So this video made playing this game on Christmas Day with family possible as none of us have the patience to read and make sense of the rules. We want to thank Elliot for his excellent instruction! (We’ve decided he is Elliot from the E on his mug)
One of my friends introduced the rest of our class to avalon, and it got all of us hooked. We must have played hundreds of games by now. We don’t even use the box, we use marked playing cards. Of course now we mostly play among us to scratch that social deduction itch, but Avalon is the social deduction game that is as “pure” as possible without sacrificing depth or replay-ability. There are definitely better social deduction games, but they all have some tradeoff compared to Avalon. Among us adds spatial reasoning to the classic werewolf formula, which makes it uniquely fun, but it adds player elimination, which is a big pitfall in traditional social deduction games. Blood on the Clocktower is probably the best social deduction game, but it’s far more complex than avalon. This may sound wierd, but I think of Avalon as the default “good” social deduction game. More tightly designed than mafia/werewolf, less complex than games that supercede it.
@@kiryls1207 I'm living in Germany and I dont think it's good that the game treats that person so lightly. I'm already having fun with my friends on Avalon. Are there any parts of the game you mentioned that are better than Avalon?
@@臓器移植本人同意時安 yeah the name is deliberately spicy, but there are several reskinnings of it (same rules but the theme is different, for example pirates or agents, actually printable stuff). although the games seem very similar, one thing that i can say is that even a slight change in some dynamic and the chaos you'll introduce will be enough to feel like the game changed A LOT. i think I'm not an expert to start an analysis of differences, it'll all be useless anyway since a quick search on yt and you'll find plenty of let's plays to give you an idea.
@@臓器移植本人同意時安secret “Voldemort” as the German friendly online version is called, has a few more aspects that I find interesting. It has an election system and policies to pass. The president gets 3 random policies and gets rid of one, then the chancellor gets rid of another. There’s liberal policies and facist policies, and the discussion is all about who’s trying to pass what. It’s pretty fun but there’s downsides as well I’d recommend checking it out though
Played this once while drunk and had so much fun. Tried to play it again sober ages later and forgot all the rules and it was a massive failure. This video helps soooo much. Next time will be better.
This is an absolutely phenomenal game, and my favourite board game ever. As stated in the video, it's not for everyone, but if you and your friends are cool with getting the claws out and outright accusing each-other with near-baseless accusations and not taking it personally, it's heaps of fun. As an evil player, there's nothing more enjoyable than successfully tricking everyone into thinking that one of the good guys is the culprit, and as a good player, there is nothing more satisfying than unweaving a web of lies and cornering an evil person with logic, because something they did or said on round 2 directly contradicts the lie they are making on round 4. It gives you all the satisfaction of being a detective and catching the culprit, without all of the sleepless nights and speaking to bereaved relatives. It also leads to some hilarious moments; I remember one time in a game of 6 or 7 of us, myself and a friend both became convinced that the other was evil. Voices were raised, we were both denouncing players who tried to bring the other along on a quest and accusing THEM of being evil as a result, and then... the game ended and it turned out neither of us were evil. The moment that reveal came, the heated tension instantly broke into uproarious laughter from both of us at the absurdity of the entire situation. Just the fact that we had been at each-other's throats for the last half hour, utterly convinced the other was evil and doubling down on it, made it that much more funny. Needless to say, the evil people won that game. It's for this reason that you do need to play with familiar people who won't get upset easily and understand that it's all just a game. I could definitely see people getting upset and tearful in such a circumstance, so if you're timid or feel uncomfortable around raised voices then it may not be for you. But with the right group of people, being able to take the gloves off and battle it out in a game of deception and wits is one of the most enjoyable experiences you can have without spending lots of money.
Great video! I only know 'Werewolfs of Millers Hollow' and 'Secret Hitler' similar to 'The Resistance: Avalon', but it seems to me that 'Secret Hitler' borrowed a LOT of mechanics from 'The Resistance: Avalon'.
good attempt of showing the game "The Resistance Avalon, very similar to Ultimate Werewolf but of course it's slightly different from a certain perceptive.
