I just saw this review... I wrote that BGG review, and am proud you mentioned it in your video. War is terrible. And it's happening again... Ukraine, Somalia, Jemen, Syria... People are suffering... Those are situations where being dead is not the worse of it. You're hungry, scared, you're loosing your loved ones daily... Wars need to stop.
thanks for commenting, I think I also saw your reply on BGG. As I look back, this game is truly a service, so glad its created. Keep spreading the word. -Ashton
I’ve been considering this for a while, so I’m happy to see you guys review this. You’re my favorite board game channel by far. This review makes this game an easy purchase.
I'm a fan of the video game so thanks for the review. It seems like there's few board games that are somber and explore deep topics like this. Also, first!
glad that you liked the review! I've only seen a bit of the video game gameplay and it looks brilliant, if they ever port it to the switch, I would love to have a go with it. It really is a fresh change of pace overall, now I want to play the board game again :) -Ashton
This is in my top three favorite games of all time--I loved that you said this game can be viewed as "depressing" or "hopeful"--Hopeful was always my outlook. This channel's reviews are so so good!
Would be interesting to see a similar game, but from a perspective of common soldiers. Like, with horrors of war not in the style of Apocalypse Now or Spec Ops: The Line, but everyday, realistic stuff. You were, like, a teacher or an IT guy, and now you're sleeping in a hole in the ground (or not sleeping for days in trenches), all your life is in your backpack, everything's wet and cold and dirty, you risk your life daily, you're either bored for days or in total overdrive mode, you make new friends and then lose them, you're not getting along with your brothers in arms, you get bad news from home, your supply lines get cut off, you start getting PTSD, your commander gets drunk and shoots himself... Lots of stuff to explore. The Grizzled comes to mind, but that one's quite abstract (though pretty great). Would be interesting to see a more thematic take.
I'm torn on this one. I can definitely see where it would be a worthwhile game to play, but I would need to be in the right mindset (which I often am not these days). In the end, I have no idea, but you've given some great talking points.
As one who also really likes history there are definitely some tremendous history themed board games out there that also have lots of player interaction such as the Pax series, COIN/GMT games, 1775 Rebellion, and many more. I lean heavily on needing theme in my games and for the majority of these it comes in spades (especially the Pax Series). Also crazy enough I have gotten several people who are not gamers into board games with some of these even though many can be quite complex but because of the theme it truly captures their attention.
history fans unite through board games! I actually want to go down the GMT route some more in the future (Twilight Struggle really was too intense for me though, not a huge fan of cold war era either). I have my eyes on Paths of Glory for my WWI fix! As for getting people in board gaming, if its not a simple party game, usually the theme will win them over (look at all the cute pandas in takenoko!) -Ashton
@@Shelfside If you find Twilight Struggle too intense, you should surely try out ‘1960: Making of the President’. It’s a lighter, sharper and shorter re-implementation of Twilight Struggle. Dare I say a better experience too. Not a single wasted action/turn (unlike TS).
No way you only mentioned one real con for this game.... Let me make a list: -high amounts of rng -bad rng can result in players just constantly getting smashed -very fiddly constantly swapping status tokens and grabbing tokens -campaign game - game takes a few play sessions to finish so you need the same group of players for a few sessions
I didn't remember the video game was base of the siege of Sarajevo. I've been there and met several people who lived there during the siege. When I was playing video games, some kids there were avoiding the snipers to get some water. Need to play it again (never survived long), and try the board game version too. I'd like to see more serious board games. There are so many thought-provoking video games (from Journey to Death Stranding or What remains of Edith Finch and Dark Souls), but board games seems to be lacking in this area.
Good review, on point! I just get the game and feel the same. The manual don't explained too much, is necessary a resume of phases and actions in just one page, the faq should be all together and the destiny cards and combats could be better. But! The pros are better, is an amazing and dark beautiful game. I love how natural the randomness feels here with cards and dices. And I'm not mad at the hidden rules, is funny to get them. The construction of the board while playing and adding staff is very good. By the way: for the narrative actions you draw two cards and choose one.
