Him and Chris both are excellent. Different perspectives but awesome personalities. Only channel I watch everyday and yeah I love board games but if it wasn't for this group of guys I'd find another channel for that.
I don't have the Dark Mountains expansion and I was thinking of getting it until Roy talked about what he didn't like. If you just play Vahalla and not Dark Mountains, you will be going across the sea a bit and that is fun. I LOVE THIS GAME. It took over a boys weekend where we played CoM about 14 times.
Wow, I just returned from Ketchupalooza in the burger joint next to my house. Funny how life sometimes intersects... Actually, the real interesting part of catchupalooza would be to see which catchupalooza this year, will have affected the top 100 games of next year for either of you.
Please start doing play throughs of these games to go along with these videos. It’d be so fun to watch the games and hear the perspective of everyone as you introduce someone else to the game.
I just don't think we currently have the bandwidth to do that. Not only that, a lot of these games are being played at people's houses, on day's off, etc. We don't want to drag around the cameras all the time. And we also want a break from being on camera all the time!
I liked the playthrough you did of Cosmic Encounter during the Fall Spectacular (I believe?). That was a good opportunity to do some "Catchupalooza" playthroughs :)
@@fenixreborn3834 agreed, I think you’d want both together. Personally I learn much more seeing a game played than a review, but the most valuable situation is when I can get both. Heavy Cardboard for instance has a round table discussion at the end of their videos which is very insightful.
Like these! For us champions doesn’t get off the shelf much because of the 2 player game. Just feels too open, too easy to do what you need to do. But our son is getting close so we will see!
I love this game. I have even had a lot of success teaching this to newer gamers. It is definitely a midweight game, but the overall presentation of the game is easy to understand. Get warriors (and food and a ship if going overseas), go fight some monsters, repeat. It is such a satisfying loop.
When I started to play the game, I couldn't imagine it without Valhalla expansion. I see the potential to mitigate some of the battles with this expansion, but it also feels very unnecessary long. Then I played one time without the expansion and it all made sense! The game became so much good without it!!! The amount of thinking and tactical depth increased a lot! I recommend you all to give it more shots without the expansions and you'll see what I'm taking about. The risk management has much more sense! It's so good! Don't be fooled by the necessity of the expansions
Champions of Midgard is one of my very favs! Cool Mike got to play it, hopefully some more plays and it continues to grow on him (is easy better than raiders imo!)
I have had a much different experience when playing with the end game point Journey cards. I usually try to get 3-4 during the game, while playing a balanced game, and crush my opponents at the end. I've found them to be vital in a winning strategy
I'm eternally in the "unpopular opinion" camp on this game. I like the base game quite a lot. I DO NOT like playing it nearly as much when either (or both) expansions are included. I'm more forgiving on Dark Mountain but while I think Valhalla added some great ideas, it also feels like it both adds a little more length and complexity than I enjoy and, more importantly, it really throws off the balance of several of the scoring elements. Where as an average final score in the base game often seemed to sit around 80-100, with Valhalla, scores seem to average much higher, around 150-200. The problem is, not every scoring element is given equal value when you use Valhalla. Getting 12 points from Runes can be a nice boost in a 100-point game. 12 points in a 200-point game is almost laughable. Also, if I recall correctly, the Troll penalties aren't re-scaled by Valhalla either, so players feel much less incentive to deal with the trolls and are much less impacted when they get the penalty. That makes me sad. I like the game enough that I will still play it even with the expansions, if that's what the group wants to do...but I would much rather play it without them.
Love Champions of Midgard, but like the panellists I would only play it with both expansions. It replaced Lords of Waterdeep as our go to lighter worker placement- another game that I would only play with the expansion!
I know it's very much a minority opinion, but I very much dislike the Valhalla expansion (I do like Dark Mountain). I feel like the points earned from the tokens overshadow too many other aspects of the game. Negative points from Blame tokens, for example, mean a lot less when you get so many points from dead warriors. It also seems like the value of what you get for those tokens is highly dependent on which particular rewards are available. One player could turn in a bunch of dead warriors for a pile of points while the next player has nothing anywhere close to that they can get just based on the rewards that show up. Granted, I don't generally like worker placement but the "ameritrash" style of combat without Valhalla is the main reason why I liked it. If you want to mitigate the rolls, then spend some effort to get reroll tokens. I don't like the even more euro based "you're guaranteed to get stuff regardless of anything else" and hate the idea of losing battles sometimes being your actual goal. I know Valhalla is praised by most, but it certainly isn't universal.
I also have always compared Champions of Midgard with Raiders of the North Sea, so I'm glad Mike brought that up. Both games came out around the same time (within 6 months, certainly). I'll add that I much prefer the artwork and card design of Raiders of the North Sea, and I think the worker placement and card play in Raiders are more interesting.