Damn, The Resistance: Captain America would be so good. Players play as loyal agents of SHIELD or the minions of Hydra who have snuck in. The sigils are the SHIELD and Hydra logos. As in Resistance: Avalon, there are special characters. Nick Fury knows who the Hydra agents are, and if you're playing with Black Widow, she knows who Nick Fury is. More optional characters include Arnim Zola (Hydra, unknown to Nick Fury), Alexander Pierce (Hydra, appears as Fury to Black Widow), Baron Zemo (Hydra, but unknown to them) and Maria Hill (replaces Nick Fury, opens her eyes along with the Hydra agents so they think she's one of them). Of course, there are also Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Captain America is a known good guy and leads the first quest. The Winter Solider is evil, and if he correctly guesses Nick Fury's identity, the bad guys win instantly. But Captain America can try to guess who the Winter Soldier is at any point. If he ends up accusing a loyal SHIELD agent, they're out (lost the fight); if he nabs another Hydra agent, both he and the Hydra agent are out. But if he guesses correctly...the Winter Soldier turns back into Bucky Barnes, who's a good guy, and can recount who all the Hydra agents are openly, which is an instant win for the good guys. To help Captain America, the Winter Soldier has certain identifiers, like not being able to strategically succeed missions.
Coming from vanilla Resistance, I enjoy the idea of Merlin as a game concept. However, I find it troubling how the Evil team basically has a chance to win simply by guessing who Merlin is, even if they lost the game. There must be a better way to work around that issue.
I'm not familiar with the difference in rules to the original Resistance (besides knowing that Merlin and other cards in Avalon have been added), but without the ability for the evil people to do something to combat Merlin, it would be pretty easy for good guys to win. Hypothetical scenarios: Merlin reveals himself and says who all the bad guys are, with his trustworthiness tested. He only sends good guys, so is relied upon for next rounds and always picks good people and good guys win. Bad people will probably claim to be Merlin also, and if one of them is initially trusted, they will eventually have to pick some bad guys to go on quests and eliminate themselves from the game by people knowing they were wrong to have trusted them as Merlin. More than one good person claiming to be Merlin doesn't make sense as it adds to the pool of potential bad guys lying about being the trustworthy Merlin. At least one bad guy must claim to be Merlin, and if only one person does, then it's a 50-50 split of being sure one of them is bad. If all bad guys claim to be bad, then you have a pool of all bad guys plus merlin, and can just pick everyone not in that group to safely go on quests. So Merlin trying to keep themselves secret and more than one person (good or bad) acting like Merlin so the Assassin can't pick them seems a very good way. I do know what you mean though by feeling a bit averse to have seemingly spent much time ensuring an outcome of the game for it to then be flipped in a moment, but think this can certainly add to the tension!
The rule is fine to me, but if you hate it just don't use the Assassin card. The game allows you to tweak some of the rules (by adding or removing cards) to fit how your group wants to play.
I know this is really late, but Percival can actually take merlin info and pretend to be merlin in basically the third round if things go accordingly I've done it so many times that my friend group don't trust me as merlin and this also wins me more games because the assassin doesn't target me. If you have really involved players the game will work. If you have shy players then merlin will be so obvious to everyone, because he'll be the loudest.
Can anyone please answer my question, 1st question; If we play 6 players and during the voting, if there's a 3 approved and 3 reject is it considered as rejected? 2nd question; if evil team continuously won quest 1,2 and 3 straight, is there still a chance for the good guys to win? Like what's gonna happened to the quest 4 and 5
1. You need a majority vote to pass, a tie is rejected 2. The evil team immediately wins upon the 3rd failed quest, (note that this generally should not happen with a group that all understand the game). If the first three missions were successful you would also end the game without doing quest 4-5, although the evil team has a last ditch chance to assassinate Merlin.
Tip that I always do: before you start the game say that this is just a game and that you are alowed to be harsh to each other but remain respectful (or not whatever you like :p ) and that you will change the "switch" back to friends once the game is over. Cuz it's possible that people might feel offended or won't trust you anymore ^^ But it's an awesome game nonetheless, we just get too caught up sometimes :p
Hidden Agenda is an expansion to The Resistance that contains all the Avalon roles, rethemed and renamed to fit into The Resistance Universe. It also contains some other roles. We used to play with just the normal roles, but I think adding Merlin/Commander and Assassin really improves the base game play.