I know right? The randomness just feels very on-point and thematic here. While the large amount of randomness could be a con for many games, it's certainly not in TWoM. Ooh, I think the footage for the narrative actions got a little wonky in the vid, we do always play as if you draw 2 and pick one. That is also a really interesting decision to make with the right combo -Ashton
You should definitely try it with the app. The lockpicking becomes easier, going through the scripts is less troublesome and if you want, you can do the Exploration with a time limit lol It would be nice to see your reaction!
whoa! Time limit!? That sounds really fun. I'll have to try the app next time, I heard about it right as I was finishing up editing this vid, so I didn't talk about it here. Will have to give it a go! -Ashton
that's a really good question- it depends on so many factors: whether we get a good feel/understanding of the game early on, how long the game is, how much there is to explore in the game, how faction balance works, variants worth checking out, etc etc. For the really asymmetrical Root, Daniel wanted to play dozens of times before releasing anything, while for Throw Throw Burrito, we were ready to make a review off of one 5 minute game (but we still played it like 10+ times before making the review because its that fun). In general, we don't go shouting from the rooftops how many times we play a game, but these reviews are far from first impressions. So as for this game, it would be three full playthroughs, all played with different groups. Two plays in small groups, and one play solo. Hope this helped! -Ashton
Cheers from here in America! BSG does the Battlestar Galactica theme really well! For realistic environments, it really is hard to beat this game though, nothing comes to mind! Man, I really need to play this game again -Ashton
The only nitpick I have about this game is that one of the events, I think it’s called harsh winter, where you get an extra cold token EVERY turn and whenever it comes up it just feels like an auto-lose button especially if it comes up early 🤷🏻♂️
oh whew, that one DESTROYED us multiple times. Yeah its super harsh. Definitely agree that it can be auto-lose :/... but possibly thematic, man this game is such an interesting study on how thematic to make a game -Ashton
it does seem pretty overwhelming at first, but you get really used to it because they're organized well on the board! Plus they all fit in the insert super duper well which is always nice -Ashton
Interesting. I thought the board game came prior to the video game (I have it on Switch). It's somewhat depressing yet still an experience worth playing. Nemesis may be an interesting board game to check out if you're unfamiliar. It's heavily influenced by the 'Alien' movie (with expansions being reminiscent of Dead Space and Event Horizon)
Nemesis has been on the list to check out! Another AR game that has caught my eye. TWoM has consistently given me chills, can't wait to play this again -Ashton
1:00 Siege of Sarajevo was less than 30 years ago 1992-1996, not that far in the past. 7:00 If you have 3 wounds , you can still perform actions but in night phase (either to scavange or guard the door). 29:10 (SPOILER ALERT) About not tearing up - there is a story in the game about the city's Romeo and Julliet which is a real story about Bosko and Admira. Once I realized they actually incorporated this sad story into game I started to wonder if all stories in this game are based on some grim history and man I teared up at that moment. Also I would mention that the game has already 2 expansions already. My personal score is 11/10, not because is perfect but because it does something no other game did before it...
yep! You are correct, not sure why I said 40 years ago, 30 years is the correct number. You can still perform actions if you have 3 wounds at night, I just wanted to really showcase the punishment of fighting to streamline the game :) Yeah, many many dark stories in this game that are utterly fantastic. Will have to check out the expansions in the future! -Ashton
So you mentioned that in one of you play throughs, that you ran into soldiers and tried to reason with them. They shot and killed your character. If you restart and play a new game and come across the soldiers and that option, will you still have a chance to reason and succeed, or do you know from your play through they will always shoot you so it's better to take another option? I would hope you are able to reason with them and have a chance to succeed, or each play through will become predicable.
