I played through this scenario yesterday, and it's interesting to see that there was quite a few differences to your discoveries and movements. And that's great! Shouldn't be too scripted.
The game looks great. I'm an older sci-fi geek and everything about that game calls to me. I love the planetary exploration aspect. I dig the adding on to your space ship as well as being able to grow and pick your crew. I could see many great expansions for this game down the road as well.
I'm so curious of your review when you play more. This looks so dope as long as the writing and mechanics ramp up in a balanced way and it's stays fun.
Hi, I dunno if you got corrected on the comments, but the first situation you would be drawing is always S01. The deck starts ordered, and will remain as such until told so. There's an official answer by AR on BGG regarding this.
@@OneStopCoopShop the situation S01 is called Homesick and it's important to be the first for the thematic factor given what just happened at the Eye of the Void (not going back home).
Such a cool game. Your playthrough really showcases all the points of decision and chance that build the adventure as you go. I do worry a little that it'd be easy to forget something with all the balls in the air, but I'm sure I can just take it slow and get used to it. Really scratches that Mass Effect itch. I suppose Unsettled would be the next one to come to mind, but something about watching those playthroughs didn't work for me like this.
your friendly "know it all" Greek guy is here to come to the rescue. "Stele" derives from the Greek world στήλη (stélē) and is a orthogonal horizontally erected tablet, that is usually placed as a memento for the dead. In this context I think it refers to the black monolith from the "2001, a space odyssey". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stele
Yea, probably a poor translation here. "Pillar" probably would have been more appropriate, as contextually Stele is not used very much in English language.
You beautiful maniac! So quick to play, film, edit and release! I love it! (mostly cuz now I just have to watch this tonight before trying my hand at it tomorrow with a friend) ;-D
Me and my buddy started playing the ISS Vanguard campaign yesterday, his copy. We both really enjoyed the tutorial portion of the game (first encounter followed by the first ship phase). But our first landing/planetary encounter (the one featured in this video) did not go so smoothly and we were left a little baffled at some of the design decisions made. We were not so lucky with the die rolls and encounter cards. We both got into a position where we were going to die (both had three injuries and all supplies gone), so we planned to escape, which we would fail the mission but survive and have taken some interesting discoveries we found. However, as we tried to liftoff, the game let us then know "you cannot escape, you are not allowed to fail, you must continue to play, ignore any results that would cause you to die or fail the main objective". It was not marked to be a continuation of the tutorial, but apparently it still wanted to teach us more. It made the experience pretty unrealistic and put us in a awkward dieing, but not dieing loop, until we just decided to ignore any further die rolls (since we really didn't have any way to succeed) and just read on to the successful completion description. Hopefully it doesn't hand hold us anymore and this strange counter intuitive design does not happen again. We will play again next month. Will be very slow going, but at least I get to understand the mechanics before my copy arrives sometime this spring/summer. Thanks for posting your play thru, it confirmed we were doing everything right, just bad luck.
If it was the first planet after the tutorial, yeah, that’s pretty much “tutorial part 2”. But the handholding stops after that I believe. That said, ouch, must have been some bad luck! I’ve never come close to losing multiple crew in one landing! 😅
Great run through and explanation as always Mike. This one certainly looks interesting and looking forward to getting it to the table. Will look forward to your thoughts after some more plays!
Thanks for the playthrough; interesting to compare your experience with mine for the scenario. BTW, at 19:23, the 4 spike result does not apply to your 3 spike roll on the hazard die. One more roll still required.
Love it. Got this for Christmas, and have progressed through 1 mission beyond Pellucid so far. Excited to keep playing! A couple notes from watching - I know this video is over a year old, but just in case anyone else reads this: First, I do believe that as a solo player, you are meant to bring all 4 sections on planetary explorations. Bringing 2 was just for the tutorial mission - I'll have to double check, but that is my understanding. Second, It's a very good idea to roll your assisting crew's dice separately from the rest of your dice pool, to avoid mixing them up afterwards. Very easy to do when playing solo and trying to manage and resolve multiple assist dice, modifications, effects, etc! Lastly, I learned from other videos that it's a VERY good idea when starting out, to follow through the Dice check reference card when doing dice checks - as to not miss steps, and to remember all of your options and the order in which you do them. Thanks, love this game!
Good suggestions! The rulebook specifically says you can bring 2-4 people on each away team, so you certainly aren’t forced to have 4. Strategically I find it’s sometimes better to have more and sometimes fewer.