Definitely not always, not in every way. I have seen a lot of people (myself included) that have lost a ton of weight after going through the hospital for a month or so, and you are mainly losing muscle. And there are other ways to lose weight that would imply a significant risk to your health too. Losing weight _in a healthy way when you are overweight_ is a good thing.
I am a little surprised nobody brought up the blame tokens as a negative. I love interactive games, but the blame tokens felt like a really lazy addition to the game that can also create a lot of king making situations.
The leader which gives more end game scoring cards should not be going to the sages hut all the time (with Valhalla expansion). Let other players take that action unless you really need to see the travel event cards. Instead utilise your leader a lot in combat for the free sage hut actions, and acquire the bonus objectives this way. If you also manually go to the hut, you will have too many to viably complete. Using the leader dice you can still do combat enough to succeed in gaining end game objectives for free, without sabotaging your chance to complete them. Keep in mind the end game objectives score at most like 9pts where some monsters score 14 (and a favor token worth 2pts). So you really shouldn't focus TOO much on end game objectives (particularly if you are that character and have a whole heap). They are bonuses, not make or break like some games
Mike has been such a great addition. Love his vibe.
Him and Chris both are excellent. Different perspectives but awesome personalities. Only channel I watch everyday and yeah I love board games but if it wasn't for this group of guys I'd find another channel for that.
Agree on both Mike and Chris… and Roy too. The Dice Tower team is awesome. Still miss Sam tho.
@@cartergreen2309 Agree 100%
Definitely one of my most anticipated series. It's back! Great job guys.
One of the best games in my collection. Everyone loves it
Bought this game after watching the video and I'm very glad I did. Lots of fun - it gives me similar vibes to Tidal Blades except more streamlined
I don't have the Dark Mountains expansion and I was thinking of getting it until Roy talked about what he didn't like. If you just play Vahalla and not Dark Mountains, you will be going across the sea a bit and that is fun. I LOVE THIS GAME. It took over a boys weekend where we played CoM about 14 times.
Glad to see Catchupalooza back! Love Champions of Midgard. The expansions are the only thing I've ever kick-started
Wow, I just returned from Ketchupalooza in the burger joint next to my house.
Funny how life sometimes intersects...
Actually, the real interesting part of catchupalooza would be to see which catchupalooza this year, will have affected the top 100 games of next year for either of you.
I liked that format. I just started playing Champions if Midgard and have been really enjoying it. Excellent game, reminds me of Lords of Waterdeep
Please start doing play throughs of these games to go along with these videos. It’d be so fun to watch the games and hear the perspective of everyone as you introduce someone else to the game.
I just don't think we currently have the bandwidth to do that. Not only that, a lot of these games are being played at people's houses, on day's off, etc. We don't want to drag around the cameras all the time. And we also want a break from being on camera all the time!
I liked the playthrough you did of Cosmic Encounter during the Fall Spectacular (I believe?). That was a good opportunity to do some "Catchupalooza" playthroughs :)
@@JonoNZBoardGamer Sure! But like I said, we simply can't (and won't!) record everything.
@@thedicetower And I for one would like the concept less if it it was another "watch us play a game" video.
@@fenixreborn3834 agreed, I think you’d want both together. Personally I learn much more seeing a game played than a review, but the most valuable situation is when I can get both. Heavy Cardboard for instance has a round table discussion at the end of their videos which is very insightful.
Glad to see another one of these. Like the series a lot.
I just caught up on Tabletopia, loved it!
The editing in this video is top notch
I think this might be my favorite series that you do. Keep it up!
Like these! For us champions doesn’t get off the shelf much because of the 2 player game. Just feels too open, too easy to do what you need to do. But our son is getting close so we will see!
One of my favorite games for sure.
In my top 3 for sure. So much fun.
I love this game. I have even had a lot of success teaching this to newer gamers. It is definitely a midweight game, but the overall presentation of the game is easy to understand. Get warriors (and food and a ship if going overseas), go fight some monsters, repeat. It is such a satisfying loop.
When I started to play the game, I couldn't imagine it without Valhalla expansion. I see the potential to mitigate some of the battles with this expansion, but it also feels very unnecessary long. Then I played one time without the expansion and it all made sense! The game became so much good without it!!! The amount of thinking and tactical depth increased a lot! I recommend you all to give it more shots without the expansions and you'll see what I'm taking about. The risk management has much more sense! It's so good! Don't be fooled by the necessity of the expansions
It's too punishing if you roll badly. It's just too swingy.