In that specific case, one would know to take another option to not get shot. But in other cases, you would choose an option, then roll a die to see what resolves. Playthroughs have not gotten too predictable though, because with the sheer amount of prompts, and how well the game's systems randomize them, we've only had drastic moments repeat once in our 10+ playthroughs so far. -Ashton
cheers again man! Definitely doesn't have the semi-coop, and is super gritty! Much more survival going on here. Now I wanna return to the game and give it another go. -Ashton
@@Shelfside Jap, without the semi coop. Right. But If you play it coop, for me the Immersion and to manage the Apocalypse is much better designt. If the game haven't a war Scenario. A Zombie Apocalypse Scenario will Work as well. A The Walking Dead Brand will fit perfectly. My opinion. ✌🏼
@@jeremythompson6895 yep, definitely got the immersion way harder in this game- there's actually different types of food! Glad you seeing you around, hear from ya soon :) -Ashton
I love the theme of this game, however I played it probably 5 times and never won. I get that it's supposed to be difficult, but there just felt like there was too much to manage; hunger, misery, fatigue, illness, wounds...I also felt like the implementation of weapons weren't reflective of how powerful they should be...Curious if you ever won a game? Thanks Ashton!
There is a TON of things to handle for sure. I've never personally won a game, but my friend who I lent, and later gifted the game started getting a reasonable win rate around the 9th/10th playthrough. He's a tad masochistic haha. He found the -perfect- way to optimize building. Yet I don't think the game should be approached strictly in that way- its so wonderful in how 'sad' it is. Weapons are sometimes REALLY good, but they don't prevent you from taking damage, which is what makes fighting usually so punishing. My favorite game of it (5th playthrough) activated a REALLY fascinating side story that I won't spoil, and even though we lost that game, it was freaking awesome. Let me know if you have any other questions! -Ashton
Thanks for the review! Sadly I don't think this game is for me, or anyone in my group really. Way too serious/depressing. Wasn't interested on the videogame either and what you said just reinforces the point that this isn't for me.
Oh wtf thanks for pointing that out! Cut out some of them dunno why there were automatically so many in the first place. Usually they don't slap that many on. -Daniel
this game lied to me. 1st playthrough took my group 2 hours ish. 2nd playthrough took 5 hours, because we had way more talking and discussing. At least we got our first win on the table..... at the cost of the deaths of 2 civilians and 4/5 of the visitors.
I have yet to try Robinson Crusoe! TWOM does feel like a slog at times, but the "slog-like" nature works wonders for the theme. It is the bleak suffering you have to trudge through day after day that is utterly realistic ahaha. -Ashton
@@Copterman that makes a lot of sense- I have heard TwOM called a role-playing game as well. The Book of Scripts actually encourages the reader to change your narration to fit current events a lot more -Ashton
I just saw this review... I wrote that BGG review, and am proud you mentioned it in your video. War is terrible. And it's happening again... Ukraine, Somalia, Jemen, Syria... People are suffering... Those are situations where being dead is not the worse of it. You're hungry, scared, you're loosing your loved ones daily... Wars need to stop.
thanks for commenting, I think I also saw your reply on BGG. As I look back, this game is truly a service, so glad its created. Keep spreading the word. -Ashton
- sigh -
- opens wallet and amazon -
I’ve been considering this for a while, so I’m happy to see you guys review this. You’re my favorite board game channel by far. This review makes this game an easy purchase.
hey glad that we could help ya out! More content headed your way! :D -Ashton
Really love your review style. Great job!
thank you! More content coming! -Ashton
I'm a fan of the video game so thanks for the review. It seems like there's few board games that are somber and explore deep topics like this. Also, first!
glad that you liked the review! I've only seen a bit of the video game gameplay and it looks brilliant, if they ever port it to the switch, I would love to have a go with it. It really is a fresh change of pace overall, now I want to play the board game again :) -Ashton
@@Shelfside But there is already a Switch version. For awhile now!
