So yeah, on patreon i went into this in more detail. But a lot of emotions around this, I did 8 missions on 4 planets (tutorial planet twice), which is enough to learn the game and have an understanding of what its about, but not enough to feel like I got remotely everything i wanted out of the game, which is a me issue. Sandwiched between Oathsworn and Frosthaven thats coming up, plus general time pressure, i'm a bit saddened i might not come back to it for a while, because i really want to finish it. Great game, but dont buy it unless you can commit to it
Did you get to a certain major event on the ISS Vanguard? (Happens about where you are likely up to or just after) I think that point turned the story from good to great for me. Can't say anymore due to spoilers, but would be a shame if you didn't experience that.
@@3MBG Nope, not that one 🙂 It depends, but it's probably around 4 to 5 planets in (depending on what you do). You can't miss it and you'd know what I was talking about ;-)
There is one word that almost all reviewers have used when describing this game..."Special". There are many other words thrown around like "epic", "amazing", "sprawling" etc. but rarely do you get special. This is looking to be a must experience/have.
Not watched any other reviews. But for me its special because as a kid/teen getting into the hobby, and being a big Star Trek fan. I always wanted a game that felt like a "5 year mission to explore strange new worlds". Finally, this is that game I've wanted since i was a kid and it delivers on that.
Thank you for the great synopsis, really looking forward to this game. Backed with extras and single wave shipping so may be a while before I see it. Presently playing Sleeping gods with my son, and look forward to our space adventures in the future.
I remember staring at this and Unsettled. I settled on Unsettled (ha!) because of the paperwork. I'm always up for a good campaign game, but Vanguard seems to go all in.
Confused this with Stars of Akarios at first. Having multiple ambitious space campaign epics released almost at once paints a fairly positive picture of the market for board games just now. Looks like an interesting game but one that I really can't afford or dedicate the time to.
I saw someone on reddit describe this game as essentially Mass Effect in boardgame form. For anyone that has played this game, would you say that is an accurate assessment?
Kinda. It doesn't have the whole "alien council' thing of mass effect, and there is less shooting/combat. But definetly mass effect meets star trek voyager
Looks like the game I want to become an app. Will save me a lot of time and would be probably much funnier. As I don't like an app in my board game I hope they will go full-app on this someday. Will be cheaper too.
I’ve been hesitant about this game as some reviews haven’t been quite favorable, but it’s intriguing me more and more as I dig into other reviews. Have you finished it?
No, i did a bunch of it solo but then had other things pop up. Doing it again from the start with a friend every 2nd sunday, but i think we are still only a 3rd of the way through
Nah, there's a paper logbook. And the app is only for log entries. I just punch the log entry in a listen to the voice actors doing the radio messages. Barely even look at the screen in a session
I think the game does some great things and then a lot of Awaken Realms things. It delivers on the feel of an epic space mission. It’s great to see people die. The ship management is very satisfying and the app really adds to the feel. But the figures are unnecessary and burdensome, the card management would be better as a computer game and the actual gameplay boils down some simple dice rolling challenges. It feels more streamlined than both Tainted Grail and Etherfields because the upkeep grind is gone and replaced with the ship management and space exploration phase which is great. I think Etherfields is far more interesting in the dungeon crawl aspect. Each adventure feels special and interesting and the puzzle to solve is done through hand management. The landing phase is easily the weakest part of ISS Vanguard. Though I suspect it probably feels more intense with more people and higher difficulty. So it could be a me problem. I played Etherfields with 4 and this with 1.
Yeah, that's fair. I've been entirely playing it solo and not found it too grindy, but i can definitely see that happening to folks. Def found it less cumbersome than tainted grail
@@3MBG yeah I haven’t found it grindy which is great. The grind in TG comes from just having to grind to move on while the grind in Etherfields is just that you have to move around the overworld map getting keys and fighting encounters that you don’t need to do just to get to the next story. Vanguard removes both of those and replaces them with ship management which is great. You can pretty quickly get to a mission when you want. My issue with Vanguard is that the missions don’t feel as interesting as they do in Etherfields. Both use a very simple challenge system but Etherfields felt like communication and working together was really important. We all have roles and setting up certain characters to blitz all enemies was great fun. This may be the way we played Etherfields using a turnless system, and the fact that we played it multiplayer. But so far the missions best draw is way the narrative unfolds in them, not the actual gameplay.
