Ricky Royals Mage Knight playthroughs are THE WAY to learn the game. Don't even bother with the walkthrough in the rulebook. He's so enjoyable to watch and listen to and covers everything gradually as he plays without overloading your brain. The guy seriously should receive royalties from the company! 😂
We (my wife, kiddo and I) played Wonderland's War for the first time at 3 and absolutely loved it. We didn't find it overly long despite it being our first play. Or perhaps we didn't find it too long BECAUSE it was our first play :) Such an awesome game and I'm glad to hear you like it so much despite the caveat.
Can't keep that Mageknight down. Its one of those games you almost try to forget about, but then creeps back into your mind. Truly is one of the greats. Unfortunatly, almost every game in my libarary is a "Well, you wanna play THIS kind of game, we should pull down this game, BUT..."
I agree with him, every time we want to play it we realize we don't remember the rules and we struggle again and again to learn it ... weirdly enough we don't have this problem with any other game ... so it has to be that rules for Mage knight are not straight forward and logical as they should be ...
@@lynnbowers4722 You'll have to forgive me, I don't mean to sound rude but, i'm not sure I'm connecting the dots on this one? Granted I'm not really familiar with Cascadia, though.
Foundations of Rome was my first Crowdfunding with a price tag of 150+ USD. I never regretted that purchase. The game looks drop dead gorgeous on the table and is so much fun to play. The only thing is to transport this beast of a box to game nights other than my own.
I totally agree on Mage Knight. It’s my favorite game and I have no problem just taking it out and playing without checking any rules. But I think it is because I got it early in my gaming and I probably had fewer than 10 games when I bought Mage Knight. So I could spend tens of hours playing it in first few months. The rules are pretty logical so if play it often enough for a period of time, it is hard to forget rules.
About Mage Knight: Oh, it is not that bad Alex! ... You asked for it 😁I can already confirm, once played enough, even after one year, I can pull the game and not look at the rule a single time. The small help cards are more than enough. After all these years, still my favourite game ever...
@TheSchaef47 Oh, Have you ever heard of a game called Star Trek: Frontiers? It is a re-skin of Mage Knight (while there are some slight differences, it is really close). Look it up! 😀
I agree with Mage Knight. I tabled it a couple of weeks ago for the first time in probably three years. It wasn't too hard to remember most things, but there were a few times we had to spend a few minutes looking in the book. I also have just had Euthia delivered - I've only played it once so far, but the teach was far easier. It seems like a much simpler game to play (even if not shorter) but it isn't quite on the same level as Mage Knight. We'll see if it is going to get tabled more. Though it has taken me almost a week to sort out all of the components for Euthia into a way that makes sense and should speed up setup - far more components than Mage Knight.
My favorite games with caveats: Troyes - the mechanics are very unique, there are a lot of fiddly rules that are hard to remember, the first few plays can be almost painfully brainburny as the strategy is pretty opaque without prior familiarity with the cards Tigris & Euphrates - can take several plays before your brain is able to start seeing the patterns and how groups of tiles are connected and how the board state will be affected by conflict order Wabash Cannonball - very straightforward to learn but extremely subtle and difficult to play well Pax Renaissance - hard to learn and hard to teach Dune - great game but you have to know that you're signing up for a 3-6 hour game Critters at War - can seem like a light filler on first impression, you have to play it in 2v2 epic mode to see the real game
Great show! :) I really like this type of content :) For me, I agree with lots of your choices of games (have them) and the same reasons. One example from my collection is (and I really love) Dungeon Degenerates... but it falls into your category of "Wild Assent" and maybe a few of the others, too... so, I only really play it solo. But, I can't help recommending it with caveats LOL. Really enjoyed this... 20 mins well spent. Thanks, Alex :)
Agreed on Wonderland's War. It's a great game but it absolutely is what it is. However I don't think it runs long once you have people who know what they are doing. For me the caveat for Foundations of Rome is that it's not so deep of a game for that immense box. It's not a value thing, its more of a there is less there than you think a box of this size typically gives you.
