Pros

• Aesthetic
• Player Count
• Price Point
• Deck Building
• Push Your Luck
• Solo

Cons

• Push Your Luck

The Page

The page is a sharp looking page. Artana is doing a good job of showing off their game. Though, with showing off the art first, I wish it was the rules. I probably will always come back to this, but in this case, they can show off the art and the rules at the same time. Especially since First in Flight isn’t about having a ton of minis.

I will say that the collectors edition, more about the page than the game, looks solid. Do I need metal coins, foiled cards, and to go from wooden meeples to plastic sculpts? I don’t know what I would. But they are nice luxury add-ons without it being more game play. As someone who generally isn’t interested in the collectors edition, I dislike it when I feel I’m missing out game content. Here, I miss out on some fancier pieces.

The historical nature of the game, as well is cool. It allows what looks like a fun game to also be a teaching game. Too many games that are educational or look that way, are just boring. This looks both educational and like a modern board game that will be fun to play. Genius Games also does this, and I’m glad to see more companies leaning into that.

The Game

The game itself looks interesting to me. As it appears to have a fair amount going on. With a rondel for action selection, or so it seems, pushing your forward. Plus then deck building as you try and improve your pilot, plane and hit certain goals.

Push Your Luck is not normally a mechanic that I love. But I think that it seems interesting in this case. But for some, it’ll be a bit more than they are looking for in a game. I like the fact that you mitigate those flaws in your deck through skills.

Back or Brick

Oddly enough, even though I have only good things to say about First in Flight, this is a Brick for me. Not because I don’t want it. I do want the game, but because I don’t feel the need to get it on Kickstarter. They seem to have retail plans and this is one that I’d love to try or get my hands on more before I would back it.

I suspect with the type of game it is. The deck building, the gorgeous look, and even the push your luck, it’ll be a game that I like But I don’t want to assume that is the case. Plus, looking at the number, I likely can get it for the same cost at retail, especially since I am not that interested in the collectors edition.

How about for you, is this a Back or Brick?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Pros

• Theme/known IP
• Entry Level Pledge Price
• Known company
• Great Minis

Cons

• Entry Level Pledge Contents
• Previous video game adaptations from the company
• Stretch Goal structure

The Page

You are going to see one comparison made pretty often and that’s going to be with with Primal: The Awakening, which is another monster hunting game. But looking at this page, I think that it looks pretty solid. I like how they have everything laid out in terms of explaining what is in the different pledge levels.

But I am going to knock the pledge levels some. It looks like it could be solid with the entry level pledge, but you get zero daily unlocks. I get that they are trying to keep the price point low, but it is 4 monsters and 4 heroes. Not every campaign needs to have a million different options to play, but that isn’t much. And that is one of my cons, their previous video game adaptation, Horizon Zero Dawn, might be a great game, but you need stretch goals. The basic box provides way to little content, and from the looks of that entry level pledge, it will again.

Otherwise, I like the page layout and they spend a fair amount of time on the game play. I’ll get into that in more detail in the next section. They definitely highlight the size of the minis on the page as well, but this, like Primal: The Awakening, is always going to have giant minis. The only thing look wise that I don’t like is the board. In one picture you see it close-up with a bunch of a white circles on it, and it just doesn’t look as put together as it should.

The Game

Game play seems interesting. You level up your characters and characters are unique which I really like. The monsters even level up as well. Three different levels per monster to the point when you defeat any of the monsters as four star monsters you win the campaign. Or you can play one-shot arena battles against a monster. I like the fact that it has those combos.

I also like that much like Primal: The Awakening, the game play seems to be based around cards. In fact, looking at everything, I’m not sure I see any dice. And a game like this could easily have just been a dice chucker. That gives me more faith, like I was saying about Horizon Zero Dawn, that this will be a solid game mechanically.

The leveling up system looks interesting as well. It appears to give you some options as to how you can do that and how you can branch. When you have the option to level up, I don’t want it to be just one fixed path. I don’t believe that Monster Hunter World will give you that.

Back or Brick

So let’s dive into this. Is this a Back or Brick for me? Right now, this looks like a Brick for me. If the daily unlocks were coming to the entry level pledge, I’d probably be in on it. But it feels like this is a limited pledge level that is mainly just going to make you wish you’d gotten more and then pay larger numbers over on Ebay later. Also, if I hadn’t already backed Primal: The Awakening, I’d be more apt to back this as well. I think that Primal: The Awakening might be a simpler game to play and easier to get to the table. Will this be a bad game, probably not, but I wouldn’t get the Entry Pledge.

How about for you, is this a back or a brick?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition

A roll and write game, no surprise there, one that comes with it’s own dry erase boards, that’s cool, and a game that I kind of already have. I have the red edition of it, and the different editions add in different mini expansions, so that’s why I’m grabbing the Blue Edition. From what I know, this will allow me to play either of the games with more people because I don’t believe that the boards change, just the mini expansions change it up, so I believe it would allow me to play with a higher number of people, up to 12, I think. So I’m a fan of games that can get a lot of people to the table, and it’s a roll and write.

Dice Forge

The biggest game on the list this time, but one that I’ve had a chance to play I believe four times now, and I really enjoy it for one main thing. In this game you are crafting dice, or upgrading dice more so. The sides of the dice pop off so you get better sides to put on and can upgrade the dice, make dice roll and get more specific things, all while trying to get as many points as possible. One of the things that I really like about this game is rolling dice on other people’s turns. So while you are only getting resources, not being able to spend them, it is something to do, and this is also how you build up to being able to get the really expensive cards that do cool things or give you lots of points. Overall a fun game with toy factor that’ll be in my collection now.

Narabi

This one was on a deep sale, so I decided to pick it up. It’s a small card game that I’d watched played on the dice tower. It’s a fairly simple game about passing and taking cards to get them in order, or at least it sounds simple. The tricky bit is how you can pass the cards. If I remember correctly there are rule cards that either go into the numbered sleeves, or vice-a-versa. These rule cards can only be looked at if the card is in front of you, and that is going to determine how you can pass cards. So it’s an every changing puzzle to try and get it done, and I believe get it done in a certain amount of turns to win, or at least to get a better score. It seems like a quick little filler/bar type game that will be nice to grab once breweries open again, go play it with someone while having a beer and stick it back into a hoodie pocket.

TAGS

A party game and one that I would say builds off of some of those classic party games. It has a timed element like Catch Phrase or Moniker and you’re trying to get points by shouting at words at intersections of things. So it could be a color that starts with the letter B, K, L, and R and then a breakfast food starting with those letters, and so on, and you’re trying to get as many as you can and get the ones that are worth the most points. It’ll be a fun game, one that can maybe even work via Zoom. And it can be played in teams as well. It will just add another one of those group party style games to the collection for more variety which I kind of want/need after playing so many party games via Zoom this past year.

Welcome to Dinoworld

I almost backed this one on Kickstarter, and I’m not too sad that I didn’t with picking it up now. The price is basically the same, and maybe cheaper because I have free shipping. This is a roll and write game where you are trying to manage your dino park. Of course, in Jurassic Park style, things might go horribly wrong, dinosaurs might get out, and guest might be eaten. For something that sounds like it should be light, it does seem to have some depth in game play. I also like that it comes with two modes, one for a simpler game play and one for more complex. I’m curious to see which one I’ll like best.

So those are the five games that I can talk about that I got, we’ll talk about the other one coming up here eventually. Which of them sounds most interesting to you?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.