@@OneStopCoopShop okay, that makes sense - you beat me to the rulebook! I knew you at least COULD bring 4, but it definitely would be nice to take fewer as solo player at times. This game feels so well designed, I keep appreciating the quality of the contents and the seemingly extreme attention to detail to make the game flow well. I haven't run into a question the rulebook couldn't answer (once I've gone looking for said answers)!
So excited for this! Though I feel a huge regret in opting for single wave shipping, since that means I will probably have to wait another year before getting my copy.
@@OneStopCoopShop I already used that to go the rest of the way all in :P. I resisted the urge initially, but after seeing the content and reviews coming out from people that have it now, I felt no remorse in upping my pledge to the gameplay all in. So hyped for this game.
Stele pronounced Stee - lahy is an upright stone slab or pillar with an inscription or design used as a marker or monument etc. Very nice run through, I look forward to more.
@@Nihongofreak actually both are wrong. The singular is stele (stee-lee) and the plural is stelae (stee-lay). See the Wikipedia entry. However, “steel” is an alternative pronunciation, albeit less correct / proper as far as I know, since the word is from Latin via Greek and the Greek is στήλη, which could not be pronounced “steel” (neither could the Latin).
Once again I was very late to the party so haven't been able to get a copy of this. But I see there is a Matrix version coming out! My favourite movie :)
Great video! Just joined late pledge with personal files add on. First time i back a board game actually and i am very excited. I have no clue of when I'll get the game though...
I pledged $1 so that I could have the option to pledge later, but never did because the game felt too fiddly - almost like it would have made a better computer game than board game. But now that I've watched this, the mechanics don't seem too complex. I like what I'm seeing so far in terms of story, and it sort of reminds me *slightly* of 7th Continent (which backed and absolutely love). With a late pledge option being made available, I must admit I'm a bit more tempted after watching your play-through. I do worry that the mechanics might overshadow the story somewhat or that it might be a bit too much for other players in my group. Still...looks cool. Love the production value of the game. :)
It has 7th continent vibes for sure, though big differences are: 1 - Planets are contained little adventures, with supplies acting as a timer, so you can't just wander wherever you want, but you also aren't hunting just to survive 2 - It has a major narrative, with story and reading, instead of 7th Continent's vaguer sense of discovery of a curse's secrets
Gonna arrive so soon! Not sure if I can start this before I finish Etherfields but I'm only 7 dreams in... Decisions, decisions 😅 (let's not even talk about Mirza Noctis sitting on my bench staring at me)
@@OneStopCoopShop so true, I went on a little side gaming rampage recently when I finally sleeved a few games (Legendary: Encounters, Aeon's End) and of course then I watched Colin's video on the Covenant expansion and started questioning if I wanted it, or maybe some other Aeon's End content... but I need to stay focused and play some of these other games!
With the Global Condition GO2 you have to make a dice roll to travel, just so you know, not that changes much really. You should use the app, the voice acting is solid and really inmersive.
Oh, I got confused what you meant since I don't think I ever got the two dice switched during play. But I did misspeak in that moment of the video, so good catch.
At 16:20 you stated that since crew ends up in resting you should/could have used the crew that were not part of the away team. However, you must keep one crew member from every section regardless of whether they are part of the away team. You can think of them as being on the ISS Vanguard in support of the away team. Last bullet of the Continuing the Campaign section of the rulebook on page 25. "However, you can never assign the your last Available Crewmember of each Section, as you need them for the next Planetary Exploration."
@@OneStopCoopShop You did not actually make the mistake, but you said that you could have used the crewmember for production research if you had a slot available.
No, you are thinking of two separate things. In step 2 of the Situation Room action, you can solve ADDITIONAL situations by assigning crew to them, and those crew member icons must match the icons to the left of the "when solved" part of the situation. The effect of the situation I solved, using a crew member to gain a bonus, is different and doesn't reference those icons.
You only choose from those in your armory. At first that is zero cards, but as you research and produce new techs you unlock more and more. Pretty quickly you’ll have 20-40 cards to choose from
Thanks for this play through. I'm still wondering if I late pledge this game. The story told is interesting but the gameplay seems very involved with lots of modifiers being scattered all over the place. So, I fear that the mechanics might cast a shadow on the narrative. As always, the more you play a game the more confident you become but I'm not sure it will ever balance the narrative enough so that it becomes truly immersive. It's beautiful, it's innovative but it's quite heavy.
