Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms Failed Solo Playthrough Battle Report | Learning to Play & Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ส.ค. 2020
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Always Board Never Boring takes a crack at a solo battle report for Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms from Modiphius. It does not go well... What started as a playthrough gradually deteriorates as he becomes more aggravated with the layout of the cards and the rules and the fiddly nature of playing.
Be warned, Always Board Never Boring tries to remain fair, but this video probably presents him more annoyed than he has ever been before, to the point where some of his complaints may seem minor from the outside. He's complaining about a thousand straws, and he doesn't even have a camel.
If you have had a very different experience with this game, and have enjoyed it, do please leave your thoughts in the comments. I'm sure people would love to read alternative perspectives.
#ElderScrolls #CalltoArms #battlereport
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I feel like you’re making this out to be a whole lot more struggle than it really is. Especially in this scenario the enemy is either going to dash towards the end of the table or to you, it’s really simple. And you don’t have to curate the event deck, just draw and discard if it isn’t applicable. And you don’t need to use the tokens to determine which enemy activates, just roll dice for them.
There are definitely some fiddler bits, but I personally was after a bit of crunch as Rangers left me cold there (great game though) and I wanted a game where my decisions had more weight.
Anyway thanks for doing the videos covering the game, it helped me decide to pick the game up and I’m super happy that I did.
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts. I'm definitely not making it out to be more of a struggle than it is. I personally invested a sizeable amount of my own money into the game, so I'm not really going to go out of my way to dislike it. In fact, I spent more time with this game than many others in an attempt to internalise the rules and actually enjoy it.
My point about curating the event deck is that the rules book contains specific instructions for curating the cards, taking into account delve mode or competitive mode, and the environment. You can do it on the fly if you want, but you're still flicking through card after card trying to find one that's relevant to your game. And that's before considering card expansions that are coming out.
You will notice in the playthrough that I ended up rolling dice to determine which model to activate. I also ditched the AI because it was doing stupid things, like preventing skeletons with line of sight from shooting at valid targets. And that's ultimately one of my biggest complaints. For all the fiddle in the rules, the game still doesn't work quite right, and this scenario had no sense of escalating threat. It just plodded along.
Everything is just too over-engineered for me to find any fun it. As I've said before, I'm sure some people will love the grit in the rules, but nothing really worked for me, which is a huge shame, because this was a game I really wanted to like. Glad to hear you're enjoying it though, and my videos helped you to decide it would be something you wanted to play. At the end of the day, I'm making videos with my honest opinions about games, with the aim of helping people decide whether they might enjoy them whether or not I do. I'm not trying to put people off buying the game, I'm just sharing one of many perspectives to help them decide if they want to. I quite often end up getting games after hearing negative comments, because I can hear what people didn't like, and decide it isn't going to be a problem for me personally. Thanks again for watching.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yes you are correct you have a delve mode or battle mode for the event deck and a certain number of cards from the chosen environment.
I got everything from the first release, the core, minis, playmat and the terrain, even. it's all neat. It took a while to fiddle with the rules, and it's VERY fiddly, but that's what I was looking for, a crunchy, relatively complex game that keeps me going for solo. Is it perfect? No, not even close. Is it good? Probably not, objectively, but I'm happy with it, and not saying that because I already invested the money into it. For skirmishes though...I think these models and terrain will look great in my Frostgrave table! I wouldn't subject my friends to the rulebook when we can play simpler systems. But the token upgrades and such, man, they're neat.
As a clarification, I think the game tries to do too much right out of the box. I suppose they intend to keep adding to the franchise in terms of an RPG book like they did with Wasteland Warfare, so they tried to make it overly complicated, that's not good. Games based on popular franchises are better off starting simple, to appeal to newcomers (like Crisis Protocol did, despite the price for models). I don't know, I might look at the figures they come out with (especially if they cover other regions of Tamriel) but as far as a system goes, I don't think it's polished enough.
I got everything from wave one except for terrain. It looked amazing, but I felt I could get by with terrain I already had. I think the miniatures are fantastic and do a great job of being screen-accurate, and I'm going to be using them in D&D and Rangers of Shadow Deep for sure. It sounds like you have come to a similar conclusion to me - they went for it right out of the gate and tripped over their own feet. There's the core of a fantastic game in there, but trying to cover solo, co-op, and competitive right from the start felt ambitious. While I admire the way they have created a very granular and deeply strategic combat system (as I mentioned regarding the blocking rules), it just makes it an incredibly daunting prospect. Perhaps an imperial vs Stormcloaks "civil war" starter box might have been the way to go... although even then I think they went overboard with keywords and skills on hero characters. It would be quite a lot for a single character in a dungeon delve, never mind a game where you might be in control of several heroes at once.
