Thanks for running this game! My girlfriend and I checked it out at Geekway 2018, but found the included instructions somewhat lacking. Your video cleared it up nicely, and we both really enjoyed playing.
Picked it up at Essen as well. Superb game that as you say captures the spirit of its big brother, but plays in under half hour. Great game to play with kids (8+) as well because it's simple, yet does challenge them to look at what their opponent is doing and plan towards gettig the end of round bonus. Highly recommended!
You sold me, Rahdo! I have a limited board game budget, and I look for games that have certain traits. First is that they have a solo mode (whether great or not, this one does). Second is that they're playable with my family or non-gamer friends. For example, Machi Koro hits the table a lot with my wife and kids because they like games with lower complexity. This seems to fit the bill. The only reviews I'd read were on Amazon and they were pretty lackluster, but I like your perspective on it. Thanks!
This one is interesting to me because I like the civ building feel but have avoided games that take longer than 60 minutes to play. Now, I don't have a gaming group or someone in my life to consistently play with, but I do like to play a game with people that visit me every once in awhile and it is much easier to get them to play a game that takes under an hour then a game that takes 2 to 4 hours. I already have 7 Wonders and Rune Age in my beginner collection. The next time I am looking to get a board game, this one will be a very big contender, more so than Roll through the Ages. Cool looking game.
Reminds me of a combination of CV mixed with Peloponnes. I definitely need to get my hands on this! My daughter would not play the parent game, but I think she would love this one.
I just picked up the game and noticed you never used the trading dice option, not that it's very efficient just wondering why you never preformed that option. Always enjoy your reviews thank you
Great run-through, as usual, thanks for that. I wished that you had shown how the final scoring works, because from what I could see here I didn't quite understand whether the culture track will be important at the end of the game. It's a bit of a bummer that this game comes with so many wobbly-thin cardboard elements that probably slide around the table like the ones in Dungeon Roll 2, which tend to make me angry. Printed cloth might have been a way to go better suited to my liking ;)
Thanks for the run through. The game looks great. Might have to put it on my wish list, though I'm thinking of getting the expansion for Roll for the Galaxy which is my favourite dice game right now.
Like you said 2:15 this game should hvae special powers like the original. Instead of your suggestion at 3:06, i would like to use the following: Rome -> 1 Coin + 1 Sword Egypt -> 1 Coin + 1 Stone Persia -> 1 Coin + 1 Reroll Greece -> 2 Coins Chine -> 1 Coin + 1 Food The amount of years and events is two times lower than the original version, eventually sacrificing variety. It seems that the replay value dramatically decreased well which puts a doubt on the value of this game. The replay value is very important. I think I'll back off on buying this game, but I expect this will be improved in future expansions, if the price is not too expensive. I've paid dearly for the original version and I'm really pleased with it. It is also my favorite game
Lately, I've been in a dice allocation gaming phase, i.e. Castles of Burgundy, Rolling Freight, etc. Watching this game and I say to myself, "Oohh! Don't have a dice allocation nation building game...SOLD!"
Currently, it's at around 28 €, which doesn't make it a steal in my eyes. Considering all the game materials, though, and the fact that this isn't meant to be one of those cheap portable games let me think that's okay.
Does it compare to Nations the same way All Creatures Big And Small compares to Agricola? My problem with ACBAS was that whole time we were playing it I kept thinking, "I'd rather be playing Agricola itself if I was going to play something this similar but with just half the game cut off to be smaller".
Richard, I have a question for you. I am on the verge of picking up Alea Iacta Est based on your recommendation. Now I see this one and I see some similarities in style (dice rolling civ/city building). Both games look fantastic. I am wondering if they are different enough to justify owning both. Is there any chance you can discuss how different they are from each other (which has more if a big game feel in a small game time, which appears to be more luck oriented, replay value, which is easier to teach)? If they are different enough I'm cool with getting both when nations finally makes it to the US.
Matthew Sanchez Hmm, interesting. well, i think AIE is the better game, so if I had to own 1, it would probably be that one. but they're both very different in the same way that poker and blackjack are different even though they both use the same deck of cards and are both about gambling.Nations is more about building a good combination of tiles to get the best civ, while AIE is more about risking everything on a competition with your opponents that you might not win. they're both really good, though Nations is a bit lighter, I'd say. Also, it doesn't suffer from the law tiles that are a pain to parse so its overall presentation is more elegant I'd say
Hi Richard! tks again for another great review. I'm not sure if you did a top 10 of dice rolling version games like this one? wich one is the best (la granja no siesta, nations dice, rolling through the ages, or something else)?