A very late reply and more for people who stumble onto this comment with the same question: If your player group is greater than 5 regularly, then it is worth it. Regular resistance is very balanced around 5 players, but becomes increasingly evil-favoured as you get closer to the 10 player limit. Avalon's special character cards exist to smooth this out and make the game feel fair for both sides regardless of player count, and you always have the option of picking and choosing which characters you play with.
@@alixx_legenddark_xx2819 It's just to do with the increased number of players and the increased uncertainty that brings. In a 5 player game, I have to suss out the allegiances of 4 other players. In a 10 player game, I have to figure out 9 other players. Also, each new player also adds exponentially more combinations of players to go on each mission, and this additional complexity works in the favour of the spies. The game rules do scale up the requirements for the spies to succeed as the player count rises, but they missed the mark a bit with this. Avalon addresses these issues with new entirely optional rules, which is why I rate it higher.
Which parts don't you understand? I haven't played the game personally, but I think I could walk you through any specific problems. If you've never played a social deduction game before it may be a bit confusing, but a couple rounds should clear up the rules.
On revealing the Success and Fail cards, do you stop revealing once a Fail card is shown to cover up how many Fails there are OR do you reveal all cards to show the total number of Fail cards? (In the exception of the quest that needs 2 Fail cards.)
I've never played Avalon but I own Resistance. Let me tell you from lots of experience: the game is MUCH BETTER when you do NOT publicly show your vote. Instead, have everyone put their vote in a pile and have the mission leader mix them up and then reveal them. Publicly showing your vote can completely give yourself away, and that's an unfair advantage for the good guys.
Pg 4 of the rulebook says, "All Vote tokens are flipped over so everyone can see how you voted." There's nothing about shuffling the votes, and the example illustration on the same page shows 5 votes clearly associated with the players who cast them. Not sure how this rule is so commonly missed.
One of my least favorite games of all time - I think the core concept of the game (merlin and the assassin existing) is deeply flawed and makes the game much more stressful for everyone but extremely experienced players. I've actually won games before where I was Merlin and simply chose not to check who the evil players were during the "knightly vows" phase, because I didn't trust myself not to act on the knowledge I obtained in obvious ways.
So this video made playing this game on Christmas Day with family possible as none of us have the patience to read and make sense of the rules. We want to thank Elliot for his excellent instruction! (We’ve decided he is Elliot from the E on his mug)
One of my friends introduced the rest of our class to avalon, and it got all of us hooked. We must have played hundreds of games by now. We don’t even use the box, we use marked playing cards.
Of course now we mostly play among us to scratch that social deduction itch, but Avalon is the social deduction game that is as “pure” as possible without sacrificing depth or replay-ability.
There are definitely better social deduction games, but they all have some tradeoff compared to Avalon. Among us adds spatial reasoning to the classic werewolf formula, which makes it uniquely fun, but it adds player elimination, which is a big pitfall in traditional social deduction games. Blood on the Clocktower is probably the best social deduction game, but it’s far more complex than avalon.
This may sound wierd, but I think of Avalon as the default “good” social deduction game. More tightly designed than mafia/werewolf, less complex than games that supercede it.
idk if you already checked it out but i would suggest you a game called 'secret hitler' that was inspired by avalon
@@kiryls1207
I'm living in Germany and I dont think it's good that the game treats that person so lightly.
I'm already having fun with my friends on Avalon.
Are there any parts of the game you mentioned that are better than Avalon?
@@臓器移植本人同意時安 yeah the name is deliberately spicy, but there are several reskinnings of it (same rules but the theme is different, for example pirates or agents, actually printable stuff).
although the games seem very similar, one thing that i can say is that even a slight change in some dynamic and the chaos you'll introduce will be enough to feel like the game changed A LOT.
i think I'm not an expert to start an analysis of differences, it'll all be useless anyway since a quick search on yt and you'll find plenty of let's plays to give you an idea.