Looking at the road map ahead, we are getting at least three more types of draugr, more skeletons, more stormcloak and imperial officers, and adventurers, with a dragon at the end of the year. The miniatures are looking fantastic, but at the moment I'm just seeing more bloat to add to the game.
Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're happy with it. There's nothing worse than investing a lot and then regretting it (unfortunately, I do regret the purchase a bit even though the mat and miniatures will get plenty of use whatever happens). And thanks for sharing your perspective. I think it's really important for people to hear that some people are enjoying the game, so they can get a more rounded view and make better choices for them.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring THank you for the thoughtful reply! I actually did get the mat and terrain specifically because I recently started playing Frostgrave and I didn't have a lot of fantasy terrain or a mat., so for me the all-in was a great investment!
Like you mention, I might just keep getting the models, I have some close friends who are way more into TeS than me so at the very least we can try out some games in the future with my minis and terrain. They have plenty of detail and they look great on the table!
I don't play Frostgrave, but Rangers of Shadow Deep is from the same designer and it's great. I think the Elder Scrolls stuff works well for both, so it sounds like you'll get plenty of use out of everything. The wonder of good miniatures is they will always find a home somewhere, even if it's not in the game they were originally intended for.
I am not sure... but while I agree that it seems rather if-then-complex, I feel the presentation is a bit of an unfair exaggeration. I mean, obviously, you are not sure about the rules and are playing it for the first time in that mode. Most of the "convolution" stems from constantly refering to the rule book and checking what the abbreviations stand for and interpreting the charts. And while this general checking of the result vs. card vs. flow chart will probably stick I think a lot of this will ease away if one is more familiar with the possible outcomes and reactions. I mean it is not that the amount of different miniature type is going overboard... skeleton archer, draugr, draugr boss... It is certaintly a number crunching feast, but then again, I feel most of tabletop wargaming is. If I compare the shown routine to that of Shadows of Brimstone entering a new round and door, it das not seem that much more in steps and if-then-checks.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. This actually wasn't my first time playing. Just the first time on camera. I've been learning the game for a while and have posted previous videos on it (but you're right about me not being sure about the rules - I can pin down the core rules but all the added detail just won't stick). Regarding the AI: I went through the process in detail to show what's involved. It comes down to each monster having five potential actions, each of which has two flow diagrams that you won't remember, which may be further modified by the specific scenario. And that information is scattered across two books and two cards. And that's just the AI to make them move. You then have to remember their special racial abilities, unit abilities, and weapon abilities. For me, nothing is conducive to locking it into a muscle memory routine.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I see. And I did not want to sound like you were completely clueless. It is just my experience that most games are extremely fiddly during the first playthroughs, but once you encountered most of the common situation it runs much more smoothly. But,... soon I will see this for myself, I guess. I picked up my 5kg load yesterday. And if the system is too bothersome, there is always other systems.
At least the resin miniatures look great.
This one is a new kind of fiddly for me. I pride myself on having mastered games like Exterminate to the point where I was able to do a pretty successful "how to play" battle report for it. I had been learning and experimenting with Elder Scrolls, had gone through the learning tutorials, run some small solo setups against draugr and was feeling like I had it down enough to shoot a real scenario (although I realised I was never going to remember all the flow diagrams and keywords). But as you saw in the video, it just continues to elude me, and does indeed make me feel a bit clueless!
Over time, you will certainly get more fluent with the rules, but I think it's always going to be one of those games that's hard to play without constantly looking up tables and glossaries. For example, just the dragonborn has the special traits: Dual savagery, intimidation, treasure hunter, fortune hunter, dragon shouts, frost resistance, banish the wicked, plus 12 icons that represent skills or access to certain types of weapons (lockpicking, archery, two-handed weapons, etc.), plus any special rules on up to 8 equipped items (not including additional items in the inventory you can swap in), plus pools of stamina, magicka, and thu'um. And that's just one hero. You may have several heroes in your team. Over time you may even remember all those skills and what they do, but (for me at least) in the heat of battle I'll forget to use them anyway.
