@@SoloPlaythroughs haha well there is an argument I could make to counter that considering you are playing gods in your spirit island playthroughs, but divinity aside I just really appreciate the high complexity solo playthroughs you bring to the community.. keep up the good work, love all of your stuff, and you've helped me develop as a solo gamer especially when it comes to the two games mentioned, mage knight and spirit island.. cheers
Maybe I have spent so much time researching the game, but I think that the core gameplay loop of Dwellings is pretty simple: Either: A) Place a unit or B) Regroup the units you had previously placed. Yeah, it is more complicated than that, because there are different types of units - and there is the whole engine building (using a card tableau), but when teaching the game, I am trying to emphasize that these two options are the crux of the game - and not to worry about other things until they come up. In addition, the game comes with a player aid - so I am trying to remind people to look at their player aid, as it lays out the turn structure pretty well.
Spot on with Gloomhaven, i have had mine for a couple years, tried it a few times and its not a crawler, its a card puzzle game with a weak narrative. Great video guys.👍
Good video! Speaking about LCGs, I started with MC and absolutely loved it, then got into Arkham and LOTR with the revised cores and was not too sold on them. I was even going to get rid of LOTR. But as I expanded my collection, my opinion of them all changed: - MC I now think is still good but bloated, as you said with way too much content too quickly for little payoff. I have too many villains that I never play and more heroes is still something I want but they are starting to feel samey imo. And with the 4 aspects it is not enough to be creative. Now with Xmen we are even getting repeated effects with 'XMEN' trait. - AH I'm enjoying more for it's narrative, feeling the experience and going for a ride, it is now my second favorite. - LOTR is now my favorite of the 3! With the starter decks and Angmar player cards the deck building really has opened up and it is so satisfying. I agree with them to not repackage everything as I do not need 100 quests like I do not need 100 villains in MC.
Thank you for the great video. Paladins: It's one of my favourite games. If you're mostly spamming two right side actions, then you're nowhere near unlocking the games potential. Once you learn to play well, you focus on 4 or even 5 of the right side actions, and can end with all attributes close to maxed (or sometimes all maxed). If you don't enjoy the game enough to get to that point, that's completely understandable. However, I don't think it's fair to complain a game is repetitive when what's actually happening is that you've gotten stuck in a rut of playing the same way every time. Dune Imperium: I enjoy the game, but agree with your criticism. It definitely doesn't scratch that deck-building itch, but I like it for what it is. Dwellings of Eldervale: I never had a chance to cool on it because I never loved it in the first place. After two plays I'd had enough. It has some interesting things going on, and I get what others see in it, but it has too much randomness for my tastes. Gloomhaven: We finished most of a campaign and enjoyed it, but man it is so much work to play. I think my tastes have changed and I can't see that kind of game ever hitting the table again.
Ah my heart broke when Greg mentionned his nr. 2. and yet... I downloaded the app and got so frustrated with its issues I've actually cooled down as well for it because of it! :'(( But hand's off Wingspan, Greg! It's great! :DD
You see, I would only buy a LCG/CCG if all of the cards are available. Therefore, the only one I have is Blue Moon Legends, which includes all of the Blue Moon cards. I would like to play it someday - I hope to teach it and play it with my niece, when she gets older. She was asking me about how many games I have with dragons, and that is surely one… Games With Dragons (Which I Own or Want to Own) - No particular order - Just whatever order I think of them in: 1) Blue Moon Legends 2) Blue Moon City 3) Dwellings of Eldervale 4) Flamecraft [Late backed the Kickstarter] 5) Seven Dragons [I want to own. It is a good card game which I played once). these are the ines which I can think of off-hand.
I've just sold Dwellings for the reasons mentioned here. I didn't know how to explain why I didn't like it until watching this. The size of the box helped make up my mind too...as did the tidy profit!
