OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

[Smoove_B]

I don't understand that at all. Why didn't he just release the player aid to the hordes at BGG, knowing that within 72 hours tops it would be reviewed, edited, and commented on enough to put it in a state to be officially published? Give the PDF to BGG, send the final file to GMT and allow them to sell official copies?

I don't know if it's a contract issue (they can't release materials on their own website or a public one like BGG) or just old-school mentality. It makes no sense.

[baelthazar]

I did two crazy things.

First, two weeks or so ago I acquired Dwellings of Eldervale from a great online shop I found called The Upstart Boardgamer. In the past two weeks I have played the game solo three times. The first time, I was decidedly unimpressed. It wasn't "bad" per se, but it was just not fitting the extreme hype that I had heard. By the third time, I am beginning to see the game's charm and draw, and it might even be approaching the type of game that I could see myself pulling out often and even introducing to more casual gamers once the pandemic is over. Let me talk a little about what happened in those three plays.


The pirate water faction, one of my favorites, aesthetically speaking.

At first glance, the game looks like a hardcore, fantasy 4X game that likely has tons of rules and rulebooks. The production value is sky high, it includes giant monsters (I got the legendary edition so I have all the giant minis and bases that make roars and other noises as they move, completely unnecessary but extremely cool). You see that there are spells and a whopping sixteen asymmetric factions based on eight elements. When I ordered it, I hadn't looked at the rulebook or delved into many play throughs. To be honest, I was expecting something close to Heroes of Land, Sea, and Air. It has a real Master of Magic vibe.


The Dire Crocodile, showcased on the box art.

But despite all of the amazing glitz, cool meeples, and high-quality art, the game is really... a cross between Carcassonne and Wingspan? Maybe that is a bad comparison, but I think that is as close as it gets. In reality, the game operates by having you put workers on the board (workers come in four flavors, normal workers, a warrior, a dragon, and a wizard). The different types of workers all have different placement rules (for example, workers and warriors have to be placed in lands adjacent to your previously placed workers, the dragon can fly over two hexes, and the wizard can be placed anywhere). Each faction also has two special rules for two of the categories of workers (the pirates, for example, have special rules for the warrior and the wizard). You get points by converting your workers into dwellings, which claim a land, move you up the element control board, give you immediate points, and give you a points multiplier at the end based on how far up the element control board you are for their elements.

In addition to worker placement, you are also buying adventure cards that match different elements, which creates a tableau (very similar in nature to Wingspan). When you retrieve your workers from the board (in a move called "regroup), you can put them on your tableau to get resources, take certain actions, acquire more workers, or build dwellings. There is more to the game (such as collecting treasure chits from placing workers and deciding what to do with the chits - make them part of production, cash them in for resources, or slot them into vaults for points), but overall this is it.

So, the game occupies a weird space. It has the look of a hardcore fantasy game but it EASILY is a game you could pull out and play with anyone who can stand the difficulty level of Carcassonne. My almost 5-year old isn't quite there, but I could see her playing this game in a couple of years. The monsters, which look intimidating, are basically just tile blockers that you have to either overcome or they will preventing you from getting a foothold to build a dwelling. There is quite a bit to manage at first, but the turns are lightning fast and the game can easily be finished within 60-90 minutes if you prevent analysis paralysis.

But this forum is about solo play, so in my next post I will talk about that.

[malchior]

I don't understand that at all. Why didn't he just release the player aid to the hordes at BGG, knowing that within 72 hours tops it would be reviewed, edited, and commented on enough to put it in a state to be officially published? Give the PDF to BGG, send the final file to GMT and allow them to sell official copies?

I don't know if it's a contract issue (they can't release materials on their own website or a public one like BGG) or just old-school mentality. It makes no sense.