Don't be disheartened though. Although I do like a few densely packed games (Mage Knight is one of my favourites) I generally go for games that have a more streamlined approach - I was just prepared to chew on this one because of my love of the theme. You may love diving into the grit of the game, and as I keep saying, the core mechanisms are great with good scope for strategy. And like you say, the miniatures are nice (if you saw my video on assembling the plastic ones you'll know you made a good choice going for resin).
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring actually, I did noticed this game due to your unboxing and resin was an easy choice after seeing the plastic miniature exploded on the sprues. :D
I just watched a Kingdom Death Monster video an were feeling more akin to what you described. Digging through charts, comparing abilities, bookkeeping would make me feel less like Conan the barbarian and more like Connor the bureaucrat. So, I get what you mean - we will see. :)
Well thanks for watching some of the other videos. I'm glad that one helped you to make a purchasing decision. The only resin miniature I had was the ethereal Dragonborn, and being able to stick one arm on and have the model ready for the table was great. I really do hope you have a lot of fun with the game.
I saw all those problems when I saw Ash playing it over at Guerilla Miniature Games, he seamed to like it though. I bought the figures and want a few more of the ones they have announced.
I think GMG is a great channel, but its greatest asset can be its biggest problem for me. Ash is so knowledgeable, so slick in his presentation and editing, and so enthusiastic, he can make even very clunky games look quick to play and really fun. I watched one of his Elder Scrolls playthroughs and thought the game looked pretty smooth and enjoyable. I think I'm done with buying any more, although I am tempted by the adventurer pack with the khajits in it.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I watch video game channels that do the same thing. I have to basically pay attention to details (read between the lines so to speak) in order to know if the game is for me since they are enthusiastic about everything and pick up games quickly.
Thanks for the review. Yeah I did a walking dead skirmish-type game about 10 years ago. For the AI enemy characters or NPCs would have main 3 states; first is defensive mode, second is a ready mode, third is Attack mode. Models would move between these 'modes' dependant on the amount of pins they have or wounds sustained. They would only ramp up a mode level if a character/leader type pushes them to do so. Once you have determined which mode they are in I wrote a simple table to roll against and apply the result.
So a ready model would stand and shoot if they roll low, or would move forward and advance if they roll high. Attack models would more likely charge forward, defensive would hold their ground and not attack. Mission orders effect the outcome too and will push up or down the score if on attack or defend orders sort of thing. It's a bit more fiddly than most games do (ie; I see you, I attack, I keep going till I die) but seems miles easier than this system seems to be with its multiple tables, flow charts and needing to remember which paragraph to read for effect.
I totally agree with your assessment of the cards in this game and the amount of space required for just one character. Possibly with streamlining and paring down this game would be a lot smoother. I'm likely to have a game of it with a mate in a few weeks, we'll see how we get on 👍🏻
I just found this one overall too messy and too much effort for the fun it generated. I think this video upset some people because they felt I was being dismissive or not giving the game a fair shake, but I really wanted to like it, went all in on the preorder for it when the game was first announced, and spent a lot of time working with it before deciding it just wasn't for me. I very much hope you have more fun with it than I did!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yeah so do I! I've not much free time overall (dad of 3 kids etc etc) so I'll be hoping my mate has the game in his head enough to play.
Having read some of the comments about the amount of errata it's a shame 2.0 hasn't come out, but I guess money and time will be the biggest barriers. Having written a few of my own games I do know how easy it is to miss or corner yourself on rules either with how they play out or even missing in their entirety. Maybe these guys didn't ask others of their thoughts before going to production.
If I play I'll get back to you. I'm almost of a mind that making your own streamlined character cards would be better for this. The amount of blank space on the weapon cards alone means they could easy be reduced in size by 50% and still do the same job, for instance.
All the best 👍🏻
@@arkenhemnall6224 I think that's part of it. I got the feeling they were trying to do too much (possibly in too short a time) and the final product was a little unedited with too many moving parts to adequately playtest. I have no idea how well the game is doing, but I hope it sells well and the fans are treated to a constant stream of new content. It's not for me, but I like to see games finding their market.
