I think that this particular time (ok, as in several others) he didn't really care if the components will be break apart when they fell down. Anyway, 7 years after: No more components throwing.
It would be fun to see the A-Team do reaction videos to older reviews, something like a Riff Track or Mystery Science Theater series of videos. I just like the humor of those folks, and feel something like that would be comedy gold.
The original board game was converted to a computer game called Lords of Conquest and I adored that game. I imagine the production phase is pretty fiddly without the computer to help. But it has fantastic concepts.
Interesting. The original board game was in the day turned into a computer game called "Lords of Conquest" (Eon/Electronic Arts 1986) and boy did we play it a LOT. There is a mode in the game where you can essentially set the "Element of Chance" from low (Deterministic) to high (Where essentially a 10 against 1 fight can actually fail). Also the Towers to win (cities in LoC) can be set from 3 to 6. That combined with the map editor/random maps made it much enjoyable.
Yes, without the additional variations added in the computer version I could say that the game would probably suck. But I played the C64 game Lords of Conquest a lot back in the 80's. It wasn't until just today that I discovered that it was based on a boardgame.
Yep.... you said it. I feel about the same way. I respect the designers and this game-- given its 30 years old and a pioneer..... much like a model T. But I don't want to drive a model T either....
I've only played 1/3 of a game, but I wonder if a lot of the complaints could be lessened by playing without all the extra rules that weren't in the original release. This copy comes with several additions from expansions as a "base". The islands and larger ships being one of them. Perhaps simplifying those parts and focusing on the trading could be interesting. Sad to see so many people not enjoying it. I enjoyed the concepts behind the game and hope its fun if I get to play.
I played the original with the expansions when it first came out and loved it. This is a pre-Eurogame game so no it is not going to be as well developed as some of the more recent offerings. You really need to look at this game as we saw it at the time: Diplomacy with resources rather than a resource game with diplomacy. The trade and redeploy resources does not deserve the grief it is given here. Sure it is relatively powerful as long as you find someone to trade with. If you are getting too far ahead, no one in their right mind will trade, so start shipping. The combat system also takes unmerited hits. if your opponent has you at 10:2, both of you are doing something wrong. Again creative use of shipping (e.g. weapons on horse chains) and allies is the key. Both the nearly mandatory player interactions and the combat are classic carry overs from Diplomacy. Maybe the mechanics have not stood the test of time and should have been updated for this new version and maybe there are better games of this type out there, but for what it was, it's a great game. The big thumbs down for me has to be the hot gluing of steampunk onto the game. I love steampunk but I will keep my old set and expansions (including dirigibles!) thank you very much.
I was really excited about this game. I bought it as soon as it was available... tried to play it with my wife and we gave up right away!! Everything Tom said was exctly how we felt! It was so boring I started to yawn... Dynamic phases?! Transport was a slw weary process and I hate miniatures soldiers that don´t any soldiering... :) If the review had come early I would have saved some money!! ;)
I sat down to play this at Dice Tower Con, and after 20 minutes of listening to the rules, I was outta there! Nothing made sense, and I could see the game dragging on so I politely excused myself and went to play something FUN!
Thanks for the review Tom, have been waiting to hear your take on it. I probably wont be buying this for my gaming group as I also don't like the sound of some of the mechanics.
yeah, bought as an impulse buy simply because Iove cosmic and rex so much. This was just ok. I won very easily because I happened to put two gold productions next to each other and controlled both of them on an island that no one could get to. So I was producing 2 gold every turn and built my sky towers before anyone could even do anything to stop me. We then played Cosmic lol.
Whatcha' gonna do? The trio knocked it out of the park with Dune and Cosmic Encounter, there was bound to be a stinker in the mix. It's cool that FFG completed this sort-of trilogy but maybe they should have just let Borderlands lay still.
I never played this game, but it looks like a cool variation would be for your ships to transport goods. You can simply place X amount of resources on your ship, and take as many as you like off of it as you move it around the board. You could also trade these resources with other players. I like the idea of this game, i just think it's extremely limited. Not gonna get this one.
I played it this evening with two friends and I totally agree: it's boring and not very fun, and if you make some mistakes during set-up you are doomed. The mechanics are not fun, but I actually enjoyed the deterministic combat part. Not awful overall, just not fun.
I was so looking forward to this game because I love steampunk, and its theme was so attractive to me...then I played it and I was shocked. I had the same problems like Tom, specially the trading-cheating moving goods around...really? why the hell do you make a nice supply-chain of boats and horses if you can move basicly everything...combat is ridiculous as well, 2/10 for me, and that's 2 is only for the theme...now I know theme is not everything, I hope they won't spoil the Firefly game...
Halfway through the box-dump I thought "Yep. That's a Fantasy Flight Game. Half that is probably stuff that could be trimmed out." I was not at all wrong.
