COMPONENTS - Really excellent. The minis are chunky and fun, the storage solution in the box is generally great, and there is great quality here all around. 0:00 - Introduction 0:33 - Lost Actions and Turns 1:25 - Terrain Interaction 2:20 - Boss Activation 3:24 - Tactical Combat 4:12 - Items and Builds 5:00 - Final Thoughts
@@OneStopCoopShop - this actually makes me happy because that would have been the sole reason for me to back it.... I wanted to too late. Reading this makes me think I lucked out then.
Been watching Doug Mystic Eye's playthrough and Townsfolk Tussle looks like a lot of fun. It's like a very silly, streamlined, cartoon Kingdom Death Monster. Maybe the one thing I would have changed is that in cartoons characters get knocked down but the get back up again. But if that was part of the game, you'd win every time. I just thought the random stuff was part of the crazy world of Townsfolk Tussle. Think one may need to just go with it as part of a narrative experience, if that makes sense. Great review as always, Mike, you are never random for sure! lol (btw I do appreciate that not everyone would like a sense of control being taken away from them in a game and TT is not for everyone)
I think that's well put (the narrative side of things). This one can be a bit like the recent Final Girl, in that even when I lose it's often wacky enough that it's good for a story and a laugh :)
I've played a few games and love it. Have yet to clear a final boss, though! Which is great, I'm hoping for about a 1/3 win rate. Not as tough as Ghost Stories or Robinson Crusoe but more difficult than, say, the Forbidden games. I have not played KD:M, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy super crunch anyway. I do feel on the surface there may not be much tactical depth, but you're right, it very situational. Sometimes point-and-clicky, other times quite nuanced. Sorta depends on the character, gear, placement, etc.
I'm glad it's a slightly better design then the kickstarter. my biggest points were the slight competitiveness and back stabbing mechanics, the turn loss, and the amount of warping and lack of tactics at points made it a mix for me during the campaign.
So slight competitiveness and back-stabbing are still there. We just redraw those events. Turn loss is much reduced, but still present. And yeah, warping can be frustrating for sure!
I bought this during the KS. It looks great, but I found a few things detracted from the initial experience: 1) Your character can be very weak at the beginning. As you said, it was a lot of move (and chase) and punch, often missing, and only doing 1 DMG when hit. Maybe it ramps up later, but initially--meh. I would have preferred deterministic damage rather than the die roll unless I had a lot more options to mitigate the wasted turns. Move, punch, and miss--oh well, guess that's my turn. It feels kind of archaic given the amazing tactical combat of other games in the space. 2) I wish the terrain was easier to use. It looks...okay...on the board. 3D miniatures for terrain would have been amazing, but that clearly wouldn't have been practical. But the toughest thing is figuring out what terrain does without interrupting the flow of play. There's one set of cards at the bottom of the board with tiny writing that can only easily been seen by people sitting next to them. If they were going to go with cardboard tokens, I would have liked a little blurb on the terrain pieces themselves that summarized what they did. Some players ignored them because it was too much trouble to figure out what they did from the opposite side of the board. Throw in a reasonable chance that the interaction may be wasted (and rarely penalizing) AND that often the boss is in a different direction than the terrain, and the terrain ended up being underwhelming. 3) The graphic nature of the game. As you mentioned, there are some elements that are fairly violent, such as the reward for a boss fight being using their skinned face or their arm or some other body part as gear in future fights is a bit off putting. A lot of these have illustrations with blood dripping off them. It was a little bit of a cognitive dissonance with the cartoony art style. I'm aware that this was the brand of humor in the cartoons these were based on, but this seems like a missed opportunity to use the art style but still have it be less jarring than "Look, you get to use this ruffian's eyeballs for funny things for the rest of the game!" The boring nature of move-punch-die roll just didn't capture me in my first few plays. I'll give it a few more plays, and I'm sure I can sell it for what I paid for it if I have to. But I love the idea of boss battlers--I'm hoping Primal is more my style.
Oh, primal is much better for my tastes too. Far more tactical. But I know many will love this one for its quick and fun play. Thanks for the detailed thoughts!
Re the gore, it’s kind of curious how closely this genre is sticking to KDM, even when it doesn’t look like it’s going to stick this close to KDM. I don’t know if the designers are so infatuated with KDM themselves, or just afraid to lose the market if they venture too far.
