Why Play 7th Citadel?

So, as we start to think about playing this game, what is it that draws me to it? I think it’s the puzzle and story nature of the game. There are elements that I can search and explore, like in 7th Continent, but in 7th Citadel there is more story to the game. I’m going to be playing through the introductory scenario, so spoilers if you’re worried about that, but you can watch the Meet Me at the Table game below to see how that works.

The 7th Continent

This is a system that I’ve always been interested in. I thought it looked fun enough that I backed the 2nd Kickstarter of The 7th Continent, but I never got around to playing it. And I think that I let some peoples opinions sour me on the game before I got to try it.

I know that the first curse is long. And it is meant to be long and that you’ll play it several times so that you get to learn and understand the game. That said, it is a downside to getting into the game. You feel like you just explore without knowing why for the most part. And I totally understand why that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

On the flip side, I let myself be swayed away from what I like. I think that the game play around flipping cards to try and get the successes you need, that sounds fun. And I like the idea of exploring. That element of the game is big. And as I say, I like that about the game. But why not start with that one?

The 7th Citadel

As you see in the video from Meet Me at the Table, The 7th Citadel has more story. The game is very open world in what you can do, but there is more focus to it. Especially in that first scenario, it walks you through things and teaches you how to play the game. Or at least introduces elements of the game to you through story.

And from what I see in the game, it looks like it is going to have more story. Yet, it is still a game that is going to be open and free. When you play, you pick where you want to go and what you want to unlock and explore next. But there are elements to the game which are determined or influenced by the main threat. That is an interesting element of the game as well for me. I like that story continuing through it.

But the game is also similar to 7th Continent. The mechanism that drives the game is going to be the same. And, again, I like that mechanism. But it cleans up elements to it. You no longer flip a card and randomly die. Instead, now you spend life to gain back cards, so it is a push and pull risk to the game. Again, something that I like.

Bonus Content

Also, since 7th Citadel and 7th Continent didn’t take too much time to unbox I opened up a couple other things. One being the AR Vault (Awaken Realms Vault) dice that I got. And Gloomhaven Buttons and Bugs, a tiny solo version of Gloomhaven with some twists. Those were opened at the end of the video.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I play small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well. And I might do more deck construction with Star Wars Unlimited on Mondays as well or pack openings.

On Wednesdays, I play solo campaign games. I plan on playing a campaign game coming up. Right now I’m torn between two games. Well, more than that if you watched through the end of the video. The next game is the one that I just unboxed, 7th Citadel. So I plan to start playing it next week or at least do character building and then dive into the game.

And if you want to know when I go live, the best way is to subscribe. When you subscribe, click that notification bell and you’ll get an alert whenever I’m going to go live. Follow the link – here – to subscribe.

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How To Play Stars of Akarios

This is a bit tricky, because the game has a lot going on. So I’ll give more of a general overview of the three different aspects of the game. And yes, you do need to know all three of them to play the game, but some of them are easier than others. But before, that a bit of the story or world, you are part of an academy of space cadets just graduating. There is an attack, and now you’re on the run and need to figure out what is going on.

Tactical Combat

The main focus of the game, or most common scenario, is tactical space combat. You as the space cadets are taking your ships out on missions. This might be to explore areas or reach areas on the map, but generally always to fight. Based off of dice that you roll you activate different maneuvers and attacks. Then the enemies activate and do the same thing based off of their AI. So you are doing a space dogfight as you all are trying to get into position to shoot the other ships.

Exploration

The other two parts are exploratory. The first is space exploration where you are on the main ship, the Sparrow, and flying around to different points. This is can lead to finding some random things, but generally you are looking for specific plot points that you know about to progress your story. The other is planetary exploration. It is what it sounds like, exploring planets, dealing with whatever is happening on them, and then possibly coming back when you’ve completed other missions.

All of this is interspersed with story that you read. And then, often times, choices that you make from that story. It might not change which scenario you go to, but how you start that scenario might change.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think that space exploration is just fine. It is the simplest and least story focused part of the game. You might fly into a sector and find an event that happens. Or you might find a side quest and decide to do that. But all of that costs resources that you might not want to be spending. So instead, you just fly to the location you want and call it good.

And this isn’t so much of a negative for me, but something to be aware or, or two things really that might bug others. Firstly, you have minis the enemies have standees. You can buy the ships for the enemies, but that’s an extra cost, so know that going in. And the other thing is that it’s a table hog. When I was playing this I had it set-up below the topper so I could leave it up. It has a solid save system and storage system, but it’s a big game.

What Works?