50:11 Some factions have an ability which incentivizes you to go into battle. For example, the faction which I was playing with gave me victory points when my units went into the underworld - therefore, it gave me a reason to trigger battles - and even if I lose it, I would still be benefitting. Therefore, the game guides you toward a strategy - and twice already, both of those battles which I intentionally went after were against THE MONSTERS, and NOT another human player. As a final argument, I have to say that every monster has its own Monster Card, which has its own special ability, which can very much affect something in the game - and it might not even have anything to do with fighting the monster, but the effect stays in play as a condition of the game, until the monster is killed. For example, the ability of the Golden Gryphon (Light) (4D6) is: “AS long as the Golden Gryphon is in Eldervale you pay one less resource for the first Adventure card you acquire each turn. (This ability is active even when dominated.) (When dominated it has flight like a dragon.)” Therefore, there is more to the monsters than ‘they don’t do anything’.
Hi! Love your channel! Some small constructive criticism, you seem to talk a lot more than your guest. Even on their game you talk over them a bit. Anyway keep up the informative lists! Love them ❤️
100% agree about Turzci and especially Perseverance. Just because you can make a solo mode, doesn't mean you should. I would have rather they just said it is multiplayer only than have to control two bot factions with a game that is already a fiddly table hog. I do like the solo for Anachrony, but his solo modes are becoming more and more complicated and I hate the way they often completely change the game. Take Yedo for example. I hate to say it, but when I see he has designed the solo mode I now kind of groan instead of being excited.
Good topic overall. I agreed with Dune Imperium for sure and later on liked Lost Ruins of Arnak more. I was cool on the T games at first and actually warmed up to those more later. Robinson Crusoe is still fantastic to me. So so hard!
Great video! Totally agree with Gloomhaven. My unpopular opinion is that Gloomhaven should have been smaller stand alone boxes like Jaws of the Lions that then you can mix and match. I agree in that having too much for Smash Up can go against you. They did went crazy with the factions I get it is part of the fun but OMG they went overboard. That said, regarding the base points. I used to play with printer materials from BGG as well until someone pointed out to me "Why don't you use 2 dice on each base?"... so freaking simple and way cleaner IMHO XD My game would be Root. I love the game, it is a great concept... but I rather play the app at this point to be honest. I think it plays better when people know what they are doing and know their classes because I do not want to teach it :(
49:46 Yeah, you will be able to get the game (2nd Edition) off the publisher’s website - once it comes back in stock. (FYI, The 2nd Edition split some of the components up differently than the 1st Edition).
I've had This War of Mine on the table for almost a week now. It's hitting hard. I can definitely see the game running its course eventually, but that will take me quite a while. I've never been able to get the deck building element of Dune to work. Every game we've played the cards have been near irrelevant.
1:29:44 You see, that’s probably my issue with Terraforming Mars, as well. You play it with drafting and it takes too long… I played it once - and I am “meh” on it.
What a phantastic list of top-10! Luke as space-fan but never a fan of Dune, I always had FOMO on the Dune Imperium. I have REX though, which is the complete other DUNE-game equivalent. So I think I will never buy my own Dune Imperium. Thanks for this video.
I love Arkham horror but I agree last couple of campaigns haven’t hit the heights of the dunwich legacy or forgotten age. Gloomhaven for me I fully agree on. When I got jaws of the lion I loved it I thought it was a great mix of tactical combat with some RPG style progression. However after playing and going through the lengthy set up and fiddly cards, doing the same kind of objective over and over it just fell flat. I realised that it was just a chore to play and even upgrading my character didn’t feel exciting anymore. I finished the story campaign a couple of years ago and haven’t play it since
1:37:48 That sounds like the first part of Small World (without the board, movement, area control). Just to let you know - Small World is a game which I did not enjoy - because it didn’t feel like much of a game: Go around the board, split yourself and try to occupy as many areas as you can - but you end up spreading yourself too thin and end up getting nothing as a result… But the combination part of the game is interesting. I did play Smash Up once, but I just didn’t get it - combining the cards… so it is basically a deck construction (as opposed to deckbuilding) game then??
A lot of good viewpoints. Where do I start? I found that Aeon's End fixed all the issues that I had with Sentinels of the Multiverse gameplay. I just wish it had the Sentinels theme and art. Love the universe that they made. Warchest ended up in 2p pit of doom that I have. It is especially difficult for me to play tactical (slightly dry) 2p games to the table. Almost impossible. Campaign games - lol - These are so cool but it is so hard to get motivated to commit to a campaign game.