I absolutely adore Wonderlands War. I feel like once you get the 4 people, no more than 4, that know the game the time it takes to play is very good. At 5 players it gets too long. Still very fun but a little long.
Think my caveat would be Food Chain Magnate - you will get smashed on your first few games by experienced players and it will be a miserable experience but stick it out and learn the game and you'll get amazing experiences from it.
I love Marvel United, but I could not put my finger on it on why I also don't like it at the same time. What you said about it being a bit llight for the amount of content it has. I think that is why I don't like it at the same time. I find myself suggesting to play the game with my younger kids, but I will suggest a different game if I am not playing board games wiht my kids. I will say I am a bit excited for the Multiverse to ship!! But that is mainly to give my kids something to paint while I paint Undead or Alive characters. Great video as always!!
This is my usual conversation at the local game store. Employee: "What game's do you play, we have an open game night where you can bring it in and teach it." Me: "Have you ever heard of Kingdom Death Monster?" Employee: "No, what's that?" Me: "They have a website, but I'm warning you now, it can get to be a bit much." As I'm checking out, employee now with a glazed look in their eyes and shockingly pale: "I looked up that game, it looks....like a lot." Me: "Be careful, its an addiction."
Sabotage (2019)...rules process like a video game. Everyone needs to not only learn the phases of a turn, they must remember how their actions work. It's a hidden momvement game, meaning as the teacher who is also playing, I can't verify moves are played correctly.... meaning the game ought to be taught in full before you actually play. And it's a bit of info to take in all at once for people.
I buy Marvel United for the figures. Anything I get out of it beyond that is bonus. Mage Knight is one of those games I keep being tempted by, but as you say, I don't know if I'd ever get it on the table.
I don't play Mage Knight unless I'm going to play it at least three times in a row - because like you I always have to relearn. Some other games aren't as tough to remember at the same complexity like Frostpunk. For the length warning Wonderland's War is good, but I actually feel the time is close to the same at 5 players as it is with 3, so I prefer to play with more. Another one with the warning for length is Witcher Old World
Too Many Bones has been sitting on my cull list for a while now. It's so much fun, but I can never find the time to play it. I think this is the year I pull the trigger and remove it from my collection.
Wonderlands war is great, as you say though, the box lies, it's a 1-3 player game. You can get away with 4 if you all know what you are doing, never play with 5. The main thing most seem to complain about for wonderlands war is it being a 'tablehog'. Marvel champions is a very strange caveat, since the caveat is purely 'if you are a collector-style player you might suffer here'.
I hear you on that caveat...but it's a relevant caveat :) Technically all caveats here are driven by some aspect of personality :) E.g. WW you could say "only if you don't like longer games"
Big Box games should list its physical weight and dimensions so gamers can plan for shelf space and play area. Don't want to hurt my arms lifting a game that breaks my bookcase 😅
Gotta be Gaia project probably. Probably the best euro game ever with almost zero luck, but at 3 or 4 players it's going to take forever and whoever you play with may never want to play board games ever again once they're done.
I am always surprised how long wonderland wars is based on how long it feels, but my groups have always been engaged and never felt bored. Also i tried it once at 3 players. Barely any competition and do not recommend
You're right about Mage Knight. It is an amazing game, with so much going on to each little piece that it is a bit of a bear to teach or to get back into when you haven't played for a while. My personal caveat for Mage Knight, though, isn't even the rules overhead, per se. It is that, while amazing, MK isn't quite "enough" for how much stuff you're having to figure out. The character building just doesn't feel like quite "enough," and the deck building doesn't feel like quite "enough," and the weird, artificial time limits on every scenario aren't quite "enough" to make it feel like a fulfilling adventure, for all the stuff you have to figure out and/or teach. Again, MK is still AMAZING, and I'd recommend it too, but my caveat would be to not expect to feel like you've progressed or levelled up that much, or to feel like you've been able to do as much adventuring as you wanted to do in the game. It always leaves me with a bit of that "I'm not all that much better at level 8 than I was at level 1" kind of feeling, and that "why do I only get 3 days to do ALL this stuff?" feeling. Foundations of Rome is also a good game, but, for me personally, definitely not worth the giant box and corresponding giant price tag, but then, I'm also not a huge polyomino person, so take that with a grain of salt. Wonderland's War is amazing, and totally worth all the commitments, but it does for sure take a while to get through a game. This one feels worth it to me, but I can definitely see why it might not be for everyone.