@@svachalek well, besides KDM there is also a fairly recent trend of old-timey cartoons mixed with ultra violence. Cuphead was the first game I was aware of to use it, but there have been others. My other most excited boss battlers are Oathsworn, Aeon Trespass, and Primal. Oathsworn and ATO are also both fairly deep in the grimdark horror aspect of things, like KDM. But Primal is more based on Monster Hunter, which is... relatively happy and non gore-tastic? So yay for that one!
For my personal tastes I prefer Primal (at least what I’ve played of it) for the greater strategy of the boss activations and combo card play. KDM has more going on with bosses and especially the settlement than Townsfolk Tussle, but it’s $400 and you have to put together all the minis 😅 Aeon Trespass is another one I haven’t played a ton of, but the fights are very similar to KDM and it has a fun 7th continent-ish exploration system, but again it’s a huge game. Townsfolk Tussle does a great job filling a quicker, simpler niche. Now they just need to make more copies so it’s easier to find!
i believe KS only, you can buy online if you look around but its a $100 game that is like $300+ online. but i heard at SOME point 2022 they will have a reprint run. so if you can wait.. you would pay half of what the cost of it is on like ebay lol
This is definitely KDM light. As in super light. It's quick to get to the table with a very easy to learn ruleset. It also depends on the game group how much you will enjoy it. If you lean into the cartoony shenanigans it can be a lot of fun and very thematic. If you are looking for pure strategy and tactics it wouldn't be the first game I would suggest.
Yeah, I thought about teaching my 9 year-old for a second, but every other card has a limb cut off or something similar, so I changed my mind ;) Hope you gets yours soon!
COMPONENTS - Really excellent. The minis are chunky and fun, the storage solution in the box is generally great, and there is great quality here all around.
0:00 - Introduction
0:33 - Lost Actions and Turns
1:25 - Terrain Interaction
2:20 - Boss Activation
3:24 - Tactical Combat
4:12 - Items and Builds
5:00 - Final Thoughts
Couldn’t wait to hear you thoughts!! Artwork is truly incredible, thanks Mike!
Yes, too dark for my kids, but really well done!
@@OneStopCoopShop - this actually makes me happy because that would have been the sole reason for me to back it.... I wanted to too late. Reading this makes me think I lucked out then.
Been watching Doug Mystic Eye's playthrough and Townsfolk Tussle looks like a lot of fun.
It's like a very silly, streamlined, cartoon Kingdom Death Monster.
Maybe the one thing I would have changed is that in cartoons characters get knocked down but the get back up again.
But if that was part of the game, you'd win every time.
I just thought the random stuff was part of the crazy world of Townsfolk Tussle.
Think one may need to just go with it as part of a narrative experience, if that makes sense.
Great review as always, Mike, you are never random for sure! lol
(btw I do appreciate that not everyone would like a sense of control being taken away from them in a game and TT is not for everyone)
I think that's well put (the narrative side of things). This one can be a bit like the recent Final Girl, in that even when I lose it's often wacky enough that it's good for a story and a laugh :)
Thanks for the review, Mike!
Thanks for watching. Colin should have a playthrough as well soon, but he is painting all the minis first!
I've played a few games and love it. Have yet to clear a final boss, though! Which is great, I'm hoping for about a 1/3 win rate. Not as tough as Ghost Stories or Robinson Crusoe but more difficult than, say, the Forbidden games.
I have not played KD:M, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy super crunch anyway. I do feel on the surface there may not be much tactical depth, but you're right, it very situational. Sometimes point-and-clicky, other times quite nuanced. Sorta depends on the character, gear, placement, etc.
Good point, and yes, tough to win the whole thing!
I'm glad it's a slightly better design then the kickstarter. my biggest points were the slight competitiveness and back stabbing mechanics, the turn loss, and the amount of warping and lack of tactics at points made it a mix for me during the campaign.
So slight competitiveness and back-stabbing are still there. We just redraw those events. Turn loss is much reduced, but still present. And yeah, warping can be frustrating for sure!
Super Video. Very enriching.
But, you should reconsider the background of your videos which is a bit caotic. 😅
I bought this during the KS. It looks great, but I found a few things detracted from the initial experience:
1) Your character can be very weak at the beginning. As you said, it was a lot of move (and chase) and punch, often missing, and only doing 1 DMG when hit. Maybe it ramps up later, but initially--meh. I would have preferred deterministic damage rather than the die roll unless I had a lot more options to mitigate the wasted turns. Move, punch, and miss--oh well, guess that's my turn. It feels kind of archaic given the amazing tactical combat of other games in the space.
