Thanks for that Paul! My family was happy to have it so it was a good fit for us! I covered your progress on Batman btw in an upcoming video - keep up the great work there! We're all really appreciative of it!
The thing about this game for me is those maps. Every one I look at just makes me want to “go there” and explore it. Something I don’t generally get from Gloomhaven maps or anything else I’ve seen in this genre really.
I can hear you there. The moment I started noticing the story cards always related to the actual location I was like "ooh a big pit I wonder what's in there! oooh a boat? What could I do with that? etc. Each mission had us going in different directions at least half the time to explore, so pretty much the opposite of most dungeon crawls.
Interesting that you didn't love the backstories... I listened to the audiobook videos they made with the full stories and found myself thinking "this is the first game I've ever seen that actually has interesting backstories for its characters". Maybe whatever comes with the game doesn't flesh out the stories in the same quality as the novellas. They are quite lengthy... I don't imagine most people will go to the effort to listen to/read them, but I thought they were great.
Thank you for the review! I am still thinking about it, since VAT is really a deal breaker. Do you have to play 4 characters if you are 2 players or less? Can you play with 2? How does that scale puzzels and items, etc? How would the whole hook, axe, shovel situation work if you only roll 2 characters? Thanks again for the video!
Hello there, The game scales very well between 2-4 players. if you have less heroes on board you will have more time on the timers, less HP on enemies, easier progressive ability checks etc. We have done loads of work to balance the game with the different player counts. Some scenarios might be slightly easier with 4 players and others with 2 players but this does not make a big difference over all.
What Max said, a lot of the stuff scales with hero count. Just to try it out, I played once with 3 characters at the same time and had zero issues. It's quite manageable.
Agree with your issues with the rules. We had a couple of issues while playing in TTS. The wording for manoeuvre vs action was massively confusing. We also couldn’t find how to resolve damage on the thorn trees as that was on the card, not in the rules. Loved the game otherwise though
Haha funny enough I recalled the rules on the card for the plants for failed to recall that red text above was for the caravan :D The maneuver vs action was indeed confusing at first but a flip back to look at a character card helps me understand - they need an image to call it out there I think :D
Thx for a review, I decided not to back the game, mostly because a ridiculous shipping price of 46 euros and a lot of good ks games I've backed lately. I think I'll get it on a second hamd market, as a campain game, I think peple will try to sell the game after one or two playtroughs... Really indepth review as always.👍👍👍
So is this game more like eitherfield than gloomhaven? Because i like tainted grail/choose your own adventure/sleeping gods. I really dont like dungeon crawls campaigns, because they usually feel the same. You have no options, and then when youre done, read the story and set up next map
If it didn't have the extra VAT I'd back in a heartbeat. But right now, the game = X, getting it is 1,5x (1.54 to be exact). That's just too much - so I've had to back down and just say 'nope'. It does look cool do maybe in a couple of years on the second hand market.... Who knows.
That's a shame only seeing this after the campaign ended, not much need to watch it anymore. Appreciate you making these anyway, particularly on active campaigns. Cheers Michael!
Most things of note scale with character count with the only thing not really scaling is bag space, but at least what we played it'd still be quite manageable. Usually player boards are not all lined up like that so it's not TERRIBLE, but any time the space pretty much doubles I feel it's worth noting. Before the inflation of size it's actually quite small! Replayability: I suspect quite high since you probably won't ALWAYS explore everything, there are some 1 and done tests that if you fail you can't re-try and whole missions that you can fail forward in (but not all). There was 1 thing that happened in scenario 3 based on how we did in scenario 2 that affected much of the rest of the game. That could turn out different. And of course picking different heroes or different classes on the same hero.
Hearing that the character backstories weren’t that great, bummed me out. I could tell by your expression that it let you down. That really stinks because I was looking forward to it. However, it still intrigues me. The gameplay has an Etherfields feel to it with a map from JotL. Overall, I think it still is worth it but I think I’ve tempered my expectations. That’s thanks to you. Everything else seems great to me. Thanks for showing this off!
I'm glad you got to cover this game. I recommended you personally to the marketing team as I love your content! - Paul
Thanks for that Paul! My family was happy to have it so it was a good fit for us!
I covered your progress on Batman btw in an upcoming video - keep up the great work there! We're all really appreciative of it!
The thing about this game for me is those maps. Every one I look at just makes me want to “go there” and explore it. Something I don’t generally get from Gloomhaven maps or anything else I’ve seen in this genre really.
I can hear you there. The moment I started noticing the story cards always related to the actual location I was like "ooh a big pit I wonder what's in there! oooh a boat? What could I do with that? etc.
Each mission had us going in different directions at least half the time to explore, so pretty much the opposite of most dungeon crawls.
Thanks. I'm sure it was a lot to put together. You got it posted before the KS end. Kudos!
Interesting that you didn't love the backstories... I listened to the audiobook videos they made with the full stories and found myself thinking "this is the first game I've ever seen that actually has interesting backstories for its characters". Maybe whatever comes with the game doesn't flesh out the stories in the same quality as the novellas. They are quite lengthy... I don't imagine most people will go to the effort to listen to/read them, but I thought they were great.