For This War of Mine, I very much empathise with the setup time frustrations, and the uncomfortable setting. On the latter I felt it was a very important decision to base it in a fictional city (pogoren) and with fictional protagonists, despite it being very much based on civilian accounts of Sarajevo. WRT the video game, for me it's less of an experience with the narrative cut out, but also something you can master, which I can see how some like it, but for me the brutal luck of the board game is much more fitting. Uncomfortable is a feeling that TWOM delivers, but I'm absolutely ok with that for a very special experience.
I would have to guess that if I could come up with a top 10 games that I've cooled on, there's a pretty good chance Smash Up would be my number 1, but I think that may have more to do with my play group than the game itself. Part of my group refused to play without a randomizer and part of my group refused to play with a randomizer. It looks like the last expansion I bought for it was from 2017 and I think I have every expansion up to that point, including Munchkin, which gives me 51 factions. Thankfully, Smash Up was the only game that the collector in me latched on to and wanted everything. Will it ever leave my collection? Probably not. What would I do with that big ass box? I'm not paying to ship it anywhere.
Oh no, I don’t think Greg is going to be invited again with these picks! That’s actually some good advice from both regarding the need to have everything. Luke, I disagree with you re Teo; rules are pretty simple, move clockwise 1 to 3 spaces and do the action, and the action are well-depicted on the space. The obelisk one is another story, I haven’t played, but looked too mechanical and over complicated. I actually enjoy the experience of Sherlock Holmes.
The general concept of a turn is easy, but it's not just "do the action", there's a ton of actions on the board and plenty more to consider with expansions. That and the setup takes an eternity.
I don't get the complaints about Legendary's set-up. I have every (Marvel comics) expansion and it takes only takes about five minutes plus shuffling time to set up. Putting away takes longer but even that's only by a few minutes.
To do a proper shuffle, not just a few quick passings between hands is time consuming to do for two big decks one of needs specific construction needs.
@@TheBrokenMeeple Shuffling doesn't take twenty minutes per deck. Whether you're doing overhand, riffling, pile - whatever - its only a few minutes at a stretch. Each round of shuffling, other than pile, is about one or two seconds. I I shuffle about ten riffles for each deck, followed by a pile shuffle for the villain deck.Considering that it's mathematically determined around five to eight riffles is adequate, I'm overkilling it. It takes about a minute to a minute and a half for each deck. My numbers are even with suboptimal organization. My storage is spread out among the Villains box (Villain decks) and five large expansion boxes (3 just heroes, 1 half heroes/ half universal cards, and one for masterminds, schemes, and henchmen). The hero decks are separated only by starting letter, but not alphabetized further. Dividers are only present between letters (as in, all "S" heroes are not separated from each other). Even with all this, I don't think I've ever gone over ten minutes for set up once I got used to the rules.
A number of points regarding Dune criticisms: There is an upgrade pack if you want to improve the look. Deckbuilding is much more a thing with the expansion. Only buying the Spice must flow cards is really (really) not a good strategy - only on the final two turns. Educate yourself gents ;)
So you're saying the game is "fixed" with an expansion AND an upgrade pack....... Game doesn't get bonus points for forcing people to spend over £100 to fix the game 🤣
@@TheBrokenMeeple Nobody's forcing anything. Don't be dramatic :) Most of the players I know are fine with the cubes, but if bling is so important for you, you have the option for bling whilst keeping the base game price point relatively low. And improving the game does not mean it needed fixing. The expansion is pushing it from a very good game, towards one of the best games ever at 4 players.
50:48 May I recommend Black Rose Wars? Actually, the new one is Black Rose Wars: Rebirth - was on Kickstarter - and is supposed to improve on the original Black Rose Wars… Needless to say, however, Dwellings is a different type of game. It is what I call a “thematic Euro”.