2) I wish the terrain was easier to use. It looks...okay...on the board. 3D miniatures for terrain would have been amazing, but that clearly wouldn't have been practical. But the toughest thing is figuring out what terrain does without interrupting the flow of play. There's one set of cards at the bottom of the board with tiny writing that can only easily been seen by people sitting next to them. If they were going to go with cardboard tokens, I would have liked a little blurb on the terrain pieces themselves that summarized what they did. Some players ignored them because it was too much trouble to figure out what they did from the opposite side of the board. Throw in a reasonable chance that the interaction may be wasted (and rarely penalizing) AND that often the boss is in a different direction than the terrain, and the terrain ended up being underwhelming.
3) The graphic nature of the game. As you mentioned, there are some elements that are fairly violent, such as the reward for a boss fight being using their skinned face or their arm or some other body part as gear in future fights is a bit off putting. A lot of these have illustrations with blood dripping off them. It was a little bit of a cognitive dissonance with the cartoony art style. I'm aware that this was the brand of humor in the cartoons these were based on, but this seems like a missed opportunity to use the art style but still have it be less jarring than "Look, you get to use this ruffian's eyeballs for funny things for the rest of the game!"
The boring nature of move-punch-die roll just didn't capture me in my first few plays. I'll give it a few more plays, and I'm sure I can sell it for what I paid for it if I have to. But I love the idea of boss battlers--I'm hoping Primal is more my style.
Oh, primal is much better for my tastes too. Far more tactical. But I know many will love this one for its quick and fun play.
Thanks for the detailed thoughts!
Re the gore, it’s kind of curious how closely this genre is sticking to KDM, even when it doesn’t look like it’s going to stick this close to KDM. I don’t know if the designers are so infatuated with KDM themselves, or just afraid to lose the market if they venture too far.
@@svachalek well, besides KDM there is also a fairly recent trend of old-timey cartoons mixed with ultra violence. Cuphead was the first game I was aware of to use it, but there have been others.
My other most excited boss battlers are Oathsworn, Aeon Trespass, and Primal. Oathsworn and ATO are also both fairly deep in the grimdark horror aspect of things, like KDM. But Primal is more based on Monster Hunter, which is... relatively happy and non gore-tastic? So yay for that one!
@@OneStopCoopShop ha, I’ll have to check it out!
Mike got moved to the infamous downstairs storage room for this review video. 🙂
Lol, yeah, my usual filming room is in flux. Hopefully the random boxes in the corner aren’t too distracting
How would you rate this compared to other boss battlers ie primal etc?
For my personal tastes I prefer Primal (at least what I’ve played of it) for the greater strategy of the boss activations and combo card play.
KDM has more going on with bosses and especially the settlement than Townsfolk Tussle, but it’s $400 and you have to put together all the minis 😅
Aeon Trespass is another one I haven’t played a ton of, but the fights are very similar to KDM and it has a fun 7th continent-ish exploration system, but again it’s a huge game.
Townsfolk Tussle does a great job filling a quicker, simpler niche. Now they just need to make more copies so it’s easier to find!
Going retail or KS only?
i believe KS only, you can buy online if you look around but its a $100 game that is like $300+ online. but i heard at SOME point 2022 they will have a reprint run. so if you can wait.. you would pay half of what the cost of it is on like ebay lol
This is definitely KDM light. As in super light. It's quick to get to the table with a very easy to learn ruleset. It also depends on the game group how much you will enjoy it. If you lean into the cartoony shenanigans it can be a lot of fun and very thematic. If you are looking for pure strategy and tactics it wouldn't be the first game I would suggest.
Well stated, and fully agree!
Waiting my copy... again..
İ see there is some text on the card for sure is not a kid game
Yeah, I thought about teaching my 9 year-old for a second, but every other card has a limb cut off or something similar, so I changed my mind ;)
Hope you gets yours soon!
Is this Cuphead the card game?
Haha, actually, there IS one of those:
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/344338/cuphead-fast-rolling-dice-game
6. You can't buy this game. And if your from 3rd world.. forget it.
They are supposed to do another campaign sometime this year I think, but yes, a bummer that it’s so hard to find at a reasonable price