Mechanics

Firstly the tactical combat is amazing. Each scenario is a different puzzle. I don’t forget which game it was, I think game 6, but that one there were two enemy factions that would fight each other. So I flew off and hid in a corner and they took each other out. I just needed to swoop in for final clean-up duty. Now that isn’t always the case, there are other times I needed to escort the big ship across the board. Or to keep it from getting attacked and destroyed. Missions vary every time and I think they do a good job with that variety.

I also really like the planetary exploration. It gets compared to 7^th Continent which I think is far. You have points of interest you can interact with, and then you can move from different card to different card and explore the map as you go. That section that I’ve seen anyways they’ve played around with it in good ways to make it feel different. The first planet you get to, to learn how to use planets, gives you some really fun and interesting interactions.

Story

And I enjoy the story a lot in this game as well. It’s not the best writing, and it pulls from things. The first planet you go to is obviously playing around with some ideas from movies. But that’s fine because it’s all fun story. And for me that’s what matters more than having perfect writing. I also like that it isn’t a grim and dark world. Yeah, lots of bad things happen, but unlike Tainted Grail the whole world isn’t bleak.

Ease of Play

Finally, I think the mechanics of the game are easy to learn. Again, you mainly do mechanical things in tactical combat. But all of that is easy to do and a lot of fun. It uses a modifier deck like Gloomhaven does. It has you rolling dice to assign to actions. There is some randomness to what you can do. But not too much randomness and you can always do something, or take some stress and reroll for a better result. Plus while there is luck on the roll and flip, you can then plan out everything otherwise. So can sit down and figure out your optimized combination to get into a flanking position, for example.

Who Is This For?

Gamers who like campaign games. I think that this one has a little bit of something for everyone. It really is one that I’d love to get to the table in a group, but I have no idea of when I could do that. It is maybe one that depending on how much space Lands of Galzyr takes up, I might set-up on the other end of my gaming table. But that’s not really relevant right now. It’s a big campaign game. If you don’t like big campaign games, I don’t think this one will change your mind. If you do, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Now, I do think that there is probably going to be an element that you might not like as well. Maybe the story could be too cliché. Or the space exploration just is very boring. Whatever it might be, I don’t think it’ll be the major part of the game, the tactical space combat. So if that element sounds interesting, I think the game will work better for you.

Final Thoughts

I really love this game. If you didn’t know that already, it is in my Top 10 games of all time. I think that the mechanics are just fun to play with. I don’t really mind any part of it. Like I said, I do think that the space exploration is a bit more boring. But it is also the smallest part of the three main parts of the game. So to me that is a minor issue at best.

And I really do enjoy the story. Which I think is one of the very fun parts of the game. It has a space opera feel to it but also I get bits of comedy in the game and so much more. I don’t know why, but I get of bit of Ender’s Game, Space Dandy, The Thing, and more thrown into this game. And I like that mish-mash of everything.

My Grade: A+
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: C

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Why Go Through This Crowdfunding?

I think that it is interesting, every now and again to look back at what I’ve backed. And there are a number of games out there. But the interest is often tied to how my gaming tastes have changed. What did I back on Kickstarter when I started in 2014 and what am I backing now.

It provides an interesting opportunity to see that growth. Normally, you get a game and it leaves and there is no way to track it. I could go through Amazon, CoolStuffInc, and Miniature Market Purchases, but a lot of those are more recent. Kickstarter and now Gamefound give you a history of what you’ve backed over that longer period of time.

Plus Jesse from Quackalope went through his backing history, shorter, but larger than mine, with Devon from Devon Talks Tabletop. He had something like 225 games to go through and that’s almost a five hour video. I should have known that mine would take longer than it did. I thought probably two hours would be enough, it is not.

The Drink

Last nights drink was a Negroni. Back to a classic for me. I really like the flavor and it is a good summer drink. With how large I made it, I wish I’d started streaming and sipping on it sooner, but the flavor is always good. It’s also a nice mixed drink to make because it’s a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio with gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari.

Upcoming Streams

So, clearly I have some more to talk about here with Kickstarter and Gamefound. My hope is that it’ll be about an hour and a half to finish up with no thunderstorms. So that is going to be on Monday at 8:30. Then on Wednesday, I plan on playing some more Paper Dungeons. Like I said, I want to get through that campaign. While I am working on an idea for a bigger game in the roll and write campaign space, you can see my Designer Diary here, I want to finish off the one that I already have.

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Which Board Games Are Leaving?

Like last time, I’m doing this basically as a Point of Sale where I look at what games are leaving my collection. And I talked about it a bit, i had been thinking about trading them, and I likely will still for some. But there is a board game market coming up at a cidery very close to me in May. My goal is to have a number of games to sell by then and I’ve already signed-up, waiting on confirmation, for a table.