Marcus Boyce Yeah. I saw the original Nations over here in the states at my local game store for 70 or 80 bucks and even though It looks like fun, that's a lot of money for lackluster artwork and flimsy pieces... maybe I'm a snob, but poor components can really take me out of the game.
Have you played this yet as a solo game? I am thinking about picking it up for work. I work at a call center and sometimes its really show, so it would give me something to do during slow times.
shpini1 i think i read somewhere that it was a very small early print run at essen which totally sold out, and the full print run won't be available for a couple of months... :(
That's sad :( I talked with the publisher and from what they said I'm guessing it'll be in stores for the "It is the holidays OMG we have to buy tons of things for every person we know" part of the year. Anyhow, great runthrough! That one really gets the right amount of time for a dice game.
***** Yup, it was just the three of us. Rustan didn't play, he just kept an eye out for my inadvertent cheating with reroll chips... He said the game would be shorter with 3 and tighter because there'd be 3 people fighting over 9 tiles each era (and I believe he was right)!). You do remember that Jen destroyed the both of us, right? Great runthrough, though, makes me sad I didn't get to pick up a copy. :-)
Lieve Teugels LOL, all I can say in my defense is that Essen was a very busy and crazy time (as you saw first hand!) Still, very embarrassing! :) I'm starting to remember now... David was going to play, but then he didn't, but there were still all of us sitting around the table, so in my head, the sheer presence of 5 pepole sitting there translated into a 4p game somehow! :)Jen destroying me while playing is nothing noteworthy though... happens all the time!
No comment on the obvious warped boards? It looks like a few of the tiles are worn on the edges too for a game that hasn't been out that long. And putting brown, culture on a blue die isn't that visually appealing either. I mean the gameplay looks good, though if it is anything like Nations, it's probably $20 over-priced. Odd that you didn't even mention those obvious things.
Yep, and if I ever bought a game and it looked like that out of the box or within 5 normal plays, I'd be getting a refund. At least Rampage's issues are easily explained and unavoidable. Good to know that one of the biggest internet reviewers will accept obviously damaged games as perfectly fine. So go crank those out game makers! It's okay.
Scott Smart ??? sorry, if i'd known it was going to bug folks so much in the vid, i would have spent the 5 seconds it takes to reverse the "curl" of the board, making it entirely go away. it doesn't bother me at all, so i didn't bother, but i guess maybe I should have done so to demonstrate that the card stock VP track can in fact lie flat if that bugs players... :) as you can see in this image: www.boardgamegeek.com/image/2205382/nations-dice-game the boards can lie flat just fine with no problems as is. full cardboard "boards" that start to warp are MUCH harder to get to lie flat. card stock "boards" are incredibly easy to make lie flat. so if it really bugs you that much that you view the game as "damaged" because of that warp, then you should really prefer card stock, because it's so much more easily reversible :)
This game is great. Great...how does that help us mere mortals who can only hope to own 25-50 games decide between all the great, great, great, great games. The're all so great. I mean great. Seriously now, I love rahdos reviews, but please help us mere mortals decide which great game to buy, by helping us understand better how it compares to other great games that it may be similar to. For an example, how does this one compare to Roll for the Galaxy or Roll Through the Ages etc. Rahdo just wants me to rob my daughters college fund for all the GREAT games he's found. I understand he only reviews games he likes and I understand why. That is not my critism. I want to able to look at the 40 games on my buy list and be able to better figure out which games overlap in style, mechanics and feel so that my list naturally becomes 20 games or so and not over-bloated from all the GREAT games I need to have because a few word weren't spent saying that this game or that game probably scratches that itch better. The great power comes great responsibility rahdo. Save my daughter's college fund so I don't have to start a Kickstarter for those with GREAT Game syndrome. Cheers
***** Thank you so much. That is EXACTLY what I needed. Now I can compare great to great, even at the margins! I'm willing to take your word that Nations: The Dice Game is somewhat better than Roll Through the Ages. Granted the rating are close enough that personal preference to theme etc. can matter. Now I'll just wait patiently for your Roll for the Galaxy review to pop up and pull the trigger then. Keep up the good work. Thanks again Cheers!