Hello there thanks for the playthrought quick question, after soloing tutorial with 4 away team members (2 of them landed on the planet) how many of them do you rank up? the 4 members of the away team or just the 2 of them that landed on the planet?
I was a bit unsure of that myself. In regular missions you only rank up the people who are actually on the planet, so that’s also how I played it in the tutorial
Hey Mike, loved the video thanks for your insights. How does the planet exploration work with 3 or 4 players? Do you get to bring more explorers or is more of a 'decide together how the two explorers go about their business'?
So at every player count except 1 each player controls 1 character. So for example, with 3 players two of them will control a single ship station (and bring one character from that station) while the last player controls two stations, but picks only one character from among them to bring. Hope that is clear!
@@BbBb-zx6sx the "default" is for each player to bring 1 character (or in solo to bring 2), so with 3 players you'd usually have 3 characters, one per player. However you can always CHOOSE to bring more. So for example in solo I brought 2 usually, but when I had to fight a big boss or something I brought 3 or 4. Hope that's clearer.
I got about half way before the group I was playing with ran into a bit of a block. It was fun until that point, and I hope to finish it some day. I still own it, which is saying something 😅
It's an Awakened Realm game alright, I'm always tempted by them because they look good but the gameplay is never for me. Keeping an eye on tainted grail 2 just in case :p
Hey! Nice video as always! Would you say the game is good enough so I may as well add the "Deadly Frontier campaign" expansion as well as the "Personal Files Expansion"? They would be way, way cheaper than in retail later on (80$CAD VS 150$CAD for the Deadly Frontier looking at the Canadian shops having it listed for pre-order)
I late pledged for the Core Box + Personal Files expansion based on a few BGG posts from people who regretted not getting Personal Files (which I understand fleshes out the background story of the characters you play).
I can confirm, to my understanding, the Science guy should have 1 red, 2 blue including 1 science die, 3 green including 1 biology and 1 wild and the engineer should have 2 reds including Gathering, 1 green and 3 blue including biology and wild dice :)
@@ronthal at this point I've leveled all my stations so the dice tracks are full (well, at least for rank 1 crew), so it doesn't matter all that much ;)
If you had to choose between this and the new Tainted Grail, which would it be (and why)? That is my scenario, I can basically back one of the two. Have not played the first TG fwiw...
Oof… that’s tough. I’m really enjoying my this one… and I really enjoyed new TG. This one is more episodic (each planet is kind of its own adventure), while tainted grail is more of an open world, continuous exploration feel. Which of those sounds better to you?
@@OneStopCoopShop I slightly prefer the theme of Tainted Grail, especially as a fan of Elden Ring / Dark Souls. But the gameplay of ISS sounds more intriguing. Which do you think would be the easiest to table and make you feel like you need to play "just another round" before stopping? If you had to choose one, which would it be?
@@OneStopCoopShop As long as no one died from it. Lol. We're about to play through this on Sunday. I'm trying to catch the spots for mistakes early. Lol. Thanks for the playthrough. Are you going to record any more for this game?
@@BbBb-zx6sx most likely not, but I've been continuing to play. My "role" as it is on the channel is to cover and review lots of games, old and new, while Colin and Bairnt and Steve and others focus more on campaign-based play and returning to the same game multiple times in a row. At the moment, for example, I have more than 12 games waiting for me to film them and find a spot in our queue. So... yeah, tough to get my favorite campaign games filmed multiple times! Sorry!
At least for the action dice luck doesn't feel like it comes into play too much, since when you pick a die with the symbol you want you are going to get it 4/6 or 5/6 times (plus all the cards that give rerolls)
@@OneStopCoopShop sometime ago I rolled 6 1 in 2 3d6 rolls with success chances of 1 2+ in bloodbowl tournament soo I almost die inside everytime you decided to roll 1 die) anyway I agree seems like ar did good job to mitigate extreme randomness.
I quit video games years ago, play board games again.. far less addicting.... BUT this game makes me think "this would be a far better video game" - seems like alot to manage
I just noticed you have all your section dice all wrong, For example at this stage the Science should have had 1 Red, 3 green and 2 blue, yours are differant, both of them are with the wrong Dice according to the rulebook.