Not necessarily a recommendation but I also qualify my #1 game of all-time: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (2020) by IDW Games. It's a pretty solid and fun game but an immense amount of my enjoyment comes from my love for the IP.
I totally agree with Mage Knight. I know it's typically deemed the best solo game ever, but there's just too much to get it to table and the size it takes just doesn't do it for me. I ended up selling it, I owned it for 7 years and played it a grand total of 3 times, so it wasn't worth holding onto.
I've been thinking of getting Foundations of Rome but the huge box and price tag is really holding me back from buying it. Glad to hear there will be a cheaper retail edition. :)
With every Marvel game that comes out I pause and have to ask myself, am I buying the game/mechanisms or am I buying the ip. I haven't played any Marvel Champions but the pull is there hard. Building decks to some extent and battling scenarios or whatever sound fun; but the action to action gameplay seems repetative and dull - yes I haven't played just an observation. I had all of Marvel United and X-Men, played everything I wanted to play, hero team combos, villains, scenarios and even a mortal kombat style tournament to Thanos I somewhat created. Then I sold it all. Yes it was fun, and the very minimal move set and taking the powers from the partner before you worked just enough to feel like something and the heros do feel somwhat different. But like you said I didn't need to have that much money tied up in a game that was only fun to me when money and shelf space is a premium. Plus I wasn't going to paint the minis nor have them paid for, and luckily I got my money back. Another Marvel game that is beating down my doors is Marvel Crisis Protocol, but I don't have or play miniature games. I don't find the rulers and saying x character did x move, but no real visual element even if its just art or symbols on a card is better imo. Not to mention the minis dont' come painted and you have to put some parts together, I just can't get into it, and imagine if I had all three games mentioned to this point...oh yeah and throw in Star Wars Legion then b/c that game is screaming my name too, but I just can't.
My big game to recommend with a caveat - Wingspan without the necter Tokens. Not sure why, but I really dislike the Necter Rush they bring to the game. Worse than an 18xx Train Rush :)
Hello and as always, great video and great advices. About frosthaven or campaign games. What would you advice then that did not put you in a burn out state ? But maybe there are not because other games did not pushed you to play enough to really know. Are all campaign games exhausting anyway at a certain point ? Thank you by advance.
I disagree a bit with your assessment of Wonderlands War. It is routinely one of our most played 5 player game. We are all pretty well versed as we have played it alot and the expansion is chefs kiss in terms of the improvents they have made with faster startup and better use of wonderlandians. It's length has not become and issue due to player engagement even when not in a fight, goading people to continue to draw because of your bet or who is in the lead. The rest of your stuff is pretty spot on and the mind is not a game so much as an activity lol. Gloomhaven died in our group after about the second character retirement, we didn't even need to buy frosthaven, we played Jaws first then, started Gloomhaven and yes Jaws is the superior choice. Marvel Champions we have been playing since it came out and we love it and still love it. I only play it 2 players with my buddy on expert and we just play the campaigns as the come out. Its pretty great, we wait between large box expansions and then buy to current and play with newer characters. United is spot on again, over priced and over simple but I own all the content so far and have backed the newest one, its good for when we have younger kiddos coming.
Funny to me that the common caveat given to Marvel Champions is that the content comes out too quickly when they haven't done monthly releases in quite some time, and other publishers (most notably CMON) are so much worse about putting out more than you could possibly play consistently...
Speaking of Sundrop or painting, does that add value if you sell the game or is that money/time just lost and not included it in the price when you are trying to sell? thank you!
