So to summarize if I get this right. First you need to stay away from the boss while you run around killing minions and elites ala Zombicide, but in a more complex fiddly form with dice allocations, collect red cubes etc. Meanwhile the Boss will chase you down around the map like an idiot. This repeats for the next 2 hours or more. Once your heroes are high level enough, you approach the boss and dump all your damage that is high enough to remove the body parts in one go. Repeat step 1 again till high level enough to remove another boss body part. This will be 3rd hour or more. Added another layer of 'complexity' with environment, event conditions or special tiles so you have something else to do/see. I dont know if this really sounds like a boss-battler? The boss should not need to be in the map early game anyway, since all you doing is running away from it. Even monster hunter has more fun quick engagements with the boss in shorter timeframe.
This is the best coverage I've seen of this game, so far. Way more informative, and useful, than just watching a playthrough. I'm Very interested in this game as an alternative to Cthulhu: DMD, which is my favorite cooperative game. I do have a concern that this game appears to be a little bit of a "grind", clocking in at three hours.
Really enjoyed this review compared to the others I’ve seen on this game. It’s nice seeing how all the mechanics tie together. Not enough reviewers do a good job of showing the big picture. Have a sub!
Thanks for the coverage. I was really excited for Grimcoven when I first heard about it, but I'm just not sure about it. While watching the gameplay videos, I keep wondering if I actually need this. I have and love Street Masters. While it might not share all of the same mechanics, it does a great job with 1 shot boss battling with minions. And there's more modularity than I know what to do with. I do like the art of GC better, but I just don't know if it has a spot in my collection unless they tweak it a lot.
I think your point regarding the boss being unable to be damaged in the earlier stages is one of the most important things that needs to be reworked in this game. Great job with the honest deep-dive.
@@BlindedGuardian The boss isn't present from the beginning of gameplay in CDMD. Sure, each boss affects the scenarios in their own way, but they don't come out and do a tonne of damage each round from the start. This happens in Grimcoven.
A very balanced review. I am NOT keen on this game. I prefer KDM, Aeon Trespass, and the recent Primal: the Awaken instead as deeper and more comprehensive boss battler games (which are in the same genre) instead.
@@rikimez127 Kingdom Death Monster. FYI - there are a ton of expansions, but just the 1.6 version of the base game will give you hundreds of hours of entertainment and the new Gambler’s Chest expansion is really the upper tier of extended gameplay but some of us have spent a small fortune on additional stuff which is optional.
I really liked your review. I have watch several in trying to decide if this game is for me, and I have decided to back it because I think it has an interesting enough of a base for AR to work with.
Honestly I can see their confidence in this game , since they sent prototypes with a lot of ppl. Obviously will be improved with more playtesting, but so far I`m really keen on this game :D I am 99% getting it, maybe all-in or maybe with a few add-ons, but so far loving the theme, the components, the minis ( and I do know that they are prototypes, so will likely change). I`m not currenly concerned with anything, since I am expecting some of the problems listed by the testers to be adressed in some way during the campaign, BUT I am hoping we get more Hunters to play with, free ones to be precise, since 4 won`t be able to cover all of the playstyles, even with a ton of upgrade options for them. I hope the worst case for the new hunters to be like with Retaliation - 2 free ones and 2 as add-ons
Just came here to say I love the whole set up in your studio. My goal is to have a game room like that one day with the lighting and everything. Edit just to be on video topic: the aesthetic of Grimcoven looks awesome and thematically strong, but still doesn’t seem to scratch the same itch mechanically that Oathsworn does as far as boss battlers. Plus Oathsworn’s story is almost peerless in the realm of RPG-in-a-box board games
Excellent review, having played this with you I'm really interested in how the campaign goes. With some tweaks I might go with the all-in, but right now I'm on the fence. There's also some real opportunity to trial PvP, especially if you could "recruit" a couple minions
In the future, can you make a section on things you like and things others might not like? Me and others are tired of the only positive sales pitch videos done by other Awaken Realms game reviewers. There are many recent Nemesis Retaliation videos where many people comment on how the videos sound like a sales pitch with only positive points. Your thoughts sound more neutral than a lot of the sale pitch videos I see on TH-cam. Thanks
I don't know if I'm not understanding your point, but I felt like during my discussion portion I was pretty clear on sections of the game that I liked/didn't like. What are you wanting differently?