@@OneStopCoopShop Hehe no worries, i find the dice confusing anyways, they should all be color coded for each section and the starting dice they have should be printed on back of the character board, sadly non of that exists lol
Nice walkthrought. Altho this game didnt excited me at all. Tbh, it looks extremly boring to me. I like challenge games like DarkSouls and BloodBorne. Guess this is not way i want to go :/
The primary focus is the planet exploration, which is kind of a discovery and exploration puzzle mixed with narrative. Then you have the ship phase which is more focused on upgrading and tech trees and crew management. Not sure if that helps at all 😅
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks Mike! I just feel like those really get lost among all the mechanisms this game has. My sense is it what a story book game. But plenty of hoops and extra layers/mechanisms around it.
0:00 - Introduction
1:20 - Ship Management
15:01 - Hangar Launch
19:33 - Planet Exploration
56:29 - Wrapping Up
I played through this scenario yesterday, and it's interesting to see that there was quite a few differences to your discoveries and movements. And that's great! Shouldn't be too scripted.
That’s definitely good to hear
I'm only 15 minutes in and my excitement to play this game is skyrocketing!
Nice!!!
The game looks great. I'm an older sci-fi geek and everything about that game calls to me. I love the planetary exploration aspect. I dig the adding on to your space ship as well as being able to grow and pick your crew. I could see many great expansions for this game down the road as well.
Couldn't agree more!
I'm so curious of your review when you play more. This looks so dope as long as the writing and mechanics ramp up in a balanced way and it's stays fun.
I'm continuing to enjoy it, but yeah, will depend a lot on how different the planets feel once I'm 5-10 plays in :)
I kickstarted Too Many Bones, ISS Vanguard, Marvel zombies and Skyrim…this game is by far the one I cannot wait to play. Awesome video!
That’s a lot of good stuff!
Hi, I dunno if you got corrected on the comments, but the first situation you would be drawing is always S01. The deck starts ordered, and will remain as such until told so. There's an official answer by AR on BGG regarding this.
Ah, I was wondering about that one. Seems a bit pointless to me, since you shuffle in new situations pretty quickly, but glad there’s an answer :)
@@OneStopCoopShop the situation S01 is called Homesick and it's important to be the first for the thematic factor given what just happened at the Eye of the Void (not going back home).
Sure, but when it came up for me 3 or 4 turns in, it still felt thematically appropriate 😅
Such a cool game. Your playthrough really showcases all the points of decision and chance that build the adventure as you go. I do worry a little that it'd be easy to forget something with all the balls in the air, but I'm sure I can just take it slow and get used to it. Really scratches that Mass Effect itch. I suppose Unsettled would be the next one to come to mind, but something about watching those playthroughs didn't work for me like this.
Yes, mass effect is a fun comparison here. It does have shades of unsettled, but with clearly a big focus on campaign and narrative
Excited for this and Isofarian Guard over the next few months!
I’m excited to try IG as well!
your friendly "know it all" Greek guy is here to come to the rescue.
"Stele" derives from the Greek world στήλη (stélē) and is a orthogonal horizontally erected tablet, that is usually placed as a memento for the dead. In this context I think it refers to the black monolith from the "2001, a space odyssey".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stele
Thank you! That makes a lot more sense :)
Yea, probably a poor translation here. "Pillar" probably would have been more appropriate, as contextually Stele is not used very much in English language.
You beautiful maniac! So quick to play, film, edit and release! I love it! (mostly cuz now I just have to watch this tonight before trying my hand at it tomorrow with a friend) ;-D
I think you’ll enjoy it a ton. The discovery and mood and narrative work really well
Fantastic walkthrough, thank you.
Me and my buddy started playing the ISS Vanguard campaign yesterday, his copy. We both really enjoyed the tutorial portion of the game (first encounter followed by the first ship phase). But our first landing/planetary encounter (the one featured in this video) did not go so smoothly and we were left a little baffled at some of the design decisions made. We were not so lucky with the die rolls and encounter cards. We both got into a position where we were going to die (both had three injuries and all supplies gone), so we planned to escape, which we would fail the mission but survive and have taken some interesting discoveries we found. However, as we tried to liftoff, the game let us then know "you cannot escape, you are not allowed to fail, you must continue to play, ignore any results that would cause you to die or fail the main objective". It was not marked to be a continuation of the tutorial, but apparently it still wanted to teach us more. It made the experience pretty unrealistic and put us in a awkward dieing, but not dieing loop, until we just decided to ignore any further die rolls (since we really didn't have any way to succeed) and just read on to the successful completion description. Hopefully it doesn't hand hold us anymore and this strange counter intuitive design does not happen again. We will play again next month. Will be very slow going, but at least I get to understand the mechanics before my copy arrives sometime this spring/summer. Thanks for posting your play thru, it confirmed we were doing everything right, just bad luck.