***** After seeing your list, I watched your Shadowrun Crossfire review. Do you think the future of co op games could be decks on tablets/smartphones that even out the luck so the odds of winning are closer to 50-50. Would it be interesting if the deck(s) were tailored to the desired difficulty or experience of each players experience? You could be playing your dwarf and mix in someone new to the game and with that data entered into the smartphone are tablet, it could create an even, balanced odds for winning. Might Alchemists mech meet Shadowrun Crossfire mech be the future?
I understand that part of what you wrote is meant funny, but it still sounds like you exprect someone to slip into your mind, read it and check how you'd react to certain game elements to finally spit out a recommendation hand-tailored to your taste. Wonderful idea, but hardly realistic, don't you think? At the same time I consider it to not be Richard's job to compare the game shown in the video to every other game on the market. How would he ever manage to achieve that level of coverage? That "final thoughts" part Richard is doing already gives lots of insight and personal opinion. The playthrough, though, usually is the part which sells a game to me or tells me to stay away from it, and that has been done excellently on this channel so far.
Thanks for running this game! My girlfriend and I checked it out at Geekway 2018, but found the included instructions somewhat lacking. Your video cleared it up nicely, and we both really enjoyed playing.
Picked it up at Essen as well. Superb game that as you say captures the spirit of its big brother, but plays in under half hour. Great game to play with kids (8+) as well because it's simple, yet does challenge them to look at what their opponent is doing and plan towards gettig the end of round bonus. Highly recommended!
Look at Nations the dice game "Unrest"! The expansion has different start positions...
You sold me, Rahdo! I have a limited board game budget, and I look for games that have certain traits. First is that they have a solo mode (whether great or not, this one does). Second is that they're playable with my family or non-gamer friends. For example, Machi Koro hits the table a lot with my wife and kids because they like games with lower complexity. This seems to fit the bill. The only reviews I'd read were on Amazon and they were pretty lackluster, but I like your perspective on it. Thanks!
Excellent run through. The run through of Nations convinced me to get that. This has done the same.
Have you tried the Unrest expansion? It adds new personalized player boards
This one is interesting to me because I like the civ building feel but have avoided games that take longer than 60 minutes to play. Now, I don't have a gaming group or someone in my life to consistently play with, but I do like to play a game with people that visit me every once in awhile and it is much easier to get them to play a game that takes under an hour then a game that takes 2 to 4 hours. I already have 7 Wonders and Rune Age in my beginner collection. The next time I am looking to get a board game, this one will be a very big contender, more so than Roll through the Ages. Cool looking game.
Reminds me of a combination of CV mixed with Peloponnes. I definitely need to get my hands on this! My daughter would not play the parent game, but I think she would love this one.
I just picked up the game and noticed you never used the trading dice option, not that it's very efficient just wondering why you never preformed that option. Always enjoy your reviews thank you
Great run-through, as usual, thanks for that. I wished that you had shown how the final scoring works, because from what I could see here I didn't quite understand whether the culture track will be important at the end of the game.
It's a bit of a bummer that this game comes with so many wobbly-thin cardboard elements that probably slide around the table like the ones in Dungeon Roll 2, which tend to make me angry. Printed cloth might have been a way to go better suited to my liking ;)
Thanks for the run through. The game looks great. Might have to put it on my wish list, though I'm thinking of getting the expansion for Roll for the Galaxy which is my favourite dice game right now.
I demand bigger stacks of tiles. More, always more!
Like you said 2:15 this game should hvae special powers like the original. Instead of your suggestion at 3:06, i would like to use the following:
Rome -> 1 Coin + 1 Sword
Egypt -> 1 Coin + 1 Stone
Persia -> 1 Coin + 1 Reroll
Greece -> 2 Coins
Chine -> 1 Coin + 1 Food
The amount of years and events is two times lower than the original version, eventually sacrificing variety. It seems that the replay value dramatically decreased well which puts a doubt on the value of this game.
The replay value is very important.
I think I'll back off on buying this game, but I expect this will be improved in future expansions, if the price is not too expensive.
I've paid dearly for the original version and I'm really pleased with it. It is also my favorite game
Lately, I've been in a dice allocation gaming phase, i.e. Castles of Burgundy, Rolling Freight, etc. Watching this game and I say to myself, "Oohh! Don't have a dice allocation nation building game...SOLD!"