Am I alone in my sentiment that this game's core engine and mechanics were spectacular, but it's actual science fiction writing was abysmal? Truly, the writing felt like it was done by a zealous 8th grader. It would have been incredible if the authors had worked with a sci-fi author or at least consulted an astrophysicist here and there.
Maybe? I personally rarely care if sci-fi isn't hard science. I like Star Trek and Star Wars and for the most part those shows don't give a stuff about astrophysics.
That's a bit harsh. EVE online eats thousands of hours, people who finish this game would have spent less time on it by far. It's long for a board game, but shorter than playing through Mass effect the whole way
This was one of my first kickstarter backs. Sadly it has now taught me that you NEVER pick one wave shipping. No where did they educate you that it may add a year or two to you getting the game. I’m so disappointed by that lack of info. Glad people are enjoying it, just angry AR gets to keep my money for an extra year or two for a game that is available today.
Original campaign FAQ clearly stated that if you chose single shipping that you would receive all content in Wave 2 when all the game content (including stretch goals) is completed. What is unfortunate is the amount of schedule delay for both Wave 1 and Wave 2 content development compared to the original estimated delivery dates. That's a fair criticism. Sorry you're stuck waiting on it as I know that is frustrating.
I think this is disingenuous. I've backed several AW Kickstarters over the years, Nemesis, Lockdown, Lords of Hellas and Tainted grail. The wave 1 and 2 shipping thing is always very clearly signposted and very obvious. I remember reading it on all of them. I didnt back Vanguard, as this is a review copy, but i would be surprised after the many many folks who clicked wave 2 shipping in the earlier ones only to complain later, they made it less obvious on this campaign.
@@Merkowitz show me where they said it would be an extra year or two? Again, remember this was my first one. To see wave one vs two, how would you have any information available to know it would be up to a year or two.
@@mattmc20 As I said above, I think it is fair to believe AR should have had either better schedule estimates or better execution performance. But, as I recall (haven't gone back to try to check) the initial campaign or one of the early updates before the PM estimated the time between Wave 1 and Wave 2 to be 8 months. I think the original FAQ said 6 - 12 months. I can see where you might think it won't be hard to wait 6 or 8 months but might feel very differently about waiting 12 months. Given they were already saying could be up to 12 months it just made sense to get split shipping rather than risk feeling left out for a long period of time while everyone else is playing the game. Lastly, if you'd have even a quick look at the comments section while the original campaign was running you would have found virtually everyone saying to not do single shipping unless you were fine with waiting a long time to play. Again, sorry for your frustration but this risk was knowable and it was a very small cost increase to just make it go away by getting split shipping.
I have an aversion to these massive campaign games now, especially from AR. I mean, the minis I hear for ISS are near pointless but that is the selling point of many of their products. It aint a cheap selling point either. I am shocked this is a GMG. There has been a lot of games making it to that list lately. It isn't my list though, but I do take your GMG suggestions very seriously as benchmarks for what other board game designs ought to strive for. Respectfully will need to disagree on this one. I've read it's quite epic in scale but I refuse to pay AR or second hand the copious money to find out. The book keeping also sounds like a snore. I'm glad the app exists but by that point I would personally rather play a video game since I prefer a bit more action. ISS is anything but action packed from what I understand. I'd be curious how something like this compares to like Sleeping Gods in terms of campaign experience.
I've had a run of pretty good games lately, especially compared to last year which was a shocker. So a few more GMG's recently. It's legit felt like a bit of a purple patch of good titles of late, games that have shaken me out of a bit of a grump in reviewing to be honest. As nothing is more grinding in this gig than playing a string of mediocre games. The minis are pretty pointless in this, so despite them sending me the mini box, i just didn't show it. (The character and ship mini are in the core game).
You can just not buy the mini's. $100 base game box is not that unheard of and at 60 hours of content a pretty good deal for the experience, probably. For $160 + shipping you can late pledge and get everything needed to play base game and the expansion. No extra mini's cost. Anyone can just do this, right now. It sounds like you just don't want to play board games.
