Yes. Keep hammering home reference aids! Absolutely sick of them not being included. This game sure is a looker, but it always seemed rather blah otherwise.
Good review! Appreciate you taking a hard look at what the gameplay really offers and not just propagating the buzz. Starting to feel like there are a lot of games coming out that are just going through the motions and not offering much new or interesting.
I definitely liked this one more than you did (but then again I expected to, lol), definitely agree with there being some odd choices in terms of lack of a good player aid, characters being a missed opportunity, definitely agree that focusing is probably usually best, but gotta say our first game, the winner was actually one of the players who didn't focus on specific attributes, but researched and published all over the place. He just did a really good job with utilizing the experts, and gained most of his points from doing more research/publishing overall. At the end he was so far ahead in points the endgame scoring was not enough to fully catch up with him, even though some players did have some really great collection scoring bonuses at the end.
Backed it on kickstarter, played it and then sold it. Your review mirrors a lot of how I felt. It's got nice art and an interesting theme but at the end of the day you're just moving cubes from one place to another for points.
Hope you recovered the cash! Or most of it! This is why I don't like KS preview hypers, they don't help people to realise whether these games are any good honestly or not.
Thanks for doing my review for me lol. Agreed with everything you said. I was up by 80 points at one time in my learning game, just focusing. Goes way too long
Just watched this. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed to buy the game this morning once I found out that Holy Grail Games has gone bankrupt! 😂 I was worried about the prices being jacked up after that announcement!
Recently sold mine before this happened! 😅 And yet got jip for the condition of the token boxes which had split edges, which is something that happens in every copy because the component quality is questionable.
If it makes you feel any better I did the same and now insanely regret spending £50 on it. May just return it for the £5-6 postage loss as cba to hoard just because it might be rare.
I kinda feel the same. However I do think the animal card player scaling makes sense since with more players there will be more dice to choose from. So with less players you have few dice but more animals. I scored about 340 points in the one game I played. Yes you want to focus on colors and types, even if you get some other color that doesn’t matter to you but it has the types that you want. The game just feels like set collection on two levels. The dice mechanic is meh. You almost never want to choose your own dice so others will be forced to choose yours so you get the bonus. The playtime with 4 players is looooong. Overall, I’d pass playing this game again.
Such glowing reviews (though Thinker Themer were a tiny bit tepid). I won this one in a contest and thought oh I love dice placement. But I sold it new in shrink a month ago because I just had this feeling it didn’t have legs. I saw one or two people on BGG say there weren’t multiple paths to victory and possible replayability problem and I was like oh wait. Then saw some 9 reviews and I was like oh maybe just play it and see. But stuck with my gut and sold it straight out.
I have only played it once but none of us had a issue reading the icons on the board for dice placement rules. None of us had a problem figuring out the assistants either so we never had to use the book to look them up. But we play a lot of games so I mean most stuff is pretty intuitive by now anyway.
People don't like to "guess" whether they understood the abilities off hand. But the board icons certainly aren't the best and there are some specific parts about the use of certain items that are not on the board. Even with that aside, the whole publication and exploration action is worded so badly.
I really enjoyed (and even won) my first play but I don't think I'd ever go back. I completely agree with you on the replay value being pretty low. Also, though the art is evoking and serves the theme, the game is dry as a bone. Feels underwhelming. Encyclopedia could have been a much much better game but it's clearly underdeveloped.
Thanks for pointing out the reference aid - getting that one printed out for sure. I've enjoyed the game. The set collection aspect of the game is fantastic. I typically dislike the mechanism, but in here it's all about finding ways to focus even if it's not always easy. In our games we've had to split out at least some and so it's a bit of that Calico thing where you know what you want but you work with what actually happens. I like how cards apply to many different sets at once and it's always a choice of what to focus in. If this was a heavier game, I'd have more of an issue *cough ark nova*. This fits a slot just above gateway titles which along with the theme is the real tie to Wingspan and for us it's one to pull out when we want a full game but not something that will break our brains. I expect like Wingspan, the luster of this will fade in time until it's one we primarily only keep for casual gamers. In my pack, I have a legendary creatures module which have things like a pegasus. These are neat because they offer a lot of different mechanisms and so I intend to keep them in the game. The other expansion is primarily around events which I'm worried about including because I feel too many of them would benefit a specific player making for uneven games.