I love Wonderland's War, it's everything I want from a board game and more. Gorgeous art, the theme, the gameplay mechanics, components, everything. The length was never an issue for me. We do have a slow player in our usual 3 player group, but outside the first game, it never took more than 1,5 hours and that's perfect, at least for me. Recently when I taught it to a new player and again, played with 3 players, it wasn't going over 2 hours and that's including the rules explanation. With our usual usual group, we often finish it within 80 minutes, not counting setup and teardown. What you said about Marvel Champions is incorrect. New content doesn't come out every month. Sometimes there are 3-4 months in a row when nothing comes out. But everything else is true. It's also a big time and enormous financial investment. I love this game to death however, I own everything that has come out since the beginning. I'm the same way with Marvel United and why I'll probably never invest in it. I don't mind being a light game. But the sheer amount of exclusive content for it is absurd and it's just simply not possible to get everything for a reasonable price for someone who didn't back it.
Am I the only person who doesn't think TMB is that complicated or rules heavy? It's not a light game, but i feel ppl go way over board when describing how heavy it is.
If you feel people go over board as opposed to a single person, then it's definitely something that is present enough that a group of people feel it :)
When i hear about the price tag for Foundations, I just laugh because of how much the enthusiasts and backers are willing to spend. They don't represent the average board gamer... wait or do they? Don't people share ridiculous hauls from GenCon costing near 1k+ in games? Okay so maybe they don't represent the average board gamer of course! Oh wait they're just regular people like you and I with a social media account? Hmm well surely the average price of these kickstarter games and bigger games aren't near the price that Alex mentioned- wait they're like nearing +$150 on average? Oookay.. well I guess Foundations is a pretty good deal for $200.
For me the biggest caveat is Aeon's End. Simply put, I did not find the first two games good. The lore was meh. The mechanics were fine but uninspiring, so I put it down. Then I got New Age on a Steam sale and realized that the newer content is so much better. The mechanics of each fight and the creativity on display is insane. The story has gotten, well, it actually exists in New Age which is a start- but it gets good at Outcasts. The game and its systems are fantastic but.... oof, can't say I'm a huge fan of the intro experience of the base title.
I wouldn't recommend Wonderland's War, actually, I wouldn't recommend anything from Druid City Games, I bought a game from them, but the game never arrived (they used Evri, which is the worst parcel delivery company you can find in the UK), and when I contact them about it, they said, "Evri left it at your door" (we are talking about London here, IF they left it there, it was obvious it wouldn't last 2 seconds), "Sorry you got robbed, nobody likes to get robbed" they told me, I swear to god, If I was in LA I would have gone to their offices and kicked their arses...
you are the king of caveats, Alex... and ponchos
lol thank you :)
Ricky Royals Mage Knight playthroughs are THE WAY to learn the game. Don't even bother with the walkthrough in the rulebook. He's so enjoyable to watch and listen to and covers everything gradually as he plays without overloading your brain. The guy seriously should receive royalties from the company! 😂
He's been a huge advocate for moth MK and solo gaming in general
We (my wife, kiddo and I) played Wonderland's War for the first time at 3 and absolutely loved it. We didn't find it overly long despite it being our first play. Or perhaps we didn't find it too long BECAUSE it was our first play :) Such an awesome game and I'm glad to hear you like it so much despite the caveat.
Can't keep that Mageknight down. Its one of those games you almost try to forget about, but then creeps back into your mind. Truly is one of the greats.
Unfortunatly, almost every game in my libarary is a "Well, you wanna play THIS kind of game, we should pull down this game, BUT..."
I agree with him, every time we want to play it we realize we don't remember the rules and we struggle again and again to learn it ... weirdly enough we don't have this problem with any other game ... so it has to be that rules for Mage knight are not straight forward and logical as they should be ...
I bought Cascadia just to have a newb friendly game in my collection that didn't take an age to teach.
@@lynnbowers4722 You'll have to forgive me, I don't mean to sound rude but, i'm not sure I'm connecting the dots on this one? Granted I'm not really familiar with Cascadia, though.