@@nerzenjaeger You need to roll multiple dice (and the type of dice) and choose the monsters that you want to attack, carefully
Champions of Midgard is one of my very favs! Cool Mike got to play it, hopefully some more plays and it continues to grow on him (is easy better than raiders imo!)
Love these types of videos, keep ‘em comin!
I have had a much different experience when playing with the end game point Journey cards. I usually try to get 3-4 during the game, while playing a balanced game, and crush my opponents at the end. I've found them to be vital in a winning strategy
I was crying with Tom sneaking a point at Mike
Lol at the lollipop! That was a hilarious addition 😂
best series on the DT
Such a great game.
Man I want that dice tower picture in the back
I'm eternally in the "unpopular opinion" camp on this game. I like the base game quite a lot. I DO NOT like playing it nearly as much when either (or both) expansions are included. I'm more forgiving on Dark Mountain but while I think Valhalla added some great ideas, it also feels like it both adds a little more length and complexity than I enjoy and, more importantly, it really throws off the balance of several of the scoring elements. Where as an average final score in the base game often seemed to sit around 80-100, with Valhalla, scores seem to average much higher, around 150-200. The problem is, not every scoring element is given equal value when you use Valhalla. Getting 12 points from Runes can be a nice boost in a 100-point game. 12 points in a 200-point game is almost laughable. Also, if I recall correctly, the Troll penalties aren't re-scaled by Valhalla either, so players feel much less incentive to deal with the trolls and are much less impacted when they get the penalty. That makes me sad.
I like the game enough that I will still play it even with the expansions, if that's what the group wants to do...but I would much rather play it without them.
Love Champions of Midgard, but like the panellists I would only play it with both expansions. It replaced Lords of Waterdeep as our go to lighter worker placement- another game that I would only play with the expansion!
What table is that!? Custom? I need it!
Cool new series
I know it's very much a minority opinion, but I very much dislike the Valhalla expansion (I do like Dark Mountain). I feel like the points earned from the tokens overshadow too many other aspects of the game. Negative points from Blame tokens, for example, mean a lot less when you get so many points from dead warriors. It also seems like the value of what you get for those tokens is highly dependent on which particular rewards are available. One player could turn in a bunch of dead warriors for a pile of points while the next player has nothing anywhere close to that they can get just based on the rewards that show up.
Granted, I don't generally like worker placement but the "ameritrash" style of combat without Valhalla is the main reason why I liked it. If you want to mitigate the rolls, then spend some effort to get reroll tokens. I don't like the even more euro based "you're guaranteed to get stuff regardless of anything else" and hate the idea of losing battles sometimes being your actual goal.
I know Valhalla is praised by most, but it certainly isn't universal.
I also have always compared Champions of Midgard with Raiders of the North Sea, so I'm glad Mike brought that up. Both games came out around the same time (within 6 months, certainly). I'll add that I much prefer the artwork and card design of Raiders of the North Sea, and I think the worker placement and card play in Raiders are more interesting.
It's an overall better design for sure. Champions is exciting, but wears off quickly I find.
I own the big box, and still haven't tried out the Valhalla expansion....
You are missing out
I was expecting to watch the game being played. Whoops. Glad he liked the game though.
No link to review unless I missed it
You guys should have thrown in your ratings at the end. I'm curious what Mike would have given it.
I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving a rating after this single play, but I certainly like the game.
@@michaeldilisio557 that makes sense. Groovy.
OMG, is that Greg Miller from IGN? Hope I'm not wrong cause the resemblance is uncanny.
NEVER PLAY WITHOUT VALHALLA
Tom, did you lost a lot of weight lately? I hope it's intentional and you're feeling well!
Roy lost weight too. Hope everything ok!
Losing weight is a good thing...
Definitely not always, not in every way. I have seen a lot of people (myself included) that have lost a ton of weight after going through the hospital for a month or so, and you are mainly losing muscle. And there are other ways to lose weight that would imply a significant risk to your health too.
Losing weight _in a healthy way when you are overweight_ is a good thing.
I am a little surprised nobody brought up the blame tokens as a negative. I love interactive games, but the blame tokens felt like a really lazy addition to the game that can also create a lot of king making situations.
The leader which gives more end game scoring cards should not be going to the sages hut all the time (with Valhalla expansion). Let other players take that action unless you really need to see the travel event cards. Instead utilise your leader a lot in combat for the free sage hut actions, and acquire the bonus objectives this way. If you also manually go to the hut, you will have too many to viably complete. Using the leader dice you can still do combat enough to succeed in gaining end game objectives for free, without sabotaging your chance to complete them. Keep in mind the end game objectives score at most like 9pts where some monsters score 14 (and a favor token worth 2pts). So you really shouldn't focus TOO much on end game objectives (particularly if you are that character and have a whole heap). They are bonuses, not make or break like some games