A channel about all manner of hobby games by Michael Walker and Mark Bigney. Bad games don't go easy on you, so we don't go easy on them. Thorough analysis via reviews, news, and discussion of topics in gaming. We take context seriously, we value your time, and we're not into hype. Just because games are fun doesn't mean we can't take them seriously, and just because we take them seriously doesn't mean we can't have fun.
Dragons Down. Reviewing a game based on an introductory game is problematic especially if you draw conclusions such as it is too easy. The original Magic Realm, Undaunted Callisto 2200 and The MandalorianAdventures also have scenario 1 as an introductory scenario not at all representative of the game. IMO tgis is worse than giving an impression of a game based soley on it's box. Your premise that more content just adds more variety is flawed Firstly for an obvious reason that if more difficulty adds higher difficulty "enemies" then that makes it harxer. for Dragons Down and Magic Real Heroes fair differently depending upon the enemies they face and that depends upon the summoning terrain, the merchants, the civilisations the low chances of bad things happening when you will only see less than 20% of the treasures. On the first paragraph after the introduction which woukd have answered why the name for tge setting. "Dragons Down ships with various sandboxes and scenarios to provide many player options. We recommend starting with “Scenario 1: Entering Dragons Down” in the scenario book. Once comfortable with the game, choose another scenario or play using the Open Realm, Explore the Realm, or Legendary sandboxes below. Most of us go Open Realm. The Mountains and Keep only have 2 caves in the six tiles. Most play one of the Sandbox scenarios listed in the rules, the scenarios 2-7 add variety to those. The game is not Easy and is often deadly for the same reasons as Magic Realm just far more accessible. Though like MR even death brings the reward and generated narative of your journey, plus you can just create a new Hero and continue, it is not unheard of for a player to win based on the success of a dead hero. I have played MR sice 1980, still have the first edition but use 3.1 rules and Realm Speak. Actually quite dissapointed and wondering why an experienced gamer would not skip that introductory scenario or just discount it and play the game, any MR player wouldn't need to play it anyway.
Just a warning people: the retail version of this really looks like poor man’s version. It doesn’t even include any variants or modules and the minis look horribly plain. You are only getting a third of the glory of the KS box. Ridiculous proposition tbh
There are some event games were I am happy if we get it to the table one or twice and all just have a good time, I might even be happier about something I am not as keen on that gets to the table over and over again. It really is so context dependent.
I just remember stalagmites and stalactites by the shape of the letters M and T. M looks like two stalagmites growing from the ground, T like one stalactite dropping from the ceiling.
Nice playthrough! I’ve been stuck on this guy my past few plays 2-player and solo. Looks like fun with 3 climbers! The solo mode as is in the rules feels more difficult too. Also I noticed Walker jumped a few times with 2 AP but it costs 3 AP to jump 2.
In Arcs, you can't really defend the Court cards you have, but the resources for scoring, you can move around on your player board to the higher key values so they are harder to steal...
Very speedy recovery. Don't forget to slow down as well and take time. I really like the game, hopefully I can get it at Spiel. The pre-order is quite expensive, the shipping costs are the same as the game.
Great discussion, very interesting intersection between games inspired by tabletop coming full circle back to their analog format. Just need an Android: Netrunner version of Slay the Spire to complete the circle!
Sending a lot of love for Walker. I always listen to your podcast on Spotify but hearing this really shook me and I had to come here and let you know that I am wishing him the best recovery possible. He is really a exceptional and funny human being.
Thanks, great review, looking forward to receiving my copy and hearing more from you. Have you guys played Legends Untonld? it has a new variant and updates to original arriving this year. Less narrative but a similar fish out of water fast playing dungeon skirmish game.
Our game group loves Inis, but Galactic Renaissance has fallen flat for our group. Both games we played the same specialist was available for drafting. Both games where the player drafted this specialist was a run away leader. It is the specialist that allows you to play another institute out, so that player had two cards to get their institutes out. It left a sour taste in all the other players mouth as both games it felt like everyone else was playing a different game than the runaway leader. The runway leader in both games quickly got a hand size of 4-5 cards and was comboing cards left and right while all the other players were slowly trying to build their enginge of comboing cards with their 1 starter institute card. Also the run away leader would be able to score their board state and then change the victory point condition that everyone else behind the winner was setting up for but due to the change in victory point condition no longer for those in 2-4 place. Also compared to Inis you get to play the yellow land cards a lot. I feel in Galactic Renaissance the planets that you are allied with are not used enough. I felt like galactic Renaissance does not utilize the abilites of allied planets enough like the yellow cards does in Inis. Everytime i play galactic Renaissance i cant help but think, there is a lot of DNA galactic Renaissance has with inis, but why am I not playing the better game, which is Inis.
