Can you give us a quick review? Need to know what it plays like and whether it is worth it for my group.
I don't know what changed since the demo version we played.
It's a very hard co-op game, like Pandemic. Except there's no possibility of quarterbacking because it is real time. The app makes everyone act fast, like Space Alert. But everyone has a unique job that is separate from the other jobs, but still affects the other players and the team. For example, the science researcher develops technologies that the player controlling the military units will end up using. It also has the theme of X-Com, which is a huge plus.
The games "Engine" is a Smartphone/Tablet App you can get from Apple or Google app stores. The App also contains the full rulebook. The game itself just comes with a quick setup guide.
I'm still figuring out the games so bear with me.
There are two phases of the game: A timed phase and a resolution phase. The timed phase is when you use the app. The app tells you how the aliens are attacking and where they are attacking. The timed phase is when the Scientist also determines what to research and how many resources to apply to each subject. The commander determines the budget for Xcom. Every Trooper, Scientist, Fighter, and Satellite deployed on the board costs 1 Money. If you go over budget, it panics the country by every money you go over.
The resolution mechanic is handled by throwing dice. You have 1 or more blue d6s with X-com logos on 2 sides and a red d8 that is the alien die. When you resolve a task you take blue dice equal to the number of resources allocated (Fighters, Scientists, etc) and the red die.
For each task there is a threat indicator that goes from 1 to 5. Each task started the threat indicator at one. (Except ground combat which doesn't reset) Each X-com symbol you roll is a success, get enough successes and you complete the task. (Discover the tech, shoot down the UFO), if you don't roll enough successes you can roll again raising the threat indicator by one.
Here's where the red die comes in. If the red die comes up with a number equal to or less than the threat, you take a loss. (Fighter is destroyed, trooper is killed), Satillites and Scientists that are exhausted are unusable for at least a full turn. Fighters and Troopers have to be rehired/rebuilt using X-Com's leftover budget.
I'm playing a couple of solo games to get used to the game, before I teach other people to play.
Does the app have a pause feature for when... Real life intrudes on the game?
Edit: watched some videos. I like the idea but I don't think it would work for my group. I would like to see more games like this but with the app as an option rather than a requirement.
Does the app have a pause feature for when... Real life intrudes on the game?
Edit: watched some videos. I like the idea but I don't think it would work for my group. I would like to see more games like this but with the app as an option rather than a requirement.
There's a sort of "Global Pause" button by hitting the menu button. So if someone needed an extended bathroom break, that's possible.
Oh... some other things I found out. When you are on a task and suffer a loss you lose everything. Put three jets in an area and roll a 1, you lose the three jets and need to spend money to replace them. It's definitely a "managed risk" game.
The only money that carries over from turn to turn is "Emergency Funding" otherwise you're encourage to spend any remainder on troops or jets.
Mostly. It does not include the Leaders promo expansion tokens, the Small World: Realms custom map and scenario expansion, the Tales & Legends deck of cards expansion (which is shit), the Necromancer Island promo, or the races and maps from the Small World: Underground standalone game (although the relics and special places for that game received resin miniatures here).
The big omission is Small World: A Spider's Web, which added Ice Witches, Skags, and Slingmen (as well as the Lava-, Copycat-, and Soul-Touch- special powers). That is a legit expansion that just came out 2 or 3 months ago, and wasn't included in the new fancy edition. So this includes base Small World and 4/5 of the major expansions, with some extra bits for SW:U.
Trivia fact of the day: the Skags are indeed Borderlands skags, and the race was designed by Randy Pitchford (Gearbox has a lot of board game love among their employees). Many of the later Small World expansions are fan-submittals, where people send in ideas for races/powers, and DoW sorts out the good ones. This may also explain why mixing all of the expansions in can 100% break the game on rare occassion (especially with only 2 players).
Base game plus four expansions? That is worth at least $200 alone. This set is worth way may than $400, expect to see it over $1,000 in secondary market. How did I miss this?
SW expansions are cheap, so the base game with all 4 actually only runs around $100. And looking back, the fancy version was actually only $320, I just paid extra for some other Kickstarter digital rewards and such.