King has his taste, you got yours. Both equally valid. Thanks for posting that!
Good to have a balanced view.
Thank you for the review! I am still thinking about it, since VAT is really a deal breaker. Do you have to play 4 characters if you are 2 players or less? Can you play with 2? How does that scale puzzels and items, etc? How would the whole hook, axe, shovel situation work if you only roll 2 characters? Thanks again for the video!
Hello there, The game scales very well between 2-4 players. if you have less heroes on board you will have more time on the timers, less HP on enemies, easier progressive ability checks etc. We have done loads of work to balance the game with the different player counts. Some scenarios might be slightly easier with 4 players and others with 2 players but this does not make a big difference over all.
What Max said, a lot of the stuff scales with hero count.
Just to try it out, I played once with 3 characters at the same time and had zero issues. It's quite manageable.
@@TheKingofAverage well max better know haha.
Thanks for the great review. I think this is going to be a great game, but you had some thoughtful criticisms as well. Well done!
I quite enjoyed my time with it - just wish it was cheaper!
Agree with your issues with the rules. We had a couple of issues while playing in TTS. The wording for manoeuvre vs action was massively confusing. We also couldn’t find how to resolve damage on the thorn trees as that was on the card, not in the rules. Loved the game otherwise though
Haha funny enough I recalled the rules on the card for the plants for failed to recall that red text above was for the caravan :D
The maneuver vs action was indeed confusing at first but a flip back to look at a character card helps me understand - they need an image to call it out there I think :D
Thanks for the review, I enjoyed it.
Happy to hear it John! :)
I'm backing this all the way. Nice shirt. I have the same one. Loot Crate ftw...
one of my favorites! :D
Thx for a review, I decided not to back the game, mostly because a ridiculous shipping price of 46 euros and a lot of good ks games I've backed lately.
I think I'll get it on a second hamd market, as a campain game, I think peple will try to sell the game after one or two playtroughs...
Really indepth review as always.👍👍👍
Thanks for the review! I have been on the edge of backing or not on this one.
Hope I could help! :)
So is this game more like eitherfield than gloomhaven? Because i like tainted grail/choose your own adventure/sleeping gods.
I really dont like dungeon crawls campaigns, because they usually feel the same. You have no options, and then when youre done, read the story and set up next map
Yeah I'd say it's like Etherfields in the exploration, but with meatier gameplay, especially regarding combat.
Did you revisit this game two years later?
Still not sure if I grab the minis or not on this.
If it didn't have the extra VAT I'd back in a heartbeat. But right now, the game = X, getting it is 1,5x (1.54 to be exact).
That's just too much - so I've had to back down and just say 'nope'.
It does look cool do maybe in a couple of years on the second hand market.... Who knows.
What is VAT?
That's a shame only seeing this after the campaign ended, not much need to watch it anymore. Appreciate you making these anyway, particularly on active campaigns. Cheers Michael!
You'll be able to late pledge soon enough, but very sorry it was so late!
Just in time!
Pulled an all nighter to do it, but got it done! Hope it helped :)
How about replayability and player count? Given the con on player boards,. Better 2 characters?
Most things of note scale with character count with the only thing not really scaling is bag space, but at least what we played it'd still be quite manageable.
Usually player boards are not all lined up like that so it's not TERRIBLE, but any time the space pretty much doubles I feel it's worth noting. Before the inflation of size it's actually quite small!
Replayability: I suspect quite high since you probably won't ALWAYS explore everything, there are some 1 and done tests that if you fail you can't re-try and whole missions that you can fail forward in (but not all).
There was 1 thing that happened in scenario 3 based on how we did in scenario 2 that affected much of the rest of the game. That could turn out different.
And of course picking different heroes or different classes on the same hero.
Feedback on solo play?
It was totally fine. You have to play at least two people but almost everything scales by hero count so it's not too bad - plays smooth.
Thank you very much for this review!
You are quite welcome :)
Hearing that the character backstories weren’t that great, bummed me out. I could tell by your expression that it let you down. That really stinks because I was looking forward to it.
However, it still intrigues me. The gameplay has an Etherfields feel to it with a map from JotL. Overall, I think it still is worth it but I think I’ve tempered my expectations. That’s thanks to you.
Everything else seems great to me. Thanks for showing this off!
You are very welcome! :) Appropriate expectations leads to happy backers :)
That table looks like it's about to collapse when you lean on it.
I'm not *that* fat :D It's just a fold out table so not meant to have someone lean on it, just put warhammer minis on it haha
Blue meanies!!! No wait minis I meant !
I am backing this, but due to how many campaign games I have in my pipeline, I was looking for reasons not to. Way to let me down, man.
haha so sorry! It's pretty darn expensive, if that helps at all? :)
26:00 and it gets very interesting.
As in thanks for the warning. I’m out.
Second :D Where is the kelpie ?
Slacking off as per usual of course :D
Are you sure its not age-monia?
I am not sure at all :D