Unfortunately, I agree with you. This game feels oddly... unfinished? unpolished? Also, I greatly dislike calculating the scorings in different areas. Thanks for the link to the player aids though! I'm definitely printing those out for my copy, even though this one may just end up on the cull pile after a few more plays. As always, thanks Luke!
Yeah, this game just didn't click with me. When there's a 100 point gap between you and third place, and second and first place more than doubled your score, something went amiss somewhere within the game. It was quite a discouraging experience, and doubt I'll ever feel a need to attempt another play.
How many plays? I only ask because of the one note progression it has, do you still find it interesting when you are just picking a colour and two icons every game and nothing else?
The references are a good idea. This is what bugged me the most, always having to go back to check the abilities of cards. I liked the game more than you but surprisingly, I agree with your criticism of the game.
Great! Your review just saved me some euros! Won’t bother with it. Have plenty of better games waiting to be played so an easy pass now that I’ve seen you’re review!
I like the game more than you do, but I agree with you on its weaknesses. Too bad you didn't get the Magna Itinera expansion wich drastically improves replayability by adding legendary animals with special abilities, a LOT of event cards, new expert cards and 3 new variants... But surely they should have been included some of it in the base game! :(
In fact ALL OF IT. The mini expansion that's in the game currently is garbage, it's nothing interesting. But what you describe would certainly improve the experience and its purely FOMO business practice that they didn't include it up front.
Not into publishers that make expansions that are needed for a good game. Seems like a $ grab. I won’t do it. For $40-$50, it should be a really good game as is. Shouldn’t have to pay $15-$20 more to fix it or make it worthwhile.
I found this game aggressively dull. There were almost no meaningful decisions to be made and the RNG of what animal and expert cards come out is appalling.
Sorry, but the points about the graphic design and rulebook are remiss. The rulebook is clearly written with lots of examples provided. It is printed on the board whether dice colour matters or not in every section. And as for the tokens' uses not being printed on the board... Their use is printed on the tokens themselves. Surprised you missed this.
It isn't for the coins and the iconography on the seals isn't clear about the fact it changes colour as well. The Board is also busy and conceals a lot of the important icons and even then it's not 100% clear at a glance. A simple card for a player would be so much easier to refer to especially as the actions vary with whether they need value or colour or both which is fiddly in itself.
@@TheBrokenMeeple never found any of this to be an issue when we played 3 players all new to the game. Each section shows whether dice colour matters. Tokens show what they do on them. Coins raising the value of dice in a 1:1 ratio is straightforward. Is the issue that you want these icons to be larger?
Yes. Keep hammering home reference aids! Absolutely sick of them not being included. This game sure is a looker, but it always seemed rather blah otherwise.
References are so easy to make and yet publishers just don't care.
Good review! Appreciate you taking a hard look at what the gameplay really offers and not just propagating the buzz. Starting to feel like there are a lot of games coming out that are just going through the motions and not offering much new or interesting.
Much appreciated! I refuse to succumb to hype and the norm of praising every game just to get people to spend money!
I definitely liked this one more than you did (but then again I expected to, lol), definitely agree with there being some odd choices in terms of lack of a good player aid, characters being a missed opportunity, definitely agree that focusing is probably usually best, but gotta say our first game, the winner was actually one of the players who didn't focus on specific attributes, but researched and published all over the place. He just did a really good job with utilizing the experts, and gained most of his points from doing more research/publishing overall. At the end he was so far ahead in points the endgame scoring was not enough to fully catch up with him, even though some players did have some really great collection scoring bonuses at the end.
