I would like to point out that the missions are named after arcs in the Clone Wars tv show and take place on the appropriate planets. It is. a nice thematic touch.
Chris is right, Mon Cala is an actual planet in SW. The Clone Wars show has a few episodes featuring it, its really the only time we see the planet in film or tv.
I absolutely loved this game BUT it definitely needs more content to give it a lot of depth. I want to see other droids to fight off (and add more difficulty), more side characters and such, and maybe even some more variety in what the cards do in the deck. While I fully expect fan-made content (in fact, I have some ideas myself), I really want to see Z-Man support this game with some deep content.
Played a few times now, having never knowingly played a Pandemic, but several co op "take 4 actions a turn" style games, this one hit the best sweet spot in a lot of categories for me. Not too hard, turns are interesting and thoughtful without needing to mull over them for minutes to feel like you did the right move.
Yesterday was the first time I looked into this game and I was pleasantly surprised to find it is built on the Pandemic system because it's really appealing to me. I have also only played Pandemic once so far, due to how recently I bought it, so there's no chance that I'll feel that I'm tired with the system any time soon. The changes here seem really fun and thematic and as a huge Star Wars nerd the focus on the Clone Wars era in particular makes this a must buy for me. While the first two prequels definitely had their issues as films I still find the prequel era of Star Wars to be by far the most interesting one and the one that allows for an almost infinite amount of interesting stories to be told.
I am very new to table top games. We've got friends who are VERY into games and they recommended this one to us to start with. I picked it up a few weeks ago and we're excited to dig in and try it out.
I want games based on jedi academy (from the books) bring on Jania and Jacen Solo. bring on Mara Jade and the rest of the characters that are now non existent.
I pre-ordered this game at my flgs and then had second thoughts. Why did I do that? But I followed through and got it. If you're not tired of the Pandemic system, this game changes enough to make it interesting again. And I love the Star Wars theme, so this game really works for me. The more you're into the Clone Wars animated series, the more the theme rewards you. I suggest trying it before you dismiss it. You might be surprised.
If you are a seasoned pandemic player, you will probably want to up the difficulty after just a couple games. The good thing is scaling the difficulty is simply just adding more missions.
@@tigerwalms Longer definitely makes it harder, because you'll have to either complete missions faster, or else deal with more droids and blockades later in the game.
I got this one for my family for Christmas and it was a hit - a big selling point was that it was NOT pandemic themed after 3 years of pandemic. My cousin was able to play it at a third of the age on the box as a Star wars fan who had played some other board games, so that was great (no idea why it's 14+ other than guns?). Really feels like it wants an expansion to get a little more depth on squads & missions and some more villains & heroes (like they say, the Dathomir mission where it moves was favourite): feels like there's a lot of room to expand.
I really dislike the specific planet based mission system as, specially with only 2p, it rewards players to just get planted in that planet trying to get the right cards (not to mention the lucky die roll) and specially if it is a boss mission where you certainly need more than one Jedi to contribute cards. It is dull... If there is a fire exploding on the other side of the board, there is no reason to go there and fight as it is just a waste of time... In the original Pandemic at least you could surrender your cards at any base and it was up to you to build a diverse base system, so traveling was encouraged making the game way more dynamic.
This comment was extremely important to me, as I play most of my games exclusively at 2. So far my favorite pandemic has been Fall of Rome and I was thinking if I should give this one a chance to dethrone it since I can't justify keeping 2 pandemic games in my collection. By what you said though, I would probably hate this one a lot so you probably saved me a lot of frustration haha
I just stumbled across this game today. I've heard of the game called "Pandemic" but never played it, didn't know it was a series. I've loved playing Zombicide Black Plague/Green Horde/Undead or Alive for years; enjoying the co-op kind of game. $59.99 on Amazon is pricey for me but I found and ordered one on ebay for $30. Looking forward to playing it!
Mike, I haven't' played any pandemic games and I love Star Wars...yet this game left me feeling cold too, thanks for making me feel like I'm not crazy.
Played this last night and won against Darth Maul by the skin of our teeth. I loved the legacy series but would never go back to them and got rid of base pandemic with expansions a few years ago. Have been considering an intro co-op game and so glad this came out and that I never bit on WotLK. Z-Man games put out a winner here.
