The first time I saw a review by SU&SD I was so confused... 'what are those people talking about' I thought. Few months later SU&SD is my favourite board game review show. Every episode is trying to be creative and unique and most of the time everything clicks and it works. Keep it up!
For history buffs, Nations also can be very funny. There's a lot of shout-outs and references that fit very nicely within the mechanics, like Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage that destroys your money if you're not careful (runaway inflation in Cairo from his "generosity" with gold").
I love the idea of Imperial Settlers and have played a few games and tried to delve into the deeper strategy. It makes the construction of your engine intensely rewarding yet I find it difficult to introduce to others because the experienced player has such a huge advantage over the rest. Then I debate overloading them with the right way how to play (draw all the cards) or gimping myself to keep things close. It has positives and negatives being a somewhat interaction less engine builder, and that is just one of the negatives. I crave intense IS competition but it isn't like Magic or Hearthstone where you can just go online and find a match.
They got it completely the wrong way. Imperial settlers is the one that's utterly generous with resources. Most of the cards just produce resources (which you get right away when you play them and then at the beginning of each turn), be it production buildings, actions or deals. Nations on the other hand can be very harsh. If you miscalculate and fall behind you may never get back on track. Especially with ore because it is required to put workers on buildings to get resources (but without the resource you can't do it so you never get them). And there can be surprising instances of massive resource depletion out of nowhere that can cripple you (like wars, famine, events etc).
@@mrp4242 Right? We don't see this type of art much anymore, the pastoral watercolor-90's-schoolbook-kind. But aside from being more original (card art) than all the polished designs these days they also provide an easier reading experience, you can quickly see what the card is, what it does, what it represents. (Looking at you, Race for the Galaxy)
I own and love both games. I think they scratches different itches and I am not getting rid of any of them. The difference is the other players. It's easier to get people to play Imperial Settlers with you because it seems more inviting. Nations takes a lot more persuading to get to play.
Only discovered your channel recently- I've enjoyed each video I've watched of yours, but this is the one that earned my subscription =) Keep up the good work.
I absolutely love Imperial Settlers and love your videos :D Better luck with the squirrel next time :) I have seen Nations at my local games store countless times but have been unsure about purchasing it. Thanks for the overview.
Board Game Sanctuary I've played nations 3 times. The first time was with 5 players and we were all learning. It took 4 and a half hours despite us all being 'experienced gamers.' Pretty rough, and I lost quite solidly. But I was able to see ways I could do better, which is one of my favorite aspects of boardgames. My 2nd and 3rd plays were with people who'd played before. I won my second game and did alright in the third, but I enjoyed every play quite a lot. I've never played imperial settlers, but it is highly recommended and I'd like to. That said, if I ever saw nations and settlers next to each other on the shelf...I think I'd reach for nations. Then I'd think 'who can I get to play this with me??' Then I'd sadly put it back and grab settlers.
Or don't buy either one and play Through the Ages! In all seriousness, I really didn't enjoy Imperial Settlers. It doesn't seem to function well in it's balance until 4 people are playing. With fewer, once you knock a player down I found it is fairly easy to keep them down. Only at 4 players are there so many targets that finally it prevents that one player from getting ahead and just staying there.
Nations is a great game and better in many ways, but yes that price point! I lucked out as my FLGS wholesaled Nations since no one bought it for a long time in our market for 40$ total...yes pls
I wonder what the conclusion would be now, after four expansions for Imperial Settlers* and one for Nations (which just adds different player powers - which Imperial Settlers already has) :) *) The mentioned Why Can't We Be Friends, Atlanteans, 3 is a Magic Number and Aztecs.
0:39 I love how Quinn's cold and dead facade for the joke kind of falls apart as he can't contain his excitement when opening a box, you can hear happiness in his voice through his acting.
I find both of these games to be extremely different. The theme is similar and the fact they both have cards, but that's about it. You can most definitely own both and be fine. In fact I enjoy both games for very different reasons so I'd highly recommend people go for both.
Having played both (but not owning both, sorry SUSD - not tweeting a photo of me looking smug!), I definitely agree that Nations is a smarter, more fun and more replayable game than Settlers. I don't know though if Imperial Settlers with expansions is better than just the base game.