If it was the first planet after the tutorial, yeah, that’s pretty much “tutorial part 2”. But the handholding stops after that I believe.
That said, ouch, must have been some bad luck! I’ve never come close to losing multiple crew in one landing! 😅
Outstanding Mike, great video. Anxiously awaiting my copy.
Thanks so much!
Great run through and explanation as always Mike. This one certainly looks interesting and looking forward to getting it to the table. Will look forward to your thoughts after some more plays!
I’m going to try to do another planet tonight
Thanks for covering this again, Mike. I can't wait to receive my 1st wave delivery.
Hope you have a blast when it arrives!
Thanks for the playthrough; interesting to compare your experience with mine for the scenario. BTW, at 19:23, the 4 spike result does not apply to your 3 spike roll on the hazard die. One more roll still required.
Thanks! It’s hard to distinguish the many spikes while recording 😅
Love it. Got this for Christmas, and have progressed through 1 mission beyond Pellucid so far. Excited to keep playing!
A couple notes from watching - I know this video is over a year old, but just in case anyone else reads this: First, I do believe that as a solo player, you are meant to bring all 4 sections on planetary explorations. Bringing 2 was just for the tutorial mission - I'll have to double check, but that is my understanding. Second, It's a very good idea to roll your assisting crew's dice separately from the rest of your dice pool, to avoid mixing them up afterwards. Very easy to do when playing solo and trying to manage and resolve multiple assist dice, modifications, effects, etc!
Lastly, I learned from other videos that it's a VERY good idea when starting out, to follow through the Dice check reference card when doing dice checks - as to not miss steps, and to remember all of your options and the order in which you do them. Thanks, love this game!
Good suggestions! The rulebook specifically says you can bring 2-4 people on each away team, so you certainly aren’t forced to have 4. Strategically I find it’s sometimes better to have more and sometimes fewer.
@@OneStopCoopShop okay, that makes sense - you beat me to the rulebook! I knew you at least COULD bring 4, but it definitely would be nice to take fewer as solo player at times.
This game feels so well designed, I keep appreciating the quality of the contents and the seemingly extreme attention to detail to make the game flow well. I haven't run into a question the rulebook couldn't answer (once I've gone looking for said answers)!
Really enjoyed your play through and waiting for my copy to arrive. Family looking forward to playing. Their favourite game so far is Nemesis.
This one's pretty different from Nemesis, but I bet they'll still have a fun time!
Trying to expose them to more challenging games. lol
So excited for this! Though I feel a huge regret in opting for single wave shipping, since that means I will probably have to wait another year before getting my copy.
But just think. You can spend the $40-50+ you saved on shipping for a new game right now! 😜
@@OneStopCoopShop I already used that to go the rest of the way all in :P. I resisted the urge initially, but after seeing the content and reviews coming out from people that have it now, I felt no remorse in upping my pledge to the gameplay all in. So hyped for this game.
can't wait for my copy to arrive. I think the boat just docked in Vancouver so here's hoping soon.
That’s exciting!
Looks like a very rich game system. I hope to have the chance to play it sometime.
My main game group is still working through the campaign. It continued to be fun
Thanks for this, I think I finally understand this game now lol
Glad it was helpful
Can't wait til my copy comes in!
Man, I made the mistake of doing the single shipping full baking in KS. Gotta wait for my copy for who knows how long!
Stay strong!!
Stele pronounced Stee - lahy is an upright stone slab or pillar with an inscription or design used as a marker or monument etc. Very nice run through, I look forward to more.
Thanks!
Google says its pronounced "steel"
@@Nihongofreak actually both are wrong. The singular is stele (stee-lee) and the plural is stelae (stee-lay). See the Wikipedia entry. However, “steel” is an alternative pronunciation, albeit less correct / proper as far as I know, since the word is from Latin via Greek and the Greek is στήλη, which could not be pronounced “steel” (neither could the Latin).
Once again I was very late to the party so haven't been able to get a copy of this. But I see there is a Matrix version coming out! My favourite movie :)
Wait what now? A matrix version of what? Are you talking about legendary encounters?
@@OneStopCoopShop oops! Damn autoplay to next video. I meant to comment on Legendary Alien playthrough!