Although both this star wars pandemic and the WOW made interesting changes. I am really disappointed with both. I remember my games to previous pandemic games. Losing all my starting games. Now in these last two opandemics I haven't lost a game yet. I think the level of difficulty has been lowered. I don't know if it's partly becausenow you can share the cards with other players and that the chances of success of the dice are too friendly. I also think as a cris that the missions in the end are all very similar. and the different size of the villain/hero minis in relation to the droids is something that really bothers me (it seems that you fight against dwarves. a problem that In Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu already had). For me Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu with its beautiful board and old ones system giving you different difficulties and penalties throughout the game as they appear continues to make it unique and more replayable. together with the fall of Rome they are still my favorites (not including the legacy)
I don’t feel the difficulty has been lowered so much as the difficulty range is more expansive. Ventress on Padawan (difficulty 1) level is a very different experience than even Mail on Jedi Knight (difficulty 2) Level. This game is really great in the sense that you really can adjust the level to what you want exactly, without using house rules. Overall, I really liked it and I liked how it wasn’t just reskin of Pandemic but felt different while similar. I do like the Star Wars one better than the WOW one though. The variation is greater in Star Wars and just lends better to repeat plays.
I think pandemic themed games has run its course and I am really tired of co-op "games" in general which are simply glorified puzzles. The game board looks bad and you can only image what this would look like if made by FFG at their peak.
I thought the wrath of the litch King was such a huge jump from pandemic and then this was even better than that one. I don't see any pandemic game taking this one's place. Unless...... They do a lord of the rings one. That could be pretty amazing.
@@harryofgo well personally I'm not a WOW fan. I love warcraft 2 but besides that I'm not a big fan on the warcraft ip. However, I love starwars and I love the clone wars, so the theme is definitely better for me. I also like how little this one feels like just a re-skinned pandemic. Wrath did a lot better but it still has the same card mechanic at the end of your turn and alot other pandemic mechanics ( which is fine if you love pandemic) I personally am fine with pandemic but I do like a good co-op game. This game kind of feels like a little deck builder. Because you get to keep cards and use them when you want instead of just discarding them. So I feel like I'm building my squad of cards (which really works with the theme). Also the villains are actually a threat that you can interact with unlike the litch king in the other game. So I just like the new mechanics but mainly it's the theme. I love starwars and it's used so well in the game.
I came down on a 6, same as Mike, though maybe got there a different way. I'm not a fan of Pandemic and generally refuse to play it co-op. I'd play it myself, particularly on the app, but I don't want to play it with other people. I'm not a fan of the system and I don't think there's enough game there to make it worth discussing with other people what to do. Clone Wars I'd happily play with other people though. Yes, we're working together, but you're also going off on your own little missions and what I'm doing is not necessarily related to what you're doing and the hands of cards makes one player more suited than another to do the next mission, or we can build up to trying to defeat the villain, while keeping on top of droids. This is likely because the game is 'looser'. You don't need to do the absolute best thing on your turn AND the game gives you more options with what you can do with your hand of cards. You're not locked into one region or being on the same space and the hero cards in particular are fun when they come up. But, because it is a bit looser, it's also a bit easier and while games are close (and even lose-able), the tension rarely gets as high. So, more fun during the game, but perhaps missing those highs of well-timed eradication. 8.5 seems overly-generous, mainly because I can't imagine wanting to go back to this game time and time again. The potential is there with an expansion to make it more challenging and to add some variety, but as it stands a few games are all that's really needed to see what the game can offer, so don't see this being asked for every week.
21:20 Was there a dare in the Yi family household to position yourself in front of the screen so the picture will make funny stuff with your hair? After Chris's mohawk a couple of days ago in the Orichalcum Review, seeing Wendy's hair bow, raised that question.
Im a huge star wars nut. I've played one game of this so far with only 4 missions against Ventress and it was mega easy, but fun! I want to play it again :D
Just played this yesterday. It's my first pandemic game so not sure what to expect. Overall, it's an easy and fun game to play. Wish there's more villans though, I can see this game getting stale quite fast.