@@GameBrigade what would be helpful is separating your video sections in the same way the bigger boardgame channels do (60k+ subs) They are big because their formulas and video layout make them easier to digest. When I mentioned sections, is that your videos are split into larger 3 or 4 bookmarks. Which is fine but the issue is that your pros and cons get lost in bigger sections of video. What the bigger channels do and works REALLY well is that they split their videos even more by following a more delineated outline. Meaning your 30 min video has 5 sections. Their 30 minute videos have 12+ sections. They more concisely layout their content and flow on their videos so it makes rewatching certain parts MUCH easier. So for example, they will SPECIFICALLY have a section of Pros that is 3 or 5 mins long, then they will a section of cons that is 3-5mins long, all easier to find. They will also have separate sections for mechanics, theme, etc etc. Your pros and cons are kind of spread out in the whole video so it is not easy to go back and rewatch without having to skip through a 15 min section, It is just not as user friendly as what the bigger channels do. You can layout the videos as you please but I felt it was worth pointing that the bigger channels do it differently and it makes for a better experience. I can watch the whole video and then rewatch specific parts. I think it would be helpful to have a more definite outline in your video so it is much easier to rewatch certain parts
@@Titanicus_ I get that., but Alex and I have different ways we digest the content. He specifically does a things I like, don't like, and see others not liking. That is his way of relating information. I do a deeper dive into what I believe to be the core mechanics of the game and discuss those on a deeper nuanced level. Those can't be chaptered out because the context matters.
@@GameBrigade its not just Alex, its many others. Again, you are free to do whatever you want. You can do deep dives in each part while having more parts of your video. It is just a matter of organizing your thoughts and having a good content outline.
@@GameBrigadeI feel like the main idea of the purpose of the suggestion is: Give me an option o avoid all your video and go to those points fast. Investing just a couple of minutes. At least it sounds to me like that and not a fair proposition. Useful for some people but as a channel, I guess it is not so helpful to you for views and your evolution as channel.
agreed, when i see those play through vids i was like, 30mins passed, they havent touched the boss? and all the skills are like move and done damage so does the enemeies? that doesnt sound right for a boss battler board game to me, especially there are games like kdm/ato/oathsworn there for players. i mean...come on, the combat system is so ISS-like, the art is bloodborn-like, the boss health system is kdm-like, the corruption system is DMD-like, the smaller player board for solo game to ease the controlling of muti characters is oathsworn-like...
Yes actually! This is an Into the AM shirt. They have sponsored my channel in the past. Here is my link which should provide a 10% discount or use code "boardgame" www.intotheam.com/boardgame They do retire designs regularly so they might not have this specific design, but I like the fact that they have legacy and retired designs.
I think dmd is more of a dungeon crawler. You roam till a certain level then the boss will appear. But yea I am confused with grimcoven if it is even a boss battler lol
They are 3D printed. The white ones are from Etsy, but i dont remember the shop they are from. The others are ones I printed for a board game insert and decided to go with something else so they are extras.
Great points about the game. How did exploring the points of interest and dealing with their outcomes affect your gameplay? It seems like if the goal is to kill the boss, why even interact with the witch or wagon? Why not run around the map collecting the red cubes, portal from side to side, and farm the monster that also gives you red cubes? Sorry I forget which monster it is. Maybe it's the elite. Also, I'd like them to make the skills you get from leveling up to be less random and more focused. It seems like you could get some weak skill cards and gimp yourself. Or not pick any skill cards and have too many dice in your pool. Maybe I'm wrong on these details, but that's my impression from watching others play the game. It still looks interesting. But, I think it needs to bake a little longer.