This looks wonderful. I hope the price tag is on a smaller scale as well.
Currently, it's at around 28 €, which doesn't make it a steal in my eyes. Considering all the game materials, though, and the fact that this isn't meant to be one of those cheap portable games let me think that's okay.
I cannot wait to get my hands on this :)
Does it compare to Nations the same way All Creatures Big And Small compares to Agricola? My problem with ACBAS was that whole time we were playing it I kept thinking, "I'd rather be playing Agricola itself if I was going to play something this similar but with just half the game cut off to be smaller".
Taigoro Yamatashi i would say that's a reasonable comparison to draw :)
Richard, I have a question for you. I am on the verge of picking up Alea Iacta Est based on your recommendation. Now I see this one and I see some similarities in style (dice rolling civ/city building). Both games look fantastic. I am wondering if they are different enough to justify owning both. Is there any chance you can discuss how different they are from each other (which has more if a big game feel in a small game time, which appears to be more luck oriented, replay value, which is easier to teach)? If they are different enough I'm cool with getting both when nations finally makes it to the US.
Matthew Sanchez Hmm, interesting. well, i think AIE is the better game, so if I had to own 1, it would probably be that one. but they're both very different in the same way that poker and blackjack are different even though they both use the same deck of cards and are both about gambling.Nations is more about building a good combination of tiles to get the best civ, while AIE is more about risking everything on a competition with your opponents that you might not win. they're both really good, though Nations is a bit lighter, I'd say. Also, it doesn't suffer from the law tiles that are a pain to parse so its overall presentation is more elegant I'd say
***** Great. That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. AIE is in the mail. I even got a reasonably priced copy.
Will buy game due to your enthusiasm. Tanks!
Hi Richard! tks again for another great review. I'm not sure if you did a top 10 of dice rolling version games like this one? wich one is the best (la granja no siesta, nations dice, rolling through the ages, or something else)?
haven't done one yet, but it would probably be la granja i'd bet
are these the final components? the dice look great but the mats are super thin looking. did that take away enjoyment for you?
Same problem with Nations. Poor components. At least the dice look good...
gooberweevil didn't bother me at all, just like it didn't bother me in nations (which has the same component quality)
***** gooberweevil Wouldn't have bothered me in Nations if the game was £15 cheaper. £50 is a lot of cash for poor components.
Marcus Boyce Yeah. I saw the original Nations over here in the states at my local game store for 70 or 80 bucks and even though It looks like fun, that's a lot of money for lackluster artwork and flimsy pieces... maybe I'm a snob, but poor components can really take me out of the game.
***** If they ever decide to make a collector's edition of the game, tell em to give me a call and I can illustrate for 'em ;) www.kookaburrito.com
Have you played this yet as a solo game? I am thinking about picking it up for work. I work at a call center and sometimes its really show, so it would give me something to do during slow times.
nope, haven't tried it solo, but if you want to give that a go, you can do so for free on tabletopia :)
Another game you have sold me on Richard!
Do you know how a gamer that didn't go to essen can get one of these babies?
Or maybe when it'll be out in stores?
shpini1 i think i read somewhere that it was a very small early print run at essen which totally sold out, and the full print run won't be available for a couple of months... :(
That's sad :(
I talked with the publisher and from what they said I'm guessing it'll be in stores for the "It is the holidays OMG we have to buy tons of things for every person we know" part of the year.
Anyhow, great runthrough! That one really gets the right amount of time for a dice game.
Would never buy the "parent" game -- too involved and long. But I don't have any "dice-rollers" yet, so the shorter playtime makes this attractive.
Hmmm, there must have been an invisible 4th player at the table in Essen... ;-)
Lieve Teugels LOL!!! OMG, i thought we played it 4p! Didn't rustan play too? Was it just you me and Jen??? :)
*****
Yup, it was just the three of us. Rustan didn't play, he just kept an eye out for my inadvertent cheating with reroll chips... He said the game would be shorter with 3 and tighter because there'd be 3 people fighting over 9 tiles each era (and I believe he was right)!). You do remember that Jen destroyed the both of us, right? Great runthrough, though, makes me sad I didn't get to pick up a copy. :-)
Lieve Teugels LOL, all I can say in my defense is that Essen was a very busy and crazy time (as you saw first hand!) Still, very embarrassing! :) I'm starting to remember now... David was going to play, but then he didn't, but there were still all of us sitting around the table, so in my head, the sheer presence of 5 pepole sitting there translated into a 4p game somehow! :)Jen destroying me while playing is nothing noteworthy though... happens all the time!