I feel like Clone Wars would be better suited for a Rebellion re-skin. No? Though- would need more than a re-skinning of course given the power dynamic is more equal.
I love Pandemic. I was never a huge fan of the Star Wars movies (My Star Wars was 2001 and Star Wars, to me, felt like a flashier Flash Gordon serials), and with the exceptions of Andor (which is more like real adult science fiction) and The Mandalorian, I haven't been able to get into any of the series, and the lore is just not interesting to me. So I still am not sure about this one because it's not an IP that I'm into.
I totally agree with Mike. I'm done with Pandemic-style games too-I’ve played too many of them. With so many new systems coming out all the time, why play the same one over and over again?
I can answer that for you very easily. It's Monopoly. From the web: "It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly how many different Monopoly versions there are. Estimates range from 300 to 7,000, with the truth being closer to the higher estimate. The largest Monopoly collection contains over 3,500 official versions of Monopoly."
You should see the Earth map in the first Pandemic game. Snoreville. (Which is another way of saying the boards have never been the standout of any Pandemic game, perhaps with the exception of Iberia.)
That board along with that Clone Wars theme makes this an easy pass. At least the WoW theme looked cool. This also could have been a 14 minute review with just Zee, but I guess Tom is the only reviewer that does games alone there now.
That's a wild claim. Bryan had a solo review 3 days ago. Graeme had a solo review 6 days ago. Oliver had a solo review 7 days ago. Joey had a solo review 9 days ago. So on and so forth. Now admittedly Zee hasn't had a solo review for about 3 months at a glance, but asking Zee to solo review a Pandemic game might as well have been 30 seconds with him slapping a seal of excellence on it. Other reviewers also giving it an 8.5 is useful for people here, I would say. Along with Mike's 6 (which mirrors my score).
@@StalkerB not wild at all seeing the other people you mentioned aren't able to be part of the studio. Having larger games being a multi person review is great and had been done with Miami Dice in the past, but some of the smaller games like District Noir don't need multiple people. You could easily add scores from multiple people that show up after the solo reviewer gives theirs if you really want other's scores. Having two people discuss a trick taking game is unnecessary.
I would like to point out that the missions are named after arcs in the Clone Wars tv show and take place on the appropriate planets. It is. a nice thematic touch.
I absolutely loved that touch. In fact, I tried to read all the mission descriptions in the Clone Wars intro voice.
@@TSDreamCreative Admiral Yularen would smile upon you fondly.
I love that the missions are titled the same as the episodes from Clone Wars and have the flavor text
Chris is right, Mon Cala is an actual planet in SW. The Clone Wars show has a few episodes featuring it, its really the only time we see the planet in film or tv.
In fact, Mon Cala made all the huge ships we see the Rebels fly in!
I absolutely loved this game BUT it definitely needs more content to give it a lot of depth. I want to see other droids to fight off (and add more difficulty), more side characters and such, and maybe even some more variety in what the cards do in the deck. While I fully expect fan-made content (in fact, I have some ideas myself), I really want to see Z-Man support this game with some deep content.
Played a few times now, having never knowingly played a Pandemic, but several co op "take 4 actions a turn" style games, this one hit the best sweet spot in a lot of categories for me.
Not too hard, turns are interesting and thoughtful without needing to mull over them for minutes to feel like you did the right move.
This looks soo much better than I expected from another Pandemic game! Really think I’ll get this one! :)
Chris: "A 6 is Mike's score and that's a *legitimate* score."
*Silence*
Zee: "What you got?"
Chris: "8.5."
Play against Count dooku. If I remember right he adds two more villains and him.
Yesterday was the first time I looked into this game and I was pleasantly surprised to find it is built on the Pandemic system because it's really appealing to me. I have also only played Pandemic once so far, due to how recently I bought it, so there's no chance that I'll feel that I'm tired with the system any time soon. The changes here seem really fun and thematic and as a huge Star Wars nerd the focus on the Clone Wars era in particular makes this a must buy for me. While the first two prequels definitely had their issues as films I still find the prequel era of Star Wars to be by far the most interesting one and the one that allows for an almost infinite amount of interesting stories to be told.
I am very new to table top games. We've got friends who are VERY into games and they recommended this one to us to start with. I picked it up a few weeks ago and we're excited to dig in and try it out.