Foundations of Rome was my first Crowdfunding with a price tag of 150+ USD. I never regretted that purchase. The game looks drop dead gorgeous on the table and is so much fun to play. The only thing is to transport this beast of a box to game nights other than my own.
Reminds me of Cathedral, polyominal type game, real puzzle getting it back in the box?
I totally agree on Mage Knight. It’s my favorite game and I have no problem just taking it out and playing without checking any rules. But I think it is because I got it early in my gaming and I probably had fewer than 10 games when I bought Mage Knight. So I could spend tens of hours playing it in first few months. The rules are pretty logical so if play it often enough for a period of time, it is hard to forget rules.
About Mage Knight: Oh, it is not that bad Alex! ... You asked for it 😁I can already confirm, once played enough, even after one year, I can pull the game and not look at the rule a single time. The small help cards are more than enough. After all these years, still my favourite game ever...
It would be even better if it were the same game, but Star Trek
@TheSchaef47 Oh, Have you ever heard of a game called Star Trek: Frontiers? It is a re-skin of Mage Knight (while there are some slight differences, it is really close). Look it up! 😀
@@JJ_TheGreat shhh don't spoil it
Too many bones was an instant "dear god no" for me when I started going through the rulebook
I agree with Mage Knight. I tabled it a couple of weeks ago for the first time in probably three years. It wasn't too hard to remember most things, but there were a few times we had to spend a few minutes looking in the book. I also have just had Euthia delivered - I've only played it once so far, but the teach was far easier. It seems like a much simpler game to play (even if not shorter) but it isn't quite on the same level as Mage Knight. We'll see if it is going to get tabled more. Though it has taken me almost a week to sort out all of the components for Euthia into a way that makes sense and should speed up setup - far more components than Mage Knight.
My favorite games with caveats:
Troyes - the mechanics are very unique, there are a lot of fiddly rules that are hard to remember, the first few plays can be almost painfully brainburny as the strategy is pretty opaque without prior familiarity with the cards
Tigris & Euphrates - can take several plays before your brain is able to start seeing the patterns and how groups of tiles are connected and how the board state will be affected by conflict order
Wabash Cannonball - very straightforward to learn but extremely subtle and difficult to play well
Pax Renaissance - hard to learn and hard to teach
Dune - great game but you have to know that you're signing up for a 3-6 hour game
Critters at War - can seem like a light filler on first impression, you have to play it in 2v2 epic mode to see the real game
Thanks for the video Alex. Agree Wonderlands War can run a little long. Its worth it.
Lol, that's why I still have it
Great show! :) I really like this type of content :)
For me, I agree with lots of your choices of games (have them) and the same reasons.
One example from my collection is (and I really love) Dungeon Degenerates... but it falls into your category of "Wild Assent" and maybe a few of the others, too... so, I only really play it solo. But, I can't help recommending it with caveats LOL.
Really enjoyed this... 20 mins well spent. Thanks, Alex :)
Agreed on Wonderland's War. It's a great game but it absolutely is what it is. However I don't think it runs long once you have people who know what they are doing. For me the caveat for Foundations of Rome is that it's not so deep of a game for that immense box. It's not a value thing, its more of a there is less there than you think a box of this size typically gives you.
I love foundations :) it's not the heaviest but I don't need every game to be the heaviest
I absolutely adore Wonderlands War. I feel like once you get the 4 people, no more than 4, that know the game the time it takes to play is very good. At 5 players it gets too long. Still very fun but a little long.
I completely agree, I just find it annoying that whenever I have a new person, I'm less likely to pull it out
thanks for fair assessment: pros & cons / caveats -- different people different expectations 😊🎉
Think my caveat would be Food Chain Magnate - you will get smashed on your first few games by experienced players and it will be a miserable experience but stick it out and learn the game and you'll get amazing experiences from it.
I love Marvel United, but I could not put my finger on it on why I also don't like it at the same time. What you said about it being a bit llight for the amount of content it has. I think that is why I don't like it at the same time. I find myself suggesting to play the game with my younger kids, but I will suggest a different game if I am not playing board games wiht my kids.