The War of Mine

This one I bought a while ago from the interesting review of NPI (No Pun Included). I thought that it looked like a good, but depressing solo game. They brought up that the rules are an issue. And that is why it is leaving my collection. I’ve spent some time trying to learn the rules and how to play, but with the dark theme and hard rules, I’m not sure I need it.

Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter is a game that is consistently in my Top 100, though, hanging on the lower edge the past year or so. The reason it’s going is that the game is just too hard to get to the table. I’ve played it probably ten times and there is a learning curve, albeit a minor one, each time. That isn’t the end of the world, but add in a longer game time even on the shorter scenarios, and it just doesn’t get played that often. I have the Dead of Winter and Long Night, so both are going away.

Mage Knight

Speaking of games that are hard to get tot he table, Mage Knight never made it to my table. It is one that I had plans to stream, but the game has enough stuff, and the rule book is not great, that I kept on putting it off. Now, I just don’t think that I’m going to play it. But it is one of those where I can get it back if and when I want to play it. I know Mage Knight is supposed to be a great solo game.

7th Continent

Another one that I know is supposed to be a great solo game. But 7th Continent is leaving my collection. I maybe should hold onto it longer, but I backed 7th Citadel. 7th Citadel is more story driven, it seems, than 7th Continent where you are wandering, especially for the first curse. If each curse took two hours or even two hours and win or lose, I would keep it. But 7th Citadel promising me more story, even though maybe not for a bit, I’ll move on from 7th Continent.

Homebrewers (kind of)

So, this isn’t in the video, and that is because I didn’t have the game yet when I did the video. Now, I kind of had the game, I do own a copy of Homebrewers, and I bought a second one on Kickstarter because it had the equipment expansion with it. That expansion is almost impossible to find. I found a copy in the UK for $1 or so, plus $28 shipping. Or I found one with the board game in the US for the same price.So the second copy is going to get sold.

The Drink

Just a classic old fashioned. I find that is what I want right now. We’re not to the point where I want really hoppy beers on warm days, we’re aren’t warm yet. And while my Creamsicle drink the week before is good, I don’t want that much sweet all of the time. And Old Fashioned just adds in enough sweet to it, plus I can balance it out by adding in more bitters as I need.

Upcoming Streams

So no stream last night, was getting some new kittens. But I plan on streaming tomorrow, most likely Part 4 of Should It Stay or Should It Go. I might throw in a game play as well. I’m not quite at the point with Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift to be ready to play it, though I am learning the rules. And I have deadlines for both Should It Stay or Should It Go and Perdition’s Mouth.

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Sleeping Gods Direction

So, this is a topic I suspected I’d talk about at some point in time. The direction that Sleeping Gods was going to lead me in as a player, what is it? Sleeping Gods promises an open world game where you can explore whatever you want, go wherever you want, and try and awaken the sleeping gods however you can, but how you do that, something to do with getting totems most likely.

So, is that a flaw of the game? That I don’t know where to go next, or is that part of the experience? Should everywhere I go give me a new lead to track down something else?

I think the answer is maybe both. Yes, it is a flaw of the game, because the game is open world, though. I can do anything I want in the game, so I don’t need it to lead me around. However, now that we’re getting nearer the end of the game, and I don’t feel like I know what to do, it is a bit more of a flaw.

The answer is probably get more totems, and find more totems. But I think exploring the game for the first time, I’d like to it hand hold that for you a tiny bit more. The tutorial to start at the beginning is great. It does give you some of the story of the world, but having an optional read when you reset the deck of events for the second time, I wouldn’t mind if they told me what my final push should be towards. And just for the first game.

Once I know a general idea, I can go for whatever I want. In future games I’ll have a better idea of what it all means, but right now, I feel like my direction is lacking. That isn’t to say that the story doesn’t compel me, it does. That isn’t to say that I don’t want to explore more, because I do. But, it means right now, and for the first time, I need to find another totem without that little bit of direction I’ve had before.

The Drink

So last nights drink is a take on a Negroni. Instead of using Campari, a grapefruit liquor, I used Aperol. Aperol is a bitter apertiff so it works. But it is not as bitter as Campari. Nor is Aperol as alcoholic. The upside is that it means you can drink more. But for me, it also means that it is missing on that harder bitter note.

I think that, though, about it is that it does still have that bitter note. Aperol is going to be rhubarb as part of the flavor profile. So it isn’t too sweet, but with gentian and cinchona. It works well mixed with gin. And I could see just mixing it with some club soda on a really warm day as well.