That really sucks. I have never seen any reviews for this. Had only seen it in passing and then two weeks ago my local game store stocked a copy. Loved and own Cosmic and Rex so when I seen it on the shelf and picked it up to look at it I thought cool, post apocalyptic, steam punk, building sky towers, I'll buy it! Well $50.00 later I'm at home unboxing it for a quick look see and then shelved it for later at next weeks game group meeting and now I see everyone hates it. That's awesome! I haven't even played it yet. I can't believe I bought a game I didn't research first. That is the second time I've done that. The first time was when I bought a copy of Gears of War. Hmm....Gear World, Gears of War.....maybe stay away from games with Gear in the name. Gears of War sucked really badly. Although the minis are really awesome.
Really don't understand why so many negative reviews. Don't like the trading, don't trade. Trading favors the strong, so unless you and another bottom feeder are trying to hold out from more powerful players, don't trade. The dynamic phase is something to manipulate the first player mechanism and is really the only "luck" factor in the game. Not fun? Play chess, I like chess too, but this isn't chess. The way other players can force an alliance on you when you want to have a failed attack might be described as "not fun " or challenging! There is so much strategy to this game its amazing. Otherwise Tom I like most of your reviews.
I like it, but don't love it. Of the three games designed by that team (Cosmic Encounter, Dune/Rex) this one is my least favorite. I'll still hang on to it, though, just because I like having the set.
If you ever want to get rid of this game please let me know as I want to play it, but didn't want to pay what they are retailing this game for. My gaming group was interested. Thanks
I bought this game in 2017 without watching any reviews and only played it a few times because nobody liked it. I wasn't sure if it was us or something else but I guess this game really is just bad...
Every time he drops all of the stuff, a little piece of me dies inside.
I think that this particular time (ok, as in several others) he didn't really care if the components will be break apart when they fell down.
Anyway, 7 years after:
No more components throwing.
It would be fun to see the A-Team do reaction videos to older reviews, something like a Riff Track or Mystery Science Theater series of videos. I just like the humor of those folks, and feel something like that would be comedy gold.
He was right - I just bought the game off clearance for $10...
yep, me to
The original board game was converted to a computer game called Lords of Conquest and I adored that game. I imagine the production phase is pretty fiddly without the computer to help. But it has fantastic concepts.
Interesting. The original board game was in the day turned into a computer game called "Lords of Conquest" (Eon/Electronic Arts 1986) and boy did we play it a LOT. There is a mode in the game where you can essentially set the "Element of Chance" from low (Deterministic) to high (Where essentially a 10 against 1 fight can actually fail). Also the Towers to win (cities in LoC) can be set from 3 to 6. That combined with the map editor/random maps made it much enjoyable.
Yes, without the additional variations added in the computer version I could say that the game would probably suck. But I played the C64 game Lords of Conquest a lot back in the 80's. It wasn't until just today that I discovered that it was based on a boardgame.
I found it at goodwill unopened for $3.00
Yep.... you said it. I feel about the same way. I respect the designers and this game-- given its 30 years old and a pioneer..... much like a model T. But I don't want to drive a model T either....
I was wondering how the game played out, thanks for the review Tom.
Saw this for sale, and now I know why.. Thanks Tom!
I've only played 1/3 of a game, but I wonder if a lot of the complaints could be lessened by playing without all the extra rules that weren't in the original release. This copy comes with several additions from expansions as a "base". The islands and larger ships being one of them. Perhaps simplifying those parts and focusing on the trading could be interesting.
Sad to see so many people not enjoying it. I enjoyed the concepts behind the game and hope its fun if I get to play.
Never knew borderlands was re-skinned and reprinted. Tyvm.
I played the original with the expansions when it first came out and loved it. This is a pre-Eurogame game so no it is not going to be as well developed as some of the more recent offerings. You really need to look at this game as we saw it at the time: Diplomacy with resources rather than a resource game with diplomacy.
The trade and redeploy resources does not deserve the grief it is given here. Sure it is relatively powerful as long as you find someone to trade with. If you are getting too far ahead, no one in their right mind will trade, so start shipping. The combat system also takes unmerited hits. if your opponent has you at 10:2, both of you are doing something wrong. Again creative use of shipping (e.g. weapons on horse chains) and allies is the key. Both the nearly mandatory player interactions and the combat are classic carry overs from Diplomacy.
Maybe the mechanics have not stood the test of time and should have been updated for this new version and maybe there are better games of this type out there, but for what it was, it's a great game.
The big thumbs down for me has to be the hot gluing of steampunk onto the game. I love steampunk but I will keep my old set and expansions (including dirigibles!) thank you very much.
