Pros

• Shipping
• Classic Aesthetic
• Cooperative

Cons

• The Price
• One vs Many

The Page

CMON knows what they are doing on a page and they show off a lot of stuff. I think that it’s interesting looking and I really like that they are highlighting the artwork as much as the minis in this game. It’s CMON, so there are always going to be a ton of minis, but they are showing off the art to go along with that and not just painted minis. I really think the art works in terms of nostalgia.

I will say one thing that I wish with CMON games is that the player “boards” were nice. They look like a rough 3D printed thing in these pictures, and I know it’s not the final product, but having seeing what comes with Zombicide: Green Horde, and they just feel clunky. I’m used to GameTrayz at this point which feel smooth. While the tokens and minis that CMON provides are great, the player boards definitely could be better.

The Game

This game didn’t interest me too much because it is mainly a one versus many game. The idea that you can be the one and have minions and stuff to use as well as your heroes going up against a team of heroes seems interesting, but it makes the game harder to table in my opinion. I’m guessing that things will work pretty similar on both sides of things, the one and the many, but it probably means that you start playing the one, you might be stuck in that role more so.

And with the cooperative game, there just isn’t information. So while I know about how the main game works, the mode that I’m more interested in isn’t as well covered.

Back or Brick

This game is Brick for me. And that’s more because of me not because of the game itself. I don’t have nostalgia for He-Man and Masters of the Universe. It was just before my time. And while I do want to watch the Netflix show, I haven’t yet. Nor am I rushing to out to watch it. Then the fact that the game is mainly one versus many. It’s just not a type of game I get to the table enough.

Now, I’ll say when I think a game is probably going to be good. I think that this one is likely going to be good. If you like the theme, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If you like the mechanics from the game play videos, you’ll like the game. It is one that just isn’t for me. And that’s probably a good thing with two big CMON KS’s backed and waiting on right now with Zombicide: Undead or Alive and Marvel United: X-Men.

Is this a back or a brick for you?

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This, however leads to a problem. There are a ton of games on Kickstarter, in fact they make Kickstarter millions of dollars. And now Gamefound is in the mix and that is where all the Awaken Realms games are and they are getting a lot of other really big games. So how do you decide what to back.

Only So Much Budget

I did a series of articles on Kickstarter 101. You can find the first one there and then I went into more details about what I look for. I generally follow my guide when it comes to backing games or talking about them in my Back of Brick Series. But one thing I don’t talk about is budget, or at least I don’t talk about it much.

Right now that is my biggest issue in getting board games, which is a good thing in a lot of ways. If I didn’t have a budget I would just have my game room stacked up with even more board games and no where to actually play them. Plus, there is only so much time to play board games in my life right now. I’d love to play more, but I’m generally playing once a week with people and once a week while streaming.

But That Means Hard Choices

As the header says, that means that I have to make hard choices as to what I back. Early in the year I tend to be a bit more free. By that I mean, if it looks really cool, I’ll back it and not think about it. But now, in the middle of the year, my budget is drying up, and we are getting a lot of cool games on the different crowdfunding platforms.

Just what I know is coming up, there is Lords of Ragnarok from Awaken Realms, Divinus from Lucky Duck Games, Slay the Spire from Contention Games, and those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Plus there is Middara acts 2 & 3. There is a Dune game based off of the Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game system, not Kickstarter from what I know. Plus I could still late back Deliverance or Witcher: Old World, and I’m actively backing Valor & Villainy, the cooperative legacy version that is out there now.

So how do I go about picking? Do I keep backing Valor and Villainy because it’s a known game? Do I save for other things that are coming in later? How much do I care about the CMON Masters of the Universe Game?

So How Do I Pick?

Compare to the Collection

Firstly, I think it’s important to look at the games in a vacuum. Well, kind of a vacuum. I don’t want to look at everything I know is coming to Kickstarter or Gamefound. It’s hard to compare games that are active to games that are coming. If a game is active and it looks amazing except for one little thing, I won’t be able to accurately compare it to the ones that have almost no information on Kickstarter or little on Gamefound.

Instead, I should look at it compared to what I have in my collection. So with Valor and Villainy, it’s a campaign and a legacy game. I have two unplayed Legacy games, well, 3 actually with Pandemic Legacy Season 0 that I just remembered. And I probably have 6-10 unplayed campaign games counting what is currently backed on Kickstarter. So do I need more games of that type? But also, does this one look better than the games of that type I own?

Who Would I Play It With

Is this a game for a small group? My campaign group? The board game club group? The game night group? Me? Or is it a game for a group that doesn’t exist yet?

If it’s the latter, do I want to put the effort into finding a group or a person to play it with. Let’s look at some things I’ve backed, Project L and Tiny Tubro Cars are for the small group and game night group. Primal is for small group, board game club group, and campaign group. Aeon’s End Legacy might just be for me. But does a game fit into any of the groups. If not, I have to put in the effort to get it played, and will I do that?

Retails vs Crowdfunding

Another thing I consider is, can I get it later. A crowdfunded game is a little bit of a risk. I’ve gotten a few when they came in they weren’t as good as I had hoped. Lost Woods was a simple game that wasn’t what I was hoping. Bring Your Own Book is a cool idea but doesn’t work as well as it sounds. Now the only way to get Lost Woods was via Kickstarter, but Bring Your Own Book went to retail. So I could have waited, gotten an uglier copy that was the same thing, or waited for reviews.

But there’s more to that, I could have gotten Marvel United at retail, but I’m glad I didn’t. So it’s the flip of Bring Your Own Book. With Marvel United I got way more characters because I backed it on Kickstarter. And basically none of the expansions are going to retail, so I’d have missed out on all of that content. So, is the value there to take the risk on the game on the crowdfunding platform?

So What’s Coming Up?

Out of everything I talked about coming up, I am confident that I’ll back Lords of Ragnarok. I like Lords of Hellas a lot and Norse mythology. Slay the Spire is also likely because I love that video game. CMON’s Master’s of the Universe game, probably not, it’s not a theme that I love as much, though the minis look amazing. Divinus, probably, though Lucky Duck Games also do come to retail.

How do you balance what you back or don’t? Do you just ignore Kickstarter or Gamefound? Or do you do less retail because you get most of your games are coming in via Kickstarter?

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