Hi. My biggest disagreements are: Robinson Crusoe (I feel the game is exactly what a survival game is supposed to be). Terraforming Mars (with only Prelude, the game flows petty smooth) Teotihuacán and Tzolkin (masterpieces imo) My agreements: Gloomhaven (totally replaced by JotL) Arkham Horror LCG (I sold it with the first cycle because of the Chaos Bag constantly punishing me with high negative modifiers *90% of the time*. Horrible experience!)
43:44 There was just something which didn’t click with me about Scythe. I enjoyed the first part - the engine building, in which you have to do the top action before you can do the bottom action, in order to get your units out onto the board/map - but the entire second half of the game, as in what to do after getting your units out on the board/map fell flat for me. I know you are trying to accumulate stars, but it just doesn’t seem connected enough (for me).
Awesome video but I heartily disagree with Gloomhaven… or at least I disagree on the basis that Jaws of the Lion is a better game. Jaws loses so much for me in terms of the scope and possibilities in the original big box. Granted the original Gloomhaven NEEDS an insert to make it playable which sucks, but if you have this then the choice between the two is super easy for me; big box all the way!
@@TheBrokenMeeple yeah but what a puzzle!! Haha honestly I can’t argue with any of that. I’d estimate the cost and scope is worth it for only around 10% of people who have the time and inclination to see it all… so for MOST people Jaws of the Lion is probably the better purchase, just not for me :)
@@TheBrokenMeeple Yeah - I’m with you. But audio’s funny like that. I could see the current state of this mic’s output being a bit grating to some people! Def going to mess with some settings for the future.
Greg is a solo god! Love his mage knight and Spirit Island vids, really fun to watch
Ha! I make no claims to divinity but I appreciate the support. 🙂
@@SoloPlaythroughs haha well there is an argument I could make to counter that considering you are playing gods in your spirit island playthroughs, but divinity aside I just really appreciate the high complexity solo playthroughs you bring to the community.. keep up the good work, love all of your stuff, and you've helped me develop as a solo gamer especially when it comes to the two games mentioned, mage knight and spirit island.. cheers
@@slimk3836 I am not divinity, I just play a few divine spirits on RUclips! 🤣 Thanks for the kind words, Slim!
Great run down on games. I love how you're spotlighting smaller channels too.
Thanks!
Maybe I have spent so much time researching the game, but I think that the core gameplay loop of Dwellings is pretty simple: Either: A) Place a unit or B) Regroup the units you had previously placed. Yeah, it is more complicated than that, because there are different types of units - and there is the whole engine building (using a card tableau), but when teaching the game, I am trying to emphasize that these two options are the crux of the game - and not to worry about other things until they come up. In addition, the game comes with a player aid - so I am trying to remind people to look at their player aid, as it lays out the turn structure pretty well.
Spot on with Gloomhaven, i have had mine for a couple years, tried it a few times and its not a crawler, its a card puzzle game with a weak narrative.
Great video guys.👍
Thanks!
Good video! Speaking about LCGs, I started with MC and absolutely loved it, then got into Arkham and LOTR with the revised cores and was not too sold on them. I was even going to get rid of LOTR.
But as I expanded my collection, my opinion of them all changed:
- MC I now think is still good but bloated, as you said with way too much content too quickly for little payoff. I have too many villains that I never play and more heroes is still something I want but they are starting to feel samey imo. And with the 4 aspects it is not enough to be creative. Now with Xmen we are even getting repeated effects with 'XMEN' trait.
- AH I'm enjoying more for it's narrative, feeling the experience and going for a ride, it is now my second favorite.
- LOTR is now my favorite of the 3! With the starter decks and Angmar player cards the deck building really has opened up and it is so satisfying. I agree with them to not repackage everything as I do not need 100 quests like I do not need 100 villains in MC.
So you're new to LOTR, that's probably a good time while it's packaged like this. I had to hunt down cycle packs. 😁
@@TheBrokenMeeple I would not have jumped in AH or LOTR without the repackaging. Smart move from FFG.
Thank you for the great video.
