This is one of my group's favorites. Always a blast, and in fact the last time we played this one, we did play 2 games in a row. I definitely recommend doing that as the second game was even closer and more intense. Absolutely awesome game, thanks for doing this one!
Thanks Zach, I can honestly tell you that we felt the same way when we finished this game. If it wasn't 11pm we'd have started up another game right there! Such a great game, it absolutely demands multiple plays in one night! :)
i do own this game, but i really wish this game was still in print (FFG lost its licence to use Games Workshop IPs a few years ago) An expansion idea i had was "The Green Tide", Gork n Mork, the gods of the orks ,and it would sorta play like a mix of khorne n skaven
Awesome, really sent me over the edge of picking this up! I was literally down to the last hour and wondering if I should increase my bid or not after being outbid, and this video convinced me to make the plunge, even after picking up an unfortunately incomplete set at a trade/sale/swap meet (it was missing most of the chaos cards). I will definitely be printing out that 2 page resource, thank you for posting a link!
Awesome Jon, very glad our video could help you make that decision! This game still remains one of our all time favorites. So much going on, all the different powers mixes...love it! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do...thanks!
Wow! Amazing video and great job of getting the game play across. Just picked this up before FFG and GW part ways. Looking forward to playing. Just hope my group can handle it. Ta.
what a coincidence! I just got this game in a trade last week (sorry space cadets...) and I can't wait to get it to the table. Unfortunately getting exactly four players who happen to be in the mood to play it has been proving itself harder that I've thought... Good video, cheers!
The game can be played with 3 players, although the absence of one color can drastically change how everyone plays. Missing Khorne, for example, means everyone don't have to worry as much about a kill-happy army.
Red Mage yeah that's what I've heard, and why I've been holding on until I can get 4 to the table... I want to get the most out of my first impression of the game! I hope I can get it to happen soon enough...!
Yeah, Rafael the 3 player game is still good, but if you want the best experience for your first game 4 players is worth waiting for :) Thanks for watching!
Wow, seems pretty rare that Jeremy would get shut out early and consistently in a strategy game. Seemed like a blast throughout though. Wishlisted that on BGG. Already bought Spartacus and expansion from amazon, receiving them tomorrow, planned game night next Thursday. This channel is proving entertaining and ripe with good game ideas that I overlooked the first time around. Thanks!
It was definitely an unfortunate start to the game for him. Pretty rare for it to happen, but it also didn't help that it was his first time playing a race that no one knew. Glad to see this one hit your wishlist, it's a fantastic game! Thanks so much for the kind words about the channel too. It's so great to see that it's helpful for you in learning and picking out new games. We're more than happy to help people play more board games :)
Hey I recognize you. It's odd to see you and Rodney not going at it :). I'm glad you did a replay of this game because it was something I've been thinking about getting, Sadly I really only know two other people who would be interested, and it seems like while 3 player is ok, the game is meant for 4. If I ever find a 4th who is into medium/heavy games, this will be a definite pickup.
Yeah, I understand your hesitation in picking it up. It's definitely still a good game with 3 players but it really shines with 4+. There's just so much pressure put on everyone with that many people. It's always intense and there's rarely an "easy" decision to be made. Hopefully you'll find that 4th player soon! :)
Always had this game on my "maybe get" list of expensive OOPs. I saw 4 reviews for it in the past and none convinced me to get it, mostly due to the explanation was not good nor clear, nor there was a good grasp on how the round was played with each of the steps. So it always ended up in the back burner as a game I might not like. This video of yours I saw today made me order the game right away. It was very clear after your explanation not only how the round is played, but also the strategies for each faction. As I saw it, it was quite easy to see some similarities to Cthulhu Wars and Rising Sun, which are among my favorite games. No other video was able to portray that for me. Great job, and thanks. I'm sure I'll enjoy this game and be happy with the OOP price tag I payed. Your explanations are extremely good for any game I've seen on your channel and the snippets of the actual gameplay from the session with your friends are extremely useful and helpful to understand not only the mechanic, but the player experience. Edit: Just noticed there have been no new videos over a year. Too bad, hopefully you go back to upping videos again. This was/is? a quality channel for sure.