The Designer's Edition went unnoticed by a lot of people, it seems. It was an add-on bonus all the way at the bottom of a Kickstarter page for the second version of the Small World tablet app. Only 524 copies were made for backers (they are going to sell I think 100 more at retail at a much higher price, then never make it again). They also had problems with their KS and had to cancel it and re-start it. Not publicized much unless you follow Days of Wonder regularly on social media or their newsletters. They did say they lost quite a bit of money making this thing, and I also expect to see it at $1,000+. The only one on BGG Marketplace is $1,100 right now. We'll see what it starts fetching for real on eBay soon. I should have bought two!
I dropped a call to my local game shop asking to see if it was even in the supply chain. I would easily pay $400 for it. The designer edition of Ogre saw a big price jump and this is far more expensive looking than that was.
At $1,000? No thanks.
More important question, does it mesh well with existing stock? Can you toss in one of the other expansions and not have a game breaking difference in components?
I am assuming DoW will sell those last copies direct, since they do have the capability via their online shop.
Adding additional races would be a minor pain, due to the random nature of what new races and powers are supposed to come up in the stack. It would be a dead giveaway that the skinny piece of carboard is coming up in 2 turns, vice all the massive thick slabs of wood. You would have to do away with the stacks and use a randomizer app.
You could easily use all of the components (maybe with the exception of the resin mountains due to their size) on SW: Realms custom maps.
Necromancer Island and Tales & Legends deck would be 100% compatible.
There are not Leaders tokens for every existing expansion race, so you'd have to use proxy (true even with the non-special edition game)
It is compatible with the combined Small World plus Small World: Underground double-game rules in the back of the SW:U book. You could also use the metal coins and suede purses for SW:U standalone game if you wante to.
I am passing through Baltimore on a travel day for the start of a business trip, with kid in tow (long story), so I may stop by. I went to Unpub 2 and 3 and had a good time because even though I despise playing people's prototypes, it's my way of helping out. I know so many of the people there either as designers or organizers of the event, and they're all good people whom I wish well, so why not give them some playtests? Due to my toddler encumbrance I likely won't be doing any playing this time. Just going to be social, say hi to a lot of friends I haven't seen in quite some time.
Seriously, how do you Americans seem to have a much better time finding other board gamers than a Canadian living in Mississauga? I honestly don't know how the heck I'm supposed to find other board gamers, particularly wargamers.
I definitely want to someday or another, especially after living in Mississauga, the most vanilla city ever, for over 9 years. At the very least, my family and I plan to visit New York at some time between now and September.
Alternately, Pennsylvania and (I assume) the Midwest. It's easier to find board gamers in the suburbs because we're less cultured and have more time to play Power Grid.
Alternately, Pennsylvania and (I assume) the Midwest. It's easier to find board gamers in the suburbs because we're less cultured and have more time to play Power Grid.
That's funny. I live in the suburbs of Mississauga but I can't seem to find anybody who plays stuff like "Fire in the Lake". Oh well--maybe I should wait until I resume university at Kingston. There are two tabletop gaming stores within walking distance of Queens (take that, University of Western folks!).
Also due to research we found that Connecticut is also a really nerdy hotbed as well.
However I wanted to share this with you all.
Looney Labs was at MAGFest and did a history of their Pyramids and Fluxx. In addition they also talked about how they designed their games and the story of "drunken fluxx.".
That's funny. I live in the suburbs of Mississauga but I can't seem to find anybody who plays stuff like "Fire in the Lake".
Wargames pretty much require an extra step... if you don't already have friends to play with, I would start by finding a regular board game night where people play euros, because that is a much easier task in most places. Wait a few weeks, then individually approach people that seem like they would enjoy wargaming.
In fact, simply bringing one or two GMT games with you would get the attention of any expatriated wargamers.
That's funny. I live in the suburbs of Mississauga but I can't seem to find anybody who plays stuff like "Fire in the Lake".
Wargames pretty much require an extra step... if you don't already have friends to play with, I would start by finding a regular board game night where people play euros, because that is a much easier task in most places. Wait a few weeks, then individually approach people that seem like they would enjoy wargaming.
In fact, simply bringing one or two GMT games with you would get the attention of any expatriated wargamers.
Comments
It's a very hard co-op game, like Pandemic. Except there's no possibility of quarterbacking because it is real time. The app makes everyone act fast, like Space Alert. But everyone has a unique job that is separate from the other jobs, but still affects the other players and the team. For example, the science researcher develops technologies that the player controlling the military units will end up using. It also has the theme of X-Com, which is a huge plus.