It was a bit of a rant 😁, but you also voiced a lot of the concerns I had when I first read through the free PDF. Concerns I only saw confirmed when I watched Ash play on GMG. I understand why they wanted to release a solo game in the times we live in and I personally think it's part of the reason why the game is such a succes. However if I wanted to play an Elder Scrolls I'd probably buy the miniatures and use them for Song if Blades and Heroes or Rangers of Shadow Deep if I wanted to play solo/co-op.
Thanks. Rangers of Shadow Deep is my jam. More content for that on the channel soon. Is Elder Scrolls doing well? I couldn't really find much buzz for it online, and I do feel they've made it as difficult as they possibly can for them to succeed.
Lol. Okay. There's another TH-camr talking up Elder Scrolls Call to Arms these days, which got my interest. Then my good 'ol faithful ABNB channel pops up in my recommendations with this video. I knew this game wouldn't be for me @ 12 minutes in, but I stuck it out until minute 21. Yeah, there's no way I'm getting into this. Rangers of Shadow Deep and all the other games I can already play solo will be just fine. This appears to be a bit of a trainwreck, which is too bad, really. It sounds like Fallout: Wasteland Warfare is even MORE complicated which is also a shame. As they say, "too many games, not enough time." so thank you for educating me on the realities of this game system.
It was just way too fiddly for my tastes. It is supposed to be more streamlined than Wasteland Warfare, but I don't think it can be by much. There are so many little setup things to deal with depending on your game mode, and each character has keywords, traits, abilities, stats, items, and I think you would have to really invest in this one system to internalise it all sufficiently. I think the game has a decent following, and there are things I liked - they definitely worked hard to try to recreate a lot of the elements from the video game - but overall, I was looking for something a bit more elegant.
I realise I'm commenting on an older video here, but I REALLY wish I'd have seen this before ordering the rules and Delve sets yesterday... Ah well.
Thanks for watching. I do hope you really enjoy the game. It wasn’t for me but I know of people who are loving it.
I think, if I were you, I'd put this back in it's box, crack on with Rangers and enjoy its relative simplicity (LOL).
Rangers of Shadow Deep is so, so, so much better than this. That's a true gem of a game. At least my Skyrim miniatures will see some use in that game.
Always Board Never Boring excellent - glad to learn you are enjoying it!
I'm not sure why they thought so many mechanisms were a good idea. I like the dice, I like the character cards. I find the small cards too fiddly on my eyes, the writing too small. They released the roadmap for the rest of season 1 and some of it sounds pretty good. If your soloing a delv or an adventure I think sometimes extra mechanisms are fun, but in skirmish not so much. Yes in solo I want to pick the lock and take the extra steps... At least they didnt give us small cards for every herbal potion item in the video game and have us roll to create potions from fistfuls of cards. :/
The dice mechanism is the best bit. The small cards with the italics on are beastly to read. I hate the character cards because the information is so scattered, and then you have perks, keywords, and special abilities all listed in the middle and there's so many of them.
Watching this after you suggested it. Reading some of the comments and your responses. So it seems your familiar with the "theme" I suppose you played Skyrim. The "AI" reminds me of some of the silly stuff they do in the game. It's a sweet reminder the first time, but after that it can get really silly and perhaps annoying to have the skeleton within shooting distance but not fire. I might just forgo using their AI system altogether. I understand that they can't possibly predict or account for every case so there will be some that don't make sense. However, a videogame bug shouldn't be a wargame feature. Removing the Ai though could unbalance the game since it seems they add more enemies to perhaps balance out that some of them wont be attacking you or advancing the objective on their side. It's something I will need to consider. looking at the channel it seems you haven't tried Fallout Westland Warfare. I wouldn't recommend it if you don't like this and I can see how they tried to tweak the AI from it which didn't have a flow chart. It was their predecessor tot his which they seem to clearly be building off of. "Building" is the right term since they didn't really improve much just added more, which isn't the same thing. With your shout, poison damage, and amulet they have doubled the cards on just one character that you have to keep track of. I had commented on one of their own playthroughs that it seemed like a lot of micro management and this seems accurate watching you play. Also the event cards?! This seems random, in that they have nothing to do with what's currently going on. Like if the archer had poison arrows that hit you then it makes sense you got poisoned, but otherwise why? It also throws off the flow of the game and distracts from the objective. Perhaps after playing for a while people might get bored and need to shake things up so they can have this as an option. However, I again am worried removing it will unbalance the game.
