Upcoming Streams on Malts and Meeples

Let’s run through the stream structure for Malts and Meeples. You might already know the schedule but in case you don’t. Wednesday at 8 PM Central I stream either a campaign game or sometimes pack openings or other things between those campaign games. Join me this Wednesday as I open up some Rise of the Floodborn. And then starting in January, Rogue Angels from Sun Tzu Games will be the campaign as I play that prototype.

Then on Monday I stream at 9 PM Central time. It’s generally a solo game. Though I’ll also do pack openings for things But normally it’s a solo game and a one off for the game like a roll and write, or sometimes a game like Under Falling Skies or For Northwood, which was on the list today.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live on Malts and Meeples is by subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Slay the Spire

Let’s talk a little bit about the Ironclad run, because that one kind of went against my normal goals in creating an Ironclad run. Normally I look to boost my strength as fast as possible and then deal out big damage. Attacks that cost two aren’t a big deal for me because I want to get that one or two big hits that I’ll need to take down the enemy.

This time I went with a bit of a hybrid approach and I think that was not the best call. Mainly, I think that some cards, the higher cost Demon Form, didn’t work out as planned. Yes, it boosted my damage but at the cost of a turn of damage.

Now, with more energy, I didn’t get to four energy after the first boss, that might have been different. More energy definitely makes things easier. And it makes a three cost card like Demon Form not as big a deal to play. But even then, I think I needed to focus more on dealing out small amounts of damage more often with the vulnerable in play. And cards that are cheaper to play are better.

It would also have allowed me to cycle in more defensive cards. The Ironclad can play around with a lot of defense as a strategy, not one I normally go for. But with the strategy that I was playing, I do think it’d have made sense to build up insane amounts of defense. Because it was about hitting often with vulnerable in play.

What’s your favorite Ironclad strategy?

Upcoming Streams

In the next two weeks my plan will be to go through the Board Game Geek Gen Con preview list. I even though about doing that today. But I suspect that there will be more showing up on that list in the next couple of days.

Let’s talk about the normal streaming, though, as this Wednesday at 8 PM Central, I hope to stream more Isofarian Guard. But I am not sure that I will because I get back from out of town that day. Depending on the timing I might not stream that night. Or it might be something else, probably something else. Such as I have Vampire the Masquerade – Chapters that I can unbox. So I expect to do that. Normal streaming schedule is 8:30 PM on Monday and 8 PM on Wednesday, both times Central.

The best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
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The Game

In Slay the Spire you are battling through rooms as you climb your way up three levels of a tower. Each of the levels get progressively harder, but that’s okay, because you get more and better cards. Like a standard deck building game, you start with a certain number of cards, generally 10, enough for two hands. You’ll have some basic attacks and basic defenses, but as you clear rooms, and beat monsters, you get the option to add more cards to your deck. These cards can give you better defense, more attack, or maybe even some permanent affect like dealing poison at the start of each of your turns. You also get relics which can do all sorts of crazy things, some give you more energy to spend, make attacks or defense better, heal you, give you an extra card every few turns, or more gold. If you can survive all the way to the top of the tower you’ve won, if not, you start at the bottom again and climb away.

What Doesn’t Work

Some climbs are just going to be better than others. When you get cards and relics, they are fairly random. Sure with cards you can pick from three, but if it doesn’t work with your strategy do you take a less ideal card or just skip a card all together. And some relics are way better than others depending on what you are doing, attacks that cost 0 doing 4 more damage is great for The Silent if you are going with one build, but if you are going for poison, way less useful. So there is that randomness. But honestly, that is the only thing that I’d consider a weakness in the game. And since the runs are fast.

What Works

The room system works really well. You are given a branching path up each level and you can see the whole thing. So if I know that I want to go to a merchant room as fast as possible, I can plan for that. If I just want to fight for a little bit, can do that. If I want the random rooms, they are easy to plan around as well. Overall, the whole room system just works really well because you can plot your course to some extent and choose what you are looking for. I go for routes that will optimize how many relics I get, permanent effects, because I like to get a lot of them. But if you want to optimize your health, it’s probably better to avoid those epic monsters.

I also like the characters. There are four different characters that you can get in the game. You start with one and when you get far enough, you unlock another and then another, and another. It is a blast to play the different characters, and the characters are really different. The Ironclad is your most basic aggressive character who is going to be able to dish out massive hits. Then the Silent gives you either shivs or poison but is about dishing out damage in a more defensive way. I’ll let you find out about the other two characters yourself, if the game is interesting. But they are more complex.

Each character has multiple ways to play them as well which is awesome. The Ironclad, I said that he’s good for dealing massive amounts of damage, and that’s true. But you can also play them more defensively. The Silent you can either build towards poison or shivs. It might overlap later as you go though. But each strategy is viable. And this is where some of the randomness that I was talking about can be bad. If I build the silent to attack with shivs and then I start getting all poison cards, I’m going to end up with a weird mix and be less effective. But if I get the right cards, you can do crazy combos that make the game a ton of fun.

Who Is This Game For?

Is this just a video game for board gamers? I don’t think so, I think a lot of players of video games will enjoy the rogue-like nature of each run. The deck building aspect is there, and it comes from board games, but it’s an easy enough concept to understand. So I think this game with it’s low barrier of entry and fun game play will work for a lot of people. The hard core FPS players, now, maybe they won’t like it as much but the more casual player, this game is a blast.

Final Thoughts

There aren’t a ton of video games that I come back to over and over again. I like video games as a concept, but too often I’ll play, get distracted, forget where I am in a story and have to start over again. Slay the Spire is not like that. Slay the Spire is simple to play for an hour, stop and do something else for a week and then drop back it and play again. It reminds me of some older video games that way. You play them for a little bit and then you put it down, and pick it up whenever you want. The less time I have to play longer games, at least video games, the more I appreciate games like this.

Overall Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: A