So the treasurs on the map have different rewards when you pick them up. Usually giving you the choice between 4 choices. Most were heal, gain lament, refresh a dice ect. We used them mostly to heal as neither player took any sort of healing ability. The map environments added different rewards but usually had a negative offset. Deal 2 damage to clear 4 status effects. or use 2 different dice faces to heal 1. So they gave you options if you had the dice and were close enough to trigger them. We mostly ignored those as it was easier to just kill the minions around us or focus on the boss. The witch allows you to draw a card from a secret deck. I didn't do it in our games. But Alex said that he felt that it would become known knowledge after a few plays as to what choices to make when visiting the witch.
How did you survive during the early game - constant shields/healing, or running away? What's the best items to get for the first upgrades - the dice or the cards?
My character had the ability to get a 4 shield token a turn. Our basic strategy was: I tanked the first round as we cleared the minions and got lvl 1. Get a dice unless the ability was too strong let go. We felt having minimum 6 dice was needed to do the actions we wanted. The marksmen kept distance and stayed near the spawn. Once the boss was close we both used the teleport. I used the bottom he used the top. While we were waiting for the boss we killed the skull to ten environment which gave each of us 3 more tokens and a level up. On the others side we just rinsed and repeated. At one point I had to tank 3 minions who were shielded. I was then able to aoe enough times to clear shields and also remove them. After that marksmen had leveled enough and got enough reload cards he could effectively do 5 damage a turn and I could do 4-6
Already passing, I had it at the top of my list however from people game play it looks like the game is giving a complex character level system in a one scenario, which results in your character needing to kite the boss to level, before you can take it out. For me this generally doesn't seem that fun.
On another playthrough, the person showing the game revealed that there's more than one type of card for certain boss body parts. If you destroy a body part, do all cards related to that body part get removed?
@@zimbo5521 there's so many elements of the final game that we didn't get to see in the prototype that I don't know what it will feel as a complete package. I like the escalation in both games, but CDMD currently has a better ending finale which gives a good resolution to the end of a fight.
does each boss have their own (unique) AI deck? if so, i'm hoping that will give each boss its own personality. that's one thing that CDMD does *really* well -- each episode and each boss infuse the game with their own mechanics, so every combination feels incredibly unique. if Grimcoven can do the same, it'll be a winner for me. if not... i may just save a bunch of money lol.
Yes there is a unique deck for each boss and each boss has unique mechanics added to the map. The undead general had his banners and the tornado guy has his tornado minis.
It's better than blood borne to me as the leveling up mechanism is BB wasn't very good. Oathsworn is the Pinnacle boss battle game for me. Several of the scenarios with oathsworn did reach into the five-hour timeline for a single session which was a bit much.
Awaken Realms really struggle to have crunchy smooth and balanced gameplay mechanics. I think gameplay is their weakest trait, and although I am excited for this game, the major draw of being a boss battler falls short because that is the area I think Grimcoven is severely lacking in... doesn't seem like anything special is happening with the boss at all. And like you said, there seems to be a shortage of abilities to really flesh out the combat system and include a variety of combos to chew on.
![ILLSLICK X YOUNGOHM - We're The same [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yUJNkobYR0E/mqdefault.jpg)
So to summarize if I get this right. First you need to stay away from the boss while you run around killing minions and elites ala Zombicide, but in a more complex fiddly form with dice allocations, collect red cubes etc. Meanwhile the Boss will chase you down around the map like an idiot. This repeats for the next 2 hours or more. Once your heroes are high level enough, you approach the boss and dump all your damage that is high enough to remove the body parts in one go. Repeat step 1 again till high level enough to remove another boss body part. This will be 3rd hour or more. Added another layer of 'complexity' with environment, event conditions or special tiles so you have something else to do/see. I dont know if this really sounds like a boss-battler? The boss should not need to be in the map early game anyway, since all you doing is running away from it. Even monster hunter has more fun quick engagements with the boss in shorter timeframe.
This is the best coverage I've seen of this game, so far. Way more informative, and useful, than just watching a playthrough. I'm Very interested in this game as an alternative to Cthulhu: DMD, which is my favorite cooperative game. I do have a concern that this game appears to be a little bit of a "grind", clocking in at three hours.
Wow, thank you for the praise. I really appreciate it.