I wanted this game so badly, and it sad to see it be smothered to death with well with too much love and attention in some areas and neglect in others. Like there should have been more play testing, someone should have caught that the cards don't line up and go in the wrong direction, etc. I might just get the dragonborn mini, but I just don't have the room or the money to get into a game that will just gather dust. Idk how much of a fan you might be but really this what I need to hear and see, so if you are a fan you being able to look past that was great. Also like that you did go through the tutorial before showing us from what I read in the comments which means this is more or less what the game really looks like after being familiar with it. Really great job on the video and still responding to comments months and in my case over a yr later, I'm subscribing.
Thanks for watching and the thoughtful comment. I am a big fan of Skyrim and I was really set for this game to become one of my main tabletop games, but sadly it was not to be. There are some good ideas in it, and they’ve tried to recreate the feel of the game, but there’s no elegance to it. Every character has too many special abilities and items. They tried to do everything in this game and it made the game a real chore for me. I tried so hard to like it, but it was too much effort. Thanks for the sub!
That's strange... I played Fallout Wasteland solo, the AI mode is very similar and I had not encountered bizarre situations, to be fair I was positively impressed by the generated behavior (AI model escorting a prisoner, defending objectives, and so on). Either the AI rules are not so similar after all, or you miss something in the rules.
I suspect the later because you seems to play like someone discovering the rules for the 1st time and yes, Modiphius wrote complicated rules for their games. Personally I began with a couple of 2 players skirmish (me vs myself) in order to learn and memorize the core rules before adding the additional layer of complexity that an AI scenario provide.
I usually really enjoy the content you create (your blackstone fortress playlist is awesome) but this video seems more of a rant from someone having trouble learning a game than a serious analysis of game mechanics.
As I said to another poster, I've been playing with the game for a while and have already posted a previous video on the difficulty in learning the system. I have spent more time working with this game than I would with many others, just because I wanted to like it and I can see the potential of the core system. I have a vested interest in making it work because I spent a lot of money on it all. I actually have the core system down, but it's impossible to memorise all the minutiae. My complaints are largely down to how overly-detailed everything is, often for less benefit than it's worth. You shouldn't need to reference two cards and two manuals to figure out what an enemy does.You shouldn't need to refer to a list of perks that isn't in alphabetical order to refresh your memory on one of your skills. In my experience, the game is cumbersome, doesn't lend itself to easy memory recall, and just does strange stuff sometimes.
Ultimately, the video was produced the same way as all my others: A completely honest presentation of my experience with a game. People will take from it what they will. If that's to disregard it as a meaningless rant, then so be it. Thanks for watching anyway.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Fair enough. My assumptions were based on the fact that we play 2 different games but produced by the same company and with close-related rules set.
One of my assumption was obviously false, if the rules produce a complete different experience then they aren't so close after all. My reasoning was also certainly influenced by the frustrated tone of the video, but I do now understand were the frustration come from. Nothing more annoying that spending time on a complicated game with flawed mechanics.
Sorry for having questioning the seriousness of your preparation.
Keep playing and reviewing, I look forward to see your next Blackstone Fortress content :)
There's no need to apologise. I appreciate you taking the time to watch and share your thoughts and observations. I've never played Fallout, but know that Elder Scrolls is derived from it. I wonder if there's something different in the presentation of the AI? Also, the scenario will play a part. I genuinely couldn't see how the mission as it was playing out was going to be challenging or fun.
You're right about the frustration in my tone. I did put a note in the video description because this is a bit different to what I would normally share. I guess the video is the culmination of my overall disappointment really, from the fiddly miniatures, the misprinted and poor quality materials, small card print, bad choice of icon colours (green and red for the dice), the difficulty learning the game, and then just the actual experience of playing which feels so stilted and lacking excitement. When all that comes on top of the fact that I love the theme and love the core mechanisms (particularly the dice mechanism and the action boosting), the result is genuine aggravation. And that's kind of the point of this video... the game generated such a bad response in me, I felt it might be useful to share that.
As I mentioned in the video description, I'm very happy for people to share their more positive experiences with the game. It's worth remembering that I highly value games that have a streamlined core experience so it's easier to become immersed in what you are doing. Other gamers are sure to love Elder Scroll's very granular and methodical style of gameplay.
Once again, thank you for taking the time to watch and share your opinions. I really do appreciate it.