@@臓器移植本人同意時安luck ig? That’s rlly the only difference
@@臓器移植本人同意時安secret “Voldemort” as the German friendly online version is called, has a few more aspects that I find interesting. It has an election system and policies to pass. The president gets 3 random policies and gets rid of one, then the chancellor gets rid of another. There’s liberal policies and facist policies, and the discussion is all about who’s trying to pass what. It’s pretty fun but there’s downsides as well I’d recommend checking it out though
Played this once while drunk and had so much fun. Tried to play it again sober ages later and forgot all the rules and it was a massive failure. This video helps soooo much. Next time will be better.
I thought I was following SUSD for decades but I just got this little gem in my recommendations. It's a f-ing 7 years old... and still a gem.
there's a browser version of this if anyone is ever interested, its still really good and fun to pay with friends during quarantine times
Link
This needs a Frank Herbert's Dune retheam and id be so into it.
The Resistance is hands down the best board game I've ever played! But I want to try the Avalon now!
This is an absolutely phenomenal game, and my favourite board game ever. As stated in the video, it's not for everyone, but if you and your friends are cool with getting the claws out and outright accusing each-other with near-baseless accusations and not taking it personally, it's heaps of fun.
As an evil player, there's nothing more enjoyable than successfully tricking everyone into thinking that one of the good guys is the culprit, and as a good player, there is nothing more satisfying than unweaving a web of lies and cornering an evil person with logic, because something they did or said on round 2 directly contradicts the lie they are making on round 4. It gives you all the satisfaction of being a detective and catching the culprit, without all of the sleepless nights and speaking to bereaved relatives.
It also leads to some hilarious moments; I remember one time in a game of 6 or 7 of us, myself and a friend both became convinced that the other was evil. Voices were raised, we were both denouncing players who tried to bring the other along on a quest and accusing THEM of being evil as a result, and then... the game ended and it turned out neither of us were evil. The moment that reveal came, the heated tension instantly broke into uproarious laughter from both of us at the absurdity of the entire situation. Just the fact that we had been at each-other's throats for the last half hour, utterly convinced the other was evil and doubling down on it, made it that much more funny. Needless to say, the evil people won that game.
It's for this reason that you do need to play with familiar people who won't get upset easily and understand that it's all just a game. I could definitely see people getting upset and tearful in such a circumstance, so if you're timid or feel uncomfortable around raised voices then it may not be for you. But with the right group of people, being able to take the gloves off and battle it out in a game of deception and wits is one of the most enjoyable experiences you can have without spending lots of money.
I just ordered this and can't wait to play it!
Josh HDR01D also
your delivery is great
Great video!
I only know 'Werewolfs of Millers Hollow' and 'Secret Hitler' similar to 'The Resistance: Avalon', but it seems to me that 'Secret Hitler' borrowed a LOT of mechanics from 'The Resistance: Avalon'.
It's a shitter version
good attempt of showing the game "The Resistance Avalon, very similar to Ultimate Werewolf but of course it's slightly different from a certain perceptive.
Super clear demonstration. Thanks for the vid!!
Damn, The Resistance: Captain America would be so good.
Players play as loyal agents of SHIELD or the minions of Hydra who have snuck in. The sigils are the SHIELD and Hydra logos. As in Resistance: Avalon, there are special characters. Nick Fury knows who the Hydra agents are, and if you're playing with Black Widow, she knows who Nick Fury is. More optional characters include Arnim Zola (Hydra, unknown to Nick Fury), Alexander Pierce (Hydra, appears as Fury to Black Widow), Baron Zemo (Hydra, but unknown to them) and Maria Hill (replaces Nick Fury, opens her eyes along with the Hydra agents so they think she's one of them). Of course, there are also Captain America and the Winter Soldier. Captain America is a known good guy and leads the first quest. The Winter Solider is evil, and if he correctly guesses Nick Fury's identity, the bad guys win instantly. But Captain America can try to guess who the Winter Soldier is at any point. If he ends up accusing a loyal SHIELD agent, they're out (lost the fight); if he nabs another Hydra agent, both he and the Hydra agent are out. But if he guesses correctly...the Winter Soldier turns back into Bucky Barnes, who's a good guy, and can recount who all the Hydra agents are openly, which is an instant win for the good guys. To help Captain America, the Winter Soldier has certain identifiers, like not being able to strategically succeed missions.