I've read accounts that the current business issue at GMT is that its staff is too small for its demand and has someone at the top who wants everything to pass by them for review. My consultant brain suspects he is the ultimate bad boss/owner bottleneck constraining his business but it's just a hunch. That it takes a year to write, edit, and prepare a 'player aid' for a game released a few years ago is pretty astonishing but it explains a lot. Meanwhile, you can fire up really good 'unofficial' Youtube videos and game guides. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[baelthazar]

So, how does Dwellers of Eldervale play solo. Well, that is why my experience has been one of more gradual love. I think what threw me is that I started playing it directly after playing Anachrony against the Chronossus. While I know the Chronossus isn't exactly a representation of a real player, the way it is done feels like a real player. It follows the rules (mostly), and makes moves that are relatively logical. In Dwellings of Eldervale, you play against the Ghosts of Eldervale, and they are placed based a roll and card system. Each time you make a move, you also move The Watcher, a neat looking ghost piece that basically is a marker telling you where the ghosts will act. What that means is that the ghosts will almost always follow your moves closely, building near where you moved, entering your spaces, and trying to block you. But that also means that you can "game" the system by looking at the movement cards available to the ghosts. The ghosts can also place units and make moves in ways that you cannot (they don't have to be adjacent to former moves, they can place more than one unit in a hex, they can build a dwelling in the same turn they place).


The end of my third game against the ghosts. Note the Watcher in the upper right (teal meeple).

At first this was jarring. I don't particularly care for AI systems where the AI gets to "cheat." I understand the need for abstraction and to offset the player, but the way the ghost "cheats" gives it extreme advantages. It gathers adventure cards quickly, every resource it gathers is worth a victory point, and it can create dwelling extremely fast (stealing your spots out from under you). Once I realized I could force the ghost to take moves that would deny it the chance to build dwellings, the game became more manageable (I still only won by a margin of 5 points).

At the end of my third play, I saw the elegance in the system. It has to do with planning your placement, determining what resources you need, and building a tableau (my first two games, I did not build my tableau effectively). You also have to decide if you want to specialize on an element or spread out (I suggest trying to max two elements and building dwellings on those).

My end thoughts are that, if the game was longer and deeper, it would not be a great solo experience. Because it is lighter and quick, it is fun, exciting, easy to crank out in a lunch break or during my short "mental breaks from remote work at home." You can do multiple turns within 15 minutes. It is a great game for people who have kids or are working from home and want to be able to duck into the gaming room to take a turn or two before attending to pressing duties. I also see it as a game that my wife will really enjoy, once I get her over the initial shock that it LOOKS like a game far more complicated than it is.

Does it live up to the hype? For me, not really, but that is ok. If I had a larger gaming group, it would likely fill a space vacated by Catan or something of that weight. I would probably pull out Wingspan before Dwellings, but that just may be because I feel like Wingspan has a bit more depth in its engine building. But if I had that gaming group, it would probably get a decent amount of play, maybe in between more satisfying strategy games (I probably would rather play Cthulhu Wars or something like that, if I wanted light war, dudes on a map, asymmetric sides, with large minis). It was likely not worth the premium cost I paid. But, overall, it makes for a quick game to play while working at home (which is super valuable).

The second crazy thing I did was finally acquire a copy of High Frontier 4 All. Despite also having an unplayed copy of Stellar Horizons. Finding out that you can chain together all the Eklund games from Bios: Genesis, to Megafauna, then Origins, and High Frontier also makes me want to at least acquire Origins as well. The only thing stopping me is the crushing difficulty in learning the rules and the fact that there are likely better solo play options (and at this level of crunch, I can only imagine solo playing). That said, I was happy to see that High Frontier 4 All has an "easy mode" that is supposed to be a more "family game" atmosphere.

[Isgrimnur]

Your images do not come through.

[YellowKing]

Thanks for the impressions baelthazar.

This one was on my radar, but it sounds like it doesn't quite have the strategic depth I'm looking for (or at least not compared to games I already own). I passed on Lost Ruins of Arnak for the same reason - I'm sure it's a good game, but it didn't sound significantly better than what Dune: Imperium was already providing.

[baelthazar]

Your images do not come through.

Did that fix it? I suspected Google Photos would break, so I switched to Imgur.

