วีดีโอ

Not that I've heard! Grimlord Games might not even be a going concern any more after the struggle to deliver this one....

A pity... I found it today in a top boardgames store (thousands of games, at least 100 cars parked at any given time) for about 120 bucks... I'm still tempted as I love AH3 and good co-ops with expansive storylines are hard to come by... Thanks for the review and response!

Sure did! Got in on the Kickstarter thankfully

I did! Many shots of components throughout the vid; enjoy!

Heh, just about! Summer holidays always make it tough to make videos with kids around, and starting a new job next week, so....we'll see! Plenty of games arriving to review!

Yep, I'll be in!!!

Thanks a lot. If you want make something during the campaign, you can ask me ;)@@severngamingnetwork

Yes, as we play it more we are learning the expansions/gods and so on that make for the best game experience for our group, and it's only elevating it for me!

...and publish your personal data so that fellow backers can persuade you to pay :-)

There's a big difference between teaching people the rules of a game and helping them with the strategies or tactics of a game. Having taught many people this game over the years, I've identified that beginners don't typically identify that they will be best served picking one route for food production; livestock or grain/bread. Note I'm not telling them "Get plants or animals for food"....bro. Rather, I'm pointing out that, if you want to win, your food engine better focus on one and not the other. A "how to play Agricola" video would be a rules video, not a tips video. This is a "how to win" video, hence identifying the specifics of your food engine requirements, and the additional tips of focusing on getting a third family member asap, identifying your card strategy early and keeping track of opponent's moves. Those are things you won't find in the rulebook because they are tips on "how to win", not "how to play". Cheers for commenting!

Interesting take! After many hundreds of hours of playtesting this back in the day, I found strong deck construction was essential to being able to have cards or abilities for mitigating your dice rolls (and your opponents). Double check that you've played the game with tournament level constructed decks and you'll probably find this problem is minimised. Don't be afraid to discard cards for those big rerolls too, but you don't want to be left relying on such loose re-rolling to get the results you'd like....that's where your deck construction comes in!

@@severngamingnetwork Thanks for the thorough response. I actually do discard cards a lot, and I think that mechanic anticipates how unpleasantly scattered your results can be with the dice. In fact, as a boardgame publisher myself (2x Kickstarter), that particular mechanic feels like an afterthought, as in, "Whoops! These dice are all over the place. Guess we need some way to fix that. Uhh...I guess just start tossing cards from your hand?? Will that work?" Also, the more I play this, the more I see how effects that manually fixate the die results (such as the card "Alter," or the focus ability) are too critical and essential, in my estimation, for victory.

@@abesapien9930 Fair enough! My experience was different in that I experienced several years of highly competitive tournaments consistently won by the more skilful players with dice screw not really a thing in the scene, but definitely felt hard in casual deck play. Got a wealth of videos on my channel of tactics and deckbuilding tips that might help you if you decide to delve deeper into how to build consistently performing decks and character combos!

@@severngamingnetwork I just bought a whole booster box, haha (Empire at War). I've not given up on the game.

@@abesapien9930 hehe enjoy! There's loads more content on my channel regarding deckbuilding tips specifically for Destiny to increase consistency in your builds! Have fun!

Indeed; since this video it's clear to deduce that they were taking funds from one kickstarter to fund another and that this model wasn't working for them. In the meantime they've changed their project management to just do one kickstarter at a time until they have cleared the backlog...a process that will take them years I think judging how incredibly slow their progress has been on the Cthulhu Wars 4 and currently Hyperspace projects. Some people will regard that as a "rip off", but id argue thats when they don't deliver on the project. In this instance, that's still to be decided.

For sure, especially considering your metal and dark art influences; the art appreciation and immersion in that dark world will certainly add to the experience for you!

If you are only going to play casual, for sure; it's unique still, great art, cool dice components, and will be a lot of fun on the kitchen table! It's a "dead" game now though, with no more support, so product is hard to come by (but there's an active fan community still making new sets and running the odd tournament). This is one game that should be officially relaunched!

@@severngamingnetwork totally agree. And making sets would not be hard either! Focus on eras for each set, like the rebellion Era, the new order Era, the clone wars, the old republic, and so on!

Heya! I played it the other day with one of my sons 😁 yes, either side can keep using the same character on their activation if they like, so long as they have stamina to pay for the actions; makes it very flexible. I agree; it would be cool if more damage could be done per attack from a thematic point of view! Mechanically, in the game, advantage is leveraged through extra abilities and trigger effects with your bigger or more powerful characters like demons and witches. It's still a very fun game; most of my issues with it come from the Kickstarter production and the lack of real integration of all three content; they never did come up with a good points system or something similar. It's not perfect, but it's really good still 😁 and the setting and the art is still as good as ever!

@@severngamingnetwork Oh that's awesome that you recently played it. Thank you so much for finding the time to reply! I'll keep researching this game, and considering "World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch" instead. We'll see. Cheers from Brazil, man!