Backed it on kickstarter, played it and then sold it. Your review mirrors a lot of how I felt. It's got nice art and an interesting theme but at the end of the day you're just moving cubes from one place to another for points.
Hope you recovered the cash! Or most of it! This is why I don't like KS preview hypers, they don't help people to realise whether these games are any good honestly or not.
Thanks for doing my review for me lol. Agreed with everything you said. I was up by 80 points at one time in my learning game, just focusing. Goes way too long
Way too long especially with 4. 2 player is ok but even then it's just I'll focus on these 2 symbols, you focus on these 2.
Thank you for mentioning/scoring the solo mode.
This sounds like a good game to pick up … second hand/heavily discounted.
Yeah it's overpriced currently.
Just watched this. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed to buy the game this morning once I found out that Holy Grail Games has gone bankrupt! 😂 I was worried about the prices being jacked up after that announcement!
Recently sold mine before this happened! 😅 And yet got jip for the condition of the token boxes which had split edges, which is something that happens in every copy because the component quality is questionable.
If it makes you feel any better I did the same and now insanely regret spending £50 on it. May just return it for the £5-6 postage loss as cba to hoard just because it might be rare.
@@TheBrokenMeeple I played my copy! Agree with your criticisms. And yes, all my token boxes have split cardboard 😩
I kinda feel the same. However I do think the animal card player scaling makes sense since with more players there will be more dice to choose from. So with less players you have few dice but more animals.
I scored about 340 points in the one game I played. Yes you want to focus on colors and types, even if you get some other color that doesn’t matter to you but it has the types that you want. The game just feels like set collection on two levels.
The dice mechanic is meh. You almost never want to choose your own dice so others will be forced to choose yours so you get the bonus.
The playtime with 4 players is looooong.
Overall, I’d pass playing this game again.
Agreed, though 340, damn, I've never broken 300.
Such glowing reviews (though Thinker Themer were a tiny bit tepid). I won this one in a contest and thought oh I love dice placement. But I sold it new in shrink a month ago because I just had this feeling it didn’t have legs. I saw one or two people on BGG say there weren’t multiple paths to victory and possible replayability problem and I was like oh wait. Then saw some 9 reviews and I was like oh maybe just play it and see. But stuck with my gut and sold it straight out.
A lot of those glowing reviews glossed over a lot of those replay value problems. Probably didn't play it enough.
I have only played it once but none of us had a issue reading the icons on the board for dice placement rules. None of us had a problem figuring out the assistants either so we never had to use the book to look them up. But we play a lot of games so I mean most stuff is pretty intuitive by now anyway.
People don't like to "guess" whether they understood the abilities off hand. But the board icons certainly aren't the best and there are some specific parts about the use of certain items that are not on the board. Even with that aside, the whole publication and exploration action is worded so badly.
@@TheBrokenMeeple idk we played it again tonight with 2 new players. no one seemed to have any troubles.
I really enjoyed (and even won) my first play but I don't think I'd ever go back. I completely agree with you on the replay value being pretty low. Also, though the art is evoking and serves the theme, the game is dry as a bone. Feels underwhelming. Encyclopedia could have been a much much better game but it's clearly underdeveloped.
Totally agree! It's pretty and fun for a few games, but at the end of the day, you pick a colour and 2 symbols and go for broke!
Thanks for pointing out the reference aid - getting that one printed out for sure.
I've enjoyed the game. The set collection aspect of the game is fantastic. I typically dislike the mechanism, but in here it's all about finding ways to focus even if it's not always easy. In our games we've had to split out at least some and so it's a bit of that Calico thing where you know what you want but you work with what actually happens. I like how cards apply to many different sets at once and it's always a choice of what to focus in. If this was a heavier game, I'd have more of an issue *cough ark nova*. This fits a slot just above gateway titles which along with the theme is the real tie to Wingspan and for us it's one to pull out when we want a full game but not something that will break our brains. I expect like Wingspan, the luster of this will fade in time until it's one we primarily only keep for casual gamers. In my pack, I have a legendary creatures module which have things like a pegasus. These are neat because they offer a lot of different mechanisms and so I intend to keep them in the game. The other expansion is primarily around events which I'm worried about including because I feel too many of them would benefit a specific player making for uneven games.
