Yo what a great review! So happy you dudes like the game. I also am very appreciative of the constructive criticism. The game has been available less than a year, and man people are HUNGRY for more content. So let me shed some light on my plans for the future: Twice a year we'll be dropping new Raid scenarios for free. Playable as events at conventions first, then free to everyone after that. One just dropped last week. The new school, The School of Elements just dropped this past Friday. 3 new hunters with all new abilities. The new campaign, geared toward higher level characters, will increase progression for all hunters, add some fun new game modes, new gear, new teamwork mechanics, and a refresh of the 6 core bosses. I appreciate the honest feedback dudes. Keep it up! (please check out some of BSS's other games. We have a plethora of indie writers who have written some wonderful games.)
This is amazing, thank you for pointing out this game, I'll think about getting at least the rulebook at some point :) And I looove YT channels talking about these non mainstay wargames a lot - you have a new subscriber here :D I do have more comments - both about terrain and about other games I would recommend you check out if you can, but I'll make them as separate comments to not have one big monologue ;)
And the 2nd game I would love to mention: Malifaux, by Wyrd games. A steampunk, western, fantasy skirmish game. Yes their prices are insanely high per mini, but luckily you need only about 7 minis to play the game. And again: the rulebook and unit stats are free online (and the have a free gang builder app as well), so you can try it out befreo pulling the trigger. To get a full 50 points (soul stone) crew together you need usually around 100 - 120$ investment (there are some excpetions that can cost more, especially summoners, who don't just need the models they bring in the initial roster, but their summons as well). So the price of the game as a whole is reasonable. IF you want to get into competitive Malifaux (its an AMAZING competitive game BTW) you might want more then 1 crew, but luckily you can often share models between masters as long as the masters are in the same faction (think of each master - the leaders of the crews - as a "subfaction"), so a 2nd crew will often be a bit cheaper. And the models are gorgeous and full of personality (and these are hard plastic, whereas the Carnevale stuff I mentioned before is all resin) What makes Malifaux so good? The gameplay! This game is complex and takes quite a while to learn (and sadly one match also can take quite long, despite the small crew size), so its certainly not for everyone, but I love it. It is also a game wehre killing isn't needed - there are usually more missions that require stuff other then killing opposing models and technically in Malifaux you could get tabled and still win in the end! Also no dice! You use a poker deck. To "roll" you flip the top of the deck and the number is what you add to your skill and the suit of the card also has effects. If you don't like a flip you have a hand of 6 cards each round and you can choose to "cheat fate", playing a card from hand to override the flip you had - but you are limited by how many cards you have, so choose wisely. A game is randomized - 1 of 4 different deployment types is choosen, 1 of 4 different main missions and then 5 out of 13 possible side missions are generated (out of the 5 available for the game each player secretly picks 2 to pursue). You do NOT start with a crew build before the game. Only after you see deployment type, mission and side missions (called schemes) you build your crew - thus the idea of having more then 1 master if you really want to go deep on the game, no master is good at every mission and/or deployment type (though initially I suggest you stick to 1 master and really learn their playstyle - yes changing masters even within the same faction can make you paly a completely different game). Each unit comes with a card, providing stats and static abilities (stuff that is always on) on the front side and their unique actions they can take on the backside (each unit can do 2 action when activated, either any of the common actions like walk, charge, interact, focus, etc. or any of their specific action on their card - all their attacks, maybe some movement abilities, or spell, or other stuff like support abilities for allies etc.). Even minions, which are the lowest tier of units you can take, will have 2 - 4 static abilities and 2 - 6 unique actions on their cards. E.g. I play Rasputina, the ice witch. One of my minion options are December acolytes: on the front they have * "From the shadows" (allowing them to be deployed at the start of the first round instead during deployment and outside of your deployment zone) * "Tools of the job": when they get activated I may draw the top card of my discard pile and then discard another card from my hand adn the acolyte can add the suit of the discarded card to their duels until the end of their activation (suits will cause extra effects when you do