Paladins: It's one of my favourite games. If you're mostly spamming two right side actions, then you're nowhere near unlocking the games potential. Once you learn to play well, you focus on 4 or even 5 of the right side actions, and can end with all attributes close to maxed (or sometimes all maxed). If you don't enjoy the game enough to get to that point, that's completely understandable. However, I don't think it's fair to complain a game is repetitive when what's actually happening is that you've gotten stuck in a rut of playing the same way every time.
Dune Imperium: I enjoy the game, but agree with your criticism. It definitely doesn't scratch that deck-building itch, but I like it for what it is.
Dwellings of Eldervale: I never had a chance to cool on it because I never loved it in the first place. After two plays I'd had enough. It has some interesting things going on, and I get what others see in it, but it has too much randomness for my tastes.
Gloomhaven: We finished most of a campaign and enjoyed it, but man it is so much work to play. I think my tastes have changed and I can't see that kind of game ever hitting the table again.
Colosseum (the Days of Wonders edition of course) is one of my all time favorites.
Ah my heart broke when Greg mentionned his nr. 2. and yet... I downloaded the app and got so frustrated with its issues I've actually cooled down as well for it because of it! :'(( But hand's off Wingspan, Greg! It's great! :DD
Okay okay! I like Wingspan enough. Just don’t love it. 😉
If you don't love something you hate it, don't you know the internet? :P
You see, I would only buy a LCG/CCG if all of the cards are available. Therefore, the only one I have is Blue Moon Legends, which includes all of the Blue Moon cards. I would like to play it someday - I hope to teach it and play it with my niece, when she gets older. She was asking me about how many games I have with dragons, and that is surely one…
Games With Dragons (Which I Own or Want to Own) - No particular order - Just whatever order I think of them in:
1) Blue Moon Legends
2) Blue Moon City
3) Dwellings of Eldervale
4) Flamecraft [Late backed the Kickstarter]
5) Seven Dragons [I want to own. It is a good card game which I played once).
these are the ines which I can think of off-hand.
Gloomhaven is like spending your entire day off scrubbing floors... Makes Dead of Winter look like a house party.
I've just sold Dwellings for the reasons mentioned here. I didn't know how to explain why I didn't like it until watching this. The size of the box helped make up my mind too...as did the tidy profit!
Certainly freed up my shelf space a bit!
Great Duo. Thanks!
50:11 Some factions have an ability which incentivizes you to go into battle. For example, the faction which I was playing with gave me victory points when my units went into the underworld - therefore, it gave me a reason to trigger battles - and even if I lose it, I would still be benefitting. Therefore, the game guides you toward a strategy - and twice already, both of those battles which I intentionally went after were against THE MONSTERS, and NOT another human player.
As a final argument, I have to say that every monster has its own Monster Card, which has its own special ability, which can very much affect something in the game - and it might not even have anything to do with fighting the monster, but the effect stays in play as a condition of the game, until the monster is killed. For example, the ability of the Golden Gryphon (Light) (4D6) is: “AS long as the Golden Gryphon is in Eldervale you pay one less resource for the first Adventure card you acquire each turn. (This ability is active even when dominated.) (When dominated it has flight like a dragon.)” Therefore, there is more to the monsters than ‘they don’t do anything’.
Hi! Love your channel! Some small constructive criticism, you seem to talk a lot more than your guest. Even on their game you talk over them a bit.
Anyway keep up the informative lists! Love them ❤️
Glad to hear! Guests on the show have free reign to back-chat or talk over me as well as we like to keep it as an informal table chat per say.
100% agree about Turzci and especially Perseverance. Just because you can make a solo mode, doesn't mean you should. I would have rather they just said it is multiplayer only than have to control two bot factions with a game that is already a fiddly table hog. I do like the solo for Anachrony, but his solo modes are becoming more and more complicated and I hate the way they often completely change the game. Take Yedo for example. I hate to say it, but when I see he has designed the solo mode I now kind of groan instead of being excited.
They are too much effort for me and frequently tried and then passed by in favour of something quicker.
Good topic overall. I agreed with Dune Imperium for sure and later on liked Lost Ruins of Arnak more. I was cool on the T games at first and actually warmed up to those more later. Robinson Crusoe is still fantastic to me. So so hard!