I will say I am a bit excited for the Multiverse to ship!! But that is mainly to give my kids something to paint while I paint Undead or Alive characters.
Great video as always!!
Carcassonne is still good and worth playing, but only at two players. Then it's much more strategic and can be mean.
Awesome vid, thanks Alex!
This is my usual conversation at the local game store. Employee: "What game's do you play, we have an open game night where you can bring it in and teach it." Me: "Have you ever heard of Kingdom Death Monster?" Employee: "No, what's that?" Me: "They have a website, but I'm warning you now, it can get to be a bit much."
As I'm checking out, employee now with a glazed look in their eyes and shockingly pale: "I looked up that game, it looks....like a lot." Me: "Be careful, its an addiction."
Sabotage (2019)...rules process like a video game. Everyone needs to not only learn the phases of a turn, they must remember how their actions work. It's a hidden momvement game, meaning as the teacher who is also playing, I can't verify moves are played correctly.... meaning the game ought to be taught in full before you actually play. And it's a bit of info to take in all at once for people.
The theme from the good the bad and the ugly should be playing in the background
I should do more music :)
@@BoardGameCo eh it would take away hearing your wise words of wisdom
I buy Marvel United for the figures. Anything I get out of it beyond that is bonus.
Mage Knight is one of those games I keep being tempted by, but as you say, I don't know if I'd ever get it on the table.
I don't play Mage Knight unless I'm going to play it at least three times in a row - because like you I always have to relearn. Some other games aren't as tough to remember at the same complexity like Frostpunk.
For the length warning Wonderland's War is good, but I actually feel the time is close to the same at 5 players as it is with 3, so I prefer to play with more.
Another one with the warning for length is Witcher Old World
Oh man, I do love the witcher...but again, 3 player is the maximum player count
Too Many Bones has been sitting on my cull list for a while now. It's so much fun, but I can never find the time to play it. I think this is the year I pull the trigger and remove it from my collection.
I love this kind of content ✅✌🏼
Wonderlands war is great, as you say though, the box lies, it's a 1-3 player game. You can get away with 4 if you all know what you are doing, never play with 5. The main thing most seem to complain about for wonderlands war is it being a 'tablehog'.
Marvel champions is a very strange caveat, since the caveat is purely 'if you are a collector-style player you might suffer here'.
I hear you on that caveat...but it's a relevant caveat :) Technically all caveats here are driven by some aspect of personality :) E.g. WW you could say "only if you don't like longer games"
WW solo?
Big Box games should list its physical weight and dimensions so gamers can plan for shelf space and play area. Don't want to hurt my arms lifting a game that breaks my bookcase 😅
I recommend The Crew to my Euchre playing family with the caveat and constant reminders "WE'RE WORKING TOGETHER! DO NOT TRY TO TAKE ALL THE TRICKS!" 😂
Gotta be Gaia project probably. Probably the best euro game ever with almost zero luck, but at 3 or 4 players it's going to take forever and whoever you play with may never want to play board games ever again once they're done.
Come play marvel champions with me and we will keep up with it Alex!!!
I will!!!!
I am always surprised how long wonderland wars is based on how long it feels, but my groups have always been engaged and never felt bored. Also i tried it once at 3 players. Barely any competition and do not recommend
You're right about Mage Knight. It is an amazing game, with so much going on to each little piece that it is a bit of a bear to teach or to get back into when you haven't played for a while. My personal caveat for Mage Knight, though, isn't even the rules overhead, per se. It is that, while amazing, MK isn't quite "enough" for how much stuff you're having to figure out. The character building just doesn't feel like quite "enough," and the deck building doesn't feel like quite "enough," and the weird, artificial time limits on every scenario aren't quite "enough" to make it feel like a fulfilling adventure, for all the stuff you have to figure out and/or teach. Again, MK is still AMAZING, and I'd recommend it too, but my caveat would be to not expect to feel like you've progressed or levelled up that much, or to feel like you've been able to do as much adventuring as you wanted to do in the game. It always leaves me with a bit of that "I'm not all that much better at level 8 than I was at level 1" kind of feeling, and that "why do I only get 3 days to do ALL this stuff?" feeling.