Upcoming Streaming

So, I think it’ll be one week left of Sleeping Gods and we’ll see how we do. At most it will be two weeks. After that I am going to stream a game play of Spire’s End by Greg Favro. And after that, we’ll see what we want to play. I think it might be some more one-off solo games, I know I have Under Falling Skies and Ratcatcher that I want to get played. Plus some Final Girl as well.

Let me know if there are any solo games that you want to see me play. Should, after a few weeks off of a campaign, I jump into something bigger like Solomon Kane or Folklore: The Affliction? Let me know what you think I should play down in the comments below. Or, better idea, pick one from the poll below.

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Now, I won’t complain too much about some of those themes. I like the Cthulhu or Lovecraftian stuff that Fantasy Flight Games does. Marvel, I’m clearly a big Marvel fan as you can see from here and here. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other themes or really IP’s that I’d like to see games put it, or more games coming from.

The Dresden Files

This one does already have a game. And it has a game that I like. I think that The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game is good. But the theme is something that the players bring to the game. The game does remind you about what the story you’re playing through is, but if you don’t know the story, the cards won’t help that much. I want something that tells more of the Dresden Files story.

What Would I Want?

I don’t know that I want this to be a dungeon crawl type of game. I feel like it would work for Dresden, but not be as interesting. Plus, there are other themes that I’d want a dungeon crawler. What I would love is to see a Detective: A Modern Board Game style Dresden Files game. Dresden is always puzzling out mysteries. And we already have books of short stories that are other cases he’s done. It would work well for creating new cases, and it could be a massive case tied together over 5 smaller cases.

And then you could have Harry, Murphy, and some of the other characters as the ones who give you things to activate. And using magic in the game would be interesting and different. There definitely needs to be some sort of combat mechanic which base Detective really doesn’t have, but it is something that could easily be added. But for a lot of it, and a lot of what Harry does is investigate and get punched.

Sword Art Online

Another one that technically has a board game. But it is a small game from Japanime Games that needs the rule book to be updated or just fixed. And the game gives you a tiny bit of the SAO theme. You play as the main characters, and you can switch, but that is it.

For those of you not familiar with Sword Art Online, it is an anime where the characters get trapped in a video game. If you die in the video game, you die in real life. And the only way to escape is to beat the game by climbing to the top of the tower/levels and beating the final boss. There are more seasons as well with different things, but that’s a good starting point for knowledge.

What Would I Want?

I’d want a boss battling game. Something along the lines of Primal, Kingdom Death Monster, or Townsfolk Tussle. Really, mostly along the lines of Kingdom Death Monster. If you put that theme on KDM, I’d be paying $700 to get everything for it.

Kingdom Death Monster is a boss battling game, but it also has you building up your tribe/colony, adding armor, weapons, and more. That would work well for an RPG style video game which is what Sword Art Online is. While everything you’d be doing is working towards the next boss battle, what you do outside of that matters as well. And the depth of story and world in SAO, side quests that might appear as boss battles, all of those are good. I think that you could really create a good game for SAO in that style.

Tomb Raider

Yes, another one with a board game already. Though, I should say, a board game I think. I forget what happened with it, I demoed it at GenCon in 2019, and I was severely disappointed. And there are a few others a well, but none that have made waves in board gaming. And Tom Raider is a very cool theme. Especially when you think about the newer video games.

What Would I Want?

I think I’d want this to be done in the style of 7th Continent or maybe more like 7th Citadel. I could have said Detective as well, because it is a mystery most of the time. But I think that treasure hunting, getting dropped on an island that you don’t know what is going on. Or going to that bigger set piece area, that is cool.

7th Citadel adds in more story. And I could see that working really well, because you get that exploration, but you could make it feel like a bigger story. In fact, you could drop all the base cards for health, some skills, and some characters. Then you could add in other packs to add in more stories, new treasures to hunt. Almost make it a combination of 7th Citadel and TIME Stories. But actually pay off on a big story.

Locke & Key

Maybe all of these will have a board game done on them, because Locke & Key does. But this is another one that the game looks lacking and too abstracted. Locke & Key is a horror series where there are magical keys. These keys can do all sorts of crazy things, and the Locke family is the protector of the keys. But there are almost Lovecraftian type creatures from beyond, that want to get their hands on the keys and take over.

What Would I Want?

I think I’d want a one versus all game. Maybe even with an element of questioning if someone one is infected or not. So it could end up being a Battlestar Galactica type of game or Unfathomable with hidden traitors. Like, who has been infected by the other world. But I also think it could maybe work better as a one versus all game.