I think that's an unfair comment at the end there @kessharann. Someone can dislike an individual game and how its marketed while enjoying many other games. Keep it clean folks and lets not have a shouty match on there.
@@KesSharann that may be but that could be an American pricing frame of mind. It is more for Canadians like myself when converting and shipping. ISS base is $135 CAD. No idea the shipping cost but I would wager $30 since that is on par for many games of similar size costs me on Gamefound or KS. Surprisingly, it gets disgusting for shipping costs to Canada. It can cost up to 25% of the game's price to ship to me. For US residents the cost of shipping has often been a fraction (Canadian shipping cost can be as high as 30-50% more). When I compare that to what I am getting from Oathsworn Standee Pledge for relatively slightly more in cost (roughly +$35 with excellent hero minis, although the shipping for this campaign is relatively comparable to the US) I'd say ISS will not serve me well for my tastes and money.
@@KesSharann on a side note, I just can't justify a $99 USD game plus shipping for a boardgame product with less emphasis on minis. I'd seriously question my spending habits if I am mostly getting paper and cardboard for the base ISS (not to disqualify the amount of hours put into making it and it's app).
So yeah, on patreon i went into this in more detail. But a lot of emotions around this, I did 8 missions on 4 planets (tutorial planet twice), which is enough to learn the game and have an understanding of what its about, but not enough to feel like I got remotely everything i wanted out of the game, which is a me issue. Sandwiched between Oathsworn and Frosthaven thats coming up, plus general time pressure, i'm a bit saddened i might not come back to it for a while, because i really want to finish it.
Great game, but dont buy it unless you can commit to it
Did you get to a certain major event on the ISS Vanguard? (Happens about where you are likely up to or just after) I think that point turned the story from good to great for me. Can't say anymore due to spoilers, but would be a shame if you didn't experience that.
@@odgregg Possibly? I got a very big surprise and had to run away quickly at one point
@@3MBG Nope, not that one 🙂 It depends, but it's probably around 4 to 5 planets in (depending on what you do). You can't miss it and you'd know what I was talking about ;-)
Ok, cool, that sounds very soon. As i'm on my 4th world
@@3MBG I'm 60 hours in (playing solo, so a bit slower) and probably about two thirds of the way through? (at a guess)
There is one word that almost all reviewers have used when describing this game..."Special". There are many other words thrown around like "epic", "amazing", "sprawling" etc. but rarely do you get special. This is looking to be a must experience/have.
Not watched any other reviews. But for me its special because as a kid/teen getting into the hobby, and being a big Star Trek fan. I always wanted a game that felt like a "5 year mission to explore strange new worlds". Finally, this is that game I've wanted since i was a kid and it delivers on that.
Thank you for the great synopsis, really looking forward to this game. Backed with extras and single wave shipping so may be a while before I see it. Presently playing Sleeping gods with my son, and look forward to our space adventures in the future.
Love how concise this video is, while also being thorough. 👌
We love this game. When we can find time to play it!
A most thoughtful analysis.
Man, I want this game. But, no way my group will want to see it through and I cannot see me doing it solo. Still what a rad looking game!
Always look forward to your reviews!
Dang, this looks like a great project for Flaming Fowl to digitize. They did a great job with Gloomhaven.
Would not say no to that.
Love prestige, intriguing insight into the industry; The Illusionist (magician solving a murder case) is also very neat 😊
I love the game. The main negative I have is that ship/planet phase takes 4+ hours. So it’s not something I can just pull out and play.
Yeah, it all kinda needs to be "left out", 4 hours feels long to me, i was getting through it in 90-120 mins once i'd got the rules nailed
I remember staring at this and Unsettled. I settled on Unsettled (ha!) because of the paperwork. I'm always up for a good campaign game, but Vanguard seems to go all in.
Unsettled is also very much more "one and done" you can play a session and then not play it again for ages and be fine
Just 9 more months... can't wait!
Wave 2?
@@3MBG Or more likely Language version Wave 1. I think 9 months for English Wave 2 would be quite optimistic.
@@3MBG yep
I. Love. This. Game.
Confused this with Stars of Akarios at first. Having multiple ambitious space campaign epics released almost at once paints a fairly positive picture of the market for board games just now. Looks like an interesting game but one that I really can't afford or dedicate the time to.