actions) * "Sacrifice to december": when this model kills and enemy within 2'' of an ice pillar (a terrain feature that Rasputina can create with her actions) you get a soul stone (a resource that can be used for powerful efects - think of CP in WH40k) On the backside they have: * "skinning knife" a melee attack, that has the chance of causing slow on a target if it succeed with the right suit of card when attacking * "harpoon gun" a ranged attack that can either get extra damage, reposition the target or repostion this model depending on the suit (if the attack succeeds) * "Analyze weakness" a action that, if it succeeds, allows the acolyty to ignore shielded and armored conditions * "Grin feast": a free action (these don't count to the 2 action limit per activation, but you can only ever use 1 free action per activation) letting the acolythe heal by removing a nearby corpse marker (yes they are cannibals) Look at this - this is a MINION, this is nothing compared to all the tools and effect a master or a henchmen gets (usually). And of course all the default actions do come up: maybe you do want to focus, wasting an action to get huge bonuses on your next attack of defense; or you need to do scheme actions, allowing you to place scheme markers, or remove nearby enemy scheme markers (these are ofen required by the missions to score - e.g. have at least 2 friendly scheme markers touching terrain on the opponents half of the board at the end of a round is one possible side mission). I hope I'm making my point: this game is complex and there is sooooo much to think about in every activation. Its slow (it gets better over time as you get familiar, but it has quite the learning curve), but amazing to me.
Uh... it seems my terrain comment dissapeared, sorry about that... Here goes nothing: TTCombat is a buisness doing miniature games and MDF terrain and they have a line called "Eastern Empires", which looks gorgeous in my opinion. I won't add a link to it this time, since I assume that might be why YT ate the previous comment about this :) (in case the old one suddenly re-appears I appologise for the double comment)
Yo what a great review! So happy you dudes like the game. I also am very appreciative of the constructive criticism. The game has been available less than a year, and man people are HUNGRY for more content. So let me shed some light on my plans for the future:
Twice a year we'll be dropping new Raid scenarios for free. Playable as events at conventions first, then free to everyone after that. One just dropped last week.
The new school, The School of Elements just dropped this past Friday. 3 new hunters with all new abilities.
The new campaign, geared toward higher level characters, will increase progression for all hunters, add some fun new game modes, new gear, new teamwork mechanics, and a refresh of the 6 core bosses.
I appreciate the honest feedback dudes. Keep it up! (please check out some of BSS's other games. We have a plethora of indie writers who have written some wonderful games.)
Definitely buying the Rulebook now, also if you want some variety for minis for this game kensei by zenit minis will work perfect for this!
What a tip! The rulebook is gorgeous as well!
This is amazing, thank you for pointing out this game, I'll think about getting at least the rulebook at some point :)
And I looove YT channels talking about these non mainstay wargames a lot - you have a new subscriber here :D
I do have more comments - both about terrain and about other games I would recommend you check out if you can, but I'll make them as separate comments to not have one big monologue ;)
Much appreciated! We have been covering small games more recently and it's been very rewarding!
And the 2nd game I would love to mention:
Malifaux, by Wyrd games.
A steampunk, western, fantasy skirmish game. Yes their prices are insanely high per mini, but luckily you need only about 7 minis to play the game. And again: the rulebook and unit stats are free online (and the have a free gang builder app as well), so you can try it out befreo pulling the trigger.
To get a full 50 points (soul stone) crew together you need usually around 100 - 120$ investment (there are some excpetions that can cost more, especially summoners, who don't just need the models they bring in the initial roster, but their summons as well). So the price of the game as a whole is reasonable.
IF you want to get into competitive Malifaux (its an AMAZING competitive game BTW) you might want more then 1 crew, but luckily you can often share models between masters as long as the masters are in the same faction (think of each master - the leaders of the crews - as a "subfaction"), so a 2nd crew will often be a bit cheaper. And the models are gorgeous and full of personality (and these are hard plastic, whereas the Carnevale stuff I mentioned before is all resin)
What makes Malifaux so good? The gameplay! This game is complex and takes quite a while to learn (and sadly one match also can take quite long, despite the small crew size), so its certainly not for everyone, but I love it.