No comment on the obvious warped boards? It looks like a few of the tiles are worn on the edges too for a game that hasn't been out that long. And putting brown, culture on a blue die isn't that visually appealing either. I mean the gameplay looks good, though if it is anything like Nations, it's probably $20 over-priced. Odd that you didn't even mention those obvious things.
Scott Smart they're not cardboard... they're thick card stock, like in the core game of nations... never bothered me :)
Wow, we'll get the game industry we deserve if everyone stops caring about lousy components. How does card stock warp like that?
Scott Smart lots and lots of games ship with cardstock for some components... even really big games like Ora et Labora :)
Yep, and if I ever bought a game and it looked like that out of the box or within 5 normal plays, I'd be getting a refund. At least Rampage's issues are easily explained and unavoidable. Good to know that one of the biggest internet reviewers will accept obviously damaged games as perfectly fine. So go crank those out game makers! It's okay.
Scott Smart ??? sorry, if i'd known it was going to bug folks so much in the vid, i would have spent the 5 seconds it takes to reverse the "curl" of the board, making it entirely go away. it doesn't bother me at all, so i didn't bother, but i guess maybe I should have done so to demonstrate that the card stock VP track can in fact lie flat if that bugs players... :)
as you can see in this image: www.boardgamegeek.com/image/2205382/nations-dice-game the boards can lie flat just fine with no problems as is. full cardboard "boards" that start to warp are MUCH harder to get to lie flat. card stock "boards" are incredibly easy to make lie flat. so if it really bugs you that much that you view the game as "damaged" because of that warp, then you should really prefer card stock, because it's so much more easily reversible :)
This game is great. Great...how does that help us mere mortals who can only hope to own 25-50 games decide between all the great, great, great, great games. The're all so great. I mean great. Seriously now, I love rahdos reviews, but please help us mere mortals decide which great game to buy, by helping us understand better how it compares to other great games that it may be similar to. For an example, how does this one compare to Roll for the Galaxy or Roll Through the Ages etc. Rahdo just wants me to rob my daughters college fund for all the GREAT games he's found. I understand he only reviews games he likes and I understand why. That is not my critism. I want to able to look at the 40 games on my buy list and be able to better figure out which games overlap in style, mechanics and feel so that my list naturally becomes 20 games or so and not over-bloated from all the GREAT games I need to have because a few word weren't spent saying that this game or that game probably scratches that itch better. The great power comes great responsibility rahdo. Save my daughter's college fund so I don't have to start a Kickstarter for those with GREAT Game syndrome. Cheers
Eric Muldoon well, maybe games.rahdo.com will help, at least if you want my personal opinion? :)
***** Thank you so much. That is EXACTLY what I needed. Now I can compare great to great, even at the margins! I'm willing to take your word that Nations: The Dice Game is somewhat better than Roll Through the Ages. Granted the rating are close enough that personal preference to theme etc. can matter. Now I'll just wait patiently for your Roll for the Galaxy review to pop up and pull the trigger then. Keep up the good work. Thanks again Cheers!
***** After seeing your list, I watched your Shadowrun Crossfire review.
Do you think the future of co op games could be decks on tablets/smartphones that even out the luck so the odds of winning are closer to 50-50. Would it be interesting if the deck(s) were tailored to the desired difficulty or experience of each players experience? You could be playing your dwarf and mix in someone new to the game and with that data entered into the smartphone are tablet, it could create an even, balanced odds for winning. Might Alchemists mech meet Shadowrun Crossfire mech be the future?
Eric M. make a wish list.
I understand that part of what you wrote is meant funny, but it still sounds like you exprect someone to slip into your mind, read it and check how you'd react to certain game elements to finally spit out a recommendation hand-tailored to your taste. Wonderful idea, but hardly realistic, don't you think? At the same time I consider it to not be Richard's job to compare the game shown in the video to every other game on the market. How would he ever manage to achieve that level of coverage?
That "final thoughts" part Richard is doing already gives lots of insight and personal opinion. The playthrough, though, usually is the part which sells a game to me or tells me to stay away from it, and that has been done excellently on this channel so far.
Bad dice roll is very harsh in this game. I played it once, and I willl never play it again.