An imperfect masterpiece which isn't for everyone - you could not have summarized it better! Voidfall is amazing but supremely hard to get to the table; as such it pretty much pulls up right next to Twilight Imperium near the top of my favorite board games.
@@MrRadialdrift I don't know who you know, but that is WILD. It's the 45th "best game of all time" on BGG, the number 1 abstract game, and only like 600 ppl out of 30,000 have given it less than a 6. I've never heard of a single person hating it. Like, sure, different tastes, they might not want to play it over something else, but hating it??
Absolutely agree, a genuine masterpiece in game and artistic design. Completely understand the negatives listed, it's definitely not for everyone, but after 20+ plays it's easily my game of the year and possibly one of my all-time favourites. p.s some of the Galatic box's organiser layout/trays are a bit of a faff though!
Oh wow, high praise! Also that is an impressive number of plays. Totally agree with the storage, I think the way houses and tech is sorted is a little insane. We already just separated the tech and fallen house cards and rubber banded them, so much quicker.
Ahaha, I was fortunate to get one of the early fulfillments and the chance to leave it sprawled across the table for a few weeks over a very wet British summer - quickly managed to rack up the plays across all game modes. Our dining table was a total write off throughout mind... 😅 Good idea with the cards. I flip-flopped between baggies, a deck box, and now have them back in the GameTrayz using an excellent fan-made label to differentiate them. I dumped the bounty and reclaim tokens into their own drawstring bags, then combined all the other tokens and pieces into one tray. The sector tiles are held together by a hair band (like my Mage Knight tiles!). Normally I find MCG's storage solutions to be really slick and support the set-up process, but this time around it just feels a little inconsistent and sometimes gets in the way. My only nitpick with the whole production (and I seem to be in the minority with this anyway) - they've really knocked it out of the park with this game!
@@whatsabandicoot We always rubber band cards, unless they have a perfect storage space. If they are just generally in a box, RUBBER BAND. Besides that I don't have too many issues, it's just long to get all the trays out and find exactly what you need for a scenario. Agree with you though, and in fact it's actually a little annoying the game is so good as if it was even a little bit less good maybe you could say ah not worth the set up time...but oh it is.
Wonderful review! Would I be missing out on a lot if I got the retail version? Would you recommend I hunt down a copy of the galactic box? Did a quick search and it's going for about 300-400 USD at the moment (ouch!)
This is my most anticipated of the year and i have yet to receive it yet. Fulfillment hasnt even started in Canada…. I fully understand the negative points but i hope its enjoyable nonetheless. This will most likely be a solo-only game for me
Can you describe the combat a bit more? Even though you describe it as deterministic does that take the edge away from how the game feels/plays? I feel like I often see conversations about dice rolling combat being a negative in a game (a very frequent criticism you might see in reviews of say Undaunted) so it feels a bit odd that knowing that outcome to a fight would really take away from the planning or strategy of the game which seems to be the main draw of the game. Especially in comparison to say something like TI4 where the non-deterministic combat can take large amounts of time and really draw people that aren't involved away from the game due to the downtime, I feel that knowing the outcome of combat would actually help get back to the meat of it.
It depends what you are after. I would say that most people expect some sort of excitement and drama when it comes to combat, particularly in a 4x game. Your points are all valid about dice rolling combat, and how non-deterministic combat can eat a lot of time up, but it's also fair to point out those are exactly why many people play those games. At it's most basic level, combat in Voidfall is: I have 3 strength, you have 2. I have the most, so I go first. 1 damage. You are still alive, so you hit me back. 1 damage. Now we come to the second "round", and I have 2 strength, you have 1. I go first,. 1 damage. You "die". I don't think we ever said anything remotely like it takes away from the planning or strategy, we just said it's extremely clinical and deterministic, so there really isn't any excitement in it (for our part) because you know the exact outcome when you invade. It feels the same as any other action in the game. Important to state for us it isn't an "issue" and I think Tallie much prefers this to the type of combat you mention, it's just that many people don't buy a game like this for combat like that.