I saw someone on reddit describe this game as essentially Mass Effect in boardgame form. For anyone that has played this game, would you say that is an accurate assessment?
Kinda. It doesn't have the whole "alien council' thing of mass effect, and there is less shooting/combat. But definetly mass effect meets star trek voyager
Looks like the game I want to become an app. Will save me a lot of time and would be probably much funnier. As I don't like an app in my board game I hope they will go full-app on this someday. Will be cheaper too.
I’ve been hesitant about this game as some reviews haven’t been quite favorable, but it’s intriguing me more and more as I dig into other reviews. Have you finished it?
No, i did a bunch of it solo but then had other things pop up. Doing it again from the start with a friend every 2nd sunday, but i think we are still only a 3rd of the way through
Still waiting impatiently for my copy...
This sounds like a game i would love, but the play time kills it for me. Definitely not something for an afternoon meeting with friends lol
Wonder how this compares to stars of Akarios
Is the app essential?
Nah, there's a paper logbook. And the app is only for log entries. I just punch the log entry in a listen to the voice actors doing the radio messages. Barely even look at the screen in a session
I think the game does some great things and then a lot of Awaken Realms things.
It delivers on the feel of an epic space mission. It’s great to see people die. The ship management is very satisfying and the app really adds to the feel.
But the figures are unnecessary and burdensome, the card management would be better as a computer game and the actual gameplay boils down some simple dice rolling challenges.
It feels more streamlined than both Tainted Grail and Etherfields because the upkeep grind is gone and replaced with the ship management and space exploration phase which is great.
I think Etherfields is far more interesting in the dungeon crawl aspect. Each adventure feels special and interesting and the puzzle to solve is done through hand management. The landing phase is easily the weakest part of ISS Vanguard. Though I suspect it probably feels more intense with more people and higher difficulty. So it could be a me problem. I played Etherfields with 4 and this with 1.
Yeah, that's fair. I've been entirely playing it solo and not found it too grindy, but i can definitely see that happening to folks. Def found it less cumbersome than tainted grail
@@3MBG yeah I haven’t found it grindy which is great. The grind in TG comes from just having to grind to move on while the grind in Etherfields is just that you have to move around the overworld map getting keys and fighting encounters that you don’t need to do just to get to the next story.
Vanguard removes both of those and replaces them with ship management which is great. You can pretty quickly get to a mission when you want.
My issue with Vanguard is that the missions don’t feel as interesting as they do in Etherfields. Both use a very simple challenge system but Etherfields felt like communication and working together was really important. We all have roles and setting up certain characters to blitz all enemies was great fun. This may be the way we played Etherfields using a turnless system, and the fact that we played it multiplayer. But so far the missions best draw is way the narrative unfolds in them, not the actual gameplay.
Not played Etherfields and know beans all about it, so ill have to take your word mate :)
Am I alone in my sentiment that this game's core engine and mechanics were spectacular, but it's actual science fiction writing was abysmal? Truly, the writing felt like it was done by a zealous 8th grader. It would have been incredible if the authors had worked with a sci-fi author or at least consulted an astrophysicist here and there.
Maybe? I personally rarely care if sci-fi isn't hard science. I like Star Trek and Star Wars and for the most part those shows don't give a stuff about astrophysics.
This is going to fall in the same category as E.V.E. Online, fun to discuas but only a small percentage of people will actually play it intensively.
That's a bit harsh. EVE online eats thousands of hours, people who finish this game would have spent less time on it by far. It's long for a board game, but shorter than playing through Mass effect the whole way
This was one of my first kickstarter backs. Sadly it has now taught me that you NEVER pick one wave shipping. No where did they educate you that it may add a year or two to you getting the game. I’m so disappointed by that lack of info. Glad people are enjoying it, just angry AR gets to keep my money for an extra year or two for a game that is available today.
Original campaign FAQ clearly stated that if you chose single shipping that you would receive all content in Wave 2 when all the game content (including stretch goals) is completed. What is unfortunate is the amount of schedule delay for both Wave 1 and Wave 2 content development compared to the original estimated delivery dates. That's a fair criticism. Sorry you're stuck waiting on it as I know that is frustrating.
