I found the rule book didn't help me understand the flow of the game. Without that understanding, everything I read felt really out of place and it was hard to wrap my head around what I was even trying to achieve. Ended up watching a video on how to play that explained the game in a much more natural structure, and everything clicked. It feels like one of these weird rule books where you need to understand the game in order to read the rules, which undermines the whole point of the rule book in the first place. I find it weird that they targeted a more Euro gamer demographic with the second edition but left the rule book in a war gamer format that Euro gamers just aren't familiar with. Even stranger that they didn't really address that issue with the ultimate edition revision but took the time to split the rules across two booklets. Really glad I put the effort into learning this one though as it's fantastic!
I think the challenge with the rulebook was the incorporation of ALL of the expansions. And all of the expansion information was added into that core rulebook. If you had just the base game, and acquired the expansions piecemeal, you'd get all those little "leaflets" which you could ignore until you were ready to incorporate them. But, then you have the problem of... well, many little leaflets of rules. So, "One Rulebook to Rule them All" (err... two! yeah, I know) is both a blessing, and a curse. I actually think it does pretty well as an all-in-one.
I actually ended up buying the 2nd edition of this when it came out because of your review of the 1st edition. :-) I also slowly acquired all of the little expansion packs and whatnot over the years since. This game was also my introduction to Ian O'Toole too. :-) Great stuff!
26:42 One of the all-time great board games, _Magic_ _Realm,_ does this too. At the beginning of the game you prioritize several potential goals: Fame, Notoriety, Gold, Great Treasures, and learning new Spells. Your priorities assign a scoring multiplier to each of those goals. It's so simple (in execution--I'm sure designing it wasn't easy, heh) and organic that I am amazed that more games don't do it!
Joel, absolutely spot on about the rules. I found them to be extremely detailed, but how each section is divided threw me off; having to jump from, say, section 4.1 to 4.3 etc made it feel much more complicated than it should be. Saying that, it's still easier than Dawn of the Zeds 3rd Edition. It comes with something like 4 books!
I thought the rulebook was really well written with everything included (almost!). I dont think it is harder to read and learn then most game I'm used to. If I look at my boardgame shelf and compare, it is about the same. I do play mostly big games though: Mage Knight, Too many bones, Sleeping Gods, Spirit Island, Paladin of the West Kingdom, etc. Those are just the first one I see.
I played the original that came in a plastic bag and it's wild to see what it became. I wish it was published by anyone but Game Salute so I could justify picking it up.
Agreed about the rule book being overly dense for a game that isn't terribly crunchy. I don't recall if it was due to being overly wordy, the writing style, or the organization. Felt like a bit of a slow slog to get through.
Thanks for the warning to learn by video first, Joel. I like to do that anyway so I can better absorb the rulebook. Glad to hear the effort is worth it.
a) great review b) choosing your agenda = quick example is Nemesis, though definitely not to the same scale, where you get to choose if you're traitor or not at the start of the game.
Playing this game felt like ticking boxes going down a checklist. Didn’t feel the theme at all after my second game. It does an awful job in using theme to make the game engine less obvious. You directly stare at the engine under a thin and transparent layer of theme. As such I wasn’t able to immerse myself.