But let’s break it down more so, I think we have one person who is playing an infected villain. Someone under the control of the other world. And then they are trying to get the keys from the Locke family, since they can’t just take them. And at times the Locke’s will need to figure out how to banish them and go to the Omega door, which seals away the other worldly creatures. They need to open the door to get more material to make a new key, but there is a chance someone else can be hit. And if they are hit, then they become other worldly.

Of course, it might not be obvious if they are hit. So every time you do that, you risk getting someone else infected. And if someone else is infected, they start working with the group still, but being less optimal. How do you hide it, when do you switch sides and just start working obviously for the bad guy. It’s more about trying to stop each other versus kill them.

Disenchantment

I know this one doesn’t have a game. And honestly, it is so weird, it might not work all that well. Disenchantment is about a princess who has some lousy friends who go on adventures in all sorts of weird places. And then eventually people want to kill them, everyone wants to kill them. It’s a lighter story, and a completely weird world.

What Would I Do?

This, to me is a great one for a dungeon crawler. They end up in a world of gnomes, elves, castles, hell, other castles, and more. They really get pulled around everywhere. Give it a nice world map and see where all you end up, how you can make it through challenges, and if the monsters will kill you. Or your own mother, or really anyone will kill you.

And because you can go to hell, and they do in the show, I think that’d be a fun way to keep a dungeon crawler moving forward. If you die, it isn’t the end, you just need to get back out of hell. Maybe make a hell book of scenarios. Then every time that you die you play through another one of those. It could be determined by where, or how you die, but it could also just be done randomly. And if you die too many times you eventually get stuck.

Keeper of the Lost Cities

I did just write about this. So if you want to know a bit about the series, you can find that here. But the basic idea is that a girl is plucked from her not so normal human life. She finds out that she is really an elf, she gets into elf school. She makes friends, and yes this sounds like Harry Potter, but the world is better and more interesting. And the magic, each elf has a different skill or could have a different skill. And the world is in unrest and their are secret organizations trying to mess with the status quo.

What Would I Want?

This is tough, mainly because I don’t want to repeat too much of what I’ve already done. And this is a really cool world to play in. Firstly, I would want character creation for this game, or at least some ability to pick. Maybe something like Midarra which is very story heavy and you can build out characters however you want.

The elves unlock their powers, but they also have skills that they all can do. It just depends on how well they train themselves. So really setting up stats in different ways and then picking what power you want from being an empath to mind reading or inflicting emotions on someone else. Plus so many more.

I think this would kind of ben another dungeon crawl type of game. Maybe a bit like something like Arydia which isn’t out yet and I might late back, possibly. The concept of Arydia is that you dig deeper. You spend time at the world map level, you make story decisions, and then you get down to a narrower focus.

What Theme Would You Want?

Do you feel that there are some that need more love? I could probably spend time and come up with more. Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson is getting another one, otherwise it’d be on my list. The Call to Adventure version is cool, but there is so much that could be done in that world. And there are plenty of IP’s that could be treated better. I’m going to call out Japanime a little bit here, I think that they often put out okay games with a big IP. I’d love to see some of their anime IP’s get a better developed game.

Let me know which of my ideas sounds the coolest. And let me know what you want to see a game made about that doesn’t get enough love.

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Marvel Dice Throne

This is one of my most recent Kickstarters, but they’ve already been unboxing prototypes of it. Dice Throne has done exceedingly well, so they have the money to get it rolling before they get the Kickstarter money, which is awesome. And that means that they have a June target. Do I think they’ll hit that target, probably July or early August at the latest, but it’ll be close.

This is more Dice Throne, but instead of being fantasy-esque style characters, we’re getting Marvel characters. I know which two characters I ideally get to play first. Either Doctor Strange or Scarlet Witch because they are some of my favorite characters in the MCU right now. And they seem to have really cool mechanics that are different from other characters.

ISS Vanguard

This one I’m putting on the list, but I’m less sure on it. This game I could see getting pushed back again. It’s another one slated to show up in the summer now. But this is a massive game. It’s going to be a good one, Awaken Realms makes sure they give you a good game, but it could be a bit.

The game is split into two parts, exploring planets and doing ship upgrade and making decisions on how to deal with the crew and things like that. The latter piece is getting changed still. They used to have dials to track some things, and now they are moving where they are and how that works. I appreciate that they are attempting to give us the best experience possible, but all the changes make this one likely for 2022, but I’d say a little bit iffy.

Oathsworn

This one I’m fairly sure will show up in 2022 as well, but it also has been delayed some already. It was supposed to come at the end of 2020, and now I’m saying, most likely it’ll show up in 2022. But this is a new company and a massive game, so I knew it was going to be delayed.