Foundations of Rome is also a good game, but, for me personally, definitely not worth the giant box and corresponding giant price tag, but then, I'm also not a huge polyomino person, so take that with a grain of salt.
Wonderland's War is amazing, and totally worth all the commitments, but it does for sure take a while to get through a game. This one feels worth it to me, but I can definitely see why it might not be for everyone.
Not necessarily a recommendation but I also qualify my #1 game of all-time: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (2020) by IDW Games. It's a pretty solid and fun game but an immense amount of my enjoyment comes from my love for the IP.
I agree you 💯 for mage knight. Good game but the learning curve is deep
I totally agree with Mage Knight. I know it's typically deemed the best solo game ever, but there's just too much to get it to table and the size it takes just doesn't do it for me. I ended up selling it, I owned it for 7 years and played it a grand total of 3 times, so it wasn't worth holding onto.
I've been thinking of getting Foundations of Rome but the huge box and price tag is really holding me back from buying it. Glad to hear there will be a cheaper retail edition. :)
We got a game of Wonderlands War with 4 players in 2.5 hours at Level Up.
With every Marvel game that comes out I pause and have to ask myself, am I buying the game/mechanisms or am I buying the ip. I haven't played any Marvel Champions but the pull is there hard. Building decks to some extent and battling scenarios or whatever sound fun; but the action to action gameplay seems repetative and dull - yes I haven't played just an observation. I had all of Marvel United and X-Men, played everything I wanted to play, hero team combos, villains, scenarios and even a mortal kombat style tournament to Thanos I somewhat created. Then I sold it all. Yes it was fun, and the very minimal move set and taking the powers from the partner before you worked just enough to feel like something and the heros do feel somwhat different. But like you said I didn't need to have that much money tied up in a game that was only fun to me when money and shelf space is a premium. Plus I wasn't going to paint the minis nor have them paid for, and luckily I got my money back. Another Marvel game that is beating down my doors is Marvel Crisis Protocol, but I don't have or play miniature games. I don't find the rulers and saying x character did x move, but no real visual element even if its just art or symbols on a card is better imo. Not to mention the minis dont' come painted and you have to put some parts together, I just can't get into it, and imagine if I had all three games mentioned to this point...oh yeah and throw in Star Wars Legion then b/c that game is screaming my name too, but I just can't.
Can't, or know that I shouldn't/dont' want to go down that road.
So I assume your Tanares adventures videos will not continue?
My big game to recommend with a caveat - Wingspan without the necter Tokens. Not sure why, but I really dislike the Necter Rush they bring to the game. Worse than an 18xx Train Rush :)
That's an interesting one :)
Hello and as always, great video and great advices. About frosthaven or campaign games. What would you advice then that did not put you in a burn out state ? But maybe there are not because other games did not pushed you to play enough to really know. Are all campaign games exhausting anyway at a certain point ? Thank you by advance.
I disagree a bit with your assessment of Wonderlands War. It is routinely one of our most played 5 player game. We are all pretty well versed as we have played it alot and the expansion is chefs kiss in terms of the improvents they have made with faster startup and better use of wonderlandians. It's length has not become and issue due to player engagement even when not in a fight, goading people to continue to draw because of your bet or who is in the lead. The rest of your stuff is pretty spot on and the mind is not a game so much as an activity lol. Gloomhaven died in our group after about the second character retirement, we didn't even need to buy frosthaven, we played Jaws first then, started Gloomhaven and yes Jaws is the superior choice. Marvel Champions we have been playing since it came out and we love it and still love it. I only play it 2 players with my buddy on expert and we just play the campaigns as the come out. Its pretty great, we wait between large box expansions and then buy to current and play with newer characters. United is spot on again, over priced and over simple but I own all the content so far and have backed the newest one, its good for when we have younger kiddos coming.
