Also a big fan of Champions of Midgard & the Valhalla expansion is definitively a must add to mitigate the dice randomness & therefore balance the (un)luck factor! An evergreen boardgame for me personally
This is one of the best expansions IMO I’ve ever played honestly it’s main competition would be Tuscany for Viticulture both just add such a fun element to the game and really up the thematic side that both are ones I will always play with
I really like Champions of Midgard w/Valhalla as in the base game, if you get very unlucky in your rolls in the first couple of rounds and don’t kill any monsters, it feels terrible and is hard to recover from it (at least in my limited playing just base). Valhalla not just mitigates that loss psychologically but also keeps you in the game. Also, it is creates situations where you want to send some dice to Valhalla to get a reward so creates more strategic options. Thanks for your analysis.
Love this game! If you ask me out of all the games, what game do I want to play next, I often switch between Clank, Scythe and Champions of Midgard. For me I like that it is a strategic game with fun choices but also has the edge of your seat tense moments with the dice rolling at the end of the rounds where you can excitedly jump out of your chair or stick your face in your hands depending on the result. If you've only played at two, it is a little less tense, dice are are easier to get.
When your warriors die in Blood Rage they come back from Valhalla. If you habe Loki cards in play, you earn victory points. Playing Loki, you actually want to lose fights, though an occasional win is still good. Same theme, different mechanic, similar feeling.
Several come to mind where a loss has some other payoff. Not exactly the same as Champions with Valhalla, but they are: Castles of Burgundy - There is always an out for bad dice rolls (gaining worker tiles), which also allows you to mitigate future bad dice rolls. Dragomino - When you gain an egg it might be an empty shell, but you get the mother dragon so you go first next turn and she counts as a point at the end of the game. Architects of the West Kingdom - Another player captures your workers which reduces your efficiency on a location, but that's how you get your workers back. Village - Older generations of your workers die, but they give you points and help trigger the end of the game. Keyflower - You can lose bids but those workers can be re-assigned to another bid or to take an action. Eclipse - You can lose a battle, but you still get to pick from the victory point bag for being a part of it.
I've been trying recently to learn game mechanics as I start my journey into development and I've really focused on SMG since I'm not a fan of take that or punishing people for playing a game. I love this idea of avoiding loss aversion by offering another goal that you could even chase harder. I tend to be the person who never uses a medkit/potion because "what if I need it in the future?" I saw this used to great affect in Five Tribes as well with the Djinns on the table and you could purchase one where you get a bonus from ANY assassination, not just ones your doing. well, I guess that actually discourages others from doing that action but I think the idea is in there a bit of encouraging that type of mindset. If all players could have some type of bonus of their choice from a loss, then perhaps the strategy comes from what path you take. I really want to experiment with these types of mechanics as I feel like it could open up some really unique paths in games and encourage players to have more fun instead of being cautious. Any other good loss mechanics? I'd love to hear your take on them in general. Always hungry for more info and ty for the post! I shall continue to gobble them up Pacman style.
That's a really interesting question. Here's a partial answer, the first thing that comes to mind: When a game offers partial goals, I prefer for the game to allow any player to complete the goals, with the "win/loss" element being that the first player to complete a goal gets the best reward, and everyone else gets a slightly lower reward.
@@jameystegmaier ahh, that's simple but elegant since it helps remove or reduce the need for a catch up mechanic since everyone should be able to be near enough in points depending on the alternative objectives available and will adjust a strategy to try and grab something else first.
@@tmcd5049 Yea can't kill the interesting or it's just like that episode of Pete&pete where the kids are sitting around calculating who will win stick ball instead of actually playing it. If you're not old like me, Pete and pete was an old Nickelodeon show and stick ball was a... you know what. Nm. Time to go do old man things
I enjoyed playing just the base game with my kids. Just pushing my luck a little too much and the kids can laugh at my 'misfortune'. It's any easy game to throw. Valhalla takes away from that, but I do understand why everyone else refuses to play the game without it, it does increase the complexity of the game greatly though. It is a chucker after all and getting cranky at your throws is pointless. One thing I have to get off my chest though. That stupid extra worker placement triggers me so much, its so obvious, generic and i hate it a lot. Detracts from an otherwise focused game.
Also a big fan of Champions of Midgard & the Valhalla expansion is definitively a must add to mitigate the dice randomness & therefore balance the (un)luck factor!