[baelthazar]

Thanks for the impressions baelthazar.

This one was on my radar, but it sounds like it doesn't quite have the strategic depth I'm looking for (or at least not compared to games I already own). I passed on Lost Ruins of Arnak for the same reason - I'm sure it's a good game, but it didn't sound significantly better than what Dune: Imperium was already providing.

I mean, it's a beautiful game with a lot of WOW factor. And the speed of play and ease of learning is excellent. But I was looking for a crunchy fantasy 4X, and that is decidedly NOT what Dwellings of Eldervale is (the fact it is so hyped and getting loads of "my top game" talk should have clued me in that it was lower in depth).

[Isgrimnur]

Yes.

[Skinypupy]

Played my first game of 4 Against Darkness tonight. Thought it was very fun, and I enjoyed the old school feel of it all (even though I never actually played old school games). I was doing pretty well, until my run came to a tragic end when I rolled a horrible sequence of exploding 6's that spawned 29 skeletal rat vermin. They made short work of my mostly Level 1 party that was about halfway dead anyways. It did get a bit old having to flip through the book every 20 seconds, but I'm sure that'll get easier once I get more familiar with the rules.

Quick question: One of the quests (Slay All The Monsters) says "To complete the quest, all the dungeon rooms must be laid out and all the occupants slain". I assume that means that I need to kill all occupants by the time I defeat the Final Boss? Or is there some other sort of trigger that marks a dungeon as "complete" or "laid out". Run out of room on the sheet to put new rooms, maybe?

[Skinypupy]

Thanks for the Dwellings of Eldervale impressions Baelthazar. I wasn’t initially interested, as I tend to bounce off overly complex strategy titles. Hearing it’s less complex than it looks definitely puts it back on my radar. Especially if I can play it with the kids.

[$iljanus]

I’m enjoying the recently released Star Trek Alliance Dominion War Campaign. The AI is making good tactical decisions and giving me a run for my money in the first mission. I ended up buying a second set to have some larger battles but I think one set is enough to have fun with. I also have some custom missions in my mind that I want to design. The developer seems eager to support the product so I’m hoping more Alliance material will be coming out eventually.

[Fardaza]

Played my first game of 4 Against Darkness tonight. Thought it was very fun, and I enjoyed the old school feel of it all (even though I never actually played old school games). I was doing pretty well, until my run came to a tragic end when I rolled a horrible sequence of exploding 6's that spawned 29 skeletal rat vermin. They made short work of my mostly Level 1 party that was about halfway dead anyways. It did get a bit old having to flip through the book every 20 seconds, but I'm sure that'll get easier once I get more familiar with the rules.

Quick question: One of the quests (Slay All The Monsters) says "To complete the quest, all the dungeon rooms must be laid out and all the occupants slain". I assume that means that I need to kill all occupants by the time I defeat the Final Boss? Or is there some other sort of trigger that marks a dungeon as "complete" or "laid out". Run out of room on the sheet to put new rooms, maybe?

I haven't played in awhile. I seem to remember that the exploding 6's was only for my benefit while attacking, not number of monsters. I may have been playing it wrong though.

[Xmann]

Hey everyone, needing some ideas on a solo game for myself.

As you guys know, I'm house bound, recovering from Covid. Wife is back to work so I'm home by myself from 6a-3p daily.

I've played board games in the past, primarily coop with the wife. Deck building and drafting are some of my favorites. Here are my likes and dislikes

Likes- deck building, strategy, combat, not easy but not overly complicated, fantasy or sci fi, easy to learn but hard to master

Dislikes- Complicated rules, slow play through, tons of components.

I own Harry Potter, Marvel deck building, Aliens deck building, and a couple other games which are primarily coop or multi player games.

So I'm looking for ideas. I'm willing to spend up to $100.

Thanks everyone.