@@vlowolvtake1797 oh snap! TIL! I'll have to play it tonight, thanks for the heads up :)
This is in my top three favorite games of all time--I loved that you said this game can be viewed as "depressing" or "hopeful"--Hopeful was always my outlook. This channel's reviews are so so good!
Cheers! My friend who I played with in this video LOVES it! I hope to make another return back with a giant vid -Ashton
Thanks for the review! loving your channel!
Thank you! This game is seriously amazing, need to play it again with expansions! -Ashton
Would be interesting to see a similar game, but from a perspective of common soldiers. Like, with horrors of war not in the style of Apocalypse Now or Spec Ops: The Line, but everyday, realistic stuff. You were, like, a teacher or an IT guy, and now you're sleeping in a hole in the ground (or not sleeping for days in trenches), all your life is in your backpack, everything's wet and cold and dirty, you risk your life daily, you're either bored for days or in total overdrive mode, you make new friends and then lose them, you're not getting along with your brothers in arms, you get bad news from home, your supply lines get cut off, you start getting PTSD, your commander gets drunk and shoots himself... Lots of stuff to explore.
The Grizzled comes to mind, but that one's quite abstract (though pretty great). Would be interesting to see a more thematic take.
I'm torn on this one. I can definitely see where it would be a worthwhile game to play, but I would need to be in the right mindset (which I often am not these days). In the end, I have no idea, but you've given some great talking points.
Wow. Great video. Thank you!
As one who also really likes history there are definitely some tremendous history themed board games out there that also have lots of player interaction such as the Pax series, COIN/GMT games, 1775 Rebellion, and many more. I lean heavily on needing theme in my games and for the majority of these it comes in spades (especially the Pax Series). Also crazy enough I have gotten several people who are not gamers into board games with some of these even though many can be quite complex but because of the theme it truly captures their attention.
history fans unite through board games! I actually want to go down the GMT route some more in the future (Twilight Struggle really was too intense for me though, not a huge fan of cold war era either). I have my eyes on Paths of Glory for my WWI fix! As for getting people in board gaming, if its not a simple party game, usually the theme will win them over (look at all the cute pandas in takenoko!) -Ashton
@@Shelfside If you find Twilight Struggle too intense, you should surely try out ‘1960: Making of the President’. It’s a lighter, sharper and shorter re-implementation of Twilight Struggle. Dare I say a better experience too. Not a single wasted action/turn (unlike TS).
@@littlebluecubes That hasn't been the first time I heard on that guy! Will have to check it out :) -Ashton
No way you only mentioned one real con for this game.... Let me make a list:
-high amounts of rng
-bad rng can result in players just constantly getting smashed
-very fiddly constantly swapping status tokens and grabbing tokens
-campaign game - game takes a few play sessions to finish so you need the same group of players for a few sessions
The RNG is thematic
My favourite game, add the 2 expansions and its a 10/10. Robinson Crusoe close second.
Thank you for the video
I didn't remember the video game was base of the siege of Sarajevo. I've been there and met several people who lived there during the siege. When I was playing video games, some kids there were avoiding the snipers to get some water. Need to play it again (never survived long), and try the board game version too. I'd like to see more serious board games. There are so many thought-provoking video games (from Journey to Death Stranding or What remains of Edith Finch and Dark Souls), but board games seems to be lacking in this area.
Good review, on point! I just get the game and feel the same. The manual don't explained too much, is necessary a resume of phases and actions in just one page, the faq should be all together and the destiny cards and combats could be better. But! The pros are better, is an amazing and dark beautiful game. I love how natural the randomness feels here with cards and dices. And I'm not mad at the hidden rules, is funny to get them. The construction of the board while playing and adding staff is very good.
By the way: for the narrative actions you draw two cards and choose one.
I know right? The randomness just feels very on-point and thematic here. While the large amount of randomness could be a con for many games, it's certainly not in TWoM.