Nations is a mini Through the Ages. Much less time consuming, but essentially a very similar game. How is Through the Ages similar to Imperial Settlers? You put workers on building to get resources and maybe a hint of resource depleting warfare. Is that it? That's like saying every worker placement game is the same because you use workers for resources. It has a similar mechanic but the games are entirely different. It all comes down to how you get points, which is nothing alike in these two games.
you guys should do a let's play of the new version of roborally. it's far superior to the old one. Including: *vastly simpler rules without losing much value (game is still complex) *deckbuilding element smooth's out draws and makes damage less punishing *everyone has more access to interesting upgrades *none of the upgrades are batshit crazy OP or excessively complicated *the new priority system is BOSS, and acts as a way to help players catch up. *the reduced complexity and number of components combined with pre-set modules make for quick startup, play and teardown. Basically, they took a high barrier to entry/high payoff game, and slashed the barrier to entry to about 2/3 of it's starting point, and INCREASED the payoff.
Are there any cooperative civilization building game you recommend? Is there such a thing? The only competitive games that I really enjoy with my friends are those that are short or fillery, so we can play a handful of games straight.
I feel like that's just not a thing. Civilization New Dawn has variable objectives. Out of the 5, you may not or could choose to not draw war as one of the 3 you're going for. But you're still all very much against each other.
It's nice at first, my original impression was "ooh this looks like a regal, distinguished gentleman of a game". But over time you realize the color pallette is too drab and limited, and the art is repeated too much. It's not enough to ruin the experience, I own the game and love it, but it does knock it down a few pegs.
I enjoy the excitement in these videos, but my goodness the fact that none of these cards are sleeves and they are just bent, grabbed, and tossed around get me all anxious each video.
Jae Cordes i prefer it over both of these except that it takes aloooooot of time to finish. When you don't have the 5-6hrs available you can play imperial settlers ;)
many of the simpler versions of games are more accessible, and thus you can play them with more people. Puerto Rico is "better" than San Juan, but I can play San Juan during my lunch break with co-workers, even co-workers that have never played before, and still finish in an hour.
We had a slight issue in Nations with one player ignoring military all together, and then buying the only war cards preemptively to stop the possibility of others capitalizing on his lack of military might. The other super militaristic player was very put off that he suddenly just had no option to leverage his military. Perhaps there was something he could do that we weren't seeing, or he didn't prioritize something properly, but it kind of broke the seal on the game for him. He's the hardest one in the group to get to play the more involved games like this, so it kind of also sunk the game for the group as a whole. I'm sorry Nations, I just wanted to be the super stable nation of nerdy peace loving hippies, and I ruined everything.
"0:32" "It's a game of very delicate ressource managment with a just a 'souçon' of fighting to deny your friends what they need" They way you say "soupçon" (I guess that's what you mean, a french word which means "a little bit") is closer to "suçon" (hickey or lovebite). That's cute :)
I have one word to IS artworks: tiny. Really, iconography here is sooooooooooo small i barely see it on my own cards, not mentioning other players little towns. IS in generally can be very punishing if you will do a bad start, which is very possible in your early games, you will be seating there and watching how others are having fun. That will leave bad taste.. and you will think twice before reaching for it again.
It's because of euro-games that i voted Brexit. All these wooden cubes are destructive to the enviroment. Also i find the need to represent different players as different coloured wooden tokens, something Hitler would have wanted - dividing human-beings into nothing but colours. If you have made the effort to click the more tab - then. I do not believe anything i have said in the above text. I voted Brexit because i believe - Human-beings should not compete for the right to employment. Employers should compete for the best Employees. Not only that, they sould compete for the best working conditions, pay and practices. This was how it was, until the expansion of the EU.
I like Nations fine but, even beyond the art style, I've never really had that much FUN playing Nations. Like, it's fine but... I have had so many more exciting or interesting decisions playing Imperial Settlers. I'm beginning to realize that as much as I love SUSD I have pretty different tastes to Quinns. A few games now where I can absolutely see where he's coming from but I've had a really different experience with the game when I play them. EDIT: though, to be fair, I've only ever played Imperial Settlers with the first 2 expansions.