Greg needs to play Mage Knight with Luke. So much love for it has to rub off in some way!
Ha ha, doesn't work like that! :P
50:32 That’s fair… Now knowing that, there are 3rd party solutions out there to prevent that.
Greg is great! Excellent his Gaia Project videos!
Glad you like them!
Board & Dice have been in freefall since Tekhenu.
Wow, coming from you with the games you like that speaks volumes.
Super unique topic! Well chosen by your guest.
Glad I passed on the large majority of these titles of super hyped games. I still love Gloomhaven and I'm excited for Frosthaven.
Late to this awesome video, thought Greg was great!
Yeah we had a good time!
I enjoyed trying to win Paladins with the co-op expansion. Viscounts is my favorite of the trilogy.
It's so close between that and Architects.
@@TheBrokenMeeple time for all your workers to go to jail! Criminal workers lol!
Great video!
Totally agree with Gloomhaven. My unpopular opinion is that Gloomhaven should have been smaller stand alone boxes like Jaws of the Lions that then you can mix and match.
I agree in that having too much for Smash Up can go against you. They did went crazy with the factions I get it is part of the fun but OMG they went overboard.
That said, regarding the base points. I used to play with printer materials from BGG as well until someone pointed out to me "Why don't you use 2 dice on each base?"... so freaking simple and way cleaner IMHO XD
My game would be Root. I love the game, it is a great concept... but I rather play the app at this point to be honest. I think it plays better when people know what they are doing and know their classes because I do not want to teach it :(
I think "bloat" is a potential self killer of a game.
@@TheBrokenMeeple ironically true 😅👍
49:46 Yeah, you will be able to get the game (2nd Edition) off the publisher’s website - once it comes back in stock. (FYI, The 2nd Edition split some of the components up differently than the 1st Edition).
I've had This War of Mine on the table for almost a week now. It's hitting hard. I can definitely see the game running its course eventually, but that will take me quite a while. I've never been able to get the deck building element of Dune to work. Every game we've played the cards have been near irrelevant.
1:29:44 You see, that’s probably my issue with Terraforming Mars, as well. You play it with drafting and it takes too long… I played it once - and I am “meh” on it.
A lot of Gregs games here are on my top 10 list. Aeons End is #1 for me. I am curious what are his top 10?
Ask him nicely, maybe he'll do a video! :D
@@TheBrokenMeeple What is his youtube chanel?
Thank you
@@Mussar523 Solo Playthroughs as per the title, he literally talks about his channel and what he does in the first couple min. 👍
Excellent collaboration 🤙
Thank you 🙌
What a phantastic list of top-10! Luke as space-fan but never a fan of Dune, I always had FOMO on the Dune Imperium. I have REX though, which is the complete other DUNE-game equivalent. So I think I will never buy my own Dune Imperium. Thanks for this video.
Thanks for sharing!
I love Arkham horror but I agree last couple of campaigns haven’t hit the heights of the dunwich legacy or forgotten age.
Gloomhaven for me I fully agree on. When I got jaws of the lion I loved it I thought it was a great mix of tactical combat with some RPG style progression. However after playing and going through the lengthy set up and fiddly cards, doing the same kind of objective over and over it just fell flat. I realised that it was just a chore to play and even upgrading my character didn’t feel exciting anymore. I finished the story campaign a couple of years ago and haven’t play it since
Yeah just because it's "easier" than the big GLoomhaven doesn't make it pick up and play levels of ease.
1:37:48 That sounds like the first part of Small World (without the board, movement, area control). Just to let you know - Small World is a game which I did not enjoy - because it didn’t feel like much of a game: Go around the board, split yourself and try to occupy as many areas as you can - but you end up spreading yourself too thin and end up getting nothing as a result… But the combination part of the game is interesting.
I did play Smash Up once, but I just didn’t get it - combining the cards… so it is basically a deck construction (as opposed to deckbuilding) game then??
Fun video guys. Could you link Gregs channel please Luke, I couldn't quite catch it at the end. Thank you.
