I wrote last week about how it can be dangerous when Late Pledging is an option. But today I wanted to look at the time element of Kickstarter. Today though, I’m going to look at different things, because some of them do overlap, and I might still overlap, but I want to know if Kickstarters are really worth that wait.

How Long Is the Wait?

This is the age old Kickstarter and crowdfunding question, how long will you have to wait. They all try to give an estimate, but is it accurate? Generally, that answer is no. Most crowdfunded board games and projects in general deliver late. Why, because it’s hard to estimate.

When you look at a Kickstarter, you see a game that you want to get. And that’s great, and you want to get it sooner rather than later., also great. But what we don’t always see is where the game is at. Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general are to help get a game made. That means that no production is done. Fairly often it means that art assets are partially done. The game itself could still be going through development.

Each of these steps the companies are guessing at how long it’ll take. If it’s someone like CMON or Thunderwork, they have a decent idea. But even for them, a delay at the factory could shift the timeline by weeks or longer. And newer publishers, they generally underestimate.

What Should The Expectation Be?

Generally, I expect a Kickstarter to be 6 months late. That’s not a short amount of time, I understand. But for me, that way I don’t sweat it when it is well behind. Now, some games I’ve backed on crowdfunding have been much later than that. Some, also, surprise me when they show up on time.

For me, the expectation that they are late also comes with the expectation of updates. Some companies do a lot of updates. Others don’t post nearly enough of them. Right now I haven’t heard anything from Grimlord Games on Village Attacks in months. Last update was in April, actually. Is it annoying, yes. I fully expect delays. Plus, I know Grimlord Games isn’t the best at giving updates, but it is too long.

I also am not highly concerned. Why, because they have a proven track record. They delivered Village Attacks before. They just dropped an update for their other game as well. I knew going in they were bad at giving updates. Is this really acceptable from them, no, but shocking, no.

So Are Kickstarters Worth the Wait?

Simply put, sometimes. I like the shiny games that are up on there and for a few reasons it can be. A lot of them tie into the late pledging article. The game is exclusive to Kickstarter, well if you want it you might want to back it. The game comes with lots of Kickstarter extras.

But even then, is it worth the wait. I can go out right now and buy 100 games from my FLGS (friendly local game stores) and play them tomorrow. Do I need to get a game on Kickstarter with so many out there?

Like I said, it depends on the game. For some games me backing it means that the game can be made. So yes, I want to help in that process. Even in the case of Grimlord Games and Village Attacks, without backers the game wouldn’t get made. They are not a big company. So they need people to back it so they can make the game. For that reason I am fine being patient with them.

Other games, like Marvel United: X-Men, it might not come to retail. Plus, I get 50-70 extra minis because I backed the game. So my amount of content is much higher than someone who didn’t back the game. This could be FOMO (fear of missing out) but also means I have a lot of variety. My knock on the base game of Marvel United was that it didn’t feel that different. Marvel United: X-Men provides a lot more heroes and villains.

Is It Always Worth It Thought?

Most definitely not, because there are so many great games out there. Like I said, I could go to my FLGS and get 100 games today to play if I wanted. In fact, I will be swinging past one today in order to get my store credit and then use that store credit to pick up HEXplore It. So I can even find games that won’t come to retail but are used.

The question to ask is, do I want this Kickstarter game when it becomes available? If the answer is yes, back it. Let’s go with Marvel United X-Men. All in for that was $300, the base game for it was $40+ shipping, I think. Right now the regular, all in, Marvel United pledge on on eBay is about $300+ shipping. That’s about what the X-Men version will cost, but on Kickstarter the original games all in was only $220. So the secondary market sells at 1.5x higher.

So, you can always get a Kickstarter later, but it might cost more. This isn’t even the most extreme example. I went to look for Spire’s End on eBay when Spire’s End: Hildegard was up on Kickstarter. That was a $50 game that was selling for $150+. If you want a game enough, you can get it later. Just know that depending on the game, it might cost a whole lot more.