@@Tr1n1tyNZ HAHA, that's what I figured! No worries :)
Very helpful. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Great video! Just joined late pledge with personal files add on. First time i back a board game actually and i am very excited. I have no clue of when I'll get the game though...
Oh wow, hope your first experience ends up being a great one (and that you don't have to wait forever)
I pledged $1 so that I could have the option to pledge later, but never did because the game felt too fiddly - almost like it would have made a better computer game than board game. But now that I've watched this, the mechanics don't seem too complex. I like what I'm seeing so far in terms of story, and it sort of reminds me *slightly* of 7th Continent (which backed and absolutely love). With a late pledge option being made available, I must admit I'm a bit more tempted after watching your play-through. I do worry that the mechanics might overshadow the story somewhat or that it might be a bit too much for other players in my group. Still...looks cool. Love the production value of the game. :)
It has 7th continent vibes for sure, though big differences are:
1 - Planets are contained little adventures, with supplies acting as a timer, so you can't just wander wherever you want, but you also aren't hunting just to survive
2 - It has a major narrative, with story and reading, instead of 7th Continent's vaguer sense of discovery of a curse's secrets
at 53:48: you have to roll the red die,because its an dice check, if it shows an "!", you cant use it for the travel action
You are correct. Someone else pointed that one out too. Thanks!
Gonna arrive so soon! Not sure if I can start this before I finish Etherfields but I'm only 7 dreams in... Decisions, decisions 😅 (let's not even talk about Mirza Noctis sitting on my bench staring at me)
SO MANY CAMPAIGN GAMES. I only finish the ones that are truly exceptional these days 😅
@@OneStopCoopShop so true, I went on a little side gaming rampage recently when I finally sleeved a few games (Legendary: Encounters, Aeon's End) and of course then I watched Colin's video on the Covenant expansion and started questioning if I wanted it, or maybe some other Aeon's End content... but I need to stay focused and play some of these other games!
Awesome video!
Wow that looks great
Thanks for watching
Only 2 sections advised for Away Team in tutorial mission, whilst learning basic, for all the others you can take 2-4.
Yeah, I should have made that clearer. Though I prefer 2 sections in general. 3-4 is a bit much to manage.
This seems to be much more improved than Etherfields in terms of mechanics
I haven’t played etherfields myself, but from what I’ve heard about it I agree!
Looking forward to this one. Seems a little confusing but hopefully it’s not too bad. :-)
That's probably just me editing quickly. The tutorial teaches things pretty smoothly.
With the Global Condition GO2 you have to make a dice roll to travel, just so you know, not that changes much really. You should use the app, the voice acting is solid and really inmersive.
Ah, good call on the global conditions card!
And I just downloaded the app. Going to try it for my next planet :)
26:31 Danger dice is the orange dice, that card works on that, not the fail symbol on a regular dice.
Oh, I got confused what you meant since I don't think I ever got the two dice switched during play. But I did misspeak in that moment of the video, so good catch.
At 16:20 you stated that since crew ends up in resting you should/could have used the crew that were not part of the away team. However, you must keep one crew member from every section regardless of whether they are part of the away team. You can think of them as being on the ISS Vanguard in support of the away team.
Last bullet of the Continuing the Campaign section of the rulebook on page 25. "However, you can never assign the your last Available Crewmember of each Section, as you need them for the next Planetary Exploration."
I didn’t use the last crew member from any station. Where do you think I made a mistake with this?
@@OneStopCoopShop You did not actually make the mistake, but you said that you could have used the crewmember for production research if you had a slot available.
@@OneStopCoopShop I did enjoy the playthrough though 🙂
Oh, got it. I meant I could have swapped the one I had used for something else, but I understand your comment now. Thank you!
11:55 You assing a crew member to get the command. You only get the bonus if the symbol in the top left matches one of one the sitation.
No, you are thinking of two separate things.
In step 2 of the Situation Room action, you can solve ADDITIONAL situations by assigning crew to them, and those crew member icons must match the icons to the left of the "when solved" part of the situation.
The effect of the situation I solved, using a crew member to gain a bonus, is different and doesn't reference those icons.
When you choose the equipment, do you choose it among all the cards? Or are there just some of them to choose from for the Pellucid mission? Thanks
You only choose from those in your armory. At first that is zero cards, but as you research and produce new techs you unlock more and more. Pretty quickly you’ll have 20-40 cards to choose from
Thanks for this play through.
