Vindication ~ 6 reasons why it may or may not be for you (& us) | Board Game Review
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- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- Are you tired of feeling like a wretched human being? Do you want to prove to yourself (and your friends) that you're capable of achieving greatness? Or if not greatness, then just becoming someone moderately respectable? US TOO. We've been hard at work in Vindication - gaining honor on an adventure of self-discovery through exploring and combat, all with the help of relics and companions! Join us while we unpick our feelings about this game, and whether or not it might be a game for you.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:53 Theme overview (Themer)
01:26 Deluxe components used in this review
02:04 Mechanics overview (Thinker)
10:35 Why 6 considerations?
11:19 Consideration 1: Theme "Light"
16:34 Consideration 2: Customisation +++
20:19 Consideration 3: A Dash of Luck
23:10 Consideration 4: Variability of Strategy
23:40 Consideration 5: Card Reading
25:28 Consideration 6: Variable End Game Triggers / Game Length
30:01 Player count
31:10 Our ratings
32:32 Wrap up
For more information about the game: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2...
Thanks for stopping by for our review of Vindication! We're Amy & Maggie aka ThinkerThemer. We're an Australian couple with two very different perspectives of what makes a great board game - Amy (Thinker) is all about the mechanics and enjoys tight, competitive games, and Maggie (Themer) is all about the storytelling and the theme of the game, and the 'world' that the designer is trying to create. Subscribe to our channel to hear us talk about these two elements of a game, and how well integrated we feel these are in delivering a cohesive and wonderful game experience.
#boardgames #tabletopgames #thinkerthemer ❤🏳️🌈🇦🇺
Enjoyed hearing your thoughts! I just picked up the game myself and wasn’t enamored with it at first but thanks to the modularity and adding in elements (like the wishing well) greatly enhanced the game for me, so I’m grateful for the modularity. Here’s a pro tip: place all the cards facing inward rather than outward. That way the only cards that are wholly upside down are the ones right in front of you, which are easier to read that way since they are closer. I wish the printed elements on the board had been printed that way as it would enhance readability.
I love games that are modular only because I love to try and adapt to whatever problem/puzzle is presented. Surely everyone is different. Game looks great! Just ordered mine and I can’t wait! Awesome review ❤
Dude!!! Great job, love the content. To the point, informative! You guys come across and knowledgeable and reliable in your opinions. Love it! Keep it up!
Talk about great timing. I literally just finished watching a play through of this! Still unsure about it so hopefully your video will help me decide :)
Some additional thoughts on the Archive of the Ancients big organiser box: the player gametrays are fantastic, and we LOVE the action tracking board (though still wish the guild options were summarised somewhere...)! The combined universal rulebook is... OK... a bit difficult to navigate for a newbie to Vindication. Would love to hear what your favourite expansion is from the latest Kickstarter!
Totally agree about the rulebook, and it doesn't even have a suggested starting set of tiles to use (which was confusing when I was trying to setup for an initial game). The expansion that probably interests me the most (besides the solo) is the Chronicles expansion which I haven't tried yet. Did you get a chance to try that one out? (although probably conflicts with your "reading cards" consideration :-) )
The monuments module is really quite good especially with the variant with the minis
I only got the Chronicles expansion so that’s gonna be my favorite lol
Chronicles is by far my favorite of the expansion modules, just because it adds all that extra story and theme to each thing you do by giving you a bit of "back story" to how you met that ally or found that monster you're fighting or whatever. However, I haven't played any modules that I disliked so far. The only problem I had with the game is that there is one Red Ally that is very clearly broken. I don't remember the name, but he allows you to fight monsters without having to roll the black die, and instead you roll the white bonus die twice. That means, he will never die or get injured from fighting monsters, and since that's the only thing reigning in the monsters from being the most powerful cards (the risk of losing your ally), he just causes a runaway point escalation. Not only that, but since he rolls the white die twice, that's two bonuses per monster instead of one, so it's just crazy. None of the other allies seemed that broken to me, so I will probably remove that one, but so far, everything else is really fun.
Cool thoughts. Vindication is a new to me game this year starting full in. We are 5 plays into it and I have to say it's one of my favorites and certainly my top new game. Between this and big box Everdell, I find I'm on that opposite side of really wanting a ton of variable setup options to play with. I've loved that with each game I can tailor the experience just a bit - take this part out, add this thing. I want each game to feel unique from the last and this gives it in spades. Coming from this perspective, I highly appreciate having bought the full archive of the ancients as a well organized set of all the content along with a rulebook that's helped bring it all together in a way that worked even for a newcomer to the title (though an experienced gamer).