Do You Wait on Kickstarters?

Let me know if you back games on Kickstarter? Clearly I do a lot of written coverage on Kickstarters with my Back or Brick articles. I back Kickstarters somewhat often. Are they always worth the wait for me? Most of the time they are, but sometimes, such as Divineus, I drop my pledge because I don’t need the game slightly sooner than I can get it at retail.

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From the Miniature Market Sale

Aeon’s End Expansions

We’re starting with something that wasn’t even on sale. This is just more of the small box expansions for Aeon’s End. I love this game, and I think it’s going to be one that I just start playing through all the content I have here coming up soon. The cooperative card play and deck building is fun. All the different mages are really good. And the Nemesis can play so differently.

But I got a lot of different expansions for it:

• The Void
• The Depths
• Shattered Dreams
• Buried Secret
• Into the Wild

Downforce

I’ve been enjoying racing games and the concept of racing games recently. Downforce has actually been on my radar for a long time, because it’s a different type of racing game. I have Formula D which is a big racing game with a lot of dice rolling. I have Camel Up which is a light racing game, and Downforce is more like that. In Downforce you bid on cars that are your car, but you also bid on other cards during the race. What is interesting about the race is that you spend your cards to move all of the cars, not just your own. So I play a card that moves green and blue forward five, red forward three, and pink, purple, and brown forward two (all colors are made up). It’ll tell me what order to move them forward in.

And you bid multiple times during the race. The better you do early, the more points you get at the end. But with the cards in your hand, you know some of what is going to happen. So you can manipulate it potentially to your advantage. Seems like a fun, light, different type of racing game.

Not Alone: Sanctuary Expansion

This is a a one versus all game that actually works well with a large number of players. The person who is the one plays as the planet and monsters on it that the all have crashed on. They are trying to survive long enough to get off of the planet. I am not totally sure what the Sanctuary Expansion adds. More locations is the most likely thing. This game is just fun, and I love the cooperative planning that can happen. It doesn’t always happen, but the all can talk about where they want to go. They must talk in ear shot of the one, but as much discussion as they want is allowed. Really excited to try some of the new expansion stuff for variety in the game.

From My FLGS (All Systems Go)

Marvel Champions: Galaxies Most Wanted

I love Marvel Champions. The game is just a ton of fun and offers so much content already. This is the second campaign box that they have put out. The first, Rise of Red Skull is a pretty simple and straightforward campaign, but the Guardians of the Galaxy focused one, with Groot and Rocket is supposed to be more complex. I am really excited to see everything that is in it. And I am really excited for the Guardians of the Galaxy to be coming to Marvel Champions.

Pitch Car

Finally, we have Pitch Car. This game has been on my radar for ages, and I was glad I was able to find it used. Pitch Car is not a cheap game, especially with expansions, because it’s all particle board and nice quality. Pitch Car is another racing game but really different from Formula D, Downforce, or Camel Up. In Pitch Car, you flick your car around the track. Everyone takes a turn flicking, trying not to fly off of the track and do amazing shots and jumps, banking off the walls. And what I picked up wasn’t just base Pitch Car.

The person had traded in three expansions as well. So I also got the long straights, the More Speed More Fun expansion, and the Stunt Race expansion. This is enough to build a pretty massive track. This will definitely be one of the first games that I get out for in person gaming. A lot of games work via Zoom, but dexterity games not so much. Pitch Car and Ice Cool will be two that are going to be a lot of fun when playing in person again.

Which Would You Want to Play?

Let me know in the comments below which you’d be most interested in playing. For me, I think that it has to be Pitch Car right now. The prospect of gaming in person is just so exciting after it being so limited for over a year. And Pitch Car, the concept and the tracks just seems like a ton of fun. It might even be a game that I take to a board game store and let people know when it is going to be there to come try and play.