I want games based on jedi academy (from the books) bring on Jania and Jacen Solo. bring on Mara Jade and the rest of the characters that are now non existent.
Mike - “Not a kickstarter game I backed… 6/10.”
😂
🤣
😆😆😆
So what Contrast paint is Wendy putting on them? Over a zenithal or? I need to know so I have the paint ready when I pick it up.
Ohh two villains! Please post the Darth Yi variant
I cant wait to try this game! Waiting for it to get to retail in South America
I pre-ordered this game at my flgs and then had second thoughts. Why did I do that? But I followed through and got it. If you're not tired of the Pandemic system, this game changes enough to make it interesting again. And I love the Star Wars theme, so this game really works for me. The more you're into the Clone Wars animated series, the more the theme rewards you.
I suggest trying it before you dismiss it. You might be surprised.
I am going to defend Mike here; I very much enjoyed the Legacy Pandemics Seasons 1 2 and 0, but I can't imagine going back to the systems otherwise.
Where was Roy in this review? Really curious what he thinks.
Why there is droids minis but no clones minis ??
The Clone Troopers are on the cards as part of your squad. It's like they move with the Jedi figure on the map.
I've heard it's too easy. Any thoughts?
If you are a seasoned pandemic player, you will probably want to up the difficulty after just a couple games. The good thing is scaling the difficulty is simply just adding more missions.
@@cubsnextyear17 Apparently that doesn't make the game harder, it just makes it longer
@@tigerwalms Longer is harder apparently.
@@tigerwalms Longer definitely makes it harder, because you'll have to either complete missions faster, or else deal with more droids and blockades later in the game.
I definitely have not found it an easy win. I’m still under 50% success. But I might just be a funny.
Which contrast paint is the "perfect color" how was that never said out loud?
I would do a coat of Contrast's Skeleton Hoard and then paint the guns and bases black.
@@DTWendy Roger Roger
@@DTWendy Thanks!
I got this one for my family for Christmas and it was a hit - a big selling point was that it was NOT pandemic themed after 3 years of pandemic. My cousin was able to play it at a third of the age on the box as a Star wars fan who had played some other board games, so that was great (no idea why it's 14+ other than guns?). Really feels like it wants an expansion to get a little more depth on squads & missions and some more villains & heroes (like they say, the Dathomir mission where it moves was favourite): feels like there's a lot of room to expand.
I really dislike the specific planet based mission system as, specially with only 2p, it rewards players to just get planted in that planet trying to get the right cards (not to mention the lucky die roll) and specially if it is a boss mission where you certainly need more than one Jedi to contribute cards. It is dull... If there is a fire exploding on the other side of the board, there is no reason to go there and fight as it is just a waste of time... In the original Pandemic at least you could surrender your cards at any base and it was up to you to build a diverse base system, so traveling was encouraged making the game way more dynamic.
This comment was extremely important to me, as I play most of my games exclusively at 2. So far my favorite pandemic has been Fall of Rome and I was thinking if I should give this one a chance to dethrone it since I can't justify keeping 2 pandemic games in my collection.
By what you said though, I would probably hate this one a lot so you probably saved me a lot of frustration haha
Hey @Chris Yi what is the Star Wars lore youtube channel you mentioned?
Been watching a lot of Eckhart's Ladder recently. He does a lot of fun stuff on the Legends novels of which I only read a few.
Seems like a Defenders of the Realm reskin.
thank you!
I was hoping it would be star wars rebellion clone wars
I just stumbled across this game today. I've heard of the game called "Pandemic" but never played it, didn't know it was a series. I've loved playing Zombicide Black Plague/Green Horde/Undead or Alive for years; enjoying the co-op kind of game. $59.99 on Amazon is pricey for me but I found and ordered one on ebay for $30. Looking forward to playing it!
I think we can all sympathize with Mike a bit. Sometimes you know a game isn’t bad, but for some reason, you just don’t enjoy it.
this game needs an expansion or two IMO
Is that a water gun pun?
Mike, I haven't' played any pandemic games and I love Star Wars...yet this game left me feeling cold too, thanks for making me feel like I'm not crazy.