Even though I am not a fan of the Skyrim mythos, I was still very close to buying this. I had it all preordered but ended up cancelling it because I had these nagging worries about exactly the issues you bring up. I just wasn't convinced it was going to be FUN, especially for the effort spent. And I've got so many miniatures games at this point (Kill Team, Blackstone Fortress, Warcry, Rangers of Shadow Deep, plus a slew of CMON games like Zombicide) plus historical miniatures...this was going to have to be *stellar* to get playing time solo or with my group. But I never quite got the impression it would be, and your experience has confirmed my suspicions.
Ultimately, I would have been looking to get the same thing out of this system that I think you were looking for--a compelling solo fantasy miniatures experience, with a campaign or a story to boot. This game may be good at delivering a different experience for people looking for something different--it's just not what I was looking for.
Most of the games you have listed are games I would rank well above this one. At this point, I would even prefer to play Zombicide, which I'm not a fan of. Rangers of Shadow Deep and Blackstone Fortress are two of my favourite games, especially for solo play, and they really put Elder Scrolls to shame for pulling out so many interesting and narrative situations from much simpler rules sets.
Ah, shame you didn't enjoy this. Have you tried Fallout: Wasteland Warfare? It is one of my first miniature games and I spent probably too much compared to how much usage I've gotten out of it. The AI in it I felt worked ok but it resulted in situations where I had to control the AI since they had a dumb roll. There are a ton of scenarios for it though so there is a lot of solo mileage out of it. I can understand if you are wary of Modiphius from now on though.
It's a shame. I really wanted to like this one and I put more effort in than I would for a lot of games because I could see the potential. I've never played the Fallout miniatures game. I don't have any love for the IP, having never played any of the video games, and I've heard Elder Scrolls is more streamlined, so I'm probably not going to be in any hurry to give it a shot. At the moment, I have Rangers of Shadow deep for solo (also published by Modiphius), but to be fair, I'm one of those people who happily plays skirmish games controlling both sides anyway, just to play out narratives. I get a lot of fun out of Burrows and Badgers, Anima Tactics and 40K that way. Thanks for the suggestion though. I think if I enjoyed the Fallout video games as much as Elder Scrolls I probably would have already given it a go!
Boring game... They shoud make an app: point Type of monster, point if it is in range : it makes action a and b. I wasnt thinking that the tabletop games need apps but playing Imperial assault or LOTR from FFG i think this is the future of solo play. But You can change my mind by showing Rangers of Shadow Deep solo play ;) Where is my (Yours) full Conquest figures video by the way ...
You won't ever see games with apps on my channel. It's fine if some people like them, and I would never suggest companies shouldn't make them, but for me it's absolutely not something I want in my tabletop games. Fortunately the world is full of games, and I think it's great that there are more and more options to cater for all types of gamers.
I will be covering more of Rangers at some point, I just want to paint a few more things as I would like to have a fully painted experience to show.
Regarding Conquest: I'm not sure I have much more to say or show. Some things have already been moved on to new homes because I didn't need or want them, some ended up in other videos (my Death Guard conversions), and some still aren't built because I decided to wait until I wanted them. Conquest was a great ride, but it definitely delivered things at a much more rapid rate than I really needed! Individual bits will surely show up in painting guides though.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Oh, i Just want to see all that miniatures together... But You are right, this is now the past... Talking about apps in games i would say the same as you about 2 years ago... But... Never Say never... I started with Your blog reading it as exercise for language, then before i was noticing it i was enjoing it thanks to your style of writing etc. It take me couple of months realizing that You want to go even futher and go to TH-cam and want to supporting You, but was I realy beliving it is good? No. I never liked TH-cam then... I was thinking, and sorry about that, that this super thinked (i hope that you know what i mean) words that were on yours blog dont corespond well for You speaking to us. I was wrong ofcourse . Now I watching and observing many channels... In part thanks to You. So... Who knows... ;)
That's really cool. Thanks for saying so. The issues I have with apps are mainly down to the fact I work with my computer all day for my day job, then I do a lot of filming and editing for the channel. When I'm playing board games (just for fun, rather than for the channel) it's my chance to escape from computers and apps. Also, my favourite things about board games are getting people together to talk and interact with each other rather than a screen, and (more importantly for solo play) the physicality of shuffling and dealing cards, rolling dice, and moving pieces. It's almost like meditation. I have a deep emotional connection with board gaming, and enjoy it as a very specific type of experience, and that physical connection is a big part of it. An app is a filter that breaks the connection for me, and translates the experience into something different. It's perhaps a very particular viewpoint that's somewhat difficult to convey.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I had the same problem. But i Fall in love in Mansions of madness. I was printing all scenarios from BGG and so but when i was preparing games for my friends i was felling that i wasting my time it was nearly hour or so and everyone was losing that spirit I want in game... It wast that... And then Second edition simplifed all of that and when we started first play all feeled the same spirit... And You should try Rooar with yours family... My (then 8 years now nearly 10) son was so amazed that next game was Castle Ravenloflt and he loved that experience :)
@@marcinw2154 Castle Ravenloft is a great game. Now that's a fantastic AI system. A nice way to teach some basic programming skills too.