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Marvel Champions: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch

These did come out a few weeks apart, but just with how things lined up, not that far apart from when I went into the FLGS, All Systems Go, which sets them aside for me. Haven’t gotten either of them to the table yet, but I’m excited for them. Like I said, this was perfect timing with Scarlet Witch/Wanda coming out at the very end of WandaVision, same day in the United States. Accidentally great timing, though it was because it was pushed back a month. Excited for both of them, and they are a pair that can team up with each other, which is awesome, I like anything that can give me that super hero team-up feel, and while Marvel Champions does feel some like that, this bakes it into those two characters, like they did for Ant-Man and Wasp.

Deep Madness Expansions

Again from All Systems Go, they had a Deep Madness Kickstarter traded in. Now, there was a bundle of the core and a few core expansions that they sold, but I’d already gotten a previous trade in of those. So now they have some of the other Kickstarter expansions. I picked up two of them. One was Spawn of the Sleeper and epic monster that can be added into the game. I liked this one because it has weird little eggs or spawn or tentacles, something for this deep sea base that is just horrifying. And the Faces of the Sphere expansion, which I thought looked cool, and interestingly enough, ties into their next game, which I missed on Kickstarter, whoops.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

Now, this is a hot game. In fact it’s so hot that it’s basically sold out everywhere. You look online at Amazon, Cool Stuff Inc, and Miniature Market, all sold out. Checked with my FLGS, they have a call list going for when it comes in. But I was able to find it online and not at a massive marked up price. I found it over on Barnes and Nobles’ site. Now, I didn’t pick it up from my local one, but I had to order it in. I am interested in this one because it looks like a Euro game where they gave it more of a theme and more to do. I also really like the theme and deck building, though the deck building might not be the biggest part of it. Exploring lost ruins and having that Indiana Jones sort of feel, that’s really interesting to me.

Tiny Turbo Cars

I talked about this one a couple of weeks back in a Back or Brick. In that one I said it was a back for me, and I’ve still kept the pledge. Tiny Turbo Cars just looks f un to me, and I like supporting a good board game company that has made a bunch of games that I enjoy. They really do nail the toy factor in the game, the little controller looks almost like it’s going to be some sort of technology. I know I won’t see this for a while, but I think it’ll be a fun one for certain groups of people. I know that the real time aspect will probably be a bit to hectic for some players, but it’ll be a big success for others, and I’m hoping it’ll work for most people.

Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold

I love Aeon’s End, that’s all there is too it. And the fact it’s another Legacy game in the series, that’s awesome. I will have all the big boxes for Aeon’s End when this arrives, and I need to dive into that first legacy box soon. I just need to figure out if I play it solo or not. If I do, I can get to it sooner, otherwise I might have to wait or find a person to play semi-regularly with. I think it might be one that I play solo, because I had fun playing Aeon’s End: War Eternal solo on Malts and Meeples. This just gives me more Legacy goodness, and I’m very cool with that.

Zombicide: Undead or Alive

This one I did my Back or Brick on last week. What had me on the fence with it last week was the price. But I’ve now backed it because I think it’s going to be really fun. I love the theme, I think that zombies in the Wild West is cool. I love CMON’s minis, I mean they were known as Cool Mini Or Not for a while. And while I did just sell Zombicide: Green Horde, some of that was because I have a lot of fantasy games already. I guess zombies in the Wild West is technically a form of fantasy, but not the standard middle ages fantasy. So this felt different than things I have my collection so I wanted to pick it up.

Which of these games sounds the most interesting to you? Have you backed any of the Kickstarters? Let me know in the comments below.

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So the question, then becomes, how do you buy games and not end up getting a bunch of games that you don’t like and then you either have to sell them through something like Facebook Market Place, or you sell them to your FLGS, or give them away to a friend who might like them better.

I’ve written on this topic before, but I think that it’s one that is worth coming back to and that deserves a bit more of a deep dive into it. Because there are a number of things that you can do to determine what games might interest you, and while this might only be a couple of parts, I do want to spend the second part talking about some of the online resources that I use to figure out and what I really enjoy about them.