I'm still figuring out the games so bear with me.
There are two phases of the game: A timed phase and a resolution phase. The timed phase is when you use the app. The app tells you how the aliens are attacking and where they are attacking. The timed phase is when the Scientist also determines what to research and how many resources to apply to each subject. The commander determines the budget for Xcom. Every Trooper, Scientist, Fighter, and Satellite deployed on the board costs 1 Money. If you go over budget, it panics the country by every money you go over.
The resolution mechanic is handled by throwing dice. You have 1 or more blue d6s with X-com logos on 2 sides and a red d8 that is the alien die. When you resolve a task you take blue dice equal to the number of resources allocated (Fighters, Scientists, etc) and the red die.
For each task there is a threat indicator that goes from 1 to 5. Each task started the threat indicator at one. (Except ground combat which doesn't reset) Each X-com symbol you roll is a success, get enough successes and you complete the task. (Discover the tech, shoot down the UFO), if you don't roll enough successes you can roll again raising the threat indicator by one.
Here's where the red die comes in. If the red die comes up with a number equal to or less than the threat, you take a loss. (Fighter is destroyed, trooper is killed), Satillites and Scientists that are exhausted are unusable for at least a full turn. Fighters and Troopers have to be rehired/rebuilt using X-Com's leftover budget.
I'm playing a couple of solo games to get used to the game, before I teach other people to play.
Edit: watched some videos. I like the idea but I don't think it would work for my group. I would like to see more games like this but with the app as an option rather than a requirement.
Oh... some other things I found out. When you are on a task and suffer a loss you lose everything. Put three jets in an area and roll a 1, you lose the three jets and need to spend money to replace them. It's definitely a "managed risk" game.
The only money that carries over from turn to turn is "Emergency Funding" otherwise you're encourage to spend any remainder on troops or jets.
The big omission is Small World: A Spider's Web, which added Ice Witches, Skags, and Slingmen (as well as the Lava-, Copycat-, and Soul-Touch- special powers). That is a legit expansion that just came out 2 or 3 months ago, and wasn't included in the new fancy edition. So this includes base Small World and 4/5 of the major expansions, with some extra bits for SW:U.
Trivia fact of the day: the Skags are indeed Borderlands skags, and the race was designed by Randy Pitchford (Gearbox has a lot of board game love among their employees). Many of the later Small World expansions are fan-submittals, where people send in ideas for races/powers, and DoW sorts out the good ones. This may also explain why mixing all of the expansions in can 100% break the game on rare occassion (especially with only 2 players).
The Designer's Edition went unnoticed by a lot of people, it seems. It was an add-on bonus all the way at the bottom of a Kickstarter page for the second version of the Small World tablet app. Only 524 copies were made for backers (they are going to sell I think 100 more at retail at a much higher price, then never make it again). They also had problems with their KS and had to cancel it and re-start it. Not publicized much unless you follow Days of Wonder regularly on social media or their newsletters. They did say they lost quite a bit of money making this thing, and I also expect to see it at $1,000+. The only one on BGG Marketplace is $1,100 right now. We'll see what it starts fetching for real on eBay soon. I should have bought two!
At $1,000? No thanks.
More important question, does it mesh well with existing stock? Can you toss in one of the other expansions and not have a game breaking difference in components?
Adding additional races would be a minor pain, due to the random nature of what new races and powers are supposed to come up in the stack. It would be a dead giveaway that the skinny piece of carboard is coming up in 2 turns, vice all the massive thick slabs of wood. You would have to do away with the stacks and use a randomizer app.
You could easily use all of the components (maybe with the exception of the resin mountains due to their size) on SW: Realms custom maps.
Necromancer Island and Tales & Legends deck would be 100% compatible.
There are not Leaders tokens for every existing expansion race, so you'd have to use proxy (true even with the non-special edition game)
It is compatible with the combined Small World plus Small World: Underground double-game rules in the back of the SW:U book. You could also use the metal coins and suede purses for SW:U standalone game if you wante to.
However I wanted to share this with you all.
Looney Labs was at MAGFest and did a history of their Pyramids and Fluxx. In addition they also talked about how they designed their games and the story of "drunken fluxx.".
In fact, simply bringing one or two GMT games with you would get the attention of any expatriated wargamers.