Well, your film guys tipped the balance in my "internal debate", whether to spend a hefty chunk of my salary and buy CitOW (w/ expansion) or not. Now I wait till Monday, when I should get 4 others to finally try it out. But thats not the most important part. What I wanted to say, is that its really great fun watching you guys play (even tho I don't even remotely know half of those games you played on this channel; different bestsellers in different countries, I suppose). It even makes me a wee bit envious, about having such a great group of co-players :P No, really, I wish that every one of us board-players would find such friendly bunch of people. Kudos on your show. P.S. Have you played already with this alternative set of cards (a.k.a. Morrslieb deck)? And if yes, how did you find it compared to the base one?
First off, Im glad to hear this helped make up your mind on the game...I don't think you'll regret it! Second, I really appreciate the kind words about our group and channel. It means the world to us when we see that someone is enjoying what we're doing, so thanks very much for that. We're definitely fortunate to have such a good close group of friends to play with! Lastly we have yet to try the alternate decks. Most of these guys had only played a few times so we're not quite ready for it. I'm really looking forward to trying them out though! Thanks so much for watching!
Could you possibly do a board game replay of Battletech Alpha Strike? It's a faster playing version of the Battletech board game. Catalyst also just released a companion to go with Alpha Strike to expand the rules.
Hiya guys, I really like the way you guys play the games. I bought CoiOW a few months back and have played 5/6 games of it. I love it but my friends have all been turned off by it because Khorne have won every game and no one wants to play them as it seems too easy for them to turn their dial. You guys have been getting different winners so what are we doing wrong? Cheers
Alan, sorry to reply so late to this! I must have overlooked it. That issue with Khorne tends to be a common occurrence in the first few plays. Khorne without a doubt has the most straight-forward dial turn condition. Because of this it's typically easier for him to win games with less experienced players. After everyone starts to learn the nuances of the different factions though, Khrone becomes really easy to shut down (Tseentch in particular is really good with teleporting units). It can actually go the other way in that Khrone has to work really hard to NOT get shut out by the other players. It really all gets ironed out with repeated plays though and becomes a very balanced experience (it certainly has for our group anyway). I'd definitely recommend having each player read through their decks of cards before the game as well as the strategy blurb in the back of the rule book. We've done this each time someone picked up a new faction and it helped a lot to give them an idea of their strengths / weaknesses... Hope this helps!
Never heard of this one but it seems pretty cool... And let me tell you, I'm a bit like Brian... I'm very emotional and vocal when playing games... I have a lot of Genuine reactions like the one Brian had, I react to the plays and what people are doing and I think that's brings a lot to the game... If everyone is just sitting there and playing cards, moving units and rolling dice like machines it sucks the fun... and if there's someone like this all the others eventually become "infected" and it's laughter and cries exchanged during the whole game making it much more fun Of course I'm more like that when playing with people I know and that know me... I'm just living the game... I don't get mad if I don't win the game, it's strange because when I play video games like Fifa I get mad if I don't win... with board games I don't feel that... Of course I want to win and I'll try to win, but if I don't win I don't get mad or upset because I just had a lot of fun :) Great episode once again
Great stuff Paulo, it sounds like we'd get along quite well. If we're ever in the same place for a con or something, we need to play a game together :) Thanks as usual for your thoughts and kind words, always nice to hear from you!
Board Game Replay That would be great... but also unlikely... there's a great pond between us :s Maybe play in Boardgame Arena or something like that :)
Does this game have considerable replay value? As much as I love variable player powers I wonder if it limits the strategies you can actually make use of. Also, would you say it's worth owning both this and Kemet?
In our experience the game has pretty substantial replay value. I understand your concerns with variable player powers potentially limiting you into a only a few strategies, but that hasn't been an issue for us at this point. While each god has a specific set of strengths and weaknesses to keep in mind, like most games it requires a fair amount of tactical play to go along with your strategy. For example, we all know Khorne's "best" strategy is to just build strong combat units to score kills in different areas each round, advancing his dial as quickly as possible. However, in practice other players are going to be doing everything they can to stop Khorne from scoring easy kills (power cards to teleport Khornes units away, upgrading unit defenses, creating temporary "alliances" etc) . This requires any player using Khorne to get creative and make the best tactical decisions based on the state of the game. This is just one example too. While some players are distracted keeping Khorne in check, Nurgle could be spreading his cultists all over the map and corrupting the land like crazy. This is why the game ends up being a fantastic balance of power. Each person is playing to their strengths, while always keeping in mind the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. At first we all started out playing the same god each game to try and master them, but then shifted to rotating / randomly selecting in future games to really mix things up. Again, all games are subjective so I can't promise you'll get the same amount of replay value out of it from your group, but I can tell you we've certainly not grown tired of any part of this yet. I will say that the expansion is also a really nice addition to the game. It's definitely not required for enjoying the game, but the addition of all new power decks for each god is a way to give even more replay value to this one. Lastly to answer your question about Kemet, I can just say that I own both and find them to each be fantastic and quite different in play. Chaos has a bit of resource / hand management tied into the area control and each player starts with a unique set of powers. Kemet is very heavy combat focus and is a lot of reading your opponents, building your armies powers with the right upgrades, and timing your attacks for the optimal moments. Ahh, talking about both these games makes me want to play them both right now! Anyway, those are just my personal thoughts...hope they help!