Really enjoyed this review compared to the others I’ve seen on this game. It’s nice seeing how all the mechanics tie together. Not enough reviewers do a good job of showing the big picture. Have a sub!
Thank you so much for watching ☺️
Thanks for the coverage. I was really excited for Grimcoven when I first heard about it, but I'm just not sure about it. While watching the gameplay videos, I keep wondering if I actually need this. I have and love Street Masters. While it might not share all of the same mechanics, it does a great job with 1 shot boss battling with minions. And there's more modularity than I know what to do with. I do like the art of GC better, but I just don't know if it has a spot in my collection unless they tweak it a lot.
I think they should do what CDMD does and that is the Boss doesn’t come out until the end. That would help to lower the difficulty in the early game.
If implemented well, this is a sound idea
I think your point regarding the boss being unable to be damaged in the earlier stages is one of the most important things that needs to be reworked in this game. Great job with the honest deep-dive.
the is alot like Chtulu Death may die, and i'm not sur this is a problem
@@BlindedGuardian The boss isn't present from the beginning of gameplay in CDMD. Sure, each boss affects the scenarios in their own way, but they don't come out and do a tonne of damage each round from the start. This happens in Grimcoven.
A very balanced review. I am NOT keen on this game. I prefer KDM, Aeon Trespass, and the recent Primal: the Awaken instead as deeper and more comprehensive boss battler games (which are in the same genre) instead.
What does KDM stand for?
@@rikimez127 Kingdom Death Monster. FYI - there are a ton of expansions, but just the 1.6 version of the base game will give you hundreds of hours of entertainment and the new Gambler’s Chest expansion is really the upper tier of extended gameplay but some of us have spent a small fortune on additional stuff which is optional.
Great video, love your insight.
Thanks for watching!
I really liked your review. I have watch several in trying to decide if this game is for me, and I have decided to back it because I think it has an interesting enough of a base for AR to work with.
Honestly I can see their confidence in this game , since they sent prototypes with a lot of ppl. Obviously will be improved with more playtesting, but so far I`m really keen on this game :D
I am 99% getting it, maybe all-in or maybe with a few add-ons, but so far loving the theme, the components, the minis ( and I do know that they are prototypes, so will likely change).
I`m not currenly concerned with anything, since I am expecting some of the problems listed by the testers to be adressed in some way during the campaign, BUT I am hoping we get more Hunters to play with, free ones to be precise, since 4 won`t be able to cover all of the playstyles, even with a ton of upgrade options for them. I hope the worst case for the new hunters to be like with Retaliation - 2 free ones and 2 as add-ons
that camera lens sitting on your shelf is about worth about $1000
First person to notice my lenses. I used to have an assortment of lenses on that shelf.
Is it a Canon 70-200 2.8? Aren't those quite a bit more than $1k?
Just came here to say I love the whole set up in your studio. My goal is to have a game room like that one day with the lighting and everything.
Edit just to be on video topic: the aesthetic of Grimcoven looks awesome and thematically strong, but still doesn’t seem to scratch the same itch mechanically that Oathsworn does as far as boss battlers. Plus Oathsworn’s story is almost peerless in the realm of RPG-in-a-box board games
You are too kind! Thank you!
Excellent review, having played this with you I'm really interested in how the campaign goes. With some tweaks I might go with the all-in, but right now I'm on the fence. There's also some real opportunity to trial PvP, especially if you could "recruit" a couple minions
In the future, can you make a section on things you like and things others might not like? Me and others are tired of the only positive sales pitch videos done by other Awaken Realms game reviewers. There are many recent Nemesis Retaliation videos where many people comment on how the videos sound like a sales pitch with only positive points. Your thoughts sound more neutral than a lot of the sale pitch videos I see on TH-cam. Thanks
I don't know if I'm not understanding your point, but I felt like during my discussion portion I was pretty clear on sections of the game that I liked/didn't like. What are you wanting differently?