Um, actually, the squid people are the Quarren. They're from Mon Calla, which they share with the bug eyed Mon Calamari (Admiral Akbar's people).
Played this last night and won against Darth Maul by the skin of our teeth. I loved the legacy series but would never go back to them and got rid of base pandemic with expansions a few years ago. Have been considering an intro co-op game and so glad this came out and that I never bit on WotLK. Z-Man games put out a winner here.
I really enjoyed it as well. Excited to play more of this one.
Although both this star wars pandemic and the WOW made interesting changes. I am really disappointed with both. I remember my games to previous pandemic games. Losing all my starting games. Now in these last two opandemics I haven't lost a game yet. I think the level of difficulty has been lowered. I don't know if it's partly becausenow you can share the cards with other players and that the chances of success of the dice are too friendly. I also think as a cris that the missions in the end are all very similar. and the different size of the villain/hero minis in relation to the droids is something that really bothers me (it seems that you fight against dwarves. a problem that In Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu already had). For me Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu with its beautiful board and old ones system giving you different difficulties and penalties throughout the game as they appear continues to make it unique and more replayable. together with the fall of Rome they are still my favorites (not including the legacy)
I don’t feel the difficulty has been lowered so much as the difficulty range is more expansive. Ventress on Padawan (difficulty 1) level is a very different experience than even Mail on Jedi Knight (difficulty 2) Level. This game is really great in the sense that you really can adjust the level to what you want exactly, without using house rules. Overall, I really liked it and I liked how it wasn’t just reskin of Pandemic but felt different while similar. I do like the Star Wars one better than the WOW one though. The variation is greater in Star Wars and just lends better to repeat plays.
I think pandemic themed games has run its course and I am really tired of co-op "games" in general which are simply glorified puzzles. The game board looks bad and you can only image what this would look like if made by FFG at their peak.
I thought the wrath of the litch King was such a huge jump from pandemic and then this was even better than that one. I don't see any pandemic game taking this one's place. Unless...... They do a lord of the rings one. That could be pretty amazing.
Why do you think its better than Wrath?
@@harryofgo well personally I'm not a WOW fan. I love warcraft 2 but besides that I'm not a big fan on the warcraft ip. However, I love starwars and I love the clone wars, so the theme is definitely better for me. I also like how little this one feels like just a re-skinned pandemic. Wrath did a lot better but it still has the same card mechanic at the end of your turn and alot other pandemic mechanics ( which is fine if you love pandemic) I personally am fine with pandemic but I do like a good co-op game. This game kind of feels like a little deck builder. Because you get to keep cards and use them when you want instead of just discarding them. So I feel like I'm building my squad of cards (which really works with the theme). Also the villains are actually a threat that you can interact with unlike the litch king in the other game. So I just like the new mechanics but mainly it's the theme. I love starwars and it's used so well in the game.
LotR pandemic would be amazing
Hello there :D
Just saw this today and thinking about getting it
I came down on a 6, same as Mike, though maybe got there a different way.
I'm not a fan of Pandemic and generally refuse to play it co-op. I'd play it myself, particularly on the app, but I don't want to play it with other people. I'm not a fan of the system and I don't think there's enough game there to make it worth discussing with other people what to do.
Clone Wars I'd happily play with other people though.
Yes, we're working together, but you're also going off on your own little missions and what I'm doing is not necessarily related to what you're doing and the hands of cards makes one player more suited than another to do the next mission, or we can build up to trying to defeat the villain, while keeping on top of droids.
This is likely because the game is 'looser'. You don't need to do the absolute best thing on your turn AND the game gives you more options with what you can do with your hand of cards. You're not locked into one region or being on the same space and the hero cards in particular are fun when they come up.
But, because it is a bit looser, it's also a bit easier and while games are close (and even lose-able), the tension rarely gets as high. So, more fun during the game, but perhaps missing those highs of well-timed eradication.
8.5 seems overly-generous, mainly because I can't imagine wanting to go back to this game time and time again. The potential is there with an expansion to make it more challenging and to add some variety, but as it stands a few games are all that's really needed to see what the game can offer, so don't see this being asked for every week.