This response was the bomb dot com and I have subscribed to your channel... And ordered the game xD. Already own Kemet so I'm glad you feel the play differently. Thanks!
the skaven expansion adds quite a bit, but skaven play waay differently, would love to see a gorkn mork (orcs) expansion i see dial clicks similar to khorne but dominate/corrupt like skaven
hiya thanks for this great video! some questions : 1. what are your feelings about the game now that a year has passed? replayability? do u still play it much? 2. how long does 4 player game take? (not including the learning games) 5 player? 3. is the 5 player game balanced, or will certain factions hardly ever win (eg rat got turfed in ur game)? 4. I own and enjoy cyclades and warrior knights - is this game different enough to justify getting? cheers, Sal
+Salman Qaisar Thanks for watching Salman, I'll see if can answer those questions for you. 1. I'm still a big fan of this game because it does so many things right. The biggest thing is that it's a medium-heavy weight area control game, with 4-5 asymmetrical player powers. On top of that the theme is excellent and the strategies continue to change and evolve for each player the more we play. It's still very replayable for us as we've still never played with the alternate faction cards from the expansion. But I can tell you at the moment Blood Rage is another great area control style game (and the same designer) that has a lot of great things going for it. It's got our attention at the moment but there's no doubt we'll continue to play Chaos in the future. 2. I'd say the game length for all experienced players runs around 1.5 hours for 4 players. Adding in the 5th player is right around 2 hours. This is still going to depend on the players and such, but that's pretty close to the length of our games. 3. I think once everyone has had a chance to play the game a few times and learn the various player powers, it's actually quite balanced. Yes some races have stronger powers in certain areas, but there are plenty of counters available from the other factions and from using diplomacy. The reason the Horned Rat got hit so hard was that it was his first time playing that race so he went into the game somewhat blind on how to play them. 4. I own Cyclades and it's one of my favorites just like Chaos (I haven't played Warrior Knights so I can't speak to that). I personally have found room for both Cyclades and Chaos in my collection because they play quite differently. Granted they are both area control style games, but mechanically they're pretty different. Anyway, I hope this helps. I certainly do mean to sound like I'm trying to sell you the game or anything. This one just happens to be one of my favorites. :)
+Board Game Replay Thanks so much for such a detailed reply! couple of followup questions : 1. I've heard complaints that new cards in rat expansion throws balance off completely. So if I wanted it purely for 5th player, is it possible to do that and still be balanced (meaning that over many games with decent players, each faction has similar win rates)? eg by not playing new cards 2. Inevitable ques re blood rage, which is on my radar also: - which do u prefer? - blood rage seems a simplistic and less strategic game (not in a good way)? Seems like chaos is deeper game. Have I got it wrong? 3. Only thing about chaos I don't like is the map, too grim. Any other games u would recommend that have similar features - medium weight with deep strategy and some luck, player interaction, some take that elements? we love cyclades + expansions, discworld, cosmic encounter, warrior knights for these features. - TI3 too long, kemet looks shallow + prefer dice, cthulhu wars looks like chaos rip-off + too costly many thanks again, keep up the great work! happy hols
+Salman Qaisar Happy to respond, I had a few minutes of time! To answer your follow up questions... 1. I remember reading a thread on BGG about the win rates being tracks over many games of Chaos on BGG. It showed a pretty even spread once people had a handle on the game. Again I can't really speak myself to the balance of the extra cards from the rat expansion as we've always just played with the Horned Rat and base game cards for all other factions. 