The way you explain your decision-making process is excellent! You don’t just explain what you’re doing, but go into detail about the various options. it is incredibly helpful. On the downside, my new Patreon membership with you is going to prove to be very expensive. :) This game is now a must have
Your explanation of the boats, makes me think of my recent play through sleeping gods peril ( small campaign). And I was surprised to hear I could choose to spend a resource after the die roll. So many games I play, you need to spend the "buffer" resource before the roll or bag draw (arkham lcg). So, I agree Ryan Laukat made this change back in a the Sleeping Gods cycle.
Thank you for your wonderful rules explanations and energy while sharing your love and passion for board gaming! I absolutely adore watching your playthroughs, even when a specific game may not fit my personal interests. I appreciate you and everything you and your team do for the industry 💕
Are pearls really an improvement? Like you, I’ve found the resource management in regards to the income track a real hook for my enjoyment of the game. The decision of whether to commit a resource to the income track early or to save it for later for higher points as a compelling gameplay element and it seems to me the pearl takes a lot of that tension away and makes the decision a lot less impactful. Or possibly even a given. I am looking forward to playing and forming my own opinion on that but that does concern me.
54:10 I find it interesting that you can haunt the underground space before a building is placed in that location... or can Ghosts only haunt buildings?
What are your fav Halloween board games? For me it would have to be Dreadful Meadows by Arkus. This is a hidden gem that should not be missed if you love Halloween and strategic worker movement/placement eurogames. The art and components are equally amazing. I don't remember if you covered Dreadful Meadows before?
Looks great, but seems to render the original game completely redundant? I see they have a treasure trove of component upgrades for v1.0, but I don’t see why you would keep it given how refined this version is.
becuase there's different powers on different buildings, and the powers you get from the buildings defines the experience. like i said in the video, this is a "ticket to ride vs ticket to ride europe" situation... most ticket to ride fans happily own both :)
@@rahdo Maybe - I think I’d struggle to justify having both on the shelf when space comes at such a premium these days (I’d still like to pick up Now or Never). However, admittedly, I do have a sentimental attachment to the original… it was the first narrative adventure game my wife and I bought together, and we really enjoyed reading our story entries for one another. It was always a little odd how the text entries never had a conclusion, though - you just gained rewards without context which was peculiar!
The ghosts mechanic seems really tacked on and to me actually detract from the theming. I mean you've gotten underground system, why would ghosts follow you through a swamp as opposed from coming from that? Also the fact that you can only train ghosts between your towns so your villages are constantly haunted.. why? Boats seem pretty abusable currently, and they really should have no effect in the underground I don't think. Either way, I don't like the ghosts or the boats. It's too bad they didn't just do a reformatted reprint with additional quests.
i love them both! the boats make the game so much stronger, like i said in the video i'd retroactively put them in the original game (along with the other tweaks like combining harvest and work). and the ghosts follow new villagers through the marsh becuase the marsh is full of cursed souls. that's a pretty common thing for spooky marshes :)
It is simply infuriating to listen to your reviews. OMG this is a great game… is for the most part all I hear. If true, then why ever listen to your reviews as all games are “great”, and if not, I question your independence. So, so, so frustrating.
Well, it might be true if Rahdo did indeed review all games. He doesn't though, and since he is independent why would he spend hours playing and then reviewing something he didn't like when he could spend those hours playing and reviewing something he did like?
If you think that all that Rahdo says is "OMG this is a great game", you clearly haven't listened to many of his final thoughts, round-ups, ramblings, etc. He has clear points of criticism for almost every game. However, his generally positive attitude towards games is reflected in his selection criteria for game reviews/run-throughs. Richard only really covers games he enjoyed playing. He has refused to cover many games after either reading the rulebook or playing and not enjoying the game. I do not think this is an issue because the fact that the game is reviewed/ran-through is a sign of approval, and if it wasn't reviewed, there's a good chance he didn't or wouldn't have liked it.
Probably cuz people who spend the time making game reviews love games... and in a case like Richard, who only has time to play the best of the best games, it's no surprise that most games you see on his channel are great in his opinion. Why don't you watch the playthrough and find out if it would also be great for you 😊
Why this? He's explained over and over that he prioritizes playing games that have some gameplay merit for him than games he has largely negative experiences with. That's open information. In addition, in the aggregate, there are enough significant critiques amongst the "positive" reviews that I find helpful, maybe not for me personally but for my "care-bear" buddies to see how they would experience the game. Anyway, just throwing in my two cents.
The way you explain your decision-making process is excellent! You don’t just explain what you’re doing, but go into detail about the various options. it is incredibly helpful.
On the downside, my new Patreon membership with you is going to prove to be very expensive. :)
This game is now a must have
Your explanation of the boats, makes me think of my recent play through sleeping gods peril ( small campaign). And I was surprised to hear I could choose to spend a resource after the die roll. So many games I play, you need to spend the "buffer" resource before the roll or bag draw (arkham lcg). So, I agree Ryan Laukat made this change back in a the Sleeping Gods cycle.