Like ISS Vanguard the game play of Oathsworn is split into two parts. The first part allows you to explore a town, and basically solve the mystery and then find your boss fight. The second part is the boss fight. And the boss fight seems fascinating to me for a few reasons. You modify either by rolling dice or drawing cards or a mix of the two. And the cards don’t shuffle until you run out. So you figure out what is left in that deck, which means less risk, but maybe less reward.

Frosthaven

Another game that is delayed, but slated to ship in the summer. Frosthaven is well, more Gloomhaven. But more than Gloomhaven as well. You craft, make potions, and town build in Frosthaven. Gloomhaven handled all of that for you. So do I think that this is going to be better than Gloomhaven, I hope so for the story at least. But it’ll be tough to take down my #1 game of all time.

That said, I am really excited to do the town building. Things you get for crafting can be used to either craft items or build up the town. So it is going to give more choices between the dungeon crawl. How do you spend things and how much do you need to save up to get a building, or a wall around the town to the next level. And the characters, the starting ones, seem really cool.

Spires End: Hildegard

Now for a smaller game, Spire’s End: Hildegard is a sequel to Spire’s End which should also be coming in 2022 but not a Kickstarter game. This is a solo game where you are basically going through a story, fighting monsters, and making decisions. The game play is done by cards that have story, cards that have monsters, and rolling some dice.

This is one that I want to stream on Malts and Meeples eventually because it doesn’t have too many components. And it’s one with a story element that means the audience can help me make decisions, and I expect poor decisions. Plus the artwork on this game is amazing. The style is unique, but makes the game pop.

Super Fantasy Brawl Round 2

Finally an expansion for a game, more Super Fantasy Brawl. This is one that I think is in production now, if I remember correctly. That’s a good sign for it getting delivered in 2022. Super Fantasy Brawl is a head to head skirmish game where you try and knock out your opponents and complete goals to get trophies.

What Super Fantasy Brawl Round 2 does is just adds in more. I think I have 12 different characters right now, and I think I’m getting another 12. You use three characters per side, so with 24 different characters, you can create a lot of different teams. I’m not sure I needed another 12 characters, but more to choose form will be good. And I already have some favorite characters from the base game to add more to.

What Crowdfunding games are you waiting for? I have a whole lot more, and recently did a Crowdfunding round-up, but I’m not sold that all of them will show up. In fact, some, like 7th Citadel, I’m sure won’t show up this year. But there are a lot of great ones that will and almost have.

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Pros

• The Art and Aesthetic
• Cooperative and Solo Play
• Grimoire Edition

Cons

• The Price
• Minis

The Page

They do a really good job on this page. I can find basically everything I want right away and I’ve actually watched a little bit of talk about the game already over on BoardGameCo and Quackalope. So they did a good job of getting information and prototypes out with this game, now I’ll address some of what I think on game play later.

I also really like that there are two versions of the game. The Grimoire version is by far cooler looking but also more expensive. And that is going to be one thing that I will knock the game on. This game has a few minis, but the minis aren’t that impressive. Now, not all games need impressive minis and from what I know of this game, you don’t need the minis at all. Try and save some money if they can and if it’s cheaper to go completely with standees and without minis.

Why the standard even has any minis is a question to me. I get Grimoire, you want to add more than just a fancy box. But the standard edition isn’t cheap, over $100 with shipping. Now, I have paid way more for a game, but from the reviews and previews, this game feels lighter. And with it being compared to 7th Continent, I wish less money had been put into minis.

The Game

The game itself sounds interesting. BoardGameCo and Quackalope referred to it as a point and click adventure. You go to locations, you have an image of that location and then you get to play cards to do actions at the location. I like that concept in theory.

What worries me a little bit about the game is that they talk about how you don’t really know what you need to do. You interact with a Goblin it’d be nice to have some visual clues as to what the Goblin is going to do if you don’t kill them. Like they said, you are playing a prototype, so it’s hard to know.

Back or Brick

For me, this one is going to be a Brick on the Back and Brick scale. I love the artwork in this game, I think that there are things that look interesting. But I just don’t know. They talk about it being massively replayable, it might be. I worry that the main focus of the game and what you are doing each time won’t be that interesting. I love good card play, but I’m a little bit worried that the card play is going to feel fairly similar after several turns, let alone several playthroughs.

How about for you, is Soul Raiders a Back or a Brick?

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With that said, I have a bunch of cooperative games sitting on my shelf and coming via Kickstarter. In fact, I probably have enough on my shelves to make a Top 10 games that way, but I am going to include what I have in Kickstarter and coming that way as well as what is on my shelf.