Beyond those online sources, I’ll talk about that a lot in the next article about the reviewers, actual plays, game teachers, etc. that are really good, there are plenty of other ways to narrow down what games you should purchase.

#1 – Play Games

Now, this one is a catch-22, I realize that. You can’t play games if you don’t have games but that might mean you’re getting games that you don’t like. Thankfully, if you’re in a bigger town/city, a lot of FLGS have either demo games, rental games, or a game library. Play different types of games there, see if you can demo a game that you’re interested in. If that doesn’t exist as an option for you, if other people in your area have some games, play those. This does two things for you, if you play something or demo something that you’re interested in, you’ll be able to determine if you like the game for buying, but that’s a fairly specific situation and it might be that you can’t demo or play a game. But playing games also helps you know what you like. Maybe you like Ascension as a deck building game, but Clank! In! Space! was too complex for you. Now you know that you like the lighter more streamlined deck building game. Playing more games helps you get a better idea of what you look for in a game and what parts of the game that you really like. In the Ascension and Clank! In! Space! example, maybe you don’t like Ascension as well and you realize that deck building isn’t the part in Clank! In! Space! that you really like, it’s the push your luck or the combos or something else.

#2 – Ask For Advice
I’m going to give you three good spots for asking for advice. Your friends, FLGS, and BGG. First, ask people you know, they are going to know your taste the best. Also, they’ll know what they have, so everyone in the group doesn’t need to have Wingspan, for example, but if they know you like engine building games they might recommend something like Res Arcana for you to add. An FLGS is going to be able to help some as well, though they are going to know what is newer and hotter or what’s been on their shelf for a while. But if you get familiar with people at your FLGS, they should be familiar with your tastes and they should ask questions and be able to give advice. So for example, if you say that you like engine building games, they should be able to give you some options. Finally, BGG (Board Game Geek) is useful as well. Not only can you use it for rating games and showing people what you like for them to help give you advice, but it has a built in recommendations feature. For example, going to Wingspan will give you some things like Welcome To.. and other games. Now, the returns are diminishing because your friends will know you best.

#3 – Online
Now, I’m going to talk about who I really like online coming up here, but I want to talk about a few different things that are useful online. First, there are rules videos. These teach you how to play the game. But it also shows you the components and too often the back of board game boxes don’t really tell you enough about how a game works. There are also actual plays, play through of whatever board game it might be. These tend to be a whole lot longer, because you’re literally watching someone play the game. Whereas with the rules overview you get an idea of how the game theoretically works, and actual play will show you in great detail, if you can sit through it. Finally, there are reviewers as well. A lot of them go over some of how the game is played and how it feels to play the game before they give their thoughts. Unlike the other two, this one has much more of a subjective nature to it. So going from rules videos to actual play to a review you’re getting more and more subjective. However, the other two can be much drier than a review, so often reviews give you a better feel and in a shorter amount of time than an actual play.

Those are going to be the top three pieces of advice that I have for buying board games, and figuring out which ones you’d like. I’m going to come back to #3 – Online, next week to talk through various sites and content creators that can be useful when thinking about what you might like. How do you generally pick what game to buy?

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News was light this week and probably will be for a few weeks with Covid-19 slowing down filming, casting, and basically anything that causes people to get together in a group in this weeks episode of #10MinMarvel. It’s also pushed back films, notably for Disney, New Mutants, but Black Widow is taking a wait and see approach thus far. I speculate why that might be. Plus, what are some things that you can do Marvel related while practicing social distancing?

If you’re enjoying the podcast, you can, while still maintaining social distancing, leave a rating and review. We’re on iTunes, Google Play Music, Stitcher, and Spotify. Those ratings and reviews help more people find the podcast and join into the 10 Minute Marvel community. I always love when I see the numbers climbing knowing that more people are getting Marvel news.

If you want to get a hold of me, you can do so by leaving a comment below. Or you can find me on twitter @TheScando. I’m also checking out #10MinMarvel. If you tweet using that hashtag, I’ll get notified. Please give me suggestions of topics or characters you want covered or if you find any interesting news stories.