@@kraziel i have played Rise of Moloch; definitely didn't enjoy it as much as Dark Rituals!

It's a very good game system still if you like crunchiness, with lots of content to explore! Still recommended!

@@severngamingnetwork Awesome! I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks for the reply!

I've never actually done a playthrough on my channel, but I'm planning on getting the kit for doing so soon. There are some that Aurora Studio filmed on TTS in the meantime if you want to watch some games played (in English with glorious French accents!)

@@severngamingnetwork,Paul Grogan has one: th-cam.com/video/BaPz3sEHl4g/w-d-xo.html Yeah, I noticed you only carry reviews but a cheeky request is worth a go. I disliked the camera work (or something about the TTS implementation) of the Aurora Studios efforts and was disappointed excepting the accents of course. As I only speak English it is easy to feel cut off from discussion around this game or other content which is a worry as it arrives shortly. Thanks for your response, Christian. Cheers and good gaming.

@@stephenfarrell8587 yes it's been very franco-centric all the coverage! Tried getting this review out quickly to redress that a little! Cheers Stephen, let me know what you think of it!

@@severngamingnetwork, i liked the recognition of attention to mythological abstraction as this has been fundamental in the discussion by the designers and backers over the development period, campaign, and production. I appreciate your warning for English speakers to not throw the game out because not enough time was available to proof read everything. The Game Trayz are so much more annoying because of the amount of redesigning and fuss that has been made over then...and they don't fit the sleeved cards; sleeved in the sleeves they have sold us at a premium,...👿..., sigh. Yes, I call damaging the shuffling of cards through dog-earing them with a storage solution annoying but I'll let it pass as you suggest. Your delivery of all this information was engaging and while I don't really watch reviews of games arriving or own I feel this piece creates accessibility which is good for Hybris. I love your close up camera work lingering over the board and wish playthroughs would do this more or periodically during videos. It was delightful to experience the art as this too along with the solo was why I had to have this regardless of my disinterest in plastic storage solutions or impaired rulebooks! Cheers

@@stephenfarrell8587 this was super helpful feedback Stephen, really appreciated! I am really hoping that the review does help the right people find this game because it's such an unusual and extraordinary title. Hope you love it too!

All your hard work paid off... It's a beauty!

Exactly! As I mentioned at the start of the "Gameplay negatives", pacing issues and "conclusion" issues often are the problems for this kind of game. Hopefully they might fix it with an expansion in the future, but like you said, probably just have to get creative with house rules in the meantime! Thanks for the comment Cabel, much appreciated!

Hi Jimmy! Yes, I tend to do board game and card game reviews now bud...but always looking for that next big CCG in "our" lives :)

Heya! I haven't yet! It's on my list of "must gets" and once I have it I'll be reviewing it for sure!

Good question! I think the expansions added a lot to the "good stuff" of the game; more story, more monsters to fight, more fun crew to recruit. It's as if they realised that the early and mid game (too long as they are imho) are the most fun bits and so gave more content for that. The expansions don't give any different end game/win conditions, which is what the game sorely needs... Perhaps future content might but this Kickstarter has been pretty challenging to support so... Time will tell! Thanks for your comments and question Bandit 🙏

Hah! Enjoy, it's such a great game!

It's such a beauty of a game! I'm all in for all the new stuff!

Cheers Pedro; hope they helped you to get some wins!!

Very different games Savas; S&S feels very much more narrative than Dwellings, where there really isn't any other than what your imagination might conjure up!

My pleasure! Such a solid game! Welcome to the wonderful world of proper board game :)

If you feel confident learning rule sets and diving into deeper games, then I'd go Chronicles for sure. If you're unsure, start with Immortal Souls; if you love it like I have done then Ancient Chronicles is an easy next buy!!

@@severngamingnetwork Awesome thanks, one more question, what other games you recommend that are similar to S&S? As an old school wow fan this game feels very similar I enjoy mmorpg style games, gloomhaven is cool but doesn't give that feel I enjoy. Thanks again, Carlos

@@carlosancinez9116 There's not any that spring to mind with this sort of "mmorpg", ability cooldown feel to it....S&S has that as a defining feature as far as i can see. It IS a bit of book keeping, but once you get it all down its smooth and actually adds to the experience i think. Other's just dont have that crunchiness!

@@severngamingnetwork Nice, Maybe you can help me with a Rule question, I understand that if you move and perform an attack that ends your move, but if you end up killing the enemy can you move now? Basically let's say the hero has 3 movement points, he moves 1 into an enemy space, performs and attack which kills it can the hero now move the remaining 2 movement points left? Thanks for your help,

@@carlosancinez9116 you can't, no! Move them combat, or vice versa

It's a good comparison in many ways! I liked 2nd Ed because it CAN go long occasionally, but could also be 2-3 hours most of the time, whereas this is always long.

I so agree with you!