Jonathan Grant Yeah, I like their videos more than I like their advice... Like, galaxy truckers is very good, but nowhere near as fun as their let's play made it look...it just isn't that hard. also, I bought the arctic scavengers hook line and sinker, then realized that while the first 4 games are better than dominion, the beauty of dominion is that you can play it 100+ times, and the lack of direct confrontation is not as bad as you'd think it is. I don't have regrets about buying arctic scavengers, but it wasn't quite the "answer" that they made it out to be. that said, it isn't an awful fit, but not a perfect one either.
weesh ful I would actually be interested to know how much editorial control any one member of their team has towards each review. Like, when Quinns presents a video (as he does here) does that mean that's HIS opinion alone, or is he the mouthpiece for the majority opinion of the whole SUSD team? 'Cause I've found that while I really enjoy WATCHING all of these guys vids, my personal tastes tend to lean more towards some hosts' recommendations vs others. Not that there's anything wrong with that--different strokes and all that. But this is just kind of another recommendation where while I can absolutely SEE where they're coming from...my experience is completely different.
So just because they both have cards and Egyptians (and are eurogames) they're the same thing? How ridiculous. They're completely different games. Settlers has more disruption and easier resources and you're just activating buildings to score points. Nations is a shorter, easier version of through the ages. I like settlers but nations is just beautiful and brilliant and there's no comparison.
The first time I saw a review by SU&SD I was so confused... 'what are those people talking about' I thought. Few months later SU&SD is my favourite board game review show. Every episode is trying to be creative and unique and most of the time everything clicks and it works. Keep it up!
Ikr. And I don't even play board games! That is, not yet.
I love the use of color in this video. Oscar worthy.
Veektory K
Reminds me of The Wizard of Oz.
"Youcan make lumberjacks and they're OK." Good Reference!
I MISSED THAT!
I would like this comment if it weren't for the fact that it is one of 2 comments i've seen on this video with 69 likes! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This has got to be one of your best videos, and that is saying _a lot._
I absolutely love the attention to the styles of each side of the review.
For history buffs, Nations also can be very funny. There's a lot of shout-outs and references that fit very nicely within the mechanics, like Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage that destroys your money if you're not careful (runaway inflation in Cairo from his "generosity" with gold").
"Weather: surprising and interesting and funny, but never annoying!" --Quinns, 2015
"Ohhh, Mary ..."
I died mate!
I ordered this game second hand today (imperial settlers) I played it once with my friend and have been thinking about it non-stop for years!
The "two toilets" observation is hilarious.
My roommate is soon moving out...it is about to be my reality
"This guy might seem nice, but he's got no time for f*uck ups" - The Book of Quinns
I love the idea of Imperial Settlers and have played a few games and tried to delve into the deeper strategy. It makes the construction of your engine intensely rewarding yet I find it difficult to introduce to others because the experienced player has such a huge advantage over the rest. Then I debate overloading them with the right way how to play (draw all the cards) or gimping myself to keep things close.
It has positives and negatives being a somewhat interaction less engine builder, and that is just one of the negatives. I crave intense IS competition but it isn't like Magic or Hearthstone where you can just go online and find a match.
Just realizing that I own both of these AND have 2 toilets... unsettling on a karmic level.. T_T
They got it completely the wrong way. Imperial settlers is the one that's utterly generous with resources. Most of the cards just produce resources (which you get right away when you play them and then at the beginning of each turn), be it production buildings, actions or deals. Nations on the other hand can be very harsh. If you miscalculate and fall behind you may never get back on track. Especially with ore because it is required to put workers on buildings to get resources (but without the resource you can't do it so you never get them). And there can be surprising instances of massive resource depletion out of nowhere that can cripple you (like wars, famine, events etc).
So we need nations with imperial settlers artist.
I wanna see a jovially rotund Marie Curie.
No. I disagree. I like the art for Nations.
@@mrp4242 Right? We don't see this type of art much anymore, the pastoral watercolor-90's-schoolbook-kind. But aside from being more original (card art) than all the polished designs these days they also provide an easier reading experience, you can quickly see what the card is, what it does, what it represents. (Looking at you, Race for the Galaxy)
I own and love both games. I think they scratches different itches and I am not getting rid of any of them. The difference is the other players. It's easier to get people to play Imperial Settlers with you because it seems more inviting. Nations takes a lot more persuading to get to play.