Let’s get to the list:

10 – Etherfields

This is one that I’m glad I backed from Awaken Realms, but while they normally get me with their theme, like Lords of Hellas and Tainted Grail, Etherfields theme of going through dreams was just interesting, it didn’t blow me away. The game play, however, seemed cool, and now I know that Awaken Realms does amazing story. I think what drew me to the game, the game play and deck building still is strong there, and I’m still excited for when I’ll get my copy in.

9 – HEL: The Last Saga

This is the game that really put Mythic Games on the map for me. I’d looked at Reichbusters and Super Fantasy Brawl when they were on Kickstarter but I hadn’t backed them. Same with Joan of Arc. But HEL: The Last Saga, that just looked too cool for me to pass up. This one takes you through a campaign of Viking explorers trying to find out what had happened to the rest of the clan that had gone on ahead. Definitely seems to have a dark element to it that can lean into horror, which I love.

8 – Uprising: The Curse of the Last Empire

This is one that was on Kickstarter but I didn’t end up backing on Kickstarter. Instead, I backed it with a late pledge because the game just kept coming back to me as I one that I wanted to play. Uprising is a 4x game and those are rarely cooperative. And the players are trying to stop two AI controlled enemies. But for the players to get the win, each of the player factions needs to finish ahead of both of the AI factions. So everyone is playing their own faction, and everyone needs to beat the enemy. That idea is just so unique.

7 – The Reckoners

Well, we are onto one that I have in hand now. And I’ve had this one in hand for a little bit, I just need to get it to the table. This one game takes place in one of my favorite book series, The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson. Basically the Reckoners are a team who tries to take out super powered people. Because all the super powered characters turn bad. But, of course, these are normal people trying to take on powered people, so that isn’t going to be that easy. This game uses dice and just seems really challenging and fun.

6 – Folklore: The Affliction

Another one that I own and this one I’ve had on my shelf for a while. It’s one that I’ve wanted to try streaming but just haven’t gotten to yet. Folklore: The Affliction has you fighting monsters and basically playing an RPG like game. You even use more RPG like dice than a lot of games do. The story just seems fun though, it doesn’t try and go too weird with anything, you are just dealing with werewolves, vampires, and ghosts, more of the normal things the best that you can.

5 – Middara: Unintentional Mallum Act 1

I recently did an unboxing of this game over on Malts and Meeples which you can find here. This is another massive dungeon crawl sort of game. It is even generally a fantasy style game. But the game leans heavily into anime artwork and feel of the game. This is a massive game, I think everything that I have probably is about the same size or slightly more than Gloomhaven, so you know the game is big. The theme and style is just different enough than most that I’m really interested in it.

4 – Solomon Kane

This is another kind of campaign game. I say kind of, because it has a lot of mini campaigns in it. Solomon Kane was originally a collection of short stories by Robert E. Howard who was also known for writing the Conan: The Barbarian stories. Solomon Kane was a bad guy who became a good guy who now fights the forces of evil in the world, of the super natural variety.

That theme is just cool, but how do you now end up with the player who is Solomon Kane being more powerful than anyone else in a cooperative setting? You do that by not playing as Solomon Kane. Instead you play as different virtues who are leading Solomon Kane through the stories, keeping him away from darkness. Really cool and unique idea for a game.

3 – Frosthaven

Now, a lot of people probably thought that this would be number one, and really, all my my top 5 are ones that I really am excited to play. Frosthaven is just a little bit lower because I have played all of Gloomhaven. Do I want more of that game system, absolutely. Does the town building sound cool, most definitely. But, I have already played Gloomhaven, so I want to try a few more of these campaign games before Frosthaven comes in. It’s one of those things where I’m already super confident I will love the game, because I know the core of it, so I’m less excited than some other ones.

2 – Roll Player Adventures

Such as Roll Player Adventures, I am really excited for this one to come in this summer. Roll Player Adventures builds upon some of the systems in Roll Player and turns it into an RPG. You are going through stories and adventures using interesting dice placement and other rules to defeat monsters, and play through stories making interesting choices. I have demoed this one, it was at GenCon in 2019, so I’m excited to finally get this game into my hands.

1 – ISS Vanguard

Finally at #1, we have ISS Vanguard. An Awaken Realms game, this looks like it’s my type of space game. It is going to be a bit messy, like Awaken Realms games are, but a ton of fun. What is really interesting is that the game is in two parts. There is a phase where you improve and do upgrades on your ship, research new things and keep crew members happy and healthy. Then you also go down to planets to explore them and find out their secrets and the secrets of this call that drew you out to these planets.