Ooh, I think the footage for the narrative actions got a little wonky in the vid, we do always play as if you draw 2 and pick one. That is also a really interesting decision to make with the right combo -Ashton
You should definitely try it with the app. The lockpicking
becomes easier, going through the scripts is less troublesome and if you want, you can do the Exploration with a time limit lol It would be nice to see your reaction!
whoa! Time limit!? That sounds really fun. I'll have to try the app next time, I heard about it right as I was finishing up editing this vid, so I didn't talk about it here. Will have to give it a go! -Ashton
How many times did you play through this game (and your other reviews) before you make a review on it?
that's a really good question- it depends on so many factors: whether we get a good feel/understanding of the game early on, how long the game is, how much there is to explore in the game, how faction balance works, variants worth checking out, etc etc. For the really asymmetrical Root, Daniel wanted to play dozens of times before releasing anything, while for Throw Throw Burrito, we were ready to make a review off of one 5 minute game (but we still played it like 10+ times before making the review because its that fun). In general, we don't go shouting from the rooftops how many times we play a game, but these reviews are far from first impressions.
So as for this game, it would be three full playthroughs, all played with different groups. Two plays in small groups, and one play solo. Hope this helped! -Ashton
The best game with a climate! Even better experiences with the physical game. Is there any board game with a better vibe? Greetings from Poland.
Cheers from here in America! BSG does the Battlestar Galactica theme really well! For realistic environments, it really is hard to beat this game though, nothing comes to mind! Man, I really need to play this game again -Ashton
Which is better Pavlov’s House or This War of Mine?
I know they play not really in the same genre.
Pavlov’s House
The German translation of the game's title sounds a bit like a famous book ^^
The only nitpick I have about this game is that one of the events, I think it’s called harsh winter, where you get an extra cold token EVERY turn and whenever it comes up it just feels like an auto-lose button especially if it comes up early 🤷🏻♂️
oh whew, that one DESTROYED us multiple times. Yeah its super harsh. Definitely agree that it can be auto-lose :/... but possibly thematic, man this game is such an interesting study on how thematic to make a game -Ashton
Holy hell, that’s a lot of decks...
it does seem pretty overwhelming at first, but you get really used to it because they're organized well on the board! Plus they all fit in the insert super duper well which is always nice -Ashton
Interesting. I thought the board game came prior to the video game (I have it on Switch). It's somewhat depressing yet still an experience worth playing.
Nemesis may be an interesting board game to check out if you're unfamiliar. It's heavily influenced by the 'Alien' movie (with expansions being reminiscent of Dead Space and Event Horizon)
Nemesis has been on the list to check out! Another AR game that has caught my eye. TWoM has consistently given me chills, can't wait to play this again -Ashton
Very good review ! I own this game and it is great
1:00 Siege of Sarajevo was less than 30 years ago 1992-1996, not that far in the past. 7:00 If you have 3 wounds , you can still perform actions but in night phase (either to scavange or guard the door). 29:10 (SPOILER ALERT) About not tearing up - there is a story in the game about the city's Romeo and Julliet which is a real story about Bosko and Admira. Once I realized they actually incorporated this sad story into game I started to wonder if all stories in this game are based on some grim history and man I teared up at that moment.
Also I would mention that the game has already 2 expansions already. My personal score is 11/10, not because is perfect but because it does something no other game did before it...
yep! You are correct, not sure why I said 40 years ago, 30 years is the correct number. You can still perform actions if you have 3 wounds at night, I just wanted to really showcase the punishment of fighting to streamline the game :)
Yeah, many many dark stories in this game that are utterly fantastic. Will have to check out the expansions in the future! -Ashton
So you mentioned that in one of you play throughs, that you ran into soldiers and tried to reason with them. They shot and killed your character. If you restart and play a new game and come across the soldiers and that option, will you still have a chance to reason and succeed, or do you know from your play through they will always shoot you so it's better to take another option? I would hope you are able to reason with them and have a chance to succeed, or each play through will become predicable.
In that specific case, one would know to take another option to not get shot. But in other cases, you would choose an option, then roll a die to see what resolves.