[wonderpug]

Dune: Imperium fits your criteria pretty well. Deckbuilding and drafting with worker placement. (Unless you mean deckbuilding to mean you build it before gameplay -- in Dune everyone has the same starter 10 card deck and you build it as you play.) Sci-fi theme, check. Combat is there, and while it's not complex it's still a key part of the gameplay. You have to balance recruiting troops and committing troops to gain key rewards and resources, without overcommitting and wasting the effort and resources. Rules didn't seem overly complicated, and the AI decks are super quick to run.

I see Aeon's End recommended all the time for solo and for deckbuilding, but I haven't played it myself. Can't comment on the rules complexity or speed of play.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Hey everyone, needing some ideas on a solo game for myself.

As you guys know, I'm house bound, recovering from Covid. Wife is back to work so I'm home by myself from 6a-3p daily.

I've played board games in the past, primarily coop with the wife. Deck building and drafting are some of my favorites. Here are my likes and dislikes

Likes- deck building, strategy, combat, not easy but not overly complicated, fantasy or sci fi, easy to learn but hard to master

Dislikes- Complicated rules, slow play through, tons of components.

I own Harry Potter, Marvel deck building, Aliens deck building, and a couple other games which are primarily coop or multi player games.

So I'm looking for ideas. I'm willing to spend up to $100.

Thanks everyone.

Star Realms: Frontiers is a fairly inexpensive and easy-to-learn deck builder which has some decent solo games included.

Also, if the theme appeals to you, you should be able to snag a copy of Apex Theropod: Collected Edition soon (after they're finished delivering to all Kickstarter backers and preorders). It's basically an apex dinosaur-themed deck builder which is pretty much tailor-made for playing solo. Here's a solo playthrough of the previous edition of the game courtesy of One Stop Co-Op Shop:

[Anonymous Bosch]

Hey everyone, needing some ideas on a solo game for myself.

As you guys know, I'm house bound, recovering from Covid. Wife is back to work so I'm home by myself from 6a-3p daily.

I've played board games in the past, primarily coop with the wife. Deck building and drafting are some of my favorites. Here are my likes and dislikes

Likes- deck building, strategy, combat, not easy but not overly complicated, fantasy or sci fi, easy to learn but hard to master

Dislikes- Complicated rules, slow play through, tons of components.

I own Harry Potter, Marvel deck building, Aliens deck building, and a couple other games which are primarily coop or multi player games.

So I'm looking for ideas. I'm willing to spend up to $100.

Thanks everyone.

I would also highly recommend trying Keldon's Race for the Galaxy AI, which is basically a completely free PC version of Race for the Galaxy. Rest assured it's totally legitimate, and allows you to play the complete game against formidable AI opponents without needing to own any physical version of the game at all. Obviously it's less than ideal if you're primarily interested in playing the game in person (though it still makes for a great way to learn and try before buying the physical game), but as a solo game? It's simply superb, and you'd be hard-pressed to find any other games that rival its strategic depth.

If you're unfamiliar with Race for the Galaxy, it's essentially a hand-management and tableau-building card game in which you're racing to build the most successful galactic civilizations with game cards that represent worlds, trade goods and raw materials, as well as technical and social developments. Other games have used similar mechanics, but few can rival the elegant mechanics Race for the Galaxy provides.

However, Keldon's AI does not include a tutorial or instructions on how the game is played. So if you've never played the game before, I recommend watching this rules and gameplay video and the RftG tutorial videos made by one of the game's designers, which should help you learn enough of the fundamentals to at least get started. Some people find the game's iconography can initially be somewhat challenging to learn, though the aforementioned videos both do an excellent job of comprehensibly illustrating and explaining it. If you're still in any doubt and need to easily decipher a card, I recommend grabbing this handy PDF player aid, which clearly explains every icon combination used in the game. You can also download the PDF manual for the physical game here.

You'll almost certainly get your arse handed to you on a fairly regular basis by Keldon's AI during most of your initial games. However, those losses can also provide some tremendously useful insight into skillful strategic play by observing how the AI plays. Keep in mind, the game provides numerous unique abilities and strategies can be tough to discern initially. So it'll likely take several games before those strategies begin to really sink in. Basically, you’re usually trying to develop some sort of engine that lets you maximize the value you get from each player’s chosen Action Phase selections. So one of the most important skills to focus on developing initially is to pay attention to what your opponents are building so that you're better able to anticipate which Action Phase they're likely to select. The important thing to remember is that the game lives up to its name, as it's fundamentally a race to either lay down 12 good cards or use production to gather the necessary chips to end the game. You probably won't do both.