The rules make it fiddly enough though where I wouldn't call this a step above gateway.
My Kickstarter came in. We played it once and I put it on my BGG trade list.
I'm not alone then!
Thanks for the honest review. I was tempted with the hype and theme but will try to play someone else’s.
No worries! Thanks and hope you get a chance!
Played it at a friends, it's fine. Agree with your takes.
Love the intro!
Unfortunately, I agree with you. This game feels oddly... unfinished? unpolished? Also, I greatly dislike calculating the scorings in different areas. Thanks for the link to the player aids though! I'm definitely printing those out for my copy, even though this one may just end up on the cull pile after a few more plays. As always, thanks Luke!
You're welcome! :-)
Yeah, this game just didn't click with me. When there's a 100 point gap between you and third place, and second and first place more than doubled your score, something went amiss somewhere within the game. It was quite a discouraging experience, and doubt I'll ever feel a need to attempt another play.
Yeah scores were never tight.
I’ll go with wayfarers of the ST instead. Nice review.
Completely disagree with the score. Really liked this game. Player aids....sure....but the overall product is excellent.
How many plays? I only ask because of the one note progression it has, do you still find it interesting when you are just picking a colour and two icons every game and nothing else?
The references are a good idea. This is what bugged me the most, always having to go back to check the abilities of cards. I liked the game more than you but surprisingly, I agree with your criticism of the game.
References are so easy to make and yet publishers just don't care.
@@TheBrokenMeeple because there is always a good sammaritan that will create and upload one on BGG…
Great! Your review just saved me some euros! Won’t bother with it. Have plenty of better games waiting to be played so an easy pass now that I’ve seen you’re review!
Glad I could help!
Like the name Quick Draws. Such a shame for this game. It looks good, so I was interested. But I think I’ll reconsider after your review.
Glad I could help!
card with bird on it? exactly the same game as wingspan
I like the game more than you do, but I agree with you on its weaknesses. Too bad you didn't get the Magna Itinera expansion wich drastically improves replayability by adding legendary animals with special abilities, a LOT of event cards, new expert cards and 3 new variants... But surely they should have been included some of it in the base game! :(
In fact ALL OF IT. The mini expansion that's in the game currently is garbage, it's nothing interesting. But what you describe would certainly improve the experience and its purely FOMO business practice that they didn't include it up front.
Not into publishers that make expansions that are needed for a good game. Seems like a $ grab. I won’t do it. For $40-$50, it should be a really good game as is. Shouldn’t have to pay $15-$20 more to fix it or make it worthwhile.
I found this game aggressively dull. There were almost no meaningful decisions to be made and the RNG of what animal and expert cards come out is appalling.
That's fair enough, I felt decisions were there, but it is RNG heavy.
Sorry, but the points about the graphic design and rulebook are remiss. The rulebook is clearly written with lots of examples provided. It is printed on the board whether dice colour matters or not in every section. And as for the tokens' uses not being printed on the board... Their use is printed on the tokens themselves. Surprised you missed this.
It isn't for the coins and the iconography on the seals isn't clear about the fact it changes colour as well. The Board is also busy and conceals a lot of the important icons and even then it's not 100% clear at a glance. A simple card for a player would be so much easier to refer to especially as the actions vary with whether they need value or colour or both which is fiddly in itself.
@@TheBrokenMeeple never found any of this to be an issue when we played 3 players all new to the game. Each section shows whether dice colour matters. Tokens show what they do on them. Coins raising the value of dice in a 1:1 ratio is straightforward. Is the issue that you want these icons to be larger?
Don't you get the feeling that it gets samey?
Oh for sure, I mentioned that it was very one note.
I played this game once. Didn't like it at all.
It's pretty and fun for a few games, but at the end of the day, you pick a colour and 2 symbols and go for broke!
Too many boardgames...