2-3. I really do still enjoy both games, but I think Blood Rage is more streamlined for sure. That doesn't mean there's less thinking or strategy involved, it's just easier to explain, plays faster and the graphic design is so well done that there are hardly any questions of rules once the game gets going. In Chaos, every faction is completely unique and has their own deck of cards. This leads to really needing to know each faction before you can play optimally. That's totally OK with me, but others might find it frustrating their first time playing a particular faction. In Blood Rage, all factions start out exactly the same, there's no special powers. The card draft system of each round is a terrific mechanism that lets you choose the powers and strategy you want to aim for. It also helps you control the other players by taking cards away that they could greatly benefit from. That said, the first game of Blood Rage for any player is going to be a learning game. You really need to play the game at least 1-2 times to learn the different cards in the draft and how they affect the game. For example, there are some Quest cards and Upgrade combos that can be absolutely game changing and you need to be able to spot them and not pass certain cards to your neighbors. When new players don't know this it leads to pretty big blowouts in victory points at the end. I may be just babbling at this point but I think they're both pretty deep in terms of the playing tactically and strategically and they each have their own pros and cons depending on what you like. If you're not into the Chaos board (it's kinda ugly and hard to see things), and worried about the 5 player balance, I'd recommend checking out Blood Rage first. 5 players is the absolute best player count for it in my opinion. Space is tight, fights are frequent and card drafting really keeps the balance in line. As for other games to recommend...I'm a huge fan of Eclipse myself. It's a massive, dynamic and runs about 2-3 hours, but it's a blast to play. We've got a (long) video of that on the channel as well if you want to check it out.
This is one of my group's favorites. Always a blast, and in fact the last time we played this one, we did play 2 games in a row. I definitely recommend doing that as the second game was even closer and more intense.
Absolutely awesome game, thanks for doing this one!
Thanks Zach, I can honestly tell you that we felt the same way when we finished this game. If it wasn't 11pm we'd have started up another game right there! Such a great game, it absolutely demands multiple plays in one night! :)
i do own this game, but i really wish this game was still in print (FFG lost its licence to use Games Workshop IPs a few years ago)
An expansion idea i had was "The Green Tide", Gork n Mork, the gods of the orks ,and it would sorta play like a mix of khorne n skaven
I miss this channel. I hope that you're all well. Old fan here rewatching the video as we have started playing Chaos in the Old World again recently.
Awesome guys, I love CITOW and this really shows how cool it is.
jeremiahkool1 thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome, really sent me over the edge of picking this up! I was literally down to the last hour and wondering if I should increase my bid or not after being outbid, and this video convinced me to make the plunge, even after picking up an unfortunately incomplete set at a trade/sale/swap meet (it was missing most of the chaos cards). I will definitely be printing out that 2 page resource, thank you for posting a link!
Awesome Jon, very glad our video could help you make that decision! This game still remains one of our all time favorites. So much going on, all the different powers mixes...love it! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do...thanks!
Wow! Amazing video and great job of getting the game play across. Just picked this up before FFG and GW part ways. Looking forward to playing. Just hope my group can handle it. Ta.
I love this game. Def one of my fav 4 player games.
I agree! This was our first time playing with the Horned Rat and using a 5th player, but I still think the game is fantastic with 4 or 5.
Anyone else pissed they didn't buy before it was discontinued?
what a coincidence! I just got this game in a trade last week (sorry space cadets...) and I can't wait to get it to the table. Unfortunately getting exactly four players who happen to be in the mood to play it has been proving itself harder that I've thought... Good video, cheers!
The game can be played with 3 players, although the absence of one color can drastically change how everyone plays. Missing Khorne, for example, means everyone don't have to worry as much about a kill-happy army.
Red Mage yeah that's what I've heard, and why I've been holding on until I can get 4 to the table... I want to get the most out of my first impression of the game! I hope I can get it to happen soon enough...!
Yeah, Rafael the 3 player game is still good, but if you want the best experience for your first game 4 players is worth waiting for :) Thanks for watching!
Wow, seems pretty rare that Jeremy would get shut out early and consistently in a strategy game. Seemed like a blast throughout though. Wishlisted that on BGG. Already bought Spartacus and expansion from amazon, receiving them tomorrow, planned game night next Thursday. This channel is proving entertaining and ripe with good game ideas that I overlooked the first time around. Thanks!