You can play the physical game solo, but doing so does also require purchasing the first expansion (The Gathering Storm). So I generally much prefer playing Keldon's Race for the Galaxy AI or the RftG game available on Steam (which does at least include a tutorial) instead of using the solitaire game mode included with The Gathering Storm.

[Tao]

Recommendations:

Marvel Champions - Deck builder in the true sense as you actually can opt to build your own decks, base game is less than $50 now which give you extra to pick up a few more hero packs
Champions of Hara - Card based game with an interesting twist on how and when you get to play cards, some cool mini's, you can get both the base game and expansion for $100
Ascension - Card drafting deck builder, plays better as a two or three player but has a solo mode, base game is around $30 bucks and there's like 10 expansions or something
Mech's vS. Minions - Super fun card drafting game with a few twists, where your basically trying to execute a program rather than just draw cards to your hand, great minis, right about $100, although that doesn't include shipping
Sentinels of the Multiverse - Not exactly a deck builder but a super hero game based on playing cards from a pre-made deck, ton's of fun, easy to learn, easy setup, some tokens to keep track of so can be a little fiddly but there's an app too, you can get the base game and at least one expansion for about $100 bucks
Street Masters - Another that's not exactly deck building but a card based game, again lots of fun, tons of re-playability, easy rules to learn, lots of minis, downside is the base game is $100 which seems a little steep for just the core box but it is a really fun game

Last recommendation isn't a card game and is a little more than $100 ($130) but just a phenomenal game, plays solo or coop, great component quality, Too Many Bones. There's a ton of extra content now too so you can slowly add on if you enjoy it.

[Skinypupy]

Not sure how many components qualifies as "too many", but a couple recommendations:

- Star Wars: Outer Rim is a blast and easily one of my favorite solo experiences.
- Descent/Star Wars Imperial Assault (same game, different skin) are very fun dungeon crawlers to play solo with the companion app.
- Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion works very well solo and is a much more digestible game than the original GH
- Legendary Marvel is a fun deckbuilder that has a ton of flexibility in missions, heroes, villains, etc.
- Clank! (one of my favorite deckbuilders) can be played solo with an app
- Most of the "Tiny Epic" games can be played solo. Tiny Epic Tactics and Tiny Epic Galaxies are both very fun and cheap.
- Street Masters and/or Altar Quest are both awesome (similar systems with different themes), but have a TON of components. May be a barrier for you.

There's also a ton of really good board game apps out there as well that can be played solo. Lords of Waterdeep, Ascension, Shards of Infinity, Cartographers, and Through the Ages all jump to mind.

[wonderpug]

- Star Wars: Outer Rim is a blast and easily one of my favorite solo experiences.

Do you play it with the standard rulebook solo mode? Or with one of the custom fanmade AI things on BGG?

[Skinypupy]

- Star Wars: Outer Rim is a blast and easily one of my favorite solo experiences.

Do you play it with the standard rulebook solo mode? Or with one of the custom fanmade AI things on BGG?

Standard rulebook. I've found that to be plenty challenging...I only win 30-40% of the time.

[wonderpug]

- Star Wars: Outer Rim is a blast and easily one of my favorite solo experiences.

Do you play it with the standard rulebook solo mode? Or with one of the custom fanmade AI things on BGG?

Standard rulebook. I've found that to be plenty challenging...I only win 30-40% of the time.

Do you feel like you have enough time to actually upgrade your ship and build a crew or whatever? I only tried the standard solo mode once, so not exactly a fair shake, but I remember it felt a little too rushed, like I just had to frantically grab points wherever I could find them instead of building up my ship the way I would against human opponents.