Honorable Mentions

I could do a number of honorable mentions. I have The 7th Continent on my shelf that I need to play and Mage Knight. There is Robinson Crusoe. On Kickstarter I have The 7th Citadel that I’m looking forward to getting. Also on Kickstarter I have Zombicide: Undead or Alive and Primal: The Awakening all backed as well. Even other games on my shelf like Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops and a little one like The Fox in the Forest Duet are ones that they want to try. And just missing the list is Deep Madness as well. Really,

I have so many of these games that I want to try I could have done a Top 10 I’m waiting on and a Top 10 that I have. Maybe coming up here, I’ll look at what I have on my shelf, cooperative and competitive and do a Top 10 of ones I want to try and then try and get through them this summer.

What cooperative game are looking forward to getting to the table?

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Pros

• Solo game play
• Theme
• Not a campaign
• Story elements
• Price for Retail
• Established Company

Cons

• Shipping
• Retail vs Minis Pledge
• Old style feeling stretch goals

The Page

This is a company that has run Kickstarters before for their Folklore: The Affliction and Champions of Hara, so they know what they are doing. With that said, I think it’s an okay laid out page. You get the idea and theme of the game well at the top, but in terms of actual game play, you get way more from the video at the top than you do from the game play section.

I will also say that there are parts of the page that don’t feel like a more recent Kickstarter, even two years ago this would have made sense, now it feels like it’s a bit out of date. The pledge levels for example, there is the retail pledge and the minis pledge. Honestly, nothing too odd about that, but the minis pledge level has more game play to it as well. So if I want to get all the game play, I need to get the minis as well. This then continues into the stretch goals where some are just for the minis level and some will also be in the retail level. It feels like there is a level missing, like it should be retail which is just the game no stretch goals unless it’s a cosmetic upgrade, linen finish on cards stuff like that, standees version, cheaper than the minis version with all the game play additions, and then one with the minis. At least that’s what it seems like a lot more are doing, instead of me now guessing what stretch goals I might get or not. I can understand why a company would do it that way, I just think it’s a bit messier than some other ways of handling it and feels like there is more of an upsell going on with this one.

The artwork, though, is outstanding on the game, and definitely provides that classical fairies and magic feel to the game that it really feels like they are going for.

The Game

So the game itself has a lot going for me, I like that this is a narrative driven game where you have branching choices of what you can do and depending on what you find and what skills you’ve used before, your options might be limited because of that. I really like the fae setting, that is something that I’ve always really enjoyed in books and movies and games even other games. Stuff like The Dresden Files leans into it heavily or anime The Ancient Magus Bride, I’ve even picked up a fae book for D&D monsters.

Beyond the theme, I like the push yourself element to the game where you have skills or abilities basically that are cards you can play out of your hands. As I talked about above, you spend those, you don’t have them potentially for a narrative challenge you need to deal with and you’re going to be dealing with that in a different way than you’d have preferred. Not only that but they don’t refresh automatically, you need to find a place to rest, basically, and then you’ll refresh your cards back to your hand. This almost has a bit of a 7th Continent vibe in how you are pushing forward but trying to balance card use with the risk, and the exploration element also lends itself to that vibe as well.

There are a couple more things game play wise that are interesting and maybe slightly concerning. The first is that this is not a campaign game, normally I get really excited about campaign games, or this sort of theme would be a campaign game, but I love that this is a game that takes about an hour to an hour and a half to play, and you still get some narrative with the encounters you have and what you find. But with that, I’m slightly worried about long term replayability. I’m worried that if I see 60-70% of the tiles each game, even with me potentially not having all options open for that I do, that the narrative will run out or I’ll start to know, giant green mushroom, don’t eat it, little blue mushroom, eat it, yellow mushroom, eat it if you play this card but not this card and it either won’t be as interesting or it’ll become something where I try and optimize the game, and this doesn’t feel like that sort of game.

Back or Brick

This one was a pretty easy Back for me, the theme and the exploration really make the game interesting to me. I love fae stuff, I think that’s an element of fantasy that is not delved into nearly as much as it should be. The only thing I don’t like, right now, is the upselling that is going on with this, you get more if you get the minis. I get that they have a super deluxe version that comes with extra games, but I want the game play for this without the minis, though I get it, it the minis look amazing. It makes me wonder if this is something worth backing on here, or how much I’ll actually save versus buying this later retail. With that said, and with my concerns about replayability, everything else sings to me about this game from the artwork and theme, to the game play itself, so I’m backing this now that the retail level with maybe getting pressured into the minis level.

Is this a back or a brick for you?

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