Hey Christopher! www.RUclips.com/c/SoloPlaythroughs
ruclips.net/user/soloplaythroughs
A lot of good viewpoints. Where do I start?
I found that Aeon's End fixed all the issues that I had with Sentinels of the Multiverse gameplay. I just wish it had the Sentinels theme and art. Love the universe that they made.
Warchest ended up in 2p pit of doom that I have. It is especially difficult for me to play tactical (slightly dry) 2p games to the table. Almost impossible.
Campaign games - lol - These are so cool but it is so hard to get motivated to commit to a campaign game.
For This War of Mine, I very much empathise with the setup time frustrations, and the uncomfortable setting. On the latter I felt it was a very important decision to base it in a fictional city (pogoren) and with fictional protagonists, despite it being very much based on civilian accounts of Sarajevo.
WRT the video game, for me it's less of an experience with the narrative cut out, but also something you can master, which I can see how some like it, but for me the brutal luck of the board game is much more fitting. Uncomfortable is a feeling that TWOM delivers, but I'm absolutely ok with that for a very special experience.
It won't be for everyone, but I just get so immersed in it.
Where can I sign up for a teaching game of Spirit Island or Sentinels with you at Essen? 😜
Will definitely try to stop by at the booth.
I'll mention more details of my teaching arrangement when they finalise the details with me.
I would have to guess that if I could come up with a top 10 games that I've cooled on, there's a pretty good chance Smash Up would be my number 1, but I think that may have more to do with my play group than the game itself. Part of my group refused to play without a randomizer and part of my group refused to play with a randomizer. It looks like the last expansion I bought for it was from 2017 and I think I have every expansion up to that point, including Munchkin, which gives me 51 factions. Thankfully, Smash Up was the only game that the collector in me latched on to and wanted everything. Will it ever leave my collection? Probably not. What would I do with that big ass box? I'm not paying to ship it anywhere.
Yeah I got that whole big box issue.
Robisnon Crusoe definitely feels like a previous gen design and almost antiquated at this point.
Could be, it's definitely lost some popularity since 2012.
Oh no, I don’t think Greg is going to be invited again with these picks! That’s actually some good advice from both regarding the need to have everything. Luke, I disagree with you re Teo; rules are pretty simple, move clockwise 1 to 3 spaces and do the action, and the action are well-depicted on the space. The obelisk one is another story, I haven’t played, but looked too mechanical and over complicated. I actually enjoy the experience of Sherlock Holmes.
The general concept of a turn is easy, but it's not just "do the action", there's a ton of actions on the board and plenty more to consider with expansions. That and the setup takes an eternity.
I don't get the complaints about Legendary's set-up. I have every (Marvel comics) expansion and it takes only takes about five minutes plus shuffling time to set up. Putting away takes longer but even that's only by a few minutes.
To do a proper shuffle, not just a few quick passings between hands is time consuming to do for two big decks one of needs specific construction needs.
@@TheBrokenMeeple Shuffling doesn't take twenty minutes per deck. Whether you're doing overhand, riffling, pile - whatever - its only a few minutes at a stretch. Each round of shuffling, other than pile, is about one or two seconds.
I I shuffle about ten riffles for each deck, followed by a pile shuffle for the villain deck.Considering that it's mathematically determined around five to eight riffles is adequate, I'm overkilling it. It takes about a minute to a minute and a half for each deck.
My numbers are even with suboptimal organization. My storage is spread out among the Villains box (Villain decks) and five large expansion boxes (3 just heroes, 1 half heroes/ half universal cards, and one for masterminds, schemes, and henchmen). The hero decks are separated only by starting letter, but not alphabetized further. Dividers are only present between letters (as in, all "S" heroes are not separated from each other).
Even with all this, I don't think I've ever gone over ten minutes for set up once I got used to the rules.
Ahhhhh riffling, I wince it I see someone doing that to my cards 🤣
1:17:08 I wouldn’t like Dominion because it is a pure deckbuilder. I only like “deckbuilders with a board”.