I'm still wondering if I late pledge this game.
The story told is interesting but the gameplay seems very involved with lots of modifiers being scattered all over the place.
So, I fear that the mechanics might cast a shadow on the narrative.
As always, the more you play a game the more confident you become but I'm not sure it will ever balance the narrative enough so that it becomes truly immersive.
It's beautiful, it's innovative but it's quite heavy.
I imagine the game will flow a lot more easily with 2+ players. Then you only manage one character each. But either way, I wouldn’t call it heavy :)
Hello there thanks for the playthrought quick question, after soloing tutorial with 4 away team members (2 of them landed on the planet) how many of them do you rank up? the 4 members of the away team or just the 2 of them that landed on the planet?
I was a bit unsure of that myself. In regular missions you only rank up the people who are actually on the planet, so that’s also how I played it in the tutorial
Do you need to treck each character back to the lander before taking off?
It depends on the planet. This one instructed me to just leave immediately
Hey Mike, loved the video thanks for your insights. How does the planet exploration work with 3 or 4 players? Do you get to bring more explorers or is more of a 'decide together how the two explorers go about their business'?
So at every player count except 1 each player controls 1 character. So for example, with 3 players two of them will control a single ship station (and bring one character from that station) while the last player controls two stations, but picks only one character from among them to bring.
Hope that is clear!
@@OneStopCoopShop Ah that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for clarifying!
@@OneStopCoopShop Hmm, so with 3 players, we have to bring 4 characters, we couldn't have 3?
@@BbBb-zx6sx the "default" is for each player to bring 1 character (or in solo to bring 2), so with 3 players you'd usually have 3 characters, one per player.
However you can always CHOOSE to bring more. So for example in solo I brought 2 usually, but when I had to fight a big boss or something I brought 3 or 4. Hope that's clearer.
I just picked this up, im trying to decide whther to get the stretch goals expansion or not. Hmmm
I don’t think we missed having any of that. I wouldn’t put much energy into tracking it down.
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks for the response. I assumed that there would already be tonnes of content in the base game
I'm sorry Mike I can't watch this video because I'm so hyped for the game I don't want any spoilers 😆. I promise to watch after I get my copy!
Haha, no worries!
Did you keep playing this game, and if so, do you still recommend it or did you find that you got tired or frustrated with it?
I got about half way before the group I was playing with ran into a bit of a block. It was fun until that point, and I hope to finish it some day. I still own it, which is saying something 😅
It's an Awakened Realm game alright, I'm always tempted by them because they look good but the gameplay is never for me. Keeping an eye on tainted grail 2 just in case :p
I love the changes they made in that one from the original
Hey! Nice video as always! Would you say the game is good enough so I may as well add the "Deadly Frontier campaign" expansion as well as the "Personal Files Expansion"? They would be way, way cheaper than in retail later on (80$CAD VS 150$CAD for the Deadly Frontier looking at the Canadian shops having it listed for pre-order)
I’m enjoying the game, but I can’t speak to either of those expansions. I have the personnel files one but haven’t opened it yet
I late pledged for the Core Box + Personal Files expansion based on a few BGG posts from people who regretted not getting Personal Files (which I understand fleshes out the background story of the characters you play).
@@gregorys9629 I have the files expansion but haven't opened it yet. But yeah, it sounds cool!
Deadly Encounters I belive is just minis for the adversaries. Cool but, meh. Personal Files adds new mini tasks to help the characters.
Great video! btw maybe I am wrong but it seems you placed the section dice on the wrong section boards. Probably switched them up.
It’s entirely possible. That’s been my most frequent error playing solo… when players assist each other it’s easy to get things mixed up
@@OneStopCoopShop I completley understand as I am also playing this game solo at the moment.
I can confirm, to my understanding, the Science guy should have 1 red, 2 blue including 1 science die, 3 green including 1 biology and 1 wild and the engineer should have 2 reds including Gathering, 1 green and 3 blue including biology and wild dice :)
@@ronthal at this point I've leveled all my stations so the dice tracks are full (well, at least for rank 1 crew), so it doesn't matter all that much ;)
I have it in my cart. Can't decide yet. 5 in 5 coming?
Just posted :)
If you had to choose between this and the new Tainted Grail, which would it be (and why)? That is my scenario, I can basically back one of the two. Have not played the first TG fwiw...