Playthroughs have not gotten too predictable though, because with the sheer amount of prompts, and how well the game's systems randomize them, we've only had drastic moments repeat once in our 10+ playthroughs so far. -Ashton
This game would be an effective teaching tool for a history class or psychology class to learn about the psychological trauma caused by war.
yeah definitely pretty good. The game does run a bit long though! -Ashton
I really like that Game. It's like a better Version of Dead of Winter.
Love from Germany. ✌🏼
cheers again man! Definitely doesn't have the semi-coop, and is super gritty! Much more survival going on here. Now I wanna return to the game and give it another go. -Ashton
@@Shelfside
Jap, without the semi coop. Right. But If you play it coop, for me the Immersion and to manage the Apocalypse is much better designt.
If the game haven't a war Scenario. A Zombie Apocalypse Scenario will Work as well. A The Walking Dead Brand will fit perfectly. My opinion.
✌🏼
@@jeremythompson6895 yep, definitely got the immersion way harder in this game- there's actually different types of food! Glad you seeing you around, hear from ya soon :) -Ashton
I love the theme of this game, however I played it probably 5 times and never won. I get that it's supposed to be difficult, but there just felt like there was too much to manage; hunger, misery, fatigue, illness, wounds...I also felt like the implementation of weapons weren't reflective of how powerful they should be...Curious if you ever won a game? Thanks Ashton!
There is a TON of things to handle for sure. I've never personally won a game, but my friend who I lent, and later gifted the game started getting a reasonable win rate around the 9th/10th playthrough. He's a tad masochistic haha. He found the -perfect- way to optimize building. Yet I don't think the game should be approached strictly in that way- its so wonderful in how 'sad' it is. Weapons are sometimes REALLY good, but they don't prevent you from taking damage, which is what makes fighting usually so punishing.
My favorite game of it (5th playthrough) activated a REALLY fascinating side story that I won't spoil, and even though we lost that game, it was freaking awesome.
Let me know if you have any other questions! -Ashton
@@Shelfside Thanks for the reply Ashton! :) Glad to hear someone is having success with it. The stories within it are super cool for sure!
Thanks for the review! Sadly I don't think this game is for me, or anyone in my group really. Way too serious/depressing. Wasn't interested on the videogame either and what you said just reinforces the point that this isn't for me.
yep, totally understand, this game is super somber all around. Glad that I could help! -Ashton
@@Shelfside Thanks to you for making such good reviews and content in your channel! They're entertaining and informative, and really well made.
@@HeroineNisa hey that made my day! Thank you for the awesome feedback. As always, more content headed out soon :3 -Ashton
good review.....way too many commercials though.
Oh wtf thanks for pointing that out! Cut out some of them dunno why there were automatically so many in the first place. Usually they don't slap that many on.
-Daniel
@@Shelfside Hope to see more reviews from you guys soon!
For some reason i felt offended with that boardgame play on broad daylight lol
It definitely wasn't ideal playing settings for sure ahaha, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do during these times -Ashton
this game lied to me.
1st playthrough took my group 2 hours ish.
2nd playthrough took 5 hours, because we had way more talking and discussing. At least we got our first win on the table..... at the cost of the deaths of 2 civilians and 4/5 of the visitors.
I like Robinson Crusoe a good deal better than TWOM. I felt like TWOM was a slog.
I have yet to try Robinson Crusoe! TWOM does feel like a slog at times, but the "slog-like" nature works wonders for the theme. It is the bleak suffering you have to trudge through day after day that is utterly realistic ahaha. -Ashton
@@Shelfside For me TWOM was a narration with game mechanics. RC is a game with narrative flair.
@@Copterman that makes a lot of sense- I have heard TwOM called a role-playing game as well. The Book of Scripts actually encourages the reader to change your narration to fit current events a lot more -Ashton
Warning this game is incredibly incredibly fiddly. You muck around with tokens way to much. Tried this twice and gave up after the second game.