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The Hobbit is a semi-cooperative game where players are bidding with dwarf cards to see how far they move on a board, but it’s done at the same time, each spot has a different skill or ability that you can raise the level of, so that when you reach locations in the Hobbit story. There you need to complete challenges, and the person who is doing the best gets first crack at them, but those challenges can be difficult and do you want to push your luck further into the pile to get more treasure early or hope to gain it late. At the same time, as a group you need to complete these challenges otherwise Smaug will advance towards Esgaroth (Laketown). You have to work together to make sure everyone is building up their skills, but you can’t discuss how you’re bidding. This leads to people getting something they don’t need at times or someone being under powered, so you have to be careful with that. But in the end, the dwarf with the most gems wins.

This game is interesting because it’s not that complex. You are playing a card, moving on a board, and getting skills. But the semi-cooperative nature adds in some depth to it. You want to get your skills high fast so that you’re able to collect more gems that’ll win you the game. However, if you do that at the expense of others, then Smaug is going to move more and that can cut short the game. So if someone hogs all the skills early in the game, they can get early gems but those might be worth less than later challenges which would give more gems so even in a short game trying to push the end you could still end up losing. For some people, this semi-cooperative nature isn’t going to work, but for me, and the times that we’ve played it, it’s been fun. Everyone can see what everyone else needs so you’re trying to be strategic getting the skills that you need, but not getting it too out of balance, and inevitably it does with someone being extremely cunning but having no power, and that makes it hard to beat some of the challenges. This semi-cooperative nature can be enhance by adding in the rule that if Smaug reaches Laketown the game is over and everyone loses.

A downside to the game is that it can be a little bit simple. I think the rule that everyone loses if Smaug reaches Laketown is almost needed in the game. Otherwise it can have someone rush to get as much treasure as possible and it’s possible that they will end up winning just because they are the only ones with enough skills. There is still luck with that, though, because to defeat these encounters, you are rolling dice and then supplementing with the skills that you have. I’ve pulled off a win by passing on all the smaller treasure encounters and only grabbing the big ones, and I’ve seen that cause people to lose as well if they get a really poor roll while going for those bigger treasures. I think that first blush the game can be a bit simple and the die rolls a bit too random for some people, but there is more strategy hiding in the game than one might expect.

Let’s talk about the theme a little bit. I think that the semi-cooperative nature works for The Hobbit because while Bilbo isn’t after anything more than an adventures, the dwarves want to get as much as they can and to take back the mountain for the riches that are in there. The greed is what is driving them, and that’s what drives the players in the game. You are trying to get the most gems, because that’s how you’re going to win. For that reason I’d say that it’s fairly thematic, but there’s also just this abstract push your luck piece to it as well. It’s a game that you can bring the theme into it, but one that won’t feel like it has as much theme as it might compared to some other Lord of the Rings/Middle Earth themed games.

Finally, let’s talk about the components. The artwork on the game is really nice. It’s very much art that was done before the movie, so if you’re expecting to see something that’s similar to that, it’s not going to tick that check box for you, but it’s classic Hobbit/Middle Earth art. But the game has plastic little gems which is what really makes it shine on the table. They are very cute and actually very thematic because as players, you want to have the games just to play around with. It’s the same mold that’s being used for other games, like Century: Golem Edition. Beyond that, it’s just a well done production of a game.

Overall, this is a fun game. It’s a light game, as much as I liked to talk about how there is more depth than it first seems, it never has a ton of depth to it. Can you workout where you want to be and get that certain ability or land in a certain spot to make your dwarf better? There’s both luck of the dwarf cards that are dealt to you, which you use to bid, and luck as to what everyone else plays. But the game says it only takes 30-45 minutes, which seems right to me, and so for a lighter game, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. I’d recommend this game to people who like Lord of the Rings/Hobbit/Middle Earth, as it has a decent thematic feel to it, and even if they aren’t gamers, it’s pretty easy to understand.

Overall Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: C+
Casual Grade: B

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