[Skinypupy]

- Star Wars: Outer Rim is a blast and easily one of my favorite solo experiences.

Do you play it with the standard rulebook solo mode? Or with one of the custom fanmade AI things on BGG?

Standard rulebook. I've found that to be plenty challenging...I only win 30-40% of the time.

Do you feel like you have enough time to actually upgrade your ship and build a crew or whatever? I only tried the standard solo mode once, so not exactly a fair shake, but I remember it felt a little too rushed, like I just had to frantically grab points wherever I could find them instead of building up my ship the way I would against human opponents.

Well, I've only played one game against another person (my 12-year-old's first go at this game), so I don't know that I have a good basis of comparison for a human opponent.

The solo game can feel rushed (feels like they can buy VP's a bit too quickly), but I kind of expected that'd be similar for a human opponent.

[Anonymous Bosch]

There's also a ton of really good board game apps out there as well that can be played solo. Lords of Waterdeep, Ascension, Shards of Infinity, Cartographers, and Through the Ages all jump to mind.

This is great advice, too.

Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization still ranks on BGG as the #6 best overall game for its top-notch gameplay and mechanics. But the physical version of the game does tend to be time-consuming to set up and a bit of a chore to take care of the upkeep. So being able to play the game digitally against competent AI and have the CPU take care of the fiddly set up and handle all of the necessary upkeep provides a terrific enhancement and makes for a much more streamlined and enjoyable overall experience. I'd go as far as saying that it's easily one of the very best digital board game adaptations available. It also includes one of the most outstanding game tutorials I've ever played. Suffice to say, it's definitely worth checking out if you have ever enjoyed playing a Sid Meier Civilization PC game:

[$iljanus]

The possibility of subpar components made me wary of buying this game but Pavlov’s House has gone digital. I may have to try this on the iPad.

[Smoove_B]

Not possible - they absolutely are sub-par.

I meant to share that the digital version was out and it seemingly has good reviews. It's also priced right.

[Smoove_B]

I almost feel bad posting this as I don't think you can get copies now unless you were a KS backer and/or you're willing to pay absurd prices. I think it's slated for retail release, but that might not happen until May-ish (if I'm remembering correctly). What's the game? Sleeping Gods.

I don't have any prior experience with the designer, though I know he's well regarded - that's why I backed this. It's a game that can be played cooperatively with up to 3 other people, but since you're here you know I'm going to go Han Solo. The basic story is that it's 1929 and while traveling back from Hong Kong, your ship is somehow transported "elsewhere". The only way for you and the crew to return home is to find special totems and awaken the Sleeping Gods.

I guess it's a bit like 7th Continent in that you're exploring and encountering things. However, instead of tiles, there's a flip book with numbered locations that you move between and read keyed entries from a giant story book. As you move around the map and reach the end of a page, the edge tells you what page to turn to next to continue. Here's a shot of what it all looks like setup, just after the tutorial.



You might notice there's a lot going on, particularly in terms of the characters, and you'd be right. *So far* it feels manageable as a solo experience, but it does take up a bit of room. I have started using a side table rather than open this one up fully as I find it easier to turn instead of scootching and reaching. When you're playing cooperatively with others, you split up the characters you're controlling and everyone shares control of the captain. However, as a solo game, you control all 9.

Each character has their own set of general skills, a special actions that might help out on the ship (like repairing things or making food) or in combat (adding damage).

I should also mention that the ship itself is a bit like a character in that it has areas you interact with (healing, crafting, making food) and it too can take damage and threaten the success of your return trip home. The boat's info is on a large card, pictured to the right of the world atlas in the photo.

At this point you might be panicking as no dice are pictured. If that's your thing, I have bad news - no dice are in this game. Instead it's a bit closer to Gloomhaven in that you will always be pulling a card with a random value to add to your skill being checked to determine if you're successful. This is the one things I'm a little iffy on, but it's not a deal killer for me. Instead, the combat is wholly unique - I can't think of a single comparable system, but maybe it's related to something Euro-based that I just haven't played. Here's a shot of what combat looks like:



The encounters all come from a numbered deck (that isn't shuffled) and the game simply tells you what cards to pull for an encounter in the story book.