Great idea 💡
Your videos are excellent! I think I have found my favorite UA-cam board game reviewer! Thank you!
Thanks a lot for such an amazing explanation! Loved the game!!!
Played this for the first time with my girlfriend and her family, I was embarrassed when I didn't know what the hell I was doing 😂
please do one for a "secret hitler"
I fucking love this game.
Coming from vanilla Resistance, I enjoy the idea of Merlin as a game concept. However, I find it troubling how the Evil team basically has a chance to win simply by guessing who Merlin is, even if they lost the game. There must be a better way to work around that issue.
I'm not familiar with the difference in rules to the original Resistance (besides knowing that Merlin and other cards in Avalon have been added), but without the ability for the evil people to do something to combat Merlin, it would be pretty easy for good guys to win.
Hypothetical scenarios:
Merlin reveals himself and says who all the bad guys are, with his trustworthiness tested. He only sends good guys, so is relied upon for next rounds and always picks good people and good guys win.
Bad people will probably claim to be Merlin also, and if one of them is initially trusted, they will eventually have to pick some bad guys to go on quests and eliminate themselves from the game by people knowing they were wrong to have trusted them as Merlin. More than one good person claiming to be Merlin doesn't make sense as it adds to the pool of potential bad guys lying about being the trustworthy Merlin. At least one bad guy must claim to be Merlin, and if only one person does, then it's a 50-50 split of being sure one of them is bad. If all bad guys claim to be bad, then you have a pool of all bad guys plus merlin, and can just pick everyone not in that group to safely go on quests.
So Merlin trying to keep themselves secret and more than one person (good or bad) acting like Merlin so the Assassin can't pick them seems a very good way.
I do know what you mean though by feeling a bit averse to have seemingly spent much time ensuring an outcome of the game for it to then be flipped in a moment, but think this can certainly add to the tension!
The rule is fine to me, but if you hate it just don't use the Assassin card. The game allows you to tweak some of the rules (by adding or removing cards) to fit how your group wants to play.
Maybe that's why Secret Hitler replaced him with Hitler instead
I know this is really late, but Percival can actually take merlin info and pretend to be merlin in basically the third round if things go accordingly I've done it so many times that my friend group don't trust me as merlin and this also wins me more games because the assassin doesn't target me. If you have really involved players the game will work. If you have shy players then merlin will be so obvious to everyone, because he'll be the loudest.
Can anyone please answer my question, 1st question; If we play 6 players and during the voting, if there's a 3 approved and 3 reject is it considered as rejected? 2nd question; if evil team continuously won quest 1,2 and 3 straight, is there still a chance for the good guys to win? Like what's gonna happened to the quest 4 and 5
1. You need a majority vote to pass, a tie is rejected
2. The evil team immediately wins upon the 3rd failed quest, (note that this generally should not happen with a group that all understand the game). If the first three missions were successful you would also end the game without doing quest 4-5, although the evil team has a last ditch chance to assassinate Merlin.
Get the game... and at least 4 friends
this game could ruin our friendship
Tip that I always do: before you start the game say that this is just a game and that you are alowed to be harsh to each other but remain respectful (or not whatever you like :p ) and that you will change the "switch" back to friends once the game is over. Cuz it's possible that people might feel offended or won't trust you anymore ^^ But it's an awesome game nonetheless, we just get too caught up sometimes :p
Thank you for this video. Lets see if our first game will be fun!
Better than werewolf and secret hitler because there are no eliminations, meaning nobody has to sit on the side and wait for the next game.
What a cool sounding game. Can’t wait to play. 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Could you make a video about "Deception murder hong kong" ? Love to hear your opinion about it. You might like it alot!
great review but is it worth to buy if you already have basic Resistance?
Hidden Agenda is an expansion to The Resistance that contains all the Avalon roles, rethemed and renamed to fit into The Resistance Universe. It also contains some other roles. We used to play with just the normal roles, but I think adding Merlin/Commander and Assassin really improves the base game play.