A number of points regarding Dune criticisms: There is an upgrade pack if you want to improve the look. Deckbuilding is much more a thing with the expansion. Only buying the Spice must flow cards is really (really) not a good strategy - only on the final two turns. Educate yourself gents ;)
So you're saying the game is "fixed" with an expansion AND an upgrade pack.......
Game doesn't get bonus points for forcing people to spend over £100 to fix the game 🤣
@@TheBrokenMeeple Nobody's forcing anything. Don't be dramatic :) Most of the players I know are fine with the cubes, but if bling is so important for you, you have the option for bling whilst keeping the base game price point relatively low. And improving the game does not mean it needed fixing.
The expansion is pushing it from a very good game, towards one of the best games ever at 4 players.
50:48 May I recommend Black Rose Wars? Actually, the new one is Black Rose Wars: Rebirth - was on Kickstarter - and is supposed to improve on the original Black Rose Wars…
Needless to say, however, Dwellings is a different type of game. It is what I call a “thematic Euro”.
Hi. My biggest disagreements are:
Robinson Crusoe (I feel the game is exactly what a survival game is supposed to be).
Terraforming Mars (with only Prelude, the game flows petty smooth)
Teotihuacán and Tzolkin (masterpieces imo)
My agreements:
Gloomhaven (totally replaced by JotL)
Arkham Horror LCG (I sold it with the first cycle because of the Chaos Bag constantly punishing me with high negative modifiers *90% of the time*. Horrible experience!)
Gloom, JotL, same thing :P
Teot is good and all, but I just can't be bothered to get it out and deal with all that setup/rules teach again.
Thanks for a great video
Glad you enjoyed it!
1:38:40 So… Does that mean that your #1 is also a card game?… Maybe Magic: The Gathering?!
Jaws of the Lion *is* Gloomhaven goddamnit.
I don’t fully disagree. I just find the level that JotL made me not want to play Gloomhaven to be unique enough to warrant mentioning on my list.
They both overrated anyway! :P
43:44 There was just something which didn’t click with me about Scythe. I enjoyed the first part - the engine building, in which you have to do the top action before you can do the bottom action, in order to get your units out onto the board/map - but the entire second half of the game, as in what to do after getting your units out on the board/map fell flat for me. I know you are trying to accumulate stars, but it just doesn’t seem connected enough (for me).
6:50 At least it is lower on his list - and NOT his #1! Be thankful for that, lol.
I guess we can......... :P
29:31 What about Now or Never? Have you ever played that one?
Done a review on it in Jan 👍😁
Awesome video but I heartily disagree with Gloomhaven… or at least I disagree on the basis that Jaws of the Lion is a better game. Jaws loses so much for me in terms of the scope and possibilities in the original big box. Granted the original Gloomhaven NEEDS an insert to make it playable which sucks, but if you have this then the choice between the two is super easy for me; big box all the way!
But all that cost, setup, time, unused content and just having a dungeon crawl become a puzzle game! :P
@@TheBrokenMeeple yeah but what a puzzle!! Haha honestly I can’t argue with any of that. I’d estimate the cost and scope is worth it for only around 10% of people who have the time and inclination to see it all… so for MOST people Jaws of the Lion is probably the better purchase, just not for me :)
Dominion has a solo mode? Not sure why it was included in a solo list.
This wasn't a solo list?
@@TheBrokenMeeple I see ‘solo play throughs’ is his screen name I thought it was the subject of what was being reviewed. My bad
The T games (Tiresome games)
Greg's mic is soooo bad! Other than that, a fantastic video.
Sorry about that. It’s a new headset and I’m still working on tweaking the equalizer just right. Thanks for the feedback though!
Didn't think it was that bad at my end.
@@TheBrokenMeeple Yeah - I’m with you. But audio’s funny like that. I could see the current state of this mic’s output being a bit grating to some people! Def going to mess with some settings for the future.
1:21:41 Roll ‘n writes! I am so bored of roll ‘n writes… there are wayyyyyyy toooooo many!
Why dont you guys do a list of games either free solo pnp games that are lit or a bang for your buck solo games?
I barely play any PNP stuff.