Like the crew, the monsters have basic stats - health, defense, damage, etc...) and so when you attack you're comparing your attack still (for example) using the weapon the crew member has + the random card and compared to the creature's defense. If you fail to beat the defense, the creature attacks first and then you do a minimum of 1 damage. If you beat their defense, you apply damage and then the creature counter attacks (if it can). On the whole, not complicated. What's really interesting to me is how it actually plays out.

The character I was using did 3 damage. This means I apply three wounds on the creature grid in a horizontal or vertical line. Some of creature's grid is blank, so you need to be strategic. A spot might contain a health point (so you're wounding it) or it might only contain a damage icon (meaning if you hit that spot the creature would lose that damage ability). There's also a tiny diamond in some of the squares that allow you to "synergize" with another crew member, basically aiding them in their attack by providing an increased bonus to hit or more damage. Where it's even more interesting is you don't need to place all three tokens on the same monster. Here I've hit the second monster with "splash damage" - transferring part of my damage that round from the guard to the brute. Why? Because the Brute is harder to hit normally (his defense is 6, not 5) and by applying damage to that specific square, the Brute will only be able to do 1 damage to a crew member, not 2 (the guard is powerless). Again, maybe there's another game that does this, but certainly not one that I own.

There's other things like skill cards, leveling up the crew, quests (that drive exploration) and an encounter deck (that acts like a timer) - and I didn't even mention that the components and included organizational system is A++ quality. There's fully indexed rulebook and a getting started/how to play guide (which is what I did here).

Anyway, I'm just getting started and you can play and pause without problem. They include a pad of adventure logs to keep track of things and each full adventure is somewhere around 10 hours to complete (though don't quote me on that).

I'm not sure exactly what differs for the retail version. I have metal coins, wood tokens and cardboard tokens (I didn't upgrade them) and an expansion. I believe the KS copies also came with a dungeon expansion, but it's not recommended that you integrate that on your first adventure. The boxed expansion (Tides of Ruin) has been fully integrated into my core copy at this point - it's more cards, another atlas, storybook and a new mode to play ("Arcade mode" - a rogue-like adventure version).

On the whole, something I completely recommend you consider. I play games to explore and that's the heart of this game. It has a big footprint on your table, but the box isn't unreasonably large. I'll try to get another update in after I finish a campaign, though I'm not sure if I'll have more photos - everything I've shared is from the tutorial so not really spoilerish.

[Fardaza]

Looks good Smoove, but it's out of stock on Amazon.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, the KS was just delivered to US backers, but distribution worldwide is still ongoing. I don't think the retail orders are shipping until sometime in May - I believe they were sent in different containers.

[hepcat]

The gaming goat game store near me had the Kickstarter all in bundle for less than 150 bucks a few weeks ago. I didn’t bite at the time as I didn’t know much about it. It’s of course sold out there now.

[Smoove_B]

Sorry, I was slacking.

I just looked and the eBay prices are insane. I think it was out to backers for like 2 days before people started posting how good it was and the KS copies floating around in retail were quickly snatched up.

At least there are retailers taking orders for the regular release.

And my attempts to keep it wrangled on a 32" x 36" area + side table are failing. For a game that's about reading entries in wire bound book, it takes up a ridiculous amount of space and I might need to open up the table to the full 60" length here.

I'd do a pre-order and I'll keep posting my thoughts so y'all can cancel if it turns out to be terrible

Spoiler:

It's not going to be terrible

EDIT: Does it make you feel better that the Aventuria weird German sex expansion is coming back on 3/16?

[YellowKing]

So I've mentioned in the what did you play this weekend thread that I'd been in a bit of a board gaming slump lately.

For some reason today I glanced over at Marvel Champions and decided to give it another shot, and it really gave me a much-needed gaming boost.