That is one thing I cherish most from Everdell The complete collection. Although I have found my one expansion I love the most (newleaf) it’s great to have the others for my different group of friends. I can cater the game towards their likes and dislikes. I just ordered the archive. Super excited!
This is one of my most favorite games and is one that I first picked up at the FLGS without knowing anything about it and was not disappointed at all. So when I saw the new bigger box at the FLGS I very quickly pick it up. It also brought my eye onto Orange Nebula and well you can really expect high quality games from this designer. I got this game from the FLGS but I am waiting for Unsettled to deliver from Kickstarter and looking forward to Spirit Fire to hit Kickstarter.
So very good review and another great video.
Thanks for another well presented review.
Awesome review of a great game. We often make a small adjustment of playing to two end game triggers as opposed to one. Makes the game length a little more consistent and you can see when someone is pushing the endgame.
Thanks for this. I like that it was a long talk about the game.
Love your videos, been watching for quite a while. I do very much appreciate how you both are very clear when element or mechanism is still very good, just not for you. Some other reviewers just come out and say how bad the game is because of it. 😁 keep up the great content!
Good video 👍🏻 I have always wanted to know what Vindication is all about. Thank you.
Great review! I only played Unsettled from Orange Nebula, and it seems to have some commonalities with Vindication, not about rules or theme but rather around a difficulty to immerse myself in the game, despite it being a very clever and original game. Maybe the euro aspect and "cube puzzle" takes over too much the theme, I don't know 🤔
This was, as usual, super informative, thanks!
Great review as usual! What is your favorite tile combination without adding expansions?
@ThinkerThemer As a fellow theme heavy gamer, I recommend checking out the Chronicles expansion. It primarily just adds small story elements and choices to every action which reinforce the theme as well as events/quests which again flesh out the theme of the game.
I've been enjoying this one quite a bit lately, though I've not felt compelled to go beyond the base game. Granted, it's not my copy I've been playing. If I'd paid for all the extras, I might be more motivated. Love the game. It's a nice puzzle and scores are often very close.
Have a big box sitting at home but haven't played it yet - could you house-rule to reveal all of the end-game conditions at the beginning of the game (but they would only trigger when one player has enough honor? This would make it less random and you could (would have to) adjust your strategy according to those variable end-game conditions.
Also, totally agree on text-heavy games!
And have you tried the solo mode?
To eliminate the variable game lengths, since you like knowing what time you have left, I wonder how it would work if you set a specific honor amount that triggers game end? Then it would be more of an open race to get there, but you would still have end game bonuses that could propel one player over the other.
This one looks really interesting.
I love this game. I have trouble getting this game to the table
100% relate to not liking card reading! Definitely due to the cognitive load. But also I tend to prefer strategic choices over tactical ones. Much easier to plan around rules in the game's structure than rules introduced during the game as content.
Love this game, but I completely understand your concerns.
Kind of off topic (a bit): Why don't you make this your full-time jobs? You both have excellent "stage presence," and the videos and commentary are great and helpful and distinct.
Haha it's a good question Christine! We both worked hard in our careers to be where we are today and both still enjoy them! It's quite hard to make a living out of reviewing. Thank you so much for you support
Eeep. My favorite game of the last few years hope you like it....
Pretty much all your negatives are my positives lol ✌️
When I think about this game, it always comes to my mind that it should have been called "Redemption" instead of "Vindication".
I backed just the base game during the big box campaign because I think there's already a lot of game in the base game alone.
Thanks for this interesting review. I’m with Maggie in not enjoying that level of modularity in a game. I don’t want to “build my own omelette.” Although I think I would like to try this game, I definitely don’t need to own it.
I had considered backing this game on KS, but the title not being quite the right word put me off. I see someone on BGG did rebox and rename their copy, though. 😄
Add expansions and get all you concerns away. It s eurogame after all. If you are worries that there is no theme here so what about the rest dry euro games. Theme should also pop up in your head not jusy because you read a story.
At two players, the game can end really quickly - we had one game, that endet on turn 4. I really want to like this game, but the end game triggers really brings it down for me.
Vindication is waaaaaay more than a dash of luck, tho it's a different kind of luck. If your opponents goals line up with the board better than yours does its a wrap.
I absolutely hated the 4 player experience of this - it has the worst kind of randomness (dice rolling, top-decking random abilities/points), you know it will take you 3 or 4 moves to get the things you want and you just have to wait for your turn and go through the motions to achieve anything even remotely fun. This is the worst type of modern euro game for me. NOTHING in this game felt fun or rewarding, it's souless cube pushing and grabbing points here and there.
☝This. So much this. It's a very plodding cube pusher with a pasted on theme. The only thing this game has going for it is the production value.