21:20 Was there a dare in the Yi family household to position yourself in front of the screen so the picture will make funny stuff with your hair?
After Chris's mohawk a couple of days ago in the Orichalcum Review, seeing Wendy's hair bow, raised that question.
Im a huge star wars nut. I've played one game of this so far with only 4 missions against Ventress and it was mega easy, but fun! I want to play it again :D
My experience as well. Need to play against all the villains before I can judge it too much
Just played this yesterday. It's my first pandemic game so not sure what to expect. Overall, it's an easy and fun game to play. Wish there's more villans though, I can see this game getting stale quite fast.
I feel like Clone Wars would be better suited for a Rebellion re-skin. No? Though- would need more than a re-skinning of course given the power dynamic is more equal.
But is it better than Horrified?
the brown droid extra was nicer .. grey is tacky for the theme for the droids
I love Pandemic. I was never a huge fan of the Star Wars movies (My Star Wars was 2001 and Star Wars, to me, felt like a flashier Flash Gordon serials), and with the exceptions of Andor (which is more like real adult science fiction) and The Mandalorian, I haven't been able to get into any of the series, and the lore is just not interesting to me. So I still am not sure about this one because it's not an IP that I'm into.
It's almost as if Flash Gordon was one of the places Lucas drew his inspiration...
I totally agree with Mike. I'm done with Pandemic-style games too-I’ve played too many of them. With so many new systems coming out all the time, why play the same one over and over again?
Pandemic..best game system ever. But this is not their best game. They should go back to the core gameplay. Rise of tide, iberia,..love those games.
Yi variant rules when?
Between Monopoly, Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Pandemic I am no longer sure which system is the copypasta king anymore. It is really getting old.
Pretty sure Monopoly is the eternal emperor.
I can answer that for you very easily. It's Monopoly.
From the web:
"It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly how many different Monopoly versions there are. Estimates range from 300 to 7,000, with the truth being closer to the higher estimate. The largest Monopoly collection contains over 3,500 official versions of Monopoly."
@@cailin5301 Yeah I new it was Monopoly. The point was that the others are adopting the same bad ideas.
Zee “I really like pandemic stuff” Garcia
I agree with Mike
I find all the complaints very nitpicky. This is a great game for fans. Enough to recommend it to Clone Wars fans. I feel it was made with love.
Imagine if they used the Tigris and Eufrates score system: the lower score is the final score XD
This isbclearly based on the tv show, uf your only reference is the movies, you are not going to get it
I'm just so done with Pandemic now - Z-Man Games have just got no innovation left.
I love Pandemic and Star Wars but this game board is soooooooo boring. It's like no effort was put into it at all. ☹️☹️☹️
You should see the Earth map in the first Pandemic game. Snoreville. (Which is another way of saying the boards have never been the standout of any Pandemic game, perhaps with the exception of Iberia.)
The map is not much to look at. Also I'm confused why the villain and invasion cards are supposed to go above the board instead of to the left of it.
That is strange. I had a blast with this game.
I'm a Star Wars fan but not a fan of pandemic because of the one player who thinks they should run the show..
I will never get why pandemic is so popular.
That board along with that Clone Wars theme makes this an easy pass. At least the WoW theme looked cool. This also could have been a 14 minute review with just Zee, but I guess Tom is the only reviewer that does games alone there now.
That's a wild claim.
Bryan had a solo review 3 days ago.
Graeme had a solo review 6 days ago.
Oliver had a solo review 7 days ago.
Joey had a solo review 9 days ago.
So on and so forth.
Now admittedly Zee hasn't had a solo review for about 3 months at a glance, but asking Zee to solo review a Pandemic game might as well have been 30 seconds with him slapping a seal of excellence on it.
Other reviewers also giving it an 8.5 is useful for people here, I would say. Along with Mike's 6 (which mirrors my score).
I find the combo reviews much more interesting!
@@StalkerB not wild at all seeing the other people you mentioned aren't able to be part of the studio.
Having larger games being a multi person review is great and had been done with Miami Dice in the past, but some of the smaller games like District Noir don't need multiple people.
You could easily add scores from multiple people that show up after the solo reviewer gives theirs if you really want other's scores. Having two people discuss a trick taking game is unnecessary.