MC was one of those games that I bought when it first came out and just hit full force. I bought every hero deck that was out at the time, culminating in the Green Goblin Scenario Pack. I kind of burned myself out on it to some extent, and when shinier things came along I boxed it up and forgot about it.

Revisiting it tonight I remembered what a fantastic game it is. Really had a ball just playing a basic game, trying to remember all the rules and strategies. I'm going to mess around with it a bit more to see if I'm loving it enough to pull the trigger on the Red Skull expansion, but there's a good chance I may be at least picking up another hero deck or two this weekend.

Unlike Arkham Horror: LCG, MC's expansions feel like you're adding more components to a highly replayable game. I quit buying AH:LCG stuff because I never felt I was really getting my money's worth. I didn't replay that game; every scenario was one-and-done. At least here I know each new hero I buy can be used against multiple villains for unlimited new plays.

[Smoove_B]

I just received Scarlet Witch today and she went right in the Red Skull box.

Spider Woman (from the Red Skull expansion) is probably one of the coolest characters to play if you're into actual deck building because you get to choose two aspects instead of one. I'm not, but I figured I'd mention it. But yeah, I think it's still a great game - really captures the feel of reading a comic book and playing as a superhero.

[hepcat]

Spoiler:

It's not going to be terrible

EDIT: Does it make you feel better that the Aventuria weird German sex expansion is coming back on 3/16?

I'll grab the hero boxes, but I've really no desire to live out some weird German writer's sex fantasies in my games. Anyway, Yellowking's PnP erotic adventure scenarios for Caatan were enough for me. I spent hours with a band saw and a dozen meeples to get the right configurations that required.

I just received Scarlet Witch today and she went right in the Red Skull box.

I just got Quicksilver. I wasn't aware Scarlet Witch was shipping already. I've kept up with everything this game has to offer, in spite of losing every time I play. I like it because it feels like Street Masters without the tactical component. And sometimes that's what I want in a game session.

[Smoove_B]

I'll grab the hero boxes, but I've really no desire to live out some weird German writer's sex fantasies in my games.

Quoting so when you back the Feuchtfröhlich Fantasy adventure, you know I'll be here to talk about it.

I wasn't aware Scarlet Witch was shipping already. I've kept up with everything this game has to offer, in spite of losing every time I play. I like it because it feels like Street Masters without the tactical component. And sometimes that's what I want in a game session.

I don't trust the supply chain and don't have a local gaming store, so I order direct from Asmodee as they include free shipping. I think I preordered back in January or maybe even December and it just arrived yesterday. I know there's synergy with the Quicksilver deck, but I only play true solo so I'm not sure if it's worth it for me to have both (same with Ant-Man and the Wasp). But yeah, it's fast to play and I absolutely love the art. It genuinely feels like you're playing a comic book to me and that's a unique experience from my collection.

[hepcat]

Scarlet Witch is sold out on coolstuff and miniaturemarket. Amazon always has these...if you're willing to pay double or triple the msrp for the first few weeks after release. I guess I'll just wait until a local store gets it.

[Smoove_B]

If you have other things to order (you always have other things to order) or don't mind a flat shipping fee, GameNerdz has it in stock.

[hepcat]

ah, i forgot to check gamenerdz. i love that seller. thanks!

[coopasonic]

I played The Search for Planet X solo last week. It was my first time playing the game. The bot was much better at deduction than I was. MUCH better. When the bot said it had solved the problem, I went through all the info I had and realized I already had all the info I needed but failed to put it all together. Oops.

With the game being app required and the bot being app controlled it is a LOT like playing a video game rather than a board game, but it is still an interesting challenge.

[YellowKing]

Re: Marvel Champions, I grabbed The Wrecking Crew scenario pack today. Going to slowly try to get caught back up by grabbing a pack a week.

Now I have to think about organization. I'm EXTREMELY tempted to take the Hobby Lobby case with Broken Token insert that has all my Arkham Horror: LCG stuff in it and switch it over to Marvel Champions. I don't play AH:LCG anymore and don't really see myself getting back to it, so I could just dump all those cards in some other container.