A bummer it was such a struggle. As I said during your previews, this game isn’t for me. I’ve played the Elder Scrolls video games, and that has filled my need for this universe. No interest in more from a minis game.
In my humble opinion, it's a victim of the IP. It's tried so hard to emulate it, rather than just drawing the experience out.
First off while I do like this game (and even after heading your criticisms with it I do still plan on getting more stuff for it) I do appreciate hearing criticisms of it.
Next, are your complaints about the delve mode or the skirmish mode? This game is definitely very crunchy and bookkeep-y but it doesn’t seem to be that bad in the skirmish mode (which is what I use it for).
Like I said it’s very crunchy and bookkeep-y. If that’s not your thing then this is not the game for you. Adding to that is that it doesn’t seem newbie friendly and I’m willing to bet many people interested in this are those who play video games and not wargames so this doesn’t help.
There is more I could say but I’ve typed a lot as is. Thank you again for sharing your criticisms about the game. While I still like it I’m glad I got to hear another perspective
Thanks for watching, and providing your perspective. In this video I was playing solo mode, but I did play both modes before eventually deciding to pass the game on to a better home. Unfortunately, I just couldn't enjoy it. I really liked certain aspects of it. I thought the stamina system was good, and the dice mechanism was good, but there were just too many things getting in the way of the bits I did like.
I do prefer more streamlined games. For example, I absolutely love Rangers of Shadow Deep. However, I'm not completely opposed to more complicated rules sets and one of my favourite games is the Mage Knight Board Game. Sadly, in the end, Elder Scrolls didn't click with me, which is a shame, because it was my most anticipated game of the year and I preordered all of wave one in advance. I certainly wanted to like it, and I'm glad to hear there are people like you who do enjoy it and will continue to support it, although like you I am concerned they missed the crossover appeal of a large section of the audience. The forthcoming dragon looks very nice.
Thanks again for taking the time to watch and comment. I hope you continue to have a lot of fun with Elder Scrolls.
yeah this game isn’t for everyone which is fine. You can’t make a game that cater’s to everyone since people like different things.
While I still like it the game has some problems. The way the AI (and delve in general) is set up feels way too much like they were trying to make a video game in real life. Maybe it could’ve worked but I’d need to play it a lot more to provide a stable foundation fir an opinion.
I hear that the draugr/skeleton faction will become an actual playable faction and not just an adversary one. I’m hoping that’s the case because I think having a GM for the delve (and maybe the game in general since I know of a few wargames that utilize a GM) would be a good idea as they could control (or help control at least the AI.
I do think though that with some organizational stuff on keywords and perks things will be quicker and easier to look up. Plus after playing for a while one would probably learn what keywords and perks mean just by reading the name. Heck there are plenty who know what abilities, spells, and perks do in D&D without looking them up because they’ve memorized them. And people who play TCGs (especially ones in other languages) who have memorized what specific cards do (even ones with a lot of card text). So it’s possible for people to memorize it after awhile (and don’t forget there are ways to organize to make it quicker and easier.
Like I said, I got the game for the skirmish mode and I find it’s not as crunchy and bookkeep-y as the delve.maybe they will come out with a 2nd edition that makes things a bit better, but I’m happy with the game so far (and since the bases on the models are a certain size I can use them for a game of Chainmail which I definitely appreciate)
I'm not at all surprised by this. At least it's far less complicated than Fallout and it uses a normal ruler as opposed to the stupid colored sticks with range bands. That's funny about the buff/debuff cards being the wrong way around. They got that right in Fallout. I found that the AI for that game wasn't worth the effort it requires, but many scenarios depend on the enemies being moronic so you have to adjust numbers if you just play both sides.
