ISS Vanguard - Board Game Review - Epic In Scope & In Rules

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ISS Vanguard - Board Game Review - Epic In Scope & In Rules
ISS Vanguard is a 1-4 player co-operative, campaign Board Game. It will bring players right into epic Sci-Fi adventure, as they will play as 4 sections (security, recon, science, engineering) onboard the first human ship with the possibility to reach outer space. Campaign will introduce the unique story written by Krzysztof Piskorski (Tainted Grail) full of hard player choices, twists and branching storylines. The game will come with over 100 different Crew members, each with unique characteristics.
Gameplay is divided into 2 main stages: Ship phase and landing on planets.
During the Ship phase, players will manage their ship (binder with printed sleeves), where every section will have to make gameplay decisions. Then, you will prepare your crew for landing on the next planet, in search of answers to humanity's biggest questions. Together you will pick lander and customize it with modules, then each section will choose a crew member to take on a mission ( more experienced crew members will have better ranks ), deck-build skills deck, take equipment and choose dices for his character.
During all phases of the games players will be directed to Log-book, consisting story encounters, often written in the form of action-packed dialogues between the characters.
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Who Am I?
One single batchelor from the UK talking about his passion for board games and the people who play them! I support small content creators, board game cafes and go against the status quo when it comes to the board game industry. I give my honest opinions without bias towards any publishers or designers and will not hold back if I don't like a game.
The Broken Meeple is a variety channel that hosts all kinds of board game content from reviews to Top 10 lists to playthroughs to live stream collaborations with special guests (predominantly small channels who deserve more exposure).
I look forward to engaging with you, the community on my live streams or in the comments on my videos!
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Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction and KIENDA Promo
01:00 - Background and Overview
04:33 - Epic Rules Absorption Required
06:00 - What a Great Tutorial. . . . Maybe Too Great?
09:29 - Components and Art (Space Looks Gooood)
11:12 - The Ship Book (Very Addictive!)
14:53 - The Main Game (Very Difficult!)
16:38 - The Landing (Very Un-Necessary!)
17:29 - Does Feel Punishing
20:32 - Summary and Verdict
#brokenmeeple #issvanguard #awakenrealms #kickstarterboardgames #boardgames #boardgame #lukehector #supportsmallcreators #tabletop #tabletopgames #bgg #boardgamer #boardgamereview
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Опубликовано:

4 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 85

@Venturello Год назад

It took me 77 hours to complete campaign. Solo, 4 sections. Took me a month having ‘advantage’ of being between jobs. Agree, it’s a game if you can only play once or twice a week will take long, but if you like it it has a lot of variety, solid story and quite a lot of surprises to spice things up to keep you interested. And… I found difficulty not punishing enough! As you learn to play and rank up your crew it gets easier; if I replay this I will certainly increase difficulty. Landing procedure for me was good fun, many of them are thematic to the planet and some contain their own story impacting the adventure. Yes if rolls go bad it can hurt you quite negatively for the planet… but such are the risks of planet exploration! It’s an excellent game for my taste, not for everyone!

@Ambar88 Год назад

Everyone on BGG seems to say that more sections = easier game, even with the increased supply usage when resting you still apparently have a lot more action economy.

@iansutton7416 Год назад

there is a logic to them wanting it to be easier with more sections being fully utilised... solo and 2P gamers are more likely to enjoy optimisation and play more frequently / intensely, whereas for 3 or 4 player gaming, there's often a greater emphasis on the shared experience, but less on the optimisation. Thus I think they might actually be aiming at full player count being slightly easier / true solo being hardest of all.

@Sajatzsiraf Год назад

we meet again XD

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

L2P when it's mainly dice luck...................... If it gets easier, it needs to do it a damn sight sooner than it currently does. After 20+ hours I don't expect to be getting the same punches constantly. You're definitely in a minority saying it's too easy, most agree it's a punishing affair. It certainly does have the story, variety, etc, but 77 hours is A LOT OF TIME! And I'm guessing that's not including setup/takedown or relearning the rules. With 4 sections it does seem to be easier though, mainly are saying the normal solo rules are too hard and I agree. But I don't want to have to pilot 4 different decks of cards and dice etc everywhere.

@Venturello Год назад

@@TheBrokenMeeple hope I didn’t play with rules wrong! The time does include setup although for the most part it stayed in the table. As I played over 4 weeks, I was playing almost every other day do no need to refresh rules. Yeah with 4 crew preparing decks and dice was annoying when the crew changed ranks… agree. Not saying it was all easy, some planets where super punishing, I had my share of terrible landings where crew is half dead. And some tests super hard. Meant more overall campaign, hard to loose (vs a game like KDM for example).

@georgioschalikias4883 Год назад

Thanks Luke ! Informative review from all angles ! Kudos for your honesty and bravery

@kevinerskine3299 Год назад

Thanks Luke. I really really want this now.

@everythingdice Год назад

Solid review Luke! I mirror your comments on dice mitigation being difficult, especially early on. Once you get a few more plays, you’ll start to notice a balance between the upgrades. I’d recommend doing at least the first two planetary scans just to see what’s needed for dice checks and then select members for your away team with the conversions that match if you can. While the Vanguard symbol is hard to come by, the crosshair symbol is much more likely to hit.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

You get new recruits randomly though so you won't always have the converts your need . And I don't like being forced to scan planets at the cost of energy when I want to do other things too.

@bobbell4227 Год назад

@@TheBrokenMeeple Don’t forget that you can commit available crew to scan instead of energy.

@FalkFlak Год назад

This also seems to go past the threshold of "Why isn't this just a co-op computer game".

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

It already exists, it's No Man's Sky! :P

@bobbell4227 Год назад

Because, after working on the computer all day, all I want is to play something that is physical. Seriously, I spend too much time in front of a screen, and this game allows me to enjoy physical interaction.

@FalkFlak Год назад

then there is a myriad of good co-op board games where you don't need to spend most of the time doing things that could better be administered by a program.

@jason.bagari Год назад

Thanks for the video. Based on the state of your ship book I'd say you were probably only a few planets in so I think a lot of the problems you have are addressed later. I understand the frustration you have with the lack of command tokens/energy and the landing sequence for planetary exploration, however I think removing these aspects reduces the satisfaction of unlocking the upgrades that make these aspects of the game less restricting. Player/Ship progression is the name of the game here and removing the obstacles makes the progression less satisfying. You need to play with 4 sections at a time though, regardless of the number of players in order to have the best chance for success on the planets as I don't think the planets are scaled for anything less than that. That could explain why you were having such difficulties. The rule book recommends that you play 2 sections solo or two player, but just ignore that and run the full 4. Overall, for me, I'd say this game is a homerun. I hope you get a bit deeper into the game because I think you'll find a lot of your issues get resolved with more progression and then you can enjoy the sci-fi goodness.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

4-5 games plus the tutorial. I did remove a few major spoiler cards just to be on safe side. But yeah I agree that you need all the dice though do I want to pilot four sets of dice and cards which only get more and more as time goes on? If the rules claimed solo works the game should stay true to that if designed well. It may be one to return to but again, finding the time is a bugbear.

@ralfn9629 Год назад

Hi Luke, great overview. I never pulled the trigger on this one: A bombastic game like this should not have dice! I wish Sleeping Gods would have this kind of Ship-Logbook. I would be all for the story of Planet-exploring. But from you and Tom V., I was missing the Sleeping Gods experience in exactly this corner of the game.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Sleeping Gods isn't exactly a quickie, but it's easier to get out than this one.

@fxlab2540 Год назад

Great Review. I played Tutorial mission and Planet #1 with a friend (NO SPOILERS). That game is brutal in every possible way. We played planet #1 last night (Pellucid) and it took us 6 hours to get through ship management and planet exploration. I was in charge of the rules and I was completely exhausted after the session. Then, there's the difficulty... What the hell?? We lost 4 out of 6 supplies just trying to land (pure dice bad luck). We barely managed to get a couple discoveries because we kept getting +0 tokens in the lead bag. One of the characters we brought planetside had a completely useless ability in that mission... I mean, we LOVE the game... but it seems to HATE us. We barely succeeded. One last thing : We actually cheated once. We looked at the whole planet scanner card to understand why we should keep energy for that next time. So, we brought the two characters that had the MOST CHANCES of succeeding that mission... and it was hell. I agree completely with your review. We're probably gonna skip the landing phase in the future. It's just stupid.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Ouch, fate did not smile on your crew 😬

@JohnnyMcNabb63 Год назад

Love this game. My biggest negative is that setup/ship/planet takes about 4 hours so it makes it hard to get to the table. Love the app which is something I’ve never said for a game. I have everything with sundrop. The only thing you really need is the core with standees. I really like the player mats because I play solo with 3 characters and it helps to keep everything separated so for me it’s a must have. The miniatures are not needed at all. I have the upgraded dice and wish I didn’t, they are very hard to read and the original ones are better. The upgraded section boxes are great. I’m glad I have them but if I was only going for 1 upgrade it would be the player mats.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Haven't really seen the mats, but yes the miniatures are a waste of space. You have to waste time finding which one you need and it's for such a short period of time. I'll certainly be less prominent about ordering miniature upgrades.

@martonferenci Год назад

we play this once a week or fortnight with my 9 year old - I don't feel I need to re-learn the game. We are on our 4th landing now. The big selling point for me was the audio narration, without it this would not be close to a great game. You don't need the minis. I had a challenge with taking cards out of the A, B trays...but this is just nitpicking. I agree it's hard - especially in the first few landings - lost entire crews in the medbay

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

There's a ton of rules to re-aquaint yourself with, unless you've got an eidetic memory. By the time you've done a week of work and other activities, the intracacies of a 10 step dice check process and multiple setup requirements for a mission aren't on the tip of the brain.

@Newt211 Год назад

I haven’t finished the first mission due to kid and time constraints m. But the audio is what I keep remembering as incredible. It kept me so immersed. That is why I want to keep playing, it makes me feel like a captain.

@trening4 11 месяцев назад

Great Review😁

@JakubHohn 4 месяца назад

At one time, I read an article that someone is trying to send laser directly to the back of your eye, meaning that all the issues with focusing should be bypassed. This might sound dangerous, but the laser is extremely low powered. Also, it would be hope for people who are blind, but some parts of their eyes work.

@johnunderwood4953 Год назад

Great review Luke! I'm looking forward to this game. Curious, how would you house-rule the dice mitigation?

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

not entirely sure, maybe allow more rerolls or shorten the tracks for success on some of the checks. or at least be able to pick my own recruits when hired so i have converts.

@francopdx 7 месяцев назад

I just got this game about a month ago and played the tutorial. I am super excited to delve into it, but I am unsure when that will happen due to the time commitment. Also, I'd love to play it all full player count, but again, due to the time commitment, maybe I'll aim for a 2-player campaign where both of us control 2 sections each.

@TheBrokenMeeple 7 месяцев назад

The tutorial alone despite being amazing is already a behemoth in itself.

@DanLuxenberg Год назад

I disagree about the planet phase. It is difficult, but there are many ways to mitigate the difficulty. Scanning the planet is vital, knowing what symbols will be needed and what equipment to take. I don't think you're supposed to do everything on a planet on one trip - you need to choose between focusing on the mission, or doing side trips and realizing that you may have to come back to the planet a second time. The cards do a great job of mitigating the luck of the rolls, and the puzzle is in knowing how to use the cards effectively and how to make choices to minimize your 'wasting' of dice.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

I don't like that scanning is vital as that uses up energy, meaning you have to waste resources there that you could use doing other cool things. The cards mainly reroll dice which isn't the best mitigation - you want to be able to fix dice.

@theblunder1983 Год назад

Took me about 30 hours but some of the later puzzle missions are brutal and in some cases broken. I fudged it and still had a blast. Normally I’d sell on but this one is being lent out until the wave2 stuff comes

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Sounds like difficulty gets worse.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Also ONLY 30 hours? that's certianly not inc rules and setup etc

@CareyMcDuff Год назад

Interesting review. I've been interested in this since it was announced, mainly due to the theme. I haven't pulled the trigger yet, because I just couldn't devote the time it deserves right now. I'm hoping that it being such a success sales-wise, it will go to retail in a year or two. As some other comments have suggested, don't you think the difficulty in the early part of the game makes the moments when you do succeed all the more satisfying?

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

"when" you succeed being the operative phrase. A game can still be challenging without being overly punishing. But if you fail by the odd bad roll or dumb choices, then fair enough, but like here you have the Lander procedure fully random. If you lose from no control, it's less fun.

@wiblick 3 месяца назад

It’s 1 year later and I’ll be picking this up when it restocks in May. Thematically and mechanically it appeals too much to pass on. I’l be playing solo hopefully with 4 sections - and probably a house rule or two so I can enjoy the immersive experience without being ‘cut off’….

@TheBrokenMeeple 3 месяца назад

Controlling 4 stations solo, that's going to be a mission!

@MerrillWhiteKalEl Год назад

This is the next campaign game, after I finish Oathsworn.

@adster9416 Год назад

Thanks for the vid! Since you teased it a couple of days ago, I’ve been itching to watch! Shame you didn’t talk through the miniatures - on that front, one thing I am curious about (looking to late pledge) is are the models really worth it? Compared to the standees provided in the core box? Should I save myself $75 and just get the Sundrop version of the base box? Love to know your thoughts!

@adster9416 Год назад

Comments from others are more than welcome too 🙂

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Miniatures are not necessary though. Standees have nice artwork and they are only used briefly anyway. Player models get in the way of spaces on the book also.

@adster9416 Год назад

Thanks for the reply! So would you say it isn’t worth an extra £70 for the miniatures for the enemies and landers then? Just stick with the core box? 🙂 would love to have a separate video for your thoughts on the minis, but I know that’s effort for you and you are already super busy! Thanks for your vids! Love them!

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

@@adster9416 it wouldn't justify a whole video. Put simply, the miniatures don't see enough time on the board to make that price point worth it. It's aesthetics only and doesn't add to the gameplay, in fact they block a lot of important info.

@adster9416 Год назад

@@TheBrokenMeeple amazing, thank you for the reply! Makes sense, will save myself some money then! 😃

@DumahAtreides Год назад

This is at least a 9 from me. One of the all time best and I'm about 1/3rd through it. Yes, it's a commitment and much like some other campaign games you want to be able to keep it out on the table and just focus on it over a week or two in a stretch. Since that fits for me just fine, it's not a detractor. I enjoy the dice and planet system too, but it's that one aspect I think will eventually keep this out of being a 10/10 by the end of the campaign.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Most people can't focus on something that intensive over a long period of time. AR aren't making these games for the unemployed loners who live with their parents, many simply don't have the ease to devote 4 hours per session for multiple sessions. Now if the game say took 60-90 to do each session and had the same amount of content, it would be easier to digest.

@DumahAtreides Год назад

@@TheBrokenMeeple Certainly a question of what audience is the game for. I've got a family, but just fit in little bits of time solo instead of trying to get full sessions completed. Still works and I may end up replaying with my wife after the second wave.

@Oaklestat Год назад

My wife and i are loving it. It has surpassed and nearly killed Roll Player Adventures for us.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Yeah I enjoyed RPA a lot but didn't feel like investing in the new expansion.

@iansutton7416 Год назад

I do like where AR are going with tutorials. Still not yet perfected, but both this and the Etherfields tutorials really are excellent. The frustration with the one in Etherfields, was simply they didn't guide the new recipient of the game directly to it (as happened here). Criticisms of the rulebook were mostly IMO because those people tried to work out the rules directly from the rulebook, rather than as should have happened, them being guided through the tutorial, and then just using the rulebook for reference (which I think it's good at). A shame, as AR (and others) addressed this better post initial release, and AR also addressed gripes that some (but not all) had with a flexible set of revised optional rules. Once players have found the approach that works for them, I think many more would enjoy it, but it feels like the game's reputation suffers from those early reviews.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Etherfields 2.0 with a decent tutorial and rulebook, that would be nice.

@victorybhg Год назад

just watch shelfsides review…wow..takes a hard tilt at the end to change the feeling of the game

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

How do you mean?

@victorybhg Год назад

@@TheBrokenMeeple according to ashton one of the shelfside guys the last missions are a 180 from the typical iss mission of exploration. they don’t go into detail because of spoilers but the mission difficulty just increases like crazy and they quit about 4-5 missions from the end. They gave it a 7/10

@kevinsmith9899 Год назад

I haven't played this one, but I STRONGLY agree with your general complaint about co-ops lacking easier modes. If you're going to ship with multiple challenge levels (and you should), they shouldn't be hard, incredibly hard, and nightmare.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Yeah Awaken Realms just can't adopt an easy mode.

@Oaklestat Год назад

Don't forget that the Vanguard symbols help a lot in covering specific symbols

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Which are a 1 in 6 chance on all but the V dice.

@Oaklestat Год назад

@@TheBrokenMeeple But the more dice you roll the higher probability you have. and the Vanguard dice is great to holding on to for specific rolls. I'm not saying it isn't tough, just that it makes anything possible.

@stefansibbes2440 Год назад

Hey Luke, you think this is playable as a 4 player game once a month with commited players?

@DumahAtreides Год назад

I've played about 1/3rd of it and I'd argue that you have a lot to do in each cycle - up to four hours. You have over 20 of those to get through to the end. Is it playable at 4 players, sure...but I think the length is probably a bit too much for once a month plays and you'd likely feel lost in those gaps between the story (the best part).

@iansutton7416 Год назад

For a group that is excited to do it - absolutely!

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

I don't think it's best suited for multiplayer but if your group is willing 😊

@Dragonnox Год назад

I played a few sessions at 3p and 4p. The planet phase is fun, but there was a lot of sitting around being very bored during the ship phase, which is much more solo or maybe 2p focussed. The rest of us spoke up at certain decision points but otherwise we were sat around waiting for someone to move cards about for 30-45 minutes at a time. Might just be our experience, but I wouldn't recommend this for 4p. In fact we decided to stop playing it as a group and continue solo (one player with his copy, and me when my copy arrives in wave 2).

@VaultBoy13 Год назад

@@Dragonnox I haven't played it. But, all the review videos talking about the book make it sound like the game is a solo experience. The planet phase might work with more, but I find AR really likes to make their adventure games a solo (and sometimes 2-player) experience.

@IDM29 Год назад

If i want to read a sci fi story i go for Herbert, Philip K Dick ecc, if i want to play a game i go for fun and there is no fun here, only a waste of money. If i have a lot of time to spend playing a sci fi boardgame surely i will go for twilight imperium to have fun and creating epic story by myself with my friends. This was a mistake for me, i have recovered my money selling it after near 15 hours of playing. Don't judge a book by his cover.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

TI is just one of those games where it's fine mechnically (except for exploration tokens they suck) but just too long per play session.

@dilatedbeholder3865 2 месяца назад

I'm really on the fence about this one. Did you end up selling, Luke?

@TheBrokenMeeple 2 месяца назад

I did, the dice game aspect I found a bit lacking as mentioned and in the end I just couldn't commit to another long campaign game.

@ten_oclock_scholar4690 Год назад

This is somewhere between a 6 and 7 for me. The whole game feels excessively procedural and punishing. Simple dice checks somehow require a 10 step process, there are too few ways to mitigate the bad dice luck, and the landing phase is extremely frustrating, especially when you inevitably lose the equipment you just spent the previous phase getting. For us, that all just adds up to a disappointing experience.

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

The landing procedure is definitely a weak link.

@minnwaiyan Год назад

This or Tainted Grail?

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

Tainted Grail

@jeremyboughtono2 Год назад

This should be something I would like but I am not feeling the love for this one.

@AircraftFuelerEddie 6 месяцев назад

Developers need to make these kinds of games LESS overwhelming... the fun factor suffers when you have to slug your way through endless rules, long set up time and insurmountable content... Those can be deal breakers for a lot of people... I'm still on the fence...

@TheBrokenMeeple 6 месяцев назад

Agreed!!

@antoniohorta4105 6 месяцев назад

im guessing you could not play this stone to the bone ?

@TheBrokenMeeple 6 месяцев назад

No chance! :P

@lexmachina8961 Год назад

I watch your videos from time to time but I have to admit that I have hard time understanding your "negatives". You buy a campaign game, the amount of time the campaign lasts is advertised upfront. And you consider the commitment and the fact that you won't have the time to play it all a negative (of the game)? It means you are the wrong client for this game but the game does what it says it does. And the most disturbing thing is you say that you feel like it's the best experience ever and that if you had the time you would play it all. So the problem is that you don't have the time. it has nothing to do with the game, it has to do with your way of life that doesn't sit well with this game. The fact that you would like to play the game more IS the positive, the fact that you can't is...your problem. Don''t get me wrong, I'm not an AR watch dog as I find this game to have many flaws. But what you say is not a flaw. I saw somewhere in another video that you considered as a negative the fact that a game had spiders in it and that you don't like spiders. And you talked a LOT about this. Same thing: how is it the game's problem in any relevant way? Man, your reviews are weird (to me). I like the spirit very much but the content is disturbing sometimes (IMHO).

@sairam71 Год назад

was going to say something simliar. the length of the game is not really a con but i guess it affects him. i can see the same point turned around and said holy i get sooo much play for my $$$ huge huge plus. :)

@TheBrokenMeeple Год назад

You missed however that I stipulated in that video that the spider thing didn't affect my rating, that was just for giggles! As for this, remember that each session requires you to devote 4+ hours of time to set it up, get it played, pack it up, relearn rules etc. And yet still need a bunch of plays to complete. That's a hefty amount of time for most human beings not just me. Pretty sure they don't make their games solely for the unemployed bachelors who live with their parents. Now let's say games were say, an hour tops. But the same amount of content. They would be easier to digest and thus people could progress with them at a much more casual pace.