Only discovered your channel recently- I've enjoyed each video I've watched of yours, but this is the one that earned my subscription =) Keep up the good work.
can I recommend that you watch the arboretum video if you haven't yet?
I absolutely love Imperial Settlers and love your videos :D Better luck with the squirrel next time :) I have seen Nations at my local games store countless times but have been unsure about purchasing it. Thanks for the overview.
Board Game Sanctuary I've played nations 3 times. The first time was with 5 players and we were all learning. It took 4 and a half hours despite us all being 'experienced gamers.' Pretty rough, and I lost quite solidly. But I was able to see ways I could do better, which is one of my favorite aspects of boardgames. My 2nd and 3rd plays were with people who'd played before. I won my second game and did alright in the third, but I enjoyed every play quite a lot. I've never played imperial settlers, but it is highly recommended and I'd like to. That said, if I ever saw nations and settlers next to each other on the shelf...I think I'd reach for nations. Then I'd think 'who can I get to play this with me??' Then I'd sadly put it back and grab settlers.
Everytime I've watched this episode it just ends with me confused as to what to buy. Several months of torture and then there is Through the Ages.
But you could have grabbed 51st state.....
Or don't buy either one and play Through the Ages!
In all seriousness, I really didn't enjoy Imperial Settlers. It doesn't seem to function well in it's balance until 4 people are playing. With fewer, once you knock a player down I found it is fairly easy to keep them down. Only at 4 players are there so many targets that finally it prevents that one player from getting ahead and just staying there.
i haven't busted it out yet, but i'll keep in mind
What a great conclusion. Award winning. If you like history, buy nations. If you like tiny ninjas buy imperial settlers.
I'm an Imperial Settlers lover and owner (and 51st State) ... I could go for nations if you offered a massive 50% discount.
Nations is a great game and better in many ways, but yes that price point! I lucked out as my FLGS wholesaled Nations since no one bought it for a long time in our market for 40$ total...yes pls
I wonder what the conclusion would be now, after four expansions for Imperial Settlers* and one for Nations (which just adds different player powers - which Imperial Settlers already has) :)
*) The mentioned Why Can't We Be Friends, Atlanteans, 3 is a Magic Number and Aztecs.
I've never been so captivated by end credits before... :)
"we're alone now Mary..."
Really nailed the humour in this one, good job!
If only there was a word for a "female Emperor"?
Emperor-ette ?
Dowager-Emperor ?
It'll come to me.
Eamon Honan Empress.
That's the ticket!
Eamon Honan empress
@@wh3elson That don't empress me much.
Emperorita?
0:39 I love how Quinn's cold and dead facade for the joke kind of falls apart as he can't contain his excitement when opening a box, you can hear happiness in his voice through his acting.
I used to have FOUR toilets! Old Edwardian houses FTW
I find both of these games to be extremely different. The theme is similar and the fact they both have cards, but that's about it. You can most definitely own both and be fine. In fact I enjoy both games for very different reasons so I'd highly recommend people go for both.
The end credits song should be your theme song! 👍🏻👊🏻
i prefer the double sliding doors closing as a theme sound
Having played both (but not owning both, sorry SUSD - not tweeting a photo of me looking smug!), I definitely agree that Nations is a smarter, more fun and more replayable game than Settlers. I don't know though if Imperial Settlers with expansions is better than just the base game.
Makes me feel good to see those West Wing box sets on the shelf
"Sorry I burned down your village. Here's some gold."
MTG card 'Reparations'!
One of the best flavor texts ever. :D
I own both. The expansion for Nations makes it more compelling than Imperial Settlers imo.
Nations is a mini Through the Ages. Much less time consuming, but essentially a very similar game. How is Through the Ages similar to Imperial Settlers? You put workers on building to get resources and maybe a hint of resource depleting warfare. Is that it? That's like saying every worker placement game is the same because you use workers for resources. It has a similar mechanic but the games are entirely different. It all comes down to how you get points, which is nothing alike in these two games.
You've created a genre of your own and I'll never think of Marie Curie in the same way again.
Thanks Reference Squirrel!
".. but unsettling on a karmic level" lol
Didn't notice the Monty Python reference my first time watching this! Definitely a good funny line.
you guys should do a let's play of the new version of roborally. it's far superior to the old one.
Including:
*vastly simpler rules without losing much value (game is still complex)
*deckbuilding element smooth's out draws and makes damage less punishing
*everyone has more access to interesting upgrades
*none of the upgrades are batshit crazy OP or excessively complicated
*the new priority system is BOSS, and acts as a way to help players catch up.
*the reduced complexity and number of components combined with pre-set modules make for quick startup, play and teardown.
Basically, they took a high barrier to entry/high payoff game, and slashed the barrier to entry to about 2/3 of it's starting point, and INCREASED the payoff.
i always thought that both games Nations and Imperial Settlers were heavily inspired by the boardgame 51st State
It is Maria Skłodowska :)
Are there any cooperative civilization building game you recommend? Is there such a thing? The only competitive games that I really enjoy with my friends are those that are short or fillery, so we can play a handful of games straight.
I feel like that's just not a thing. Civilization New Dawn has variable objectives. Out of the 5, you may not or could choose to not draw war as one of the 3 you're going for. But you're still all very much against each other.
Spring is here? Where? Where?
I just received Imperial Settlers, righteous! my first Ignacy game
What if we have three toilets and live by ourself?
you can have my extra toilet quinns
I guess I'm in the minority in liking the cover art of Nations a lot more.
It's nice at first, my original impression was "ooh this looks like a regal, distinguished gentleman of a game". But over time you realize the color pallette is too drab and limited, and the art is repeated too much. It's not enough to ruin the experience, I own the game and love it, but it does knock it down a few pegs.
Seems like a Magic game with a few predermined pre-built decks, with an economy board game attached
jeus chris you look sick in all these scenes.
do you take vitimins?
lolz
lmao
I enjoy the excitement in these videos, but my goodness the fact that none of these cards are sleeves and they are just bent, grabbed, and tossed around get me all anxious each video.
I'd love to see you guys do Neuroshima Hex...but I think I already did. ;-)
My bad, I was 1/2 asleep. I meant 51st state...
I love how the story consultant is alcohol
where does Through the Ages fit in here?
Jae Cordes i prefer it over both of these except that it takes aloooooot of time to finish. When you don't have the 5-6hrs available you can play imperial settlers ;)
I'm about to live by myself with two toilets!
The squirrels rejected Quinns as their king and stuck with Markiplier instead.
We are all undersaturated Quinns right now.
Some of the card art in nations is just laughably bad.
Great review. Thanks for the help. Really.
Awsome review..Quins you inspired me to do board game reviews myself..first one almost done :)
what -is- that music at the end?
Is it strange that I want to pick up Nations the Dice Game, rather than regular Nations? It seems impossible to find at a reasonable price though.
An expansion is on its way, I assume they will make a reprint of the core game too, but don't hold me to it :)
many of the simpler versions of games are more accessible, and thus you can play them with more people.
Puerto Rico is "better" than San Juan, but I can play San Juan during my lunch break with co-workers, even co-workers that have never played before, and still finish in an hour.
...or you could just buy Through the Ages
Ithink you were too stiff, too wooden and the squirrel was spooked.
Female Egyptian emperor?
So an empress? Maybe even a Pharaoh from Faroe island.
When I started this video, I thought it was one of the worst that SU&SD have done. By the end, it's probably my favorite.
it is hard to top the arboretum review for me
Got a Bernard Black vibe from the Nations review
Did you find the ninjas?
Imperial Settlers is 51st State with a new skin?
Quinns you said "suçon" instead of "soupçon" in the beginning which does NOT translate to "a little touch of" but to "hickey".
What the hell is a soviet spreadsheet????
It is a spreadsheet showing who you have in which gulag
both great games. nations > imperial settlers. totally diff games in my mind though.
I have three toilets and live by myself......
Tiny Ninjas FTW!
Nations seems the game for us, but we decided to buy IS as Nations us too expensive
Spring?