@@GameBrigade what would be helpful is separating your video sections in the same way the bigger boardgame channels do (60k+ subs) They are big because their formulas and video layout make them easier to digest. When I mentioned sections, is that your videos are split into larger 3 or 4 bookmarks. Which is fine but the issue is that your pros and cons get lost in bigger sections of video. What the bigger channels do and works REALLY well is that they split their videos even more by following a more delineated outline. Meaning your 30 min video has 5 sections. Their 30 minute videos have 12+ sections. They more concisely layout their content and flow on their videos so it makes rewatching certain parts MUCH easier. So for example, they will SPECIFICALLY have a section of Pros that is 3 or 5 mins long, then they will a section of cons that is 3-5mins long, all easier to find. They will also have separate sections for mechanics, theme, etc etc. Your pros and cons are kind of spread out in the whole video so it is not easy to go back and rewatch without having to skip through a 15 min section, It is just not as user friendly as what the bigger channels do. You can layout the videos as you please but I felt it was worth pointing that the bigger channels do it differently and it makes for a better experience. I can watch the whole video and then rewatch specific parts. I think it would be helpful to have a more definite outline in your video so it is much easier to rewatch certain parts
@@Titanicus_ I get that., but Alex and I have different ways we digest the content. He specifically does a things I like, don't like, and see others not liking. That is his way of relating information. I do a deeper dive into what I believe to be the core mechanics of the game and discuss those on a deeper nuanced level. Those can't be chaptered out because the context matters.
@@GameBrigade its not just Alex, its many others. Again, you are free to do whatever you want. You can do deep dives in each part while having more parts of your video. It is just a matter of organizing your thoughts and having a good content outline.
@@GameBrigadeI feel like the main idea of the purpose of the suggestion is: Give me an option o avoid all your video and go to those points fast. Investing just a couple of minutes. At least it sounds to me like that and not a fair proposition. Useful for some people but as a channel, I guess it is not so helpful to you for views and your evolution as channel.
I like make my own hero for this. Maybe they put out blank board so to put custom art on?
I doubt they would do that unfortunately
agreed, when i see those play through vids i was like, 30mins passed, they havent touched the boss? and all the skills are like move and done damage so does the enemeies? that doesnt sound right for a boss battler board game to me, especially there are games like kdm/ato/oathsworn there for players. i mean...come on, the combat system is so ISS-like, the art is bloodborn-like, the boss health system is kdm-like, the corruption system is DMD-like, the smaller player board for solo game to ease the controlling of muti characters is oathsworn-like...
Nice review ! A nice t-shirt ! Shop to buy similar one?
Yes actually! This is an Into the AM shirt. They have sponsored my channel in the past. Here is my link which should provide a 10% discount or use code "boardgame"
www.intotheam.com/boardgame
They do retire designs regularly so they might not have this specific design, but I like the fact that they have legacy and retired designs.
I dig the minis. I enjoy painting so that's why i backed this. Who knows maybe itll turn out be a cool game too.
MD 2 has a campaign though or you can one shot. I wish this had a campaign as well.
How does this compare to cthulhu death may die? Is better or on par? Would you be better off just getting cthulhu?
I think dmd is more of a dungeon crawler. You roam till a certain level then the boss will appear. But yea I am confused with grimcoven if it is even a boss battler lol
thoughts on this vs primal or blood
Great video! Does anyone know where are those token trays from?
They are 3D printed. The white ones are from Etsy, but i dont remember the shop they are from. The others are ones I printed for a board game insert and decided to go with something else so they are extras.
@@GameBrigade Really apreciated!
Great points about the game. How did exploring the points of interest and dealing with their outcomes affect your gameplay? It seems like if the goal is to kill the boss, why even interact with the witch or wagon? Why not run around the map collecting the red cubes, portal from side to side, and farm the monster that also gives you red cubes? Sorry I forget which monster it is. Maybe it's the elite.
Also, I'd like them to make the skills you get from leveling up to be less random and more focused. It seems like you could get some weak skill cards and gimp yourself. Or not pick any skill cards and have too many dice in your pool. Maybe I'm wrong on these details, but that's my impression from watching others play the game. It still looks interesting. But, I think it needs to bake a little longer.