Nice playthrough, although... Strategic reserves are nit shared, there should be a marker for each color. All Cruisers have the Icebreaker ability, you seemed to imply it was a Joe ability. Ski Torpedoes only reduce the dice value for the combat roll that they are used, not the whole combat. During the movement explanation it sounded like you said that players can move through enemy units, but that is only the air unit's flyover ability. Minor quibble, points to spend are the two bases, VP hexes *and* the strategic reserve. About 0:53 after Jerckface McGuilicutty attacked Snow Job, the Snowcat's first combat round hit should have selected its target. This was missed again at about 1:30. 1:34, after the divebomb attack, the rattlers should have remained in the hex until the non-com move, and then they could move to any available hex(s) with their remaining movement point(s). (There are 5 valid landing spots around SJs base including the ice hex). Nice use of Divebomb though.
Hey guys, first time listener, first time commenter, and Radlands enthusiast (hints my channel name). Wanted to clarify some stuff about your Radlands news section at the 44 minute mark. The 1.2 update came out a year ago in May 2023 so isn't tied to the expansion that was just announced a few days ago. One of the big changes as you mentioned is that cards cannot self restore now. Should help with the grindyness you were commenting on. The expansion does have some replacement camps for the original deck but it doesn't replace the whole deck. You can use each one separately or play both together (woo hoo options!). Hope this helps to clear things up a bit and glad that you all seemed so excited about it. I am too 😄. On another note I did enjoy your main topic. FOMO is tough to fight against. I need to do a better job of playing and enjoying the games I do have instead of oogling the next one down the line. I have more games I need to play than ones I have played. I need to blow the dust off and get them to the table.
Unsolicited constructive criticism - Would be a better video if you removed the 5:00 minute lead in. If it's not live there's no reason for it. Thumbs up for the remaining 9 minutes.
Nice. Quick note- not all units have special abilities. Sometimes a leader will impart a special ability. Infantry and ships have the same abilities and stats, but Keel-Haul adds a deployment option to ships, and Snow Job adds movement to Arctic Troopers.
Love the design of this game, still waiting for mine to arrive (some components had to be manufactured again, long story). Pity that Walker looks too tired to enjoy it..
It was great to see SCRAP hit your table! It's a very clever game - plotting and positioning in advance for that next big score a couple of turns from now, as well as searching for those small but significant opportunities to capitalise on each turn, all while keeping your opponents in check to prevent their plans from being successful too. It's also really cool to see the game designer sharing some tips in his comment above. One extra little one from me: 2:29:09 At the end of the battle, the winner gets to freely destroy any stunned bots still in the area that didn't participate, and score points from them. So Cerebrum (controlled by Keegan), who won the battle, could have destroyed that stunned Entropy 'Glitch' bot (the little pink one controlled by Walker), and Keegan would have gained one more data point.