Thank you for your wonderful rules explanations and energy while sharing your love and passion for board gaming! I absolutely adore watching your playthroughs, even when a specific game may not fit my personal interests. I appreciate you and everything you and your team do for the industry 💕
So excited for this, I somehow see penguins with the wooden ghost meeples 😅
haunted penguins are even better! :)
@@rahdo 😂
I love Above and Below so much, that even though I don't like the ghosts or the boats, I would get this just for more stories.
I'm hooked from the beginning. Must buy, as Above and Below has always been one of my top favorite games.
We will use the buying/selling…infrequently as you said. Just when you need something you’re short of and another player is neck deep in what you need
at 2p? ah maybe i sell it to short then! :)
This looks great, thank you!
I really like the ability you have to zoom in on a section of the board on the fly. What program do you use?
i'm recording with OBS (open broadcast studio) :)
Thank you 😊
Are pearls really an improvement? Like you, I’ve found the resource management in regards to the income track a real hook for my enjoyment of the game. The decision of whether to commit a resource to the income track early or to save it for later for higher points as a compelling gameplay element and it seems to me the pearl takes a lot of that tension away and makes the decision a lot less impactful. Or possibly even a given. I am looking forward to playing and forming my own opinion on that but that does concern me.
you don't tend to have enough time in the game to make a lot of them. i suppose if you played the "one round longer" mode?
54:10 I find it interesting that you can haunt the underground space before a building is placed in that location... or can Ghosts only haunt buildings?
only buildings :)
What are your fav Halloween board games? For me it would have to be Dreadful Meadows by Arkus. This is a hidden gem that should not be missed if you love Halloween and strategic worker movement/placement eurogames. The art and components are equally amazing. I don't remember if you covered Dreadful Meadows before?
have not tried dreadful meadows. hmm, for us a good halloween game might be monsters on board :) th-cam.com/video/i_O8HARdeVs/w-d-xo.html
Just thought I would mention that you have a typo in the title of your video. Not sure if it matters that much though =)
Doh! Thanks for the heads up!
Looks great, but seems to render the original game completely redundant? I see they have a treasure trove of component upgrades for v1.0, but I don’t see why you would keep it given how refined this version is.
becuase there's different powers on different buildings, and the powers you get from the buildings defines the experience. like i said in the video, this is a "ticket to ride vs ticket to ride europe" situation... most ticket to ride fans happily own both :)
@@rahdo Maybe - I think I’d struggle to justify having both on the shelf when space comes at such a premium these days (I’d still like to pick up Now or Never). However, admittedly, I do have a sentimental attachment to the original… it was the first narrative adventure game my wife and I bought together, and we really enjoyed reading our story entries for one another.
It was always a little odd how the text entries never had a conclusion, though - you just gained rewards without context which was peculiar!
technically the crab is worth 7 bucks plus 1 times the number of crabs u have at the end of the game
The ghosts mechanic seems really tacked on and to me actually detract from the theming. I mean you've gotten underground system, why would ghosts follow you through a swamp as opposed from coming from that?
Also the fact that you can only train ghosts between your towns so your villages are constantly haunted.. why?
Boats seem pretty abusable currently, and they really should have no effect in the underground I don't think.
Either way, I don't like the ghosts or the boats. It's too bad they didn't just do a reformatted reprint with additional quests.
i love them both! the boats make the game so much stronger, like i said in the video i'd retroactively put them in the original game (along with the other tweaks like combining harvest and work).
and the ghosts follow new villagers through the marsh becuase the marsh is full of cursed souls. that's a pretty common thing for spooky marshes :)
It is simply infuriating to listen to your reviews. OMG this is a great game… is for the most part all I hear. If true, then why ever listen to your reviews as all games are “great”, and if not, I question your independence. So, so, so frustrating.
The “Yes-Man” of game reviews…
Well, it might be true if Rahdo did indeed review all games. He doesn't though, and since he is independent why would he spend hours playing and then reviewing something he didn't like when he could spend those hours playing and reviewing something he did like?
If you think that all that Rahdo says is "OMG this is a great game", you clearly haven't listened to many of his final thoughts, round-ups, ramblings, etc. He has clear points of criticism for almost every game.
However, his generally positive attitude towards games is reflected in his selection criteria for game reviews/run-throughs. Richard only really covers games he enjoyed playing. He has refused to cover many games after either reading the rulebook or playing and not enjoying the game.
I do not think this is an issue because the fact that the game is reviewed/ran-through is a sign of approval, and if it wasn't reviewed, there's a good chance he didn't or wouldn't have liked it.
Probably cuz people who spend the time making game reviews love games... and in a case like Richard, who only has time to play the best of the best games, it's no surprise that most games you see on his channel are great in his opinion. Why don't you watch the playthrough and find out if it would also be great for you 😊
Why this? He's explained over and over that he prioritizes playing games that have some gameplay merit for him than games he has largely negative experiences with. That's open information. In addition, in the aggregate, there are enough significant critiques amongst the "positive" reviews that I find helpful, maybe not for me personally but for my "care-bear" buddies to see how they would experience the game. Anyway, just throwing in my two cents.