck for instance) so those higher up cards come in real handy :)
I mentioned it a bit, but yes exactly you can recover cards from your discard, essentially offering a "heal" :)
@@TheKingofAverage Thank you! That bit was a little unclear. That removed one of my concerns for the game.
with the events couldn't to fix that issue of seeing them all make 2 of the card with the same start but 4 different outcomes, that way you think you pulled the same card but its not the same card. then once you've done it all you may know all 4 outcomes but you still wouldn't know which card you have drawn
Also: Are there no dice cups or anything to obscure view with dice poker? No bluffing, no raising, etc? That takes the whole "poker" part out of it, making it just a single round of yahtzee.
It's slightly more interesting as you both get re-rolls but depending on circumstance, they might re-roll before you so you know exactly what you have to be. Changes what you might attempt to get. But yes it's not some long drawn out thing with bluffs and such, a very quick/rapid fun little dice rolling for money you can do on your turn :)
@@TheKingofAverage Yeah, I think Mini games are a bad idea in multiplayer board games to start with because of the downtime issue. Even saw some people complaining that they did not include Gwent, like that's not a horrible idea 😅
Still think this Mini-Yahtzee is not justified, since it's not interesting and really luck-dependent and also not something from the games or books, at least in this form. I understand why they broke it down to what it is, having players wait for other players to finish their side game would be awful, but I'd have cut it completely then I think.
I think having something to obscure the dice and a single chance to raise and/or bluff before the rerolls would not really draw out the length too much but stay true to the source and make it much more exciting.
at first I was skeptical it would be yet another Gloomhaven-miniature cashgrab, but happy to see they went into competitive adventure genre. sadly have too many I am not bored of yet, but hope they do succeed. interested to see how fixed map holds up after a few plays.
not sure i get it. gloomhaven does not have many miniatures, infact designer dislikes miniatures
@@aligalahan it's about "gloomhavens", dungeon crawlers with lots of miniatures you see only once in 20 games. hence a cashgrab for sculpts pretending to sell a game, GW style. Gloomhaven is widely acclaimed game and obviously is not a cashgrab, just like you observed, but others do that a lot. gloomhaven is just the most recognizable of the genre, and also the game to chase.
Great game great review love the chat keep up great work 😊
Thanks William! :)
that shirt is fire
Haha thank you! Once I saw it I had to grab it :D
IMHO, the large board and the larger cards are fine since there is so much text and my eyesight is not that great. The larger board makes it easier for everyone to see. I am hoping the monster deck is just to demo the game and more will be coming as unlocks. I do not know if rare cards would throw off balance unless they have a one and done aspect. Otherwise, if you have a rare card and your opponent does not, you have a potential in knocking them or the monster our too quickly. For the monsters, from the several reviews and play throughs I have watched, I would like to see the Monster scale in difficulty as your character goes up in strength.
Ok pro: cards are for everything, chars feel different, game scales well and Catch up mechanics seem nice... still i am not convinced. Probably because i did not get the fight mechanics completely or because i do fear that drawing the same Exploration cards over and over again may turn out boring...
Yeah sadly the combat is something I think you have to experience, hopefully the can have a TTS mod or something available. It's quite straightforward but I found it quite enjoyable and more nuanced than I figured at first glance.
@@TheKingofAverage fighting is important for enjoyment... need to experience that first. Competitors are strong these days... pledging for Eldfall Chronicles. Did you take a closer look at that project?
These are great videos, so please keep them up. It is rare to get some proper analysis... and supporting points on why various aspects of the game work well /or not.
Now time to disagree: having smaller cards.... noooo ... i do love the witcher art, and more tables space is a small price to pay for seeing these bigger and not having to strain my eyes to read tiny text.
Also, Roach (horse) on a barn is a take on the video games ai mechanic, which often saw your horse appear on crazy places. There is a great art piece for it in the witcher art book, and cool to see here imo.
I do love the art as well, but my cards are already damaged I've shuffled them so much. They need sleeves to last whether you special order them or buy standard sizes.
@@TheKingofAverage Since sleeving is so important for this game (due to the amount of shuffling involved), making the cards a standard size would be *very* helpful. Have you given this feedback to the developer?