Yeah they did. You can’t fault AR for this.
I think this is disingenuous. I've backed several AW Kickstarters over the years, Nemesis, Lockdown, Lords of Hellas and Tainted grail. The wave 1 and 2 shipping thing is always very clearly signposted and very obvious. I remember reading it on all of them. I didnt back Vanguard, as this is a review copy, but i would be surprised after the many many folks who clicked wave 2 shipping in the earlier ones only to complain later, they made it less obvious on this campaign.
@@Merkowitz show me where they said it would be an extra year or two? Again, remember this was my first one. To see wave one vs two, how would you have any information available to know it would be up to a year or two.
@@mattmc20 As I said above, I think it is fair to believe AR should have had either better schedule estimates or better execution performance. But, as I recall (haven't gone back to try to check) the initial campaign or one of the early updates before the PM estimated the time between Wave 1 and Wave 2 to be 8 months. I think the original FAQ said 6 - 12 months. I can see where you might think it won't be hard to wait 6 or 8 months but might feel very differently about waiting 12 months. Given they were already saying could be up to 12 months it just made sense to get split shipping rather than risk feeling left out for a long period of time while everyone else is playing the game. Lastly, if you'd have even a quick look at the comments section while the original campaign was running you would have found virtually everyone saying to not do single shipping unless you were fine with waiting a long time to play. Again, sorry for your frustration but this risk was knowable and it was a very small cost increase to just make it go away by getting split shipping.
Thank you. I think that' not for me.
I always like to think we're about helping folk make good decisions about games, so a "not for me" is just as good as a "totally for me" in my book :)
@@3MBG and your shorts give a real good first impression
I have an aversion to these massive campaign games now, especially from AR. I mean, the minis I hear for ISS are near pointless but that is the selling point of many of their products. It aint a cheap selling point either. I am shocked this is a GMG. There has been a lot of games making it to that list lately. It isn't my list though, but I do take your GMG suggestions very seriously as benchmarks for what other board game designs ought to strive for. Respectfully will need to disagree on this one. I've read it's quite epic in scale but I refuse to pay AR or second hand the copious money to find out. The book keeping also sounds like a snore. I'm glad the app exists but by that point I would personally rather play a video game since I prefer a bit more action. ISS is anything but action packed from what I understand. I'd be curious how something like this compares to like Sleeping Gods in terms of campaign experience.
I've had a run of pretty good games lately, especially compared to last year which was a shocker. So a few more GMG's recently. It's legit felt like a bit of a purple patch of good titles of late, games that have shaken me out of a bit of a grump in reviewing to be honest. As nothing is more grinding in this gig than playing a string of mediocre games.
The minis are pretty pointless in this, so despite them sending me the mini box, i just didn't show it. (The character and ship mini are in the core game).
You can just not buy the mini's. $100 base game box is not that unheard of and at 60 hours of content a pretty good deal for the experience, probably. For $160 + shipping you can late pledge and get everything needed to play base game and the expansion. No extra mini's cost. Anyone can just do this, right now.
It sounds like you just don't want to play board games.
I think that's an unfair comment at the end there @kessharann. Someone can dislike an individual game and how its marketed while enjoying many other games. Keep it clean folks and lets not have a shouty match on there.
@@KesSharann that may be but that could be an American pricing frame of mind. It is more for Canadians like myself when converting and shipping. ISS base is $135 CAD. No idea the shipping cost but I would wager $30 since that is on par for many games of similar size costs me on Gamefound or KS. Surprisingly, it gets disgusting for shipping costs to Canada. It can cost up to 25% of the game's price to ship to me. For US residents the cost of shipping has often been a fraction (Canadian shipping cost can be as high as 30-50% more). When I compare that to what I am getting from Oathsworn Standee Pledge for relatively slightly more in cost (roughly +$35 with excellent hero minis, although the shipping for this campaign is relatively comparable to the US) I'd say ISS will not serve me well for my tastes and money.
@@KesSharann on a side note, I just can't justify a $99 USD game plus shipping for a boardgame product with less emphasis on minis. I'd seriously question my spending habits if I am mostly getting paper and cardboard for the base ISS (not to disqualify the amount of hours put into making it and it's app).