It is also a game wehre killing isn't needed - there are usually more missions that require stuff other then killing opposing models and technically in Malifaux you could get tabled and still win in the end!
Also no dice! You use a poker deck. To "roll" you flip the top of the deck and the number is what you add to your skill and the suit of the card also has effects. If you don't like a flip you have a hand of 6 cards each round and you can choose to "cheat fate", playing a card from hand to override the flip you had - but you are limited by how many cards you have, so choose wisely.
A game is randomized - 1 of 4 different deployment types is choosen, 1 of 4 different main missions and then 5 out of 13 possible side missions are generated (out of the 5 available for the game each player secretly picks 2 to pursue). You do NOT start with a crew build before the game. Only after you see deployment type, mission and side missions (called schemes) you build your crew - thus the idea of having more then 1 master if you really want to go deep on the game, no master is good at every mission and/or deployment type (though initially I suggest you stick to 1 master and really learn their playstyle - yes changing masters even within the same faction can make you paly a completely different game).
Each unit comes with a card, providing stats and static abilities (stuff that is always on) on the front side and their unique actions they can take on the backside (each unit can do 2 action when activated, either any of the common actions like walk, charge, interact, focus, etc. or any of their specific action on their card - all their attacks, maybe some movement abilities, or spell, or other stuff like support abilities for allies etc.).
Even minions, which are the lowest tier of units you can take, will have 2 - 4 static abilities and 2 - 6 unique actions on their cards. E.g. I play Rasputina, the ice witch. One of my minion options are December acolytes: on the front they have
* "From the shadows" (allowing them to be deployed at the start of the first round instead during deployment and outside of your deployment zone)
* "Tools of the job": when they get activated I may draw the top card of my discard pile and then discard another card from my hand adn the acolyte can add the suit of the discarded card to their duels until the end of their activation (suits will cause extra effects when you do actions)
* "Sacrifice to december": when this model kills and enemy within 2'' of an ice pillar (a terrain feature that Rasputina can create with her actions) you get a soul stone (a resource that can be used for powerful efects - think of CP in WH40k)
On the backside they have:
* "skinning knife" a melee attack, that has the chance of causing slow on a target if it succeed with the right suit of card when attacking
* "harpoon gun" a ranged attack that can either get extra damage, reposition the target or repostion this model depending on the suit (if the attack succeeds)
* "Analyze weakness" a action that, if it succeeds, allows the acolyty to ignore shielded and armored conditions
* "Grin feast": a free action (these don't count to the 2 action limit per activation, but you can only ever use 1 free action per activation) letting the acolythe heal by removing a nearby corpse marker (yes they are cannibals)
Look at this - this is a MINION, this is nothing compared to all the tools and effect a master or a henchmen gets (usually). And of course all the default actions do come up: maybe you do want to focus, wasting an action to get huge bonuses on your next attack of defense; or you need to do scheme actions, allowing you to place scheme markers, or remove nearby enemy scheme markers (these are ofen required by the missions to score - e.g. have at least 2 friendly scheme markers touching terrain on the opponents half of the board at the end of a round is one possible side mission).
I hope I'm making my point: this game is complex and there is sooooo much to think about in every activation. Its slow (it gets better over time as you get familiar, but it has quite the learning curve), but amazing to me.
We actually have some Malifaux models already and it's on the docket to play!
Uh... it seems my terrain comment dissapeared, sorry about that... Here goes nothing: TTCombat is a buisness doing miniature games and MDF terrain and they have a line called "Eastern Empires", which looks gorgeous in my opinion. I won't add a link to it this time, since I assume that might be why YT ate the previous comment about this :) (in case the old one suddenly re-appears I appologise for the double comment)
Going to go check that out right now! And our YT algorithm overlords delete stuff all the time!
Hametsu is worth it! Actually most of Black Site is GOLD.
Definitely gonna be looking more into Black Site Studios for both our own enjoyment and the show.
@@kentuckyfriedwargaming5527 You can't go wrong with so many options!
Samurai!