Thanks for the recommendations Alex! Random question though where did you get that hoodie you are wearing and what’s the brand? Thanks and take care.
Funny to me that the common caveat given to Marvel Champions is that the content comes out too quickly when they haven't done monthly releases in quite some time, and other publishers (most notably CMON) are so much worse about putting out more than you could possibly play consistently...
That's fair...honestly I stopped trying to keep up awhile ago, so I might be behind on it.
Speaking of Sundrop or painting, does that add value if you sell the game or is that money/time just lost and not included it in the price when you are trying to sell?
thank you!
How can you talk about WA without talking about the fact it may never come?
I love Wonderland's War, it's everything I want from a board game and more. Gorgeous art, the theme, the gameplay mechanics, components, everything. The length was never an issue for me. We do have a slow player in our usual 3 player group, but outside the first game, it never took more than 1,5 hours and that's perfect, at least for me. Recently when I taught it to a new player and again, played with 3 players, it wasn't going over 2 hours and that's including the rules explanation. With our usual usual group, we often finish it within 80 minutes, not counting setup and teardown.
What you said about Marvel Champions is incorrect. New content doesn't come out every month. Sometimes there are 3-4 months in a row when nothing comes out. But everything else is true. It's also a big time and enormous financial investment. I love this game to death however, I own everything that has come out since the beginning.
I'm the same way with Marvel United and why I'll probably never invest in it. I don't mind being a light game. But the sheer amount of exclusive content for it is absurd and it's just simply not possible to get everything for a reasonable price for someone who didn't back it.
Am I the only person who doesn't think TMB is that complicated or rules heavy? It's not a light game, but i feel ppl go way over board when describing how heavy it is.
If you feel people go over board as opposed to a single person, then it's definitely something that is present enough that a group of people feel it :)
When i hear about the price tag for Foundations, I just laugh because of how much the enthusiasts and backers are willing to spend. They don't represent the average board gamer... wait or do they? Don't people share ridiculous hauls from GenCon costing near 1k+ in games? Okay so maybe they don't represent the average board gamer of course! Oh wait they're just regular people like you and I with a social media account? Hmm well surely the average price of these kickstarter games and bigger games aren't near the price that Alex mentioned- wait they're like nearing +$150 on average? Oookay.. well I guess Foundations is a pretty good deal for $200.
that's why I resist FFG, IPs, LCGs etc. time, space and $... any hobby can be endless chase 😅
Is there a reason it’s spelled wild assent and not ascent? If this was a typo to the name of the game that’s incredibly off putting.
Not a typo, that's the actual name
For me the biggest caveat is Aeon's End. Simply put, I did not find the first two games good. The lore was meh. The mechanics were fine but uninspiring, so I put it down. Then I got New Age on a Steam sale and realized that the newer content is so much better. The mechanics of each fight and the creativity on display is insane. The story has gotten, well, it actually exists in New Age which is a start- but it gets good at Outcasts. The game and its systems are fantastic but.... oof, can't say I'm a huge fan of the intro experience of the base title.
Don't censor the images. This way I can see if it's really worth it to watch the vid.
I fully timestamp everything, if you can't be bothered to even click through it is what it is
@@BoardGameCo I'm a dude with ADHD, man. I shot what is appealing to me at first glance. Sorry if my comment bothered you. Keep up the cool work.
Black Rose Wars. The game is great. The rulebook is an abomination.
Great choice
I’ve now tired marvel champions and I greatly prefer marvel United
I wouldn't recommend Wonderland's War, actually, I wouldn't recommend anything from Druid City Games, I bought a game from them, but the game never arrived (they used Evri, which is the worst parcel delivery company you can find in the UK), and when I contact them about it, they said, "Evri left it at your door" (we are talking about London here, IF they left it there, it was obvious it wouldn't last 2 seconds), "Sorry you got robbed, nobody likes to get robbed" they told me, I swear to god, If I was in LA I would have gone to their offices and kicked their arses...
I think 90% of the games you review are good...with caveats lol 😂
Lol fair