@@BoardOfItReviews Interesting! Normally you would see at least some kind of surprises to be expected in combat (I'm thinking like those secret cards you get in Dune Imperium). And just to be clear I don't have anything against die combat in particular. I love Undaunted and think the dice combat is done really well there. I think your description makes me less concerned about the combat though, seeing that I don't mind it not being central to the game and just being part of the puzzle. Weird that the game ends on such a flat note though. Does that change if you are doing the coop?
@@karstenszajner6043 No surprises! Although combat can be shaken up quite a bit by technologies and different ships, you will never be caught out if you've paid attention. It make sense though, in a game where every aspect is in the hands of the players, not to then suddenly introduce randomness in a key aspect. I think and don't quote me on this, in Coop you need to obviously "beat" the scenario, but I also think there is some kind of scoring/ranking system in the same way that will use the agenda cards.
@@BoardOfItReviews One last question! Did the galactic box come with the components that are going to be in the retail box? I haven't been able to find any pictures on what the ships look like for the standard edition of the game. Would like to see how different it is.
@@karstenszajner6043 No it did not, but it shows photos of them in the rules and stuff. Essentially all the ships/miniatures are cardboard tokens. So you'll essentially have a little ship outline with holes in it (I think, or at least spaces) for the strength cubes. So it's fairly different in look, but same end result.
This is my most anticipated of the year and i have yet to receive it yet. Fulfillment hasnt even started in Canada…. I fully understand the negative points but i hope its enjoyable nonetheless. This will most likely be a solo-only game for me
Thanks for featuring Voidfall on your channel 😀
More than welcome! Thanks for such a terrific experience...certainly one of my games of the year.
An imperfect masterpiece which isn't for everyone - you could not have summarized it better!
Voidfall is amazing but supremely hard to get to the table; as such it pretty much pulls up right next to Twilight Imperium near the top of my favorite board games.
But what a game when you do get it to the table!
Can you find me a game that is for everyone?
@@MrRadialdrift Cascadia or Caper: Europe
Hmm, I know more people that hate Cascadia than love it,@@BoardOfItReviews
@@MrRadialdrift I don't know who you know, but that is WILD. It's the 45th "best game of all time" on BGG, the number 1 abstract game, and only like 600 ppl out of 30,000 have given it less than a 6. I've never heard of a single person hating it. Like, sure, different tastes, they might not want to play it over something else, but hating it??
An excellent review. Thank you!
Most Welcome
I really like the agenda system
Absolutely agree, a genuine masterpiece in game and artistic design. Completely understand the negatives listed, it's definitely not for everyone, but after 20+ plays it's easily my game of the year and possibly one of my all-time favourites.
p.s some of the Galatic box's organiser layout/trays are a bit of a faff though!
Oh wow, high praise! Also that is an impressive number of plays. Totally agree with the storage, I think the way houses and tech is sorted is a little insane. We already just separated the tech and fallen house cards and rubber banded them, so much quicker.
Ahaha, I was fortunate to get one of the early fulfillments and the chance to leave it sprawled across the table for a few weeks over a very wet British summer - quickly managed to rack up the plays across all game modes. Our dining table was a total write off throughout mind... 😅
Good idea with the cards. I flip-flopped between baggies, a deck box, and now have them back in the GameTrayz using an excellent fan-made label to differentiate them. I dumped the bounty and reclaim tokens into their own drawstring bags, then combined all the other tokens and pieces into one tray. The sector tiles are held together by a hair band (like my Mage Knight tiles!). Normally I find MCG's storage solutions to be really slick and support the set-up process, but this time around it just feels a little inconsistent and sometimes gets in the way. My only nitpick with the whole production (and I seem to be in the minority with this anyway) - they've really knocked it out of the park with this game!
@@whatsabandicoot We always rubber band cards, unless they have a perfect storage space. If they are just generally in a box, RUBBER BAND. Besides that I don't have too many issues, it's just long to get all the trays out and find exactly what you need for a scenario. Agree with you though, and in fact it's actually a little annoying the game is so good as if it was even a little bit less good maybe you could say ah not worth the set up time...but oh it is.
Great review. Very similar to how I feel about the game.