Dalton Hughes first published May 2015
I disable adblock for you guys.
I agree about the coke zero
0:38 box fart
We had a slight issue in Nations with one player ignoring military all together, and then buying the only war cards preemptively to stop the possibility of others capitalizing on his lack of military might.
The other super militaristic player was very put off that he suddenly just had no option to leverage his military. Perhaps there was something he could do that we weren't seeing, or he didn't prioritize something properly, but it kind of broke the seal on the game for him. He's the hardest one in the group to get to play the more involved games like this, so it kind of also sunk the game for the group as a whole.
I'm sorry Nations, I just wanted to be the super stable nation of nerdy peace loving hippies, and I ruined everything.
Nations is awesome!
haha love the credits
"0:32"
"It's a game of very delicate ressource managment with a just a 'souçon' of fighting to deny your friends what they need"
They way you say "soupçon" (I guess that's what you mean, a french word which means "a little bit") is closer to "suçon" (hickey or lovebite). That's cute :)
if you type: "0:32", youtube will turn it into a link for others to follow : )
Lumberjack jokes!
They're okay.
ohh Maaryy
8:56 As a jewish Israeli, that picture is enough for me...
hahaha
I have one word to IS artworks: tiny. Really, iconography here is sooooooooooo small i barely see it on my own cards, not mentioning other players little towns.
IS in generally can be very punishing if you will do a bad start, which is very possible in your early games, you will be seating there and watching how others are having fun. That will leave bad taste.. and you will think twice before reaching for it again.
It's because of euro-games that i voted Brexit.
All these wooden cubes are destructive to the enviroment.
Also i find the need to represent different players as different coloured wooden tokens,
something Hitler would have wanted - dividing human-beings into nothing but colours.
If you have made the effort to click the more tab - then.
I do not believe anything i have said in the above text.
I voted Brexit because i believe -
Human-beings should not compete for the right to employment.
Employers should compete for the best Employees.
Not only that, they sould compete for the best working conditions,
pay and practices.
This was how it was, until the expansion of the EU.
Nations is clearly the better game but I can't buy it since it looks like absolute shit so I have to hope for a second edition :)
the original "medici" was so bad that i considered commissioning better art...
but then they reprinted it and made it much better!
I like Nations fine but, even beyond the art style, I've never really had that much FUN playing Nations. Like, it's fine but... I have had so many more exciting or interesting decisions playing Imperial Settlers.
I'm beginning to realize that as much as I love SUSD I have pretty different tastes to Quinns. A few games now where I can absolutely see where he's coming from but I've had a really different experience with the game when I play them.
EDIT: though, to be fair, I've only ever played Imperial Settlers with the first 2 expansions.
Jonathan Grant Yeah, I like their videos more than I like their advice...
Like, galaxy truckers is very good, but nowhere near as fun as their let's play made it look...it just isn't that hard.
also, I bought the arctic scavengers hook line and sinker, then realized that while the first 4 games are better than dominion, the beauty of dominion is that you can play it 100+ times, and the lack of direct confrontation is not as bad as you'd think it is.
I don't have regrets about buying arctic scavengers, but it wasn't quite the "answer" that they made it out to be.
that said, it isn't an awful fit, but not a perfect one either.
weesh ful I would actually be interested to know how much editorial control any one member of their team has towards each review.
Like, when Quinns presents a video (as he does here) does that mean that's HIS opinion alone, or is he the mouthpiece for the majority opinion of the whole SUSD team? 'Cause I've found that while I really enjoy WATCHING all of these guys vids, my personal tastes tend to lean more towards some hosts' recommendations vs others.
Not that there's anything wrong with that--different strokes and all that. But this is just kind of another recommendation where while I can absolutely SEE where they're coming from...my experience is completely different.
well, we know they don't always agree...
but is seems that the phrase "SU&SD recommends" means they are in agreement with each other.
So just because they both have cards and Egyptians (and are eurogames) they're the same thing? How ridiculous. They're completely different games. Settlers has more disruption and easier resources and you're just activating buildings to score points. Nations is a shorter, easier version of through the ages. I like settlers but nations is just beautiful and brilliant and there's no comparison.