It was definitely an unfortunate start to the game for him. Pretty rare for it to happen, but it also didn't help that it was his first time playing a race that no one knew. Glad to see this one hit your wishlist, it's a fantastic game! Thanks so much for the kind words about the channel too. It's so great to see that it's helpful for you in learning and picking out new games. We're more than happy to help people play more board games :)
Hey I recognize you. It's odd to see you and Rodney not going at it :). I'm glad you did a replay of this game because it was something I've been thinking about getting, Sadly I really only know two other people who would be interested, and it seems like while 3 player is ok, the game is meant for 4. If I ever find a 4th who is into medium/heavy games, this will be a definite pickup.
Yeah, I understand your hesitation in picking it up. It's definitely still a good game with 3 players but it really shines with 4+. There's just so much pressure put on everyone with that many people. It's always intense and there's rarely an "easy" decision to be made. Hopefully you'll find that 4th player soon! :)
Big mclargehuge, punt speed chunk, bob Johnson...
+Trevor Gunter Glad you picked up on that one. It's been the sole reason for his handle in games for the last 10 years :)
Always had this game on my "maybe get" list of expensive OOPs. I saw 4 reviews for it in the past and none convinced me to get it, mostly due to the explanation was not good nor clear, nor there was a good grasp on how the round was played with each of the steps. So it always ended up in the back burner as a game I might not like. This video of yours I saw today made me order the game right away. It was very clear after your explanation not only how the round is played, but also the strategies for each faction. As I saw it, it was quite easy to see some similarities to Cthulhu Wars and Rising Sun, which are among my favorite games. No other video was able to portray that for me. Great job, and thanks. I'm sure I'll enjoy this game and be happy with the OOP price tag I payed. Your explanations are extremely good for any game I've seen on your channel and the snippets of the actual gameplay from the session with your friends are extremely useful and helpful to understand not only the mechanic, but the player experience. Edit: Just noticed there have been no new videos over a year. Too bad, hopefully you go back to upping videos again. This was/is? a quality channel for sure.
how well does this game work as 2 players?
You guys are awesome.
Haha, thank you Idan! It's always nice to know people are enjoying what we're doing :)
Well, your film guys tipped the balance in my "internal debate", whether to spend a hefty chunk of my salary and buy CitOW (w/ expansion) or not. Now I wait till Monday, when I should get 4 others to finally try it out.
But thats not the most important part. What I wanted to say, is that its really great fun watching you guys play (even tho I don't even remotely know half of those games you played on this channel; different bestsellers in different countries, I suppose). It even makes me a wee bit envious, about having such a great group of co-players :P No, really, I wish that every one of us board-players would find such friendly bunch of people. Kudos on your show.
P.S. Have you played already with this alternative set of cards (a.k.a. Morrslieb deck)? And if yes, how did you find it compared to the base one?
First off, Im glad to hear this helped make up your mind on the game...I don't think you'll regret it! Second, I really appreciate the kind words about our group and channel. It means the world to us when we see that someone is enjoying what we're doing, so thanks very much for that. We're definitely fortunate to have such a good close group of friends to play with! Lastly we have yet to try the alternate decks. Most of these guys had only played a few times so we're not quite ready for it. I'm really looking forward to trying them out though! Thanks so much for watching!
Could you possibly do a board game replay of Battletech Alpha Strike? It's a faster playing version of the Battletech board game. Catalyst also just released a companion to go with Alpha Strike to expand the rules.
Hmm, I'm not familiar with that one. I'll definitely check it out though...thanks for the recommendation!
Hiya guys, I really like the way you guys play the games. I bought CoiOW a few months back and have played 5/6 games of it. I love it but my friends have all been turned off by it because Khorne have won every game and no one wants to play them as it seems too easy for them to turn their dial. You guys have been getting different winners so what are we doing wrong? Cheers
Alan, sorry to reply so late to this! I must have overlooked it. That issue with Khorne tends to be a common occurrence in the first few plays. Khorne without a doubt has the most straight-forward dial turn condition. Because of this it's typically easier for him to win games with less experienced players. After everyone starts to learn the nuances of the different factions though, Khrone becomes really easy to shut down (Tseentch in particular is really good with teleporting units). It can actually go the other way in that Khrone has to work really hard to NOT get shut out by the other players. It really all gets ironed out with repeated plays though and becomes a very balanced experience (it certainly has for our group anyway). I'd definitely recommend having each player read through their decks of cards before the game as well as the strategy blurb in the back of the rule book. We've done this each time someone picked up a new faction and it helped a lot to give them an idea of their strengths / weaknesses... Hope this helps!
Never heard of this one but it seems pretty cool...
And let me tell you, I'm a bit like Brian... I'm very emotional and vocal when playing games... I have a lot of Genuine reactions like the one Brian had, I react to the plays and what people are doing and I think that's brings a lot to the game... If everyone is just sitting there and playing cards, moving units and rolling dice like machines it sucks the fun... and if there's someone like this all the others eventually become "infected" and it's laughter and cries exchanged during the whole game making it much more fun
Of course I'm more like that when playing with people I know and that know me...
I'm just living the game... I don't get mad if I don't win the game, it's strange because when I play video games like Fifa I get mad if I don't win... with board games I don't feel that... Of course I want to win and I'll try to win, but if I don't win I don't get mad or upset because I just had a lot of fun :)
Great episode once again
Great stuff Paulo, it sounds like we'd get along quite well. If we're ever in the same place for a con or something, we need to play a game together :) Thanks as usual for your thoughts and kind words, always nice to hear from you!
Board Game Replay That would be great... but also unlikely... there's a great pond between us :s Maybe play in Boardgame Arena or something like that :)
I'm certainly up for that! Drop me an email sometime and we'll see if we can work in a game!
Board Game Replay just sent you a message here on YT :)
Love it!
Does your group play a different Chaos God every time, or do you all have one main to master?
We actually try switching it up so we all get to try a different play style. Believe it or not we actually randomly selected our gods in this game!
You did not liked de moebius cards?
Does this game have considerable replay value? As much as I love variable player powers I wonder if it limits the strategies you can actually make use of. Also, would you say it's worth owning both this and Kemet?
In our experience the game has pretty substantial replay value. I understand your concerns with variable player powers potentially limiting you into a only a few strategies, but that hasn't been an issue for us at this point. While each god has a specific set of strengths and weaknesses to keep in mind, like most games it requires a fair amount of tactical play to go along with your strategy. For example, we all know Khorne's "best" strategy is to just build strong combat units to score kills in different areas each round, advancing his dial as quickly as possible. However, in practice other players are going to be doing everything they can to stop Khorne from scoring easy kills (power cards to teleport Khornes units away, upgrading unit defenses, creating temporary "alliances" etc) . This requires any player using Khorne to get creative and make the best tactical decisions based on the state of the game. This is just one example too. While some players are distracted keeping Khorne in check, Nurgle could be spreading his cultists all over the map and corrupting the land like crazy.
This is why the game ends up being a fantastic balance of power. Each person is playing to their strengths, while always keeping in mind the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. At first we all started out playing the same god each game to try and master them, but then shifted to rotating / randomly selecting in future games to really mix things up. Again, all games are subjective so I can't promise you'll get the same amount of replay value out of it from your group, but I can tell you we've certainly not grown tired of any part of this yet. I will say that the expansion is also a really nice addition to the game. It's definitely not required for enjoying the game, but the addition of all new power decks for each god is a way to give even more replay value to this one.
Lastly to answer your question about Kemet, I can just say that I own both and find them to each be fantastic and quite different in play. Chaos has a bit of resource / hand management tied into the area control and each player starts with a unique set of powers. Kemet is very heavy combat focus and is a lot of reading your opponents, building your armies powers with the right upgrades, and timing your attacks for the optimal moments. Ahh, talking about both these games makes me want to play them both right now!
Anyway, those are just my personal thoughts...hope they help!
This response was the bomb dot com and I have subscribed to your channel... And ordered the game xD. Already own Kemet so I'm glad you feel the play differently. Thanks!
David Williamson Happy to help David, and glad to have you a subscriber! Hope you enjoy both games!
the skaven expansion adds quite a bit, but skaven play waay differently, would love to see a gorkn mork (orcs) expansion i see dial clicks similar to khorne but dominate/corrupt like skaven
hiya thanks for this great video! some questions :
1. what are your feelings about the game now that a year has passed? replayability?
do u still play it much?
2. how long does 4 player game take? (not including the learning games)
5 player?
3. is the 5 player game balanced, or will certain factions hardly ever win (eg rat got turfed in ur game)?
4. I own and enjoy cyclades and warrior knights - is this game different enough to justify getting?
cheers, Sal
+Salman Qaisar Thanks for watching Salman, I'll see if can answer those questions for you.
1. I'm still a big fan of this game because it does so many things right. The biggest thing is that it's a medium-heavy weight area control game, with 4-5 asymmetrical player powers. On top of that the theme is excellent and the strategies continue to change and evolve for each player the more we play. It's still very replayable for us as we've still never played with the alternate faction cards from the expansion. But I can tell you at the moment Blood Rage is another great area control style game (and the same designer) that has a lot of great things going for it. It's got our attention at the moment but there's no doubt we'll continue to play Chaos in the future.
2. I'd say the game length for all experienced players runs around 1.5 hours for 4 players. Adding in the 5th player is right around 2 hours. This is still going to depend on the players and such, but that's pretty close to the length of our games.
3. I think once everyone has had a chance to play the game a few times and learn the various player powers, it's actually quite balanced. Yes some races have stronger powers in certain areas, but there are plenty of counters available from the other factions and from using diplomacy. The reason the Horned Rat got hit so hard was that it was his first time playing that race so he went into the game somewhat blind on how to play them.
4. I own Cyclades and it's one of my favorites just like Chaos (I haven't played Warrior Knights so I can't speak to that). I personally have found room for both Cyclades and Chaos in my collection because they play quite differently. Granted they are both area control style games, but mechanically they're pretty different.
Anyway, I hope this helps. I certainly do mean to sound like I'm trying to sell you the game or anything. This one just happens to be one of my favorites. :)
+Board Game Replay Thanks so much for such a detailed reply!
couple of followup questions :
1. I've heard complaints that new cards in rat expansion throws balance off completely.
So if I wanted it purely for 5th player, is it possible to do that and still be balanced (meaning that over many games with decent players, each faction has similar win rates)? eg by not playing new cards
2. Inevitable ques re blood rage, which is on my radar also:
- which do u prefer?
- blood rage seems a simplistic and less strategic game (not in a good way)? Seems like chaos is deeper game. Have I got it wrong?
3. Only thing about chaos I don't like is the map, too grim. Any other games u would recommend that have similar features - medium weight with deep strategy and some luck, player interaction, some take that elements?
we love cyclades + expansions, discworld, cosmic encounter, warrior knights for these features.
- TI3 too long, kemet looks shallow + prefer dice, cthulhu wars looks like chaos rip-off + too costly
many thanks again, keep up the great work! happy hols
+Salman Qaisar
- also preferably under 3 hours
btw Respect to u taking time on Xmas day to reply!
+Salman Qaisar Happy to respond, I had a few minutes of time! To answer your follow up questions...
1. I remember reading a thread on BGG about the win rates being tracks over many games of Chaos on BGG. It showed a pretty even spread once people had a handle on the game. Again I can't really speak myself to the balance of the extra cards from the rat expansion as we've always just played with the Horned Rat and base game cards for all other factions.
2-3. I really do still enjoy both games, but I think Blood Rage is more streamlined for sure. That doesn't mean there's less thinking or strategy involved, it's just easier to explain, plays faster and the graphic design is so well done that there are hardly any questions of rules once the game gets going. In Chaos, every faction is completely unique and has their own deck of cards. This leads to really needing to know each faction before you can play optimally. That's totally OK with me, but others might find it frustrating their first time playing a particular faction. In Blood Rage, all factions start out exactly the same, there's no special powers. The card draft system of each round is a terrific mechanism that lets you choose the powers and strategy you want to aim for. It also helps you control the other players by taking cards away that they could greatly benefit from. That said, the first game of Blood Rage for any player is going to be a learning game. You really need to play the game at least 1-2 times to learn the different cards in the draft and how they affect the game. For example, there are some Quest cards and Upgrade combos that can be absolutely game changing and you need to be able to spot them and not pass certain cards to your neighbors. When new players don't know this it leads to pretty big blowouts in victory points at the end.
I may be just babbling at this point but I think they're both pretty deep in terms of the playing tactically and strategically and they each have their own pros and cons depending on what you like. If you're not into the Chaos board (it's kinda ugly and hard to see things), and worried about the 5 player balance, I'd recommend checking out Blood Rage first. 5 players is the absolute best player count for it in my opinion. Space is tight, fights are frequent and card drafting really keeps the balance in line.
As for other games to recommend...I'm a huge fan of Eclipse myself. It's a massive, dynamic and runs about 2-3 hours, but it's a blast to play. We've got a (long) video of that on the channel as well if you want to check it out.
you are very good selling me games
is this game still in print?