I was really excited about this game. I bought it as soon as it was available... tried to play it with my wife and we gave up right away!! Everything Tom said was exctly how we felt! It was so boring I started to yawn... Dynamic phases?! Transport was a slw weary process and I hate miniatures soldiers that don´t any soldiering... :) If the review had come early I would have saved some money!! ;)
I sat down to play this at Dice Tower Con, and after 20 minutes of listening to the rules, I was outta there! Nothing made sense, and I could see the game dragging on so I politely excused myself and went to play something FUN!
Thanks for the review Tom, have been waiting to hear your take on it. I probably wont be buying this for my gaming group as I also don't like the sound of some of the mechanics.
yeah, bought as an impulse buy simply because Iove cosmic and rex so much. This was just ok. I won very easily because I happened to put two gold productions next to each other and controlled both of them on an island that no one could get to. So I was producing 2 gold every turn and built my sky towers before anyone could even do anything to stop me. We then played Cosmic lol.
Tom, have you tried playing the game without rolling for the phases?
Good prediction - I just bought it from a bargain bin... if nothing else, I'll strip it for parts or keep it for occasional soloing...
We liked it quite alot but we are new to gaming
Whatcha' gonna do? The trio knocked it out of the park with Dune and Cosmic Encounter, there was bound to be a stinker in the mix. It's cool that FFG completed this sort-of trilogy but maybe they should have just let Borderlands lay still.
I never played this game, but it looks like a cool variation would be for your ships to transport goods. You can simply place X amount of resources on your ship, and take as many as you like off of it as you move it around the board. You could also trade these resources with other players.
I like the idea of this game, i just think it's extremely limited. Not gonna get this one.
I played it this evening with two friends and I totally agree: it's boring and not very fun, and if you make some mistakes during set-up you are doomed. The mechanics are not fun, but I actually enjoyed the deterministic combat part.
Not awful overall, just not fun.
This reminds me a lot of Game of Thrones meets some weird aspects of Catan.
I was so looking forward to this game because I love steampunk, and its theme was so attractive to me...then I played it and I was shocked. I had the same problems like Tom, specially the trading-cheating moving goods around...really? why the hell do you make a nice supply-chain of boats and horses if you can move basicly everything...combat is ridiculous as well, 2/10 for me, and that's 2 is only for the theme...now I know theme is not everything, I hope they won't spoil the Firefly game...
Halfway through the box-dump I thought "Yep. That's a Fantasy Flight Game. Half that is probably stuff that could be trimmed out." I was not at all wrong.
Just got it yesterday. Now I know why it didnt sell. Lol
The dump the box music always reminds me of Benny Hill, haha
That really sucks. I have never seen any reviews for this. Had only seen it in passing and then two weeks ago my local game store stocked a copy. Loved and own Cosmic and Rex so when I seen it on the shelf and picked it up to look at it I thought cool, post apocalyptic, steam punk, building sky towers, I'll buy it! Well $50.00 later I'm at home unboxing it for a quick look see and then shelved it for later at next weeks game group meeting and now I see everyone hates it. That's awesome! I haven't even played it yet. I can't believe I bought a game I didn't research first. That is the second time I've done that. The first time was when I bought a copy of Gears of War. Hmm....Gear World, Gears of War.....maybe stay away from games with Gear in the name. Gears of War sucked really badly. Although the minis are really awesome.
Really don't understand why so many negative reviews. Don't like the trading, don't trade. Trading favors the strong, so unless you and another bottom feeder are trying to hold out from more powerful players, don't trade. The dynamic phase is something to manipulate the first player mechanism and is really the only "luck" factor in the game. Not fun? Play chess, I like chess too, but this isn't chess. The way other players can force an alliance on you when you want to have a failed attack might be described as "not fun " or challenging! There is so much strategy to this game its amazing. Otherwise Tom I like most of your reviews.
I like it, but don't love it. Of the three games designed by that team (Cosmic Encounter, Dune/Rex) this one is my least favorite. I'll still hang on to it, though, just because I like having the set.
Kings of Air and Steam by TMG
I cringe every time he dumps the contents into a pile
i know right
No self respecting gamer treats their games that way. It’s disgusting.
Oh, how sad but true that is.
If you ever want to get rid of this game please let me know as I want to play it, but didn't want to pay what they are retailing this game for. My gaming group was interested. Thanks
i got a brand new one for ten dollars you just got to look around still in the plastic
appeasing the sky people?
i hope you are appropriately impressed with my ability to let that whole comedic angle
slide there...
I bought this game in 2017 without watching any reviews and only played it a few times because nobody liked it. I wasn't sure if it was us or something else but I guess this game really is just bad...
"That does not an interesting game make" :)
I believe you can't produce horses :)
huh? wuh? oh, i get it... TROLL!
Ah, thats a bit gearsapointing. The board looks gearate, though.