Thanks for the nice comparison! I own both games (with almost all extra stuff) and I like them both. Unfortunately, the base game of "Mezo" offers only 4 gods and 2 of them are very similar (Ixchel and Kukulcan), so you need to buy some expansions for better experience (12 gods in total), especially the gods that are included in "Souls for Xibalba" and feel very different. I like to investigate the strong side and weaknesses of each god, how to win the war despite the losing in a battle. I can agree that the rules for "Mezo" are poorly written (I'm not a native English speaker) but once you have played 1-2 ages everything becomes clear. The rules of the blessed region are pretty simple - it's a special region (similar to Yggdrasil in Blood Rage) and it fits thematically (you need to sacrifice your own people to receive the blessing). For me "Mezo" is closer to "Ankh: Gods of Egypt" than "Blood Rage".
I've played blood rage over 25 times with my game group and it was my favourite game until every game was either won with the death strategy or somebody who gets odins throne age 3 card. It became really predictable at the end of games and soured the experience. I never felt good about winning with odins throne by playing it safe, locking down regions or getting boat loads of points by losing battles. There are ways of stopping these which we did pull off from time to time but was very hard to do so. We ended up adding in a load of cards that were made for the game but never made it to release that spiced things up a lot and allowed for new strategies. Managed to get the pdf from someone on board game geek and made the cards using the spare foreign ones that you get from the expansion boxes and sleeved them so they shuffled and perfectly disguised themselves within the decks. I've played mezo with my son a few times now and it works a lot better as a 2 player game, couldn't imagine playing blood rage at 2 players. Plus the solo mode on mezo is really good which is a bonus. Yet to play it with my game group yet so interested to see how it will go down. I agree with many of your points. Hoping, because of the asymetry in mezo that it will prevent us from running into the problems we have with blood rage and allow for more paths to victory but I'm unsure if we will ever get to the point of finding out as we have sooo many games to play. We only had 2 or 3 games when we had blood rage so it was played week after week constantly. Now we have around 100 games as we have gotton more into the hobby.
Loki and Odin's throne used to be strong contenders but we've found over time that they are counterable like every other strategy. At least for our group.
Im new to the hobby and you're the man Adam. I just got the notification from miniature market today that Blood Rage was restocked. It should be here in a week. I finally found a board game reviewer who has my taste in games. Keep up the great work! Your reviews are "tight" man !
mez-oh-uh-mer-i-kuh. I think it's more Mez-oh....and less Mee-zo. I'm not the pronunciation police but I think this is how it is pronounced. Other than that, good comparison and good video. I have Blood Rage and enjoy it very much, I have yet to play Mezo but I do own it. I will try to get it to the table and come back and leave my comparison/impression to contrast or align with yours.
Thanks! I actually wondered about the pronunciation as I was doing the video...but by then I was doing the video already :) Thank you for correcting. And please do let me know your thoughts, I love opinions...whether I like or dislike a game I tend to try to check out other people's opinions.
@@BoardGameCo Correct. You had me confused the first time you said it in another video, I had no idea what you were talking about. First I thought maybe a Japanese themed game...then I saw this video and realized what game you were referring to. I am a Spanish-speaking native so that E sound is what I picture instinctively.
Hmmm, I agree that Blood Rage is the better game overall, but they have enough different mechanics that render them sufficiently distinct from each other and able to share the dudes on a map gaming shelf. I do not always feel like playing Blood Rage, I am glad Mezo is something different.
I hear and acknowledge that...for me that "different game than Blood Rage" would end up being something else. Mezo felt more "worse" then "different". Not bad, but not as good.
I don't think the fact that you prefer Blood Rage over Mezo means you didn't get Mezo. I do think the fact that you're comparing them in the first place does. They are wildly different games despite their superficial similarities. They're both very good games and which you prefer comes down to what kind of experience you're looking for more than anything else. Hellas and Blood Rage would be a better comparison.
Point for Mezo, soloable. Blood Rage is not, unless you get the digital version which is not getting the best reviews. Also point for Mezo less used mythology. But your criticisms are fair, but Blood Rage will hit my table less often.
You sir are a machine! Videos flowing! I'm glad Blood Rage is doing it for you! (My favourite as well.) Love it, but in our gaming group of all being parents that game isn't everyones cup of tea! And having a quantaty of games doesn't help with the rotation! Good to know it holds up! :)
@@BoardGameCo Thanks for the question! Depends a little bit on where we're playing. I own Blood Rage so when we are here it's a part of my rotation of games, but then I always have something new to try, or if we're playing more casual (non-planned-game-night) we might go for games with a less of a "planning phase" like Blood Rage drafting. Another favorite in with the Vikting-theme at my house is "Champions of Midgard, WITH all expansions since I have the Jarl Edition". (I love that one as well, being a non-confrontational game). And Blood Rage is a game you need to play to learn the cominations, so it is harder to introduce to people and have them being competitive. But to name a few games we're playing being non co-op: Quacks (+ expansion, it IS better with the expansion content, no doubt), Cosmic Encounter, Space Base, The Godfather (Blood Rage like, wouldn't you say?), Kemet, Cyclades, Scythe... And lighter games like Ticket to Ride and/or Takenoko, Sheriff of Nottingham etc. ...I also fancy the Tiny Epic Series... :)
7:00 "Board games are just a way to get a bunch of geeks to do math and not realize it." Great quote! Enjoyed the review as well although I have only played Blood Rage and not Mezo. I have played Rising Sun but would prefer Blood Rage over it as well. Rising Sun is clever (particularly combat) and fun but it doesn't feel as rewarding as Blood Rage. Blood Rage has more strategy over the scope of the game and everything feels interwoven from beginning to end.
@@TheRobuzz Being asymmetrical, a Warhammer 40k game, and being out of print make it a really niche title. I would like to give it a go personally but I am not willing to drop a fortune on it used.
I really enjoy comparison videos like this. Would love to see On Mars vs. Terraforming Mars & a 3-way Inis vs. Kemet vs. Cyclades. Keep up the great work.
THIS --> Kemet, Cyclades and Inis is something I would love to see! My friends own the first two and I think it would be cool if he got the triology! See them all in that shelf, so lets go? :)
Lol, sounds like a plan on the trilogy, just added it to my list. And while I haven't played On Mars...I do have TM in another video already that I just haven't loaded yet :)
Thanks for the nice comparison! I own both games (with almost all extra stuff) and I like them both. Unfortunately, the base game of "Mezo" offers only 4 gods and 2 of them are very similar (Ixchel and Kukulcan), so you need to buy some expansions for better experience (12 gods in total), especially the gods that are included in "Souls for Xibalba" and feel very different. I like to investigate the strong side and weaknesses of each god, how to win the war despite the losing in a battle. I can agree that the rules for "Mezo" are poorly written (I'm not a native English speaker) but once you have played 1-2 ages everything becomes clear. The rules of the blessed region are pretty simple - it's a special region (similar to Yggdrasil in Blood Rage) and it fits thematically (you need to sacrifice your own people to receive the blessing). For me "Mezo" is closer to "Ankh: Gods of Egypt" than "Blood Rage".
Totally agree on all counts. I do like it, in the end just not enough.
I've played blood rage over 25 times with my game group and it was my favourite game until every game was either won with the death strategy or somebody who gets odins throne age 3 card. It became really predictable at the end of games and soured the experience. I never felt good about winning with odins throne by playing it safe, locking down regions or getting boat loads of points by losing battles. There are ways of stopping these which we did pull off from time to time but was very hard to do so. We ended up adding in a load of cards that were made for the game but never made it to release that spiced things up a lot and allowed for new strategies. Managed to get the pdf from someone on board game geek and made the cards using the spare foreign ones that you get from the expansion boxes and sleeved them so they shuffled and perfectly disguised themselves within the decks.
I've played mezo with my son a few times now and it works a lot better as a 2 player game, couldn't imagine playing blood rage at 2 players. Plus the solo mode on mezo is really good which is a bonus. Yet to play it with my game group yet so interested to see how it will go down. I agree with many of your points. Hoping, because of the asymetry in mezo that it will prevent us from running into the problems we have with blood rage and allow for more paths to victory but I'm unsure if we will ever get to the point of finding out as we have sooo many games to play. We only had 2 or 3 games when we had blood rage so it was played week after week constantly. Now we have around 100 games as we have gotton more into the hobby.
Loki and Odin's throne used to be strong contenders but we've found over time that they are counterable like every other strategy. At least for our group.
Im new to the hobby and you're the man Adam. I just got the notification from miniature market today that Blood Rage was restocked. It should be here in a week. I finally found a board game reviewer who has my taste in games. Keep up the great work! Your reviews are "tight" man !
Oh it is sooooo goood :)
Great video! Just a friendly comment from a Mexican dude, it's pronounced "met-zo" ;)
mez-oh-uh-mer-i-kuh. I think it's more Mez-oh....and less Mee-zo. I'm not the pronunciation police but I think this is how it is pronounced. Other than that, good comparison and good video. I have Blood Rage and enjoy it very much, I have yet to play Mezo but I do own it. I will try to get it to the table and come back and leave my comparison/impression to contrast or align with yours.
Thanks! I actually wondered about the pronunciation as I was doing the video...but by then I was doing the video already :) Thank you for correcting. And please do let me know your thoughts, I love opinions...whether I like or dislike a game I tend to try to check out other people's opinions.
@@BoardGameCo Correct. You had me confused the first time you said it in another video, I had no idea what you were talking about. First I thought maybe a Japanese themed game...then I saw this video and realized what game you were referring to. I am a Spanish-speaking native so that E sound is what I picture instinctively.
Hmmm, I agree that Blood Rage is the better game overall, but they have enough different mechanics that render them sufficiently distinct from each other and able to share the dudes on a map gaming shelf. I do not always feel like playing Blood Rage, I am glad Mezo is something different.
I hear and acknowledge that...for me that "different game than Blood Rage" would end up being something else. Mezo felt more "worse" then "different". Not bad, but not as good.
It's pronounced Meh-zo...
I know :( I found out later.
I don't think the fact that you prefer Blood Rage over Mezo means you didn't get Mezo. I do think the fact that you're comparing them in the first place does. They are wildly different games despite their superficial similarities. They're both very good games and which you prefer comes down to what kind of experience you're looking for more than anything else. Hellas and Blood Rage would be a better comparison.
Agreed on preference aspects, but I do think they're comparable in what they're doing.
Point for Mezo, soloable. Blood Rage is not, unless you get the digital version which is not getting the best reviews. Also point for Mezo less used mythology. But your criticisms are fair, but Blood Rage will hit my table less often.
I bet Chaos in the Old World(from Eric Lang also) destroys both of them
Nope :) I love Chaos...but love Blood Rage more :)
@@BoardGameCo did u have any connection with the warhammer lore?
I haven't play Mezo but Blood Rage always! Had such a great game of BR last week. I feel like I would never turn down a game of Blood Rage.
Yep! Played Blood Rage with the new stuff for the first time Thursday night (I created this vid before that). Seriously love that game.
You sir are a machine! Videos flowing!
I'm glad Blood Rage is doing it for you! (My favourite as well.)
Love it, but in our gaming group of all being parents that game isn't everyones cup of tea!
And having a quantaty of games doesn't help with the rotation!
Good to know it holds up! :)
What do you guys play instead?
@@BoardGameCo Thanks for the question!
Depends a little bit on where we're playing.
I own Blood Rage so when we are here it's a part of my rotation of games, but then I always have something new to try, or if we're playing more casual (non-planned-game-night) we might go for games with a less of a "planning phase" like Blood Rage drafting.
Another favorite in with the Vikting-theme at my house is "Champions of Midgard, WITH all expansions since I have the Jarl Edition". (I love that one as well, being a non-confrontational game). And Blood Rage is a game you need to play to learn the cominations, so it is harder to introduce to people and have them being competitive.
But to name a few games we're playing being non co-op:
Quacks (+ expansion, it IS better with the expansion content, no doubt), Cosmic Encounter, Space Base, The Godfather (Blood Rage like, wouldn't you say?), Kemet, Cyclades, Scythe... And lighter games like Ticket to Ride and/or Takenoko, Sheriff of Nottingham etc.
...I also fancy the Tiny Epic Series... :)
7:00 "Board games are just a way to get a bunch of geeks to do math and not realize it." Great quote! Enjoyed the review as well although I have only played Blood Rage and not Mezo. I have played Rising Sun but would prefer Blood Rage over it as well. Rising Sun is clever (particularly combat) and fun but it doesn't feel as rewarding as Blood Rage. Blood Rage has more strategy over the scope of the game and everything feels interwoven from beginning to end.
Completely agree!
how about Blood Rage vs Rising Sun
It's on my backlog but I need to play Rising Sun again first. I've played it in the past but it's been over a year since my last play.
What about those games versus Mysthea?
I haven't played Mysthea sadly :(
U talked me out of it
Lol, out of Mezo?
@@BoardGameCo yeah kolossal is having the year end sale rn...took it out of the cart.
What about comparing vs Icaion? Vs Cry Havoc?
Eric Lang has been one of the best designers in the past decade. Blood Rage may be his magnum opus.
100% Agree!
I would say Chaos in The Old World is.
@@TheRobuzz Being asymmetrical, a Warhammer 40k game, and being out of print make it a really niche title. I would like to give it a go personally but I am not willing to drop a fortune on it used.
@@KBWrecker Understood, best to play it with someone who owns it first. Also, small note - it's not 40k, it's based in Warhammer Fantasy.
I really enjoy comparison videos like this. Would love to see On Mars vs. Terraforming Mars & a 3-way Inis vs. Kemet vs. Cyclades. Keep up the great work.
THIS --> Kemet, Cyclades and Inis is something I would love to see!
My friends own the first two and I think it would be cool if he got the triology!
See them all in that shelf, so lets go? :)
Lol, sounds like a plan on the trilogy, just added it to my list. And while I haven't played On Mars...I do have TM in another video already that I just haven't loaded yet :)
It’s Mayan not Aztec
Eric Lang vs John Clowdus? That's easy, John Clowdus 10/10. I didn't care for BR at all. Cry Havoc was better, IMO.
Cry Havoc is another game I really wanted to like but didn't.
It was because Rising Sun and Blood Rage, that I had no need to get Mezo in the first place
Yep, totally hear that :)