An evergreen boardgame for me personally
This is one of the best expansions IMO I’ve ever played honestly it’s main competition would be Tuscany for Viticulture both just add such a fun element to the game and really up the thematic side that both are ones I will always play with
I really like Champions of Midgard w/Valhalla as in the base game, if you get very unlucky in your rolls in the first couple of rounds and don’t kill any monsters, it feels terrible and is hard to recover from it (at least in my limited playing just base). Valhalla not just mitigates that loss psychologically but also keeps you in the game. Also, it is creates situations where you want to send some dice to Valhalla to get a reward so creates more strategic options. Thanks for your analysis.
Love this game! If you ask me out of all the games, what game do I want to play next, I often switch between Clank, Scythe and Champions of Midgard. For me I like that it is a strategic game with fun choices but also has the edge of your seat tense moments with the dice rolling at the end of the rounds where you can excitedly jump out of your chair or stick your face in your hands depending on the result. If you've only played at two, it is a little less tense, dice are are easier to get.
Yes
When your warriors die in Blood Rage they come back from Valhalla. If you habe Loki cards in play, you earn victory points. Playing Loki, you actually want to lose fights, though an occasional win is still good. Same theme, different mechanic, similar feeling.
Yes & a little Dark Mountain, just to spice it up even more.
Several come to mind where a loss has some other payoff. Not exactly the same as Champions with Valhalla, but they are:
Castles of Burgundy - There is always an out for bad dice rolls (gaining worker tiles), which also allows you to mitigate future bad dice rolls.
Dragomino - When you gain an egg it might be an empty shell, but you get the mother dragon so you go first next turn and she counts as a point at the end of the game.
Architects of the West Kingdom - Another player captures your workers which reduces your efficiency on a location, but that's how you get your workers back.
Village - Older generations of your workers die, but they give you points and help trigger the end of the game.
Keyflower - You can lose bids but those workers can be re-assigned to another bid or to take an action.
Eclipse - You can lose a battle, but you still get to pick from the victory point bag for being a part of it.
That's a great list, Kevin!
I've been trying recently to learn game mechanics as I start my journey into development and I've really focused on SMG since I'm not a fan of take that or punishing people for playing a game. I love this idea of avoiding loss aversion by offering another goal that you could even chase harder. I tend to be the person who never uses a medkit/potion because "what if I need it in the future?" I saw this used to great affect in Five Tribes as well with the Djinns on the table and you could purchase one where you get a bonus from ANY assassination, not just ones your doing. well, I guess that actually discourages others from doing that action but I think the idea is in there a bit of encouraging that type of mindset. If all players could have some type of bonus of their choice from a loss, then perhaps the strategy comes from what path you take.
I really want to experiment with these types of mechanics as I feel like it could open up some really unique paths in games and encourage players to have more fun instead of being cautious.
Any other good loss mechanics? I'd love to hear your take on them in general. Always hungry for more info and ty for the post! I shall continue to gobble them up Pacman style.
That's a really interesting question. Here's a partial answer, the first thing that comes to mind: When a game offers partial goals, I prefer for the game to allow any player to complete the goals, with the "win/loss" element being that the first player to complete a goal gets the best reward, and everyone else gets a slightly lower reward.
@@jameystegmaier ahh, that's simple but elegant since it helps remove or reduce the need for a catch up mechanic since everyone should be able to be near enough in points depending on the alternative objectives available and will adjust a strategy to try and grab something else first.
@@tmcd5049 Yea can't kill the interesting or it's just like that episode of Pete&pete where the kids are sitting around calculating who will win stick ball instead of actually playing it. If you're not old like me, Pete and pete was an old Nickelodeon show and stick ball was a... you know what. Nm. Time to go do old man things
Sending your vikings to sea deliberately without enough food or to a combat where their type isn't allowed to get them into Valhalla. Good times.
I enjoyed playing just the base game with my kids. Just pushing my luck a little too much and the kids can laugh at my 'misfortune'. It's any easy game to throw. Valhalla takes away from that, but I do understand why everyone else refuses to play the game without it, it does increase the complexity of the game greatly though. It is a chucker after all and getting cranky at your throws is pointless.
One thing I have to get off my chest though. That stupid extra worker placement triggers me so much, its so obvious, generic and i hate it a lot. Detracts from an otherwise focused game.