Oof… that’s tough. I’m really enjoying my this one… and I really enjoyed new TG.
This one is more episodic (each planet is kind of its own adventure), while tainted grail is more of an open world, continuous exploration feel. Which of those sounds better to you?
@@OneStopCoopShop I slightly prefer the theme of Tainted Grail, especially as a fan of Elden Ring / Dark Souls. But the gameplay of ISS sounds more intriguing. Which do you think would be the easiest to table and make you feel like you need to play "just another round" before stopping? If you had to choose one, which would it be?
At the moment ISS is grabbing me hard. I keep playing one more game than I intend to each time I sit down. So… I guess that one? :)
@@OneStopCoopShop The "one more game" is a good indication that a game is good, haha! Yup, guess it is ISS then...
This game looks great, thanks for the playthrough. I skimmed the video to avoid spoilers - can I ask did you play with sundrop miniatures?
I believe yes, the ones they sent me look sundropped.
@@OneStopCoopShop Thanks - they look great!
Weren't you supposed to take 001, Homesick, for the Situation? The fluff even mentioned it.
Yeah, someone else pointed this out too. I made the wrong assumption to shuffle the small deck, though the rules definitely don't say to. 😅
@@OneStopCoopShop As long as no one died from it. Lol. We're about to play through this on Sunday. I'm trying to catch the spots for mistakes early. Lol.
Thanks for the playthrough. Are you going to record any more for this game?
@@BbBb-zx6sx most likely not, but I've been continuing to play. My "role" as it is on the channel is to cover and review lots of games, old and new, while Colin and Bairnt and Steve and others focus more on campaign-based play and returning to the same game multiple times in a row. At the moment, for example, I have more than 12 games waiting for me to film them and find a spot in our queue. So... yeah, tough to get my favorite campaign games filmed multiple times! Sorry!
pretty lucky rolls, but awesome playthrough, can't w8 my copy
At least for the action dice luck doesn't feel like it comes into play too much, since when you pick a die with the symbol you want you are going to get it 4/6 or 5/6 times (plus all the cards that give rerolls)
@@OneStopCoopShop sometime ago I rolled 6 1 in 2 3d6 rolls with success chances of 1 2+ in bloodbowl tournament soo I almost die inside everytime you decided to roll 1 die) anyway I agree seems like ar did good job to mitigate extreme randomness.
@@grimmy1903 haha, I've had my share of insane luck (good and bad) in Bloodbowl as well!
Mike, Did you keep this or cull it?
Still have it, and the wave 2 content just delivered. But we are in the middle of Agemonia, so not actually playing any time soon :(
@@OneStopCoopShop Did you get very far?
@@kevinerskine3299 about 55% in my solo campaign, and about 45% with my buddies. So yeah, pretty far in, but not to the end
I quit video games years ago, play board games again.. far less addicting.... BUT this game makes me think "this would be a far better video game" - seems like alot to manage
I’m really enjoying it, but yes, can be a lot to manage
I just noticed you have all your section dice all wrong, For example at this stage the Science should have had 1 Red, 3 green and 2 blue, yours are differant, both of them are with the wrong Dice according to the rulebook.
Yeah, looks like I maybe swapped engineering and science? It’s almost 2 years ago, so I don’t remember
@@OneStopCoopShop Hehe no worries, i find the dice confusing anyways, they should all be color coded for each section and the starting dice they have should be printed on back of the character board, sadly non of that exists lol
Nice walkthrought. Altho this game didnt excited me at all. Tbh, it looks extremly boring to me. I like challenge games like DarkSouls and BloodBorne. Guess this is not way i want to go :/
Sounds like you probably wouldn’t enjoy it then!
Great production. But the game doesn't seem for me. I have no idea what the gameplay is about. Seems fiddly as the other commenters said.
The primary focus is the planet exploration, which is kind of a discovery and exploration puzzle mixed with narrative.
Then you have the ship phase which is more focused on upgrading and tech trees and crew management.
Not sure if that helps at all 😅
@@OneStopCoopShop thanks Mike! I just feel like those really get lost among all the mechanisms this game has. My sense is it what a story book game. But plenty of hoops and extra layers/mechanisms around it.
Looks very fiddly.
It hasn’t felt that way to me yet, but the ship portion is certainly very procedural and step by step. The planet turns flow pretty smoothly
Looks overproduced and fiddly. Classic Kickstarter.
I think that for better or worse that is Awaken Realm’s style :)