A very late reply and more for people who stumble onto this comment with the same question:
If your player group is greater than 5 regularly, then it is worth it. Regular resistance is very balanced around 5 players, but becomes increasingly evil-favoured as you get closer to the 10 player limit. Avalon's special character cards exist to smooth this out and make the game feel fair for both sides regardless of player count, and you always have the option of picking and choosing which characters you play with.
@@midastheunwise2423 how is the Resistance so unbalanced with more players?
@@alixx_legenddark_xx2819 It's just to do with the increased number of players and the increased uncertainty that brings.
In a 5 player game, I have to suss out the allegiances of 4 other players. In a 10 player game, I have to figure out 9 other players. Also, each new player also adds exponentially more combinations of players to go on each mission, and this additional complexity works in the favour of the spies.
The game rules do scale up the requirements for the spies to succeed as the player count rises, but they missed the mark a bit with this. Avalon addresses these issues with new entirely optional rules, which is why I rate it higher.
@shut up & sit down - Can you scale this game so that you can play with a larger group, of say 30 people?
IVE BEEN REPLAYING THIS VIDEO FOR LIKE 4 TIMES AND I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND HELP
Which parts don't you understand? I haven't played the game personally, but I think I could walk you through any specific problems. If you've never played a social deduction game before it may be a bit confusing, but a couple rounds should clear up the rules.
Shoutout Mr. Pardue
On revealing the Success and Fail cards, do you stop revealing once a Fail card is shown to cover up how many Fails there are OR do you reveal all cards to show the total number of Fail cards? (In the exception of the quest that needs 2 Fail cards.)
Continue I think
You need a majority of pass cards to pass the mission, so it's important to see how many fail cards there are
@@Anieckieee ummm really? I dont think so. Rules were as long as there was at least one fail card then the mission is a fail
@@asnpogi idk that's what other people said
@@Anieckieee i see. Thanks for the info
I need instructions for promos Avalon. :(
too many variations, too many languages that not include English
Someone pls tell me the rule of promos...
I’ve played it 3 times. Very interesting game requires a lot of talking. Not recommended to shy or quite people.
Excellent description of how to play - also Secret Hitler completely ripped off this gameplay! lol
I mean, there are similarities, but the complexities are very different..
A ripoff that improves upon a crucial aspect of the game? Sounds like every other spiritual successors in gaming history
so basically if i own resistance i can just draw on 2 cards to make this game
This is like mindframe
"mindframe" lol
if you're talking about "mind night" yes, it's a total ripoff
I've never played Avalon but I own Resistance. Let me tell you from lots of experience: the game is MUCH BETTER when you do NOT publicly show your vote. Instead, have everyone put their vote in a pile and have the mission leader mix them up and then reveal them. Publicly showing your vote can completely give yourself away, and that's an unfair advantage for the good guys.
obviously, the leader has to mix them up before he reveals the votes
Joshua Lavan it does not have that kind of affect on the game in Avalon.
Nam Nguyễn nope
yes
Pg 4 of the rulebook says, "All Vote tokens are flipped over so everyone can see how you voted." There's nothing about shuffling the votes, and the example illustration on the same page shows 5 votes clearly associated with the players who cast them. Not sure how this rule is so commonly missed.
lmao hi armys! ive been playing this since way before BTS did but i still came here after in the soop! 😄
I'm here because of BTS 😄 I want to understand this game
Am I the only one here because of bts.
Me too😂
sameeee
Jaykay7 same hahaha
You're not alone
What’s bts
I can't take away Merlin on the app!
Rewatched the lady bit 77 times . Still not sure :D
What
Basically Secret Hitler?
One of my least favorite games of all time - I think the core concept of the game (merlin and the assassin existing) is deeply flawed and makes the game much more stressful for everyone but extremely experienced players. I've actually won games before where I was Merlin and simply chose not to check who the evil players were during the "knightly vows" phase, because I didn't trust myself not to act on the knowledge I obtained in obvious ways.
Hello Quinns :)
Is this more fun then CODENAMES?
I'm here because of BTS. Who's here because of them too?
I didn't understand them playing and I'm here😂☠️
Me too. Hahaha but now I know how to play it and I have to rewatch the clip again so I can ride the vibe
Me omg hahaha I want to understand what happened in last episode lol
SAME🤣
Me too 😂