I'm not sure I like the "deck is your health" idea.
I think in deck-builders it was always an interesting decision when to get new cards to combo and when to stop buying or thin your deck to make drawing into combos more probable. With the health mechanic, this decision space is gone since it'll always be better to get a card, if even just for health, than not to get a card.
Also, with cards going out of your deck randomly because of damage and such besides cards that a less curated going into your deck the deck- / combobuilding seems pretty unreliable. I think the reliability of eventually seeing every card of your deck is major for deck-building, and discarding cards randomly ruins that.
Yes and no, again it's more deep than it might first appear. Gaining a card each level ensures that yes you naturally get stronger over time no matter what, but that decision point to discard cards to get higher/better cards is still very much there. If you fill your deck with 0 cost cards you'll have more every turn as you aren't discarding any, but you have the same health as someone else but worse cards so when you draw them you get worse options.
Alternatively you can try to focus on those really useful 1 and 2 cost cards at the expense of less options for your turn that next round, and less defense/attack should someone attack you before your turn comes again. So there's this constant pull of wanting to be better prepared for your turn next, better prepared for being attacked before your turn comes again (or for your own attack during your turn) and getting stronger cards so you don't have a deck of worse cards.
Couple taht with being able to get cards for quest rewards, trading low level cards for higher level cards at a certain location and being able to use low level cards to activate items you might gain and there's still plenty of thought and nuance around which card you pick before you even get to what's on the cards themselves.
@@TheKingofAverage thanks for your thorough answer, I'll take another look when it launches! 👍
Toss a coin to your Witcher
O' Valley of Plenty
O' Valley of Plenty
I actually really like the card size. Only thing I disagree with.
Anyway, I am saving up for Sankokushin, and Wild Assents new campaign. I need to not want this. So I hope they don't add Geralt of Rivia.. or I hope they do. Because I'm all in if they do.. 🙃
Are you getting your own copy of this @The King of Average ? Exe
Yes but it's late as I live in Idaho and we're usually far away since it comes to the east coast. Will share once I do!
@@TheKingofAverage Try Living in Tasmania and talk about far away 🤣 thats where I make my content from. Thanks for getting back to me. Exe
Hi King, are you sure this game has depth in it? it looks to be pretty shallow, roll and move around the board. specifically there are no exploration with dungeon delving, or hard story telling, as it is mostly PvP. i am also disappointed it takes place earlier than our Witcher time, so none of our favorite characters miniatures are here. and there are no female minis, this last one is always a hard miss. so i am bit reluctant on this one.
Great questions! I'll answer in semi reverse order:
This is an IP game and as such it's a balancing act between Game On Board wanting the freedom to be creative (100 years in the past allows that a bit more than if it was in the main timeline) and following what the actual rights holder allows. Perhaps Game On Board pushed to have a female witcher and the holder said no? Perhaps they didn't, perhaps it was in the contract they signed to not buck any norms of the world, perhaps they didn't want to undo Ciri's almost sort of kind of witcher training - sadly we'll never really know the inner workings there :D
Okay so depth: I found this to have more depth than some entire dungeon crawlers actually! Go looks mundane and boring but we all know how advanced of a game that is for decision making, even computers struggle with it! To put the comparioson back on Small World since it's an easy target: The single most important decision you'll make in a game of small world isn't in the more "advanced" tactics of which race to pick or where to go on the map or how to spread out or use your race powers or any of that. The biggest decision there is when to retire the race and lose a turn. It doesn't seem that way when you read the rulebook and honestly not the first few plays of the game either but you soon realize that can make you lose the lead or gain it more often than not. It's always TEMPTING to keep going and get that 6 more gold with your current race but it turns out the proper choice was to retire them before not after. Using these actions cards are much the same here. Choosing where to go and what actions to do and what monsters to fight seem like the more "advanced" parts of the game, but the most important decision you make is do you spend your cards on an expensive one, having a slow turn after, or go for a big turn and get a weaker card. That decision will be with you for the rest of the game as your deck is shaped by it.
Anyway, just my two cents. I'll go play a whole session of some dungeon crawler and have a blast, but not make any real TOUGH decisions, but this game gives that every single turn.