The slider cards are just one of those little head-smack things. It's not a big deal, but after wrestling with the big things it's just something to make you go, "Oh, what are they even doing?" The AI is nonsense, and they compensate by having 125 points of enemies for every 100 points of human players. But I think you're better off just randomly activating an enemy and getting it to do the thing that makes the most sense. I also mentioned in another post I'm thinking this would probably work much better with a DM controlling the enemies and making best choice decisions for them. Ditch that cumbersome AI completely and let the human players focus on all the little fiddly character details they need to remember.
You may as well ditch everything and play a real rpg at that point though, with all the narrative tactical options they bring in.
@@johnmiddleton4291 Probably so (and why I see all these miniatures ending up in my D&D games), but not everyone wants to play a full RPG so a tabletop game that gives you the sort of options you would see in the video game might seem more appealing to some people. But that goes back to one of my main issues - they tried to make it all things to all people. It's an RPG, a dungeon delve, a skirmish game, a narrative campaign game, a solo game, a co-op game, a 1v1(v however many you like) game. And in its attempt to bridge different formats it ends up falling between the gaps.
What I find amusing is they strive so hard to make the game logical and in-keeping with the setting, but it doesn't really work anyway. For example, you have to sift out certain quests that don't match your game format, and certain events that don't match your game format or the environment you're fighting in. Despite that, I ended up with a trapped chest under a tree in the town, which activated a draugr bone alarm that attracted the attention of the very enemies we were trying to keep out. It all reminds me a bit of that Myth game that was on Kickstarter years back. Just a mess of ideas.
Im still listening haha. Hopefully they redo and Errata some of the Rules
They're already working on a FAQ, and have been asking for player input. I think it's going to take more than that though. I'm just not convinced this game is going to have any legs.
There has been a TOOOON of errata. So much so that they really should just pull whatever they have on shelves and release new printings of EVERYTHING. There is that much. It's really disappointing how much errata they have had for this.
"rules too hard cant grok hate game" Also F two player skirmish games. How many of those do we need. I credit them for being bold
Feels like forever ago I recorded this. I'm assuming you're a fan of the game. That's cool. I hope you're really enjoying it. This was one that I really expected to love, and I just didn't. There were just too many things preventing me from enjoying the experience. Funnily enough, I subsequently tried the Harry Potter Miniatures Adventure Game from the same designer, which I didn't expect to like much at all, and thought it was actually pretty good. Just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Thanks for checking out the video.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring it's ok don't get me wrong I'm just sick of two player skirmish games being released it's like enough already. This game is tedious yes but someone had to make a decent AI system that was intricate. HOWEVER I do think I like Rangers better at this stage due to my total lack of patience as I get older
@@HistoricalConflict It's definitely a solid try. It just felt to me like it needed a few more passes through editing to streamline things and tidy up a lot of different areas. It's a shame because there were bits of the game I really liked, such as the combat dice and the stamina system. But Rangers of Shadow Deep is a fantastic game, which quickly became a firm favourite for me.
To verbose to rant. Just expressing the breath of my dissatisfaction... Lol I'm with you there
Amazing, quality content, as always
Thank you.
Congratulations, you've reached the midgame of skyrim
This ain't no single player game! Would it be better if you had heaps of players controlling different adventuring/followers and enemy types in the game?
There's definitely a lot going on for a solo experience. It didn't happen in the playthrough, but enemies also react if you do something within 6 inches and line of sight, so you will frequently end up interrupting your turn to do extra sessions with the flow diagrams. One of the main issues is the game trying to be a solo adventure game and a tabletop skirmish game. The highly detailed heroes, with loads of keywords, special abilities and items is at odds with a skirmish game where you control multiple characters, so I think there's certainly scope to have lots of people playing, controlling one character each.
I think the delve mode would work much better if you had a dungeon master running the enemies. The DM would make "best choices" for enemies reacting, would randomly active the right number of enemies each turn, and would draw and resolve event cards. That leaves the hero player to focus on the characters.
In skirmish mode, I think it might be better to leave the roaming enemies off the table completely, and maybe have one player for each hero in a force, splitting responsibilities for followers.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks.