Miami Dice, Episode 170 - Blood Rage 

I know! That's hilarious!

I'm watching this in 2019, and there's no way someone looking at this video would think it will become one of Sam's favorites of all time.

That's what I thought the entire time :D

Nicholas Rees guyhrrfvevtgevgfevffkuwrjfk

William Smith I did notice that, but I'm okay with that happening here simply because how much Tom has been hyping up this game in prior videos. The fact that he actually let the other two finish what they were saying without jumping in and screaming was about as much restraint as I could expect knowing Tom's feelings on the game.

William Smith Tom has a lot of rage in this video

well it is funny that for Sam is this is on his top 10 games now and for Zee it was on his essential games list. Guess Tom was right.

Counter Culture Should you be commenting this, or should you be working on your next review? Hmmm? I guess you know the answer! Move along. C'mon! :P

they will whine about it because of the theme. check out the review for Chaos in the old world.

Morten Mejnholt It's sort of a spiritual successor in many ways, but Eric Lang himself has stated that it's not truly a remake. It honestly combines elements of Midgard with another of his games, Chaos in The Old World. Eric loved Midgard. He told me that it was one of his absolute favourite designs, but he made the personal mistake of leaving the component design to some friends over more professional designers, which led to a disappointing appearance of the game, which as a result potentially led to it being overlooked by many. Midgard is the first designer game I bought, and I love it, even though I cannot get it to the table anymore. I hate that I couldn't afford to back this when it was running.

Ray Myers I don't really understand why so many comments agains Tom's love for Eric's games have appeared. You might be right about the amount of hype for Arcadia Quest - it was strange for me then and I was doubtful after going only through the rules. But then I've played it about a month ago and I fell in love with it and praise it since then. I don't know if everybody will love it (probably not) but how can I - I can only say it is great for me. Objectively I can say that it has great design elements and it is gorgeous and subjectively I just love it. I don't know how Tom could do anything but that for Arcadia, Dice Masters (even though I'm not in love with this one) and now Blood Rage - he gives his objective opinion sprinkled with his love for the games which he is excited for. I wouldn't discourage him from doing this, but rather encourage viewers to take all the opinions of the reviewers more cautiously - they are always subjective in some way - the best you can do is to learn if the reviewer has similar taste to your's. One last thing - You say that the game (all games) should not be immune from negative comments. But they are not - the exact reason why this discussion is possible is that those comments were in the video and got to you through Sam and Zee. Nobody stopped them from publication, there was no censorship - it was only Tom's opinion and why shouldn't he say that he disagrees. You could say that it seemed as he did not allow for others to have different opinion - yeah, and Sam punches Zee a lot, they clearly don't like each other. Tom's opinion isn't any more important than Sam's or Zee's - thay are just their opinions and you should judge which opinion is more important for you (which reviewer's taste is more similar to your taste). When we see them debate or agrue, it is only beneficial to us viewers, we get more arguments and can decide which are closer to our own. Sorry for the prolonged response (and perhaps a bit too preachy tone) but I have been surprised by so many negative comments on Tom's love for the game that none of use have even played yet. Your comment was just one of the comments I've read when I decided to respond - I have nothing agains You, just wanted give Tom some support.

Paweł Stelmach I only mention Arcadia Quest because his connection with this same designer and publisher. I love for Tom to have his own opinion and to express it. My main beef was that Tom debates both Zee and Sam's opinions to a new level. He's done that before, but this time: he was visible irritated that ANY negative thing was being said. Far more than simple disagreement. It's like"im the boss" a little bit

Paweł Stelmach And I just want to be clear, I'm not trying to troll. I just value multiple opinions and don't want that to go away. It's a definitive strength of The Dice Tower for multiple honest opinions.

Ray Myers Of course, I didn't perceive it as trolling. I don't even want to persuade You to agree with me. I just wanted give some balance in the comments to opinions that I perceived as a bit negative and that started to appear in greater numbers without any response from those who think otherwise.

+Geek Factor He seemed super excited about this game. Quite smitten.

can't really blame him :)

Geek Factor funny how this is Sam's #1 game now.

He is harsh with all his people. I stopped listening to the podcast because of this, it was painful hearing him and how nervous his people were of him.

Well, that was harsh, Brian. Sheesh! Tom's a really nice guy.

snowren24 No, I liked it plenty, game play-wise...and the minis are awesome. My only real nit-pick is that the player boards are cheapish, and the cards are a bit small and also on the cheapish side. I guess when you have minis this good in board games, you have to cut costs elsewhere to keep the price point manageable.

Sam Healey cool, that seems to be the way CMON does things, awesome minis and just ok player boards and cards. As a backer I'm glad to hear you liked the gameplay as I tend to side with you more than Tom on game reviews.

@@SamHealey6 And now its your favorite game of all time? :P

Same here. I like miniatures but won't buy a game where I'd have to put them together myself. I'm terrible with such things and would also wonder how the heck I could get it back in the box. If it fits assembled in the box, it should have come assembled anyways.

Games Workshop miniatures can be put together because you can customize your army, giving your space marines different types of guns or attachments. Putting them in different poses, arm up in one, arm down in the other. In miniature wargaming, hobbyists will often cut apart one-piece minis just to re-pose them and make their army unique, because building the army is often seen to be as much fun as playing the game. And if you paint your miniatures, odds are you'll be painting more than playing anyway.

It's a lot of work though and in that case the single game would pretty much be an entire hobby on it's own and painting and all that would be part of it. Personally I'd rather not paint at all. If I'd be able to find someone near me who might paint my board game miniatures for me I'd go for that, assuming the price is reasonable.

Yeah I play a lot of miniature games but I'm too lazy to paint 90% of them either. I just play them instead.

Even though Cosmic came out 40 years ago, it still feels modern.

What feels modern about it? As in, what does it still do as good or better than modern games that have yet to surpass it? Dune still feels modern because you could debate that zero or very few games have yet to replicate its diplomatic backstabbing and totally different play style asymmetrical factions grounded in a solid strategy game. Rising Sun and Twilight Imperium are sort of close but still don't reach the same level of asymmetry and diplomatic options. Agricola doesn't feel modern because at least half a dozen worker placement games have surpassed it at this point. There's no reason to ever go back to Chaos in the Old World because better games like Kemet, Cyclades, Blood Rage, and Rising Sun have left it in the dust. Cosmic to me always felt like some dopey Steve Jackson game that you and your buddies played in the 80s because it was silly and it was your only option for boardgames that weren't roll & move or monsterous hex wargames. Looking at it from a modern design perspective, it feels like Mario Party where it's just constant randomness until someone wins. There's almost zero thought in balancing the races, and if an observer looked at everyone's cards, he could probably predict the winner before the game even starts. That's not even getting into the ridiculous moons expansion. Can we honestly say that if Cosmic came out today, everyone's reaction wouldn't be "was this playtested at all?" I'd put it in the same category as Nuclear War: The Card Game, a silly game you laughed at when you were younger from a different era when it stood out, but you realize now it doesn't hold up at all as a game.

Mark Tresidder So you've played it?

Steve Gale Nope haven't played it but at lot of people I talk to think it's just mini heavy with hardly any game to it. I tried to tell them differently just from reading the rules. It's nice to see it was good shout backing the game, since after all it's Eric Lang.

Mark Tresidder I don't really see the big deal about Eric Lang that you and Tom are making of him (he peaked with Chaos in the Old World IMO), but I guess I'll wait and see what the Secret Cabal will to say about it. It's a definite maybe.

Dice Masters and XCom I've played. Dice Masters is pretty facile, but it's okay. I like XCom, since it fills the niche of a three-player co-op, but I know many in my groups have played it once and been turned off.

Michael Smith The only one of those I liked was Arcadia Quest (still wouldn't even make my top 20). I concur with Steve Gale's opinion that he peaked with Chaos in the Old World. That game is easily my favorite in the area control genre.

I had the same question a few months ago. haven't gotten cry havoc yet but still want to. got blood rage + 5th expansion (all you really need) blood rage and Scythe (with its expansion) are our 2 top games we play over and over.

My 12-year old son and I have played both a few times now and we rate Blood Rage quite a bit higher at this point. Cry Havoc is a great game, don't get me wrong, but Blood Rage just works better for us.

yesterday i tryed blood rage. WOW that's an awesome experience. i will defentely buy it. i didnt tryed cry havoc yet though

If you look at all the exclusives, they are cool but it seems you would be at a disadvantage if that's all you drafted. Saying that, I doubt people would see the SG monsters being on the table as often as we would like. Don't think you're missing out on much w the retail box although I feel the same way. Hard to know you missed out on some great free stuff.

Zeetro Please note that I agreed with you before you said this...;)

Zeetro yep agree totally. Studio McVey did the Blood Rage minis, Mike McVey is an ex-GW employee. Anyway I'm happy to see all 3 guys rated the game well.

Yeah, considering this is now Sam's favorite game of all time haha

E Bur I would take expansions, of course. But I don't feel like it needs them. Plenty of stuff going on in the game.

E Bur There are some expansions already coming, they were unlocked in the KS and they add things like a 5th player and the mystics. There's also a gods of Asgard expansion but I'm not sure what that adds.

Mark Tresidder The gods, if i recall in the KS post, add one random god out of the seven (thor, Odin, loki, heimdall, ect...) onto the board that grants a specific bonus tied to that god if you are in the same place as the god mini is in

Shamans is also an expansion. New set of dudes that have a little more power than typical warriors or leaders ie they can enter a full province and kill people to take their place or they won't be destroyed if they lose. Neither this or the Gods expansion seem to change the game all that much, but I view it as a good thing to be honest. Expansions for most games don't see play time for new players, bc of special nuances that get lost when learning a game for the first time. I would feel comfortable busting these out right away.

Devon Hummel Heh heh, yeah Zee and Sam had the same response. It was almost deja-vu.

Kemet is way better

Worse

@@kustomkure u mean kemet and cyclades is better??

Tor Iver Wilhelmsen I felt the same way, except I have Lord of the Ice Garden for my Area Control/variable player powers/hybrid niche game.

Rafael Borges It's from the previous Miami Dice Episode, Dark Moon. It's not normal, no. I guess that they forgot to edit that part :p

Yeah.

Rafael Borges and they hated that cover (or did they???)

Seems like Tom was right in the end, since this is now Sam's favorite game.

I don't believe I had to put these minis together. No glue necessary. And painted, yes, I consider them equal. Also cheaper!

I concur on the assembly. But the detail is unparallaled.

The other way around for me.

Try Clockwork Wars.

boring game

Agree completely. The game is fine but it was definitely over-hyped beyond belief due to the desginer, minis, and CMON name on the box

I have played this game easily 20 times. This game has a laundry list of mechanisms designed to prevent a runaway leader. The only way this could have happened is if there was a large gap in player skill. 1. When card drafting you can hate draft other players from getting what they want/need. 2. You can end the age early by pillaging all the villages so other players can't play all their cards and use all their rage. You can castle up on a province so no other player can move into contest and leave that village unpillaged to drag the age out to as long as you want. 3. Each age has stronger and stronger cards allowing crafty players to make comebacks. 4. There are multiple ways to win: Dying with Loki cards, dying in Ragnarok, winning several battles with a decent Axes stat, Questing for map control, questing to release people from Valhalla, bonus glory for high level stats. The game is about board control, you can't go all in every fight you need board presence to carry over from each age. If you let people get Yggdrasill for free its your own fault. If you had a runaway winner one person knew how to play the game and the rest of you were bad. You say yourself it was your first time playing. Well your teacher was a jerk and crushed you for their own amusement. Don't let their mistake ruin your chance to enjoy a fantastic game. Blood Rage more so than so many other games is extremely tightly balanced. It rewards knowledge of what cards are in the deck, another reason why your first playthrough was sour. Its hard to plan for the unknown.

Not comparable at all. As in "would play now"? Yes.

You played it wrong. It’s not two rage for repillage, it’s two rage to commit to a pillage after already done an action. You don’t get the reward twice.

@@sirhc8927 No, it was an upgrade card, not an action.

@@mattbrendlen yes I know. But it becomes an action after the upgrade is played that the player can commit to and be stopped by others.

paxton73 Yeah no it really doesn't. Part of the strategy is sometimes to purposefully lose, and having it up to the luck of dice would REALLY throw that strategy off. Dice do not belong in this game whatsoever.

OdinWolf74 THIS!!...and I'm usually a fan of dice combat. But it doesn't belong here.