So the treasurs on the map have different rewards when you pick them up. Usually giving you the choice between 4 choices. Most were heal, gain lament, refresh a dice ect. We used them mostly to heal as neither player took any sort of healing ability.
The map environments added different rewards but usually had a negative offset.
Deal 2 damage to clear 4 status effects. or use 2 different dice faces to heal 1. So they gave you options if you had the dice and were close enough to trigger them. We mostly ignored those as it was easier to just kill the minions around us or focus on the boss.
The witch allows you to draw a card from a secret deck. I didn't do it in our games. But Alex said that he felt that it would become known knowledge after a few plays as to what choices to make when visiting the witch.
How did you survive during the early game - constant shields/healing, or running away? What's the best items to get for the first upgrades - the dice or the cards?
My character had the ability to get a 4 shield token a turn. Our basic strategy was: I tanked the first round as we cleared the minions and got lvl 1. Get a dice unless the ability was too strong let go. We felt having minimum 6 dice was needed to do the actions we wanted. The marksmen kept distance and stayed near the spawn. Once the boss was close we both used the teleport. I used the bottom he used the top. While we were waiting for the boss we killed the skull to ten environment which gave each of us 3 more tokens and a level up. On the others side we just rinsed and repeated. At one point I had to tank 3 minions who were shielded. I was then able to aoe enough times to clear shields and also remove them. After that marksmen had leveled enough and got enough reload cards he could effectively do 5 damage a turn and I could do 4-6
Already passing, I had it at the top of my list however from people game play it looks like the game is giving a complex character level system in a one scenario, which results in your character needing to kite the boss to level, before you can take it out. For me this generally doesn't seem that fun.
On another playthrough, the person showing the game revealed that there's more than one type of card for certain boss body parts. If you destroy a body part, do all cards related to that body part get removed?
Is it as good as CDMD?
CDMD has an edge
@@GameBrigade Do you think Grimcoven could catch up and maybe even surpass CDMD in gameplay?
@@zimbo5521 there's so many elements of the final game that we didn't get to see in the prototype that I don't know what it will feel as a complete package. I like the escalation in both games, but CDMD currently has a better ending finale which gives a good resolution to the end of a fight.
does each boss have their own (unique) AI deck? if so, i'm hoping that will give each boss its own personality.
that's one thing that CDMD does *really* well -- each episode and each boss infuse the game with their own mechanics, so every combination feels incredibly unique. if Grimcoven can do the same, it'll be a winner for me. if not... i may just save a bunch of money lol.
Yes there is a unique deck for each boss and each boss has unique mechanics added to the map. The undead general had his banners and the tornado guy has his tornado minis.
Does leveling through the corruption track feels too much punitive or the upsides outweighs the downsides of the corruption activation?
Upsides far far outweigh the downsides at least until ~ lvl 16 (the last corruption upgrade before 20, which triggers end game activation)
where did you get the token trays?
They are 3D prints that I did up
@@GameBrigade came out nice
How would you compare it to Oathsworn? Bloodborne?
It's better than blood borne to me as the leveling up mechanism is BB wasn't very good.
Oathsworn is the Pinnacle boss battle game for me. Several of the scenarios with oathsworn did reach into the five-hour timeline for a single session which was a bit much.
@@GameBrigade oh, yes! Sometimes just battle portion lasts 3 hours!
So is your character a witch/warlock on this one?
Your characters are hunters and they all have different abilities. Mine was a sword master.
Awaken Realms really struggle to have crunchy smooth and balanced gameplay mechanics. I think gameplay is their weakest trait, and although I am excited for this game, the major draw of being a boss battler falls short because that is the area I think Grimcoven is severely lacking in... doesn't seem like anything special is happening with the boss at all. And like you said, there seems to be a shortage of abilities to really flesh out the combat system and include a variety of combos to chew on.
Too dark for me. I love grim-dark but only when it knows how to contrast effectively. There's a reason I choose not to live in Seattle.
Haha. Trueeee
Slowly becoming an acrylic guy. Seeing all these same color blobs of plastic really takes away from the games art style
Yeah I can definitely agree with that. I am usually ok if the heroes and boss is a mini and totally fine if everything else is a standee