Oh, and one last little note - it looks like the game info in the RU-vid Description belongs to a different game. For SCRAP, looking at the rulebook I believe it should be: Designer: Kenny Michael-Otton Artist: Seanne Santos Publisher: Jolly Swagman Games
Hey So Very Wrong About Games! Designer of SCRAP here. Thanks so much for giving it a go! I'm giving this a slow rewatch to see if I can help out with things. SCRAP is a complex game, and you're doing very well for your first game re: most of the rules. You did especially well with Crush/Disable, which are the parts of the game that trip a lot of people up! Good catch about the player aid being incorrect about Refresh. That was missed, and it should be Discard Pile and/or Queue. I will make sure to post an FAQ about that. I'll update this comment with more things I notice along the way, but so far you've been doing a great job of correcting things that may have initially been not quite right (e.g. Functions replacing others etc). I did want to point out that there is an FAQ for all Functions at the back of the rulebook (card referenced by number), and an FAQ on the flip side of each Attribute, which should answer most of the common questions about various effects in the game. Cheers! Kenny Michael-Otton Jolly Swagman Game @56:22 - You talk about not wanting to shift, but there is never a reason not to Shift. It puts your Mode Marker back to the middle, from which you can then choose any Domain you want. It's always an upside! @1:15:00 - You're right that there's no explanation of every Intelligence in the rulebook. There is an FAQ for every Function included at the back of the rulebook (you can reference them by card number), and the back of each Attribute also has an FAQ on it. @1:37:00 - For Theorise, you must discard a Function of a colour matching the new Relic to gain the 4 Data. All of the Relic actions are tied to the colour of the new Relic. @1:49:00 - For Maneouvre, you still must control the Area for the Search Action (it follows the usual rules for Search, but just has an added stipulation in that it needs to be adjacent to your Ship). There are some card effects that will tell you to "Resolve a 1 Search Bonus", which circumvent the need for control. @1:50:50 - Not a rules clarification, but a strategy thing. Deathballing around the board is great for Raids/Battles, but you still want to try and maintain control of as many Areas as possible to set up valuable Scavenges. If you just deathball around, then the counterplay to that is either for the opponent to split and disrupt your control of many areas, or store up a lot of Energy so that they can respond to battles by reinforcing. @1:54:25 - Yes. You need to perform the Crush Action with a Bot that has a Virus token on it, in that particular case. I see you did consult the card reference for it though! :) @1:58:18 - I think you may have missed gaining Data from Hijack here. You gain Data equal to the Size of the Bot you Hijack. @2:00:00 - You got it with Crush. Resolved it correctly! You definitely use your Size and affect the opposing Bots based on their Strength. @2:03:15 - Pyroclastic Barrage was resolved incorrectly. Like all Crush actions, it still only uses a single Bot, not all of them. Bombardment also only gives the action +1 damage if a Red Weapon was used (as per the Attribute). With a powered-up Pyroclastic Barrage and a Red Weapon, the maximum damage that you could deal is 5; enough to destroy a big Bot, but not a big Bot and a pile of others. Poor Kirurgeon got much more massacred than they should have here (though a powered-up Pyroclastic Barrage with an Advanced Weapon still would have been a massive swing). @2:15:15 - Correct. The Mobilise + Disable combos are always based on the Size (Star) of the moved Bot(s). @2:16:20 - Yes. You can activate both in the same Area. Each Bonus can be chosen once. You'd still need to have a sufficiently powerful Search Action (so spend a bunch of Energy while resolving a Scavenge, for instance). @2:19:00 - Downtime can be high when four new players are learning the game. Usually, we found that experienced players can complete their entire turns in under a minute (with the exception of Raid / Scavenge turns). It's why I generally recommend the game at 2-3 players for the first play. Our two player games tend to run at about forty five minutes. The downtime can also be a bit more pronounced if you're using two card Queues, which is why the shorter Queues variant (Casual Mode) is generally recommended for new players, especially in 4P. @2:54:00 - The 3 at the end may seem lucky, but the Fragments (cards) are balanced around them all being worth approximately 1.66. It'd be interesting to see what the average was for all players at game end, as in the hundreds of playtests we did, only twice was a game determined by luck of the draw (i.e. a game result was affected by it). On the surface, it may seem like "Draw big numbers, get lucky, win", but the reality is that you frequently draw enough Fragments in the game to swing towards the average, +/-1. ---- Okay, I think that's all of it. Thanks to all who played for giving it a go, even if it may not have been your cup of tea! :)
Jimbo here, thanks for taking the time to watch and comment, especially so graciously :) We talked some more after we went offline and at least two of us want to give it a few more plays. Walker and I were both pretty tired, so not the best way to give a game a fair shot :)
Just got my Black Rose Wars Rebirth and gotta say, it is pretty sweet. Haven't played yet, but really digging it. I wish there was art on the spell cards like MtG, but perhaps it was too costly? The models are the best in a board game I have gotten. Keep in mind I've backed and have a lot of board games. Kingdom Death Monster, Aeon Trespass Odyssey, Tainted Grail KoR etc....