Wonderful review! Would I be missing out on a lot if I got the retail version? Would you recommend I hunt down a copy of the galactic box? Did a quick search and it's going for about 300-400 USD at the moment (ouch!)
No you wouldn't miss out on much, it's the same game except deluxe components, and we aren't really go and buy deluxe stuff people!
This is my most anticipated of the year and i have yet to receive it yet. Fulfillment hasnt even started in Canada…. I fully understand the negative points but i hope its enjoyable nonetheless. This will most likely be a solo-only game for me
Fyi i'm in Canada and i received my game this week. Fulfillment has definitely started.
@@zxlime yup but my copy is stuck in customs limbo with my group buy of 40 copies
Looks awesome! Right up my alley! Thanks for the review!
Glad it helped!
Loved the line about steroids! Where are you guys storing all your games these days anyway??
Every nook and cranny we can find.
Best game of the year for sure
Let's play Nucleum first and then decide ;)
Can you describe the combat a bit more? Even though you describe it as deterministic does that take the edge away from how the game feels/plays? I feel like I often see conversations about dice rolling combat being a negative in a game (a very frequent criticism you might see in reviews of say Undaunted) so it feels a bit odd that knowing that outcome to a fight would really take away from the planning or strategy of the game which seems to be the main draw of the game. Especially in comparison to say something like TI4 where the non-deterministic combat can take large amounts of time and really draw people that aren't involved away from the game due to the downtime, I feel that knowing the outcome of combat would actually help get back to the meat of it.
It depends what you are after. I would say that most people expect some sort of excitement and drama when it comes to combat, particularly in a 4x game. Your points are all valid about dice rolling combat, and how non-deterministic combat can eat a lot of time up, but it's also fair to point out those are exactly why many people play those games.
At it's most basic level, combat in Voidfall is: I have 3 strength, you have 2. I have the most, so I go first. 1 damage. You are still alive, so you hit me back. 1 damage. Now we come to the second "round", and I have 2 strength, you have 1. I go first,. 1 damage. You "die".
I don't think we ever said anything remotely like it takes away from the planning or strategy, we just said it's extremely clinical and deterministic, so there really isn't any excitement in it (for our part) because you know the exact outcome when you invade. It feels the same as any other action in the game. Important to state for us it isn't an "issue" and I think Tallie much prefers this to the type of combat you mention, it's just that many people don't buy a game like this for combat like that.
@@BoardOfItReviews Interesting! Normally you would see at least some kind of surprises to be expected in combat (I'm thinking like those secret cards you get in Dune Imperium). And just to be clear I don't have anything against die combat in particular. I love Undaunted and think the dice combat is done really well there. I think your description makes me less concerned about the combat though, seeing that I don't mind it not being central to the game and just being part of the puzzle. Weird that the game ends on such a flat note though. Does that change if you are doing the coop?
@@karstenszajner6043 No surprises! Although combat can be shaken up quite a bit by technologies and different ships, you will never be caught out if you've paid attention. It make sense though, in a game where every aspect is in the hands of the players, not to then suddenly introduce randomness in a key aspect.
I think and don't quote me on this, in Coop you need to obviously "beat" the scenario, but I also think there is some kind of scoring/ranking system in the same way that will use the agenda cards.
@@BoardOfItReviews One last question! Did the galactic box come with the components that are going to be in the retail box? I haven't been able to find any pictures on what the ships look like for the standard edition of the game. Would like to see how different it is.
@@karstenszajner6043 No it did not, but it shows photos of them in the rules and stuff. Essentially all the ships/miniatures are cardboard tokens. So you'll essentially have a little ship outline with holes in it (I think, or at least spaces) for the strength cubes. So it's fairly different in look, but same end result.
just look how massive this monster is. typical american oversized.
or supersized.
It's a beast
This is my most anticipated of the year and i have yet to receive it yet. Fulfillment hasnt even started in Canada…. I fully understand the negative points but i hope its enjoyable nonetheless. This will most likely be a solo-only game for me
I think there are actually almost as many solo reviews out as there are for the other modes! It looks like lots of people are in the same boat as you!
It'll be worth the wait - in my opinion, solo is the best way to play it.