I didn’t like Anachrony much at all, fwiw. You aren’t alone.
I played COH when it first came out and thought it was too abstract. Combat Commander always manages to tell a story and COH games felt nonsensical half the time.
All the same, COH has a smart system. MUCH faster to play/learn than Combat Commander. I’m tempted to give it another shot every couple years.
I really like COH with the solo expansion. The campaign with the linked scenarios is superb.
Another great solo wargame is Enemy Action: Ardennes, although the rules are heavier than a Sherman Tank and it’s about as expensive. Once you get over the hill though it’s really cool.
I’ve only played as a 2 player game.
It shuts down spots on the board so I’m assuming it is similar to a higher player count. If i couldnt buy a bulding, i was researching for a project, or copying the action or collecting resouces for the next round. Money is tight. Powering mech is not cheap, nor is paying to get workers back you’ve used the previous turn. I definitely agree the game is not for everyone. I can only say I’ve enjoyed my experience solving the puzzle in the games I’ve played.
Thanks for the link. I gave it a listen and it seems pretty much inline with what I’ve heard in terms of the negatives. They did a better job of pointing out what’s good about the game than some of the other pieces I’ve heard.
Thanks for that as well. I’d actually watched Slickerdrips’ video on it after my previous post.
And I think this is where I am. If this were at retail where I could try out the base game for <$100, I would definitely pick it up, knowing I could grab the expansions later if the game surprised me and I was still interested. But in a >$200 Kickstarter environment where I’m taking on all the risk, and knowing that it would be very likely that I find the same faults as people have been reporting, I have to pass. Maybe it show up on BGG or eBay in a few years when people have played out the available content and the pricing goes down.
I was also looking at Gloom of Kilforth. I’ve watched a few runthroughs now, and I was really drawn to the great art and mechanics, until I saw it was a roll and resolve. I could almost overlook that given that most of the checks you can store up successes between rolls, but I’ve found that I generally don’t like dice checks as a primary mechanic. Again, if the game were a bit cheaper or I could get it off the shelf, I might give it a go just for the art and remainder of the gameplay, but this is another Kickstarter-only as far as I know.
I’m a bit sad that I’ll likely not get to try GoK out because I was a huge fan of the designer’s LotR:LCG scenarios. They were a big part of why I got back into the game enough to get through the first cycle (and a much better introduction to the game).
Is season 2 a totally separate game, just new events or whatever for a new experience? Or does it actually build on a season one game (if you’ve played it)?
Don’t spoil anything specific about the first game, I still haven’t started my copy.
It looks like it is a totally separate game that takes place after the events of game 1 - but not based on each person’s specific game as far as I can tell.
As cool as carrying over from season 1 would be it’s just not practical at all.
That’s what I sort of assumed, but again, haven’t tried it for myself yet.
Totally separate.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a good sci-fi miniatures game (armies, not ships).
I’ve heard that this game called Warhammer 40,000 is pretty popular, but having not played I can’t recommend.
In all seriousness, the only minature sci fi war game I can think of that I’ve played is Cry Havok. I can recommend that as a solid gaming experience, but one I ultimately sold my copy of. I know there have been WH40K boardgames: Space Hulk and Forbidden Star, but I have not played them.
On another note, I played Clank! the other night for the first time. I’ll be honest, I think the name threw me and I was predisposed to not like it based on that. However, the actual game was a combination of deck building, which is still addictive even as I’ve tired of it, and push your luck. You are represented by a meeple on a board with interconnecting rooms. Some cards will give you movement, which you can use to advance deeper into the dungeon. The ultimate goal is to pick up an artifact, of which there are several. However, the deeper into the dungeon an artifact is, the more points it is worth. However, in your deck will be cards that generate “clank,” or noise which will ultimately attract a dragon’s (not pictured). When a dragon attack is triggered by specially marked cards entering the market, those cubes are thrown into a bag and a certain number are randomly drawn out. These become damage. 10 damage and a player is eliminated from play. Either completely escaping the dungeon or dying will trigger the endgame, which is increasingly challenging dragon attacks until after 4 or 5 rounds the game just ends and everyone still in play is knocked out. Hence, a push your luck element. I enjoyed it, but could see the randomness hurting it for some people. Also, I’m concerned a player could play very conservative, grab the nearest artifact, rush the exit to force the end game, but then insure they won’t win and give the game to the slightly more adventurous player.
I haven’t played a lot, but Infinity has a really interesting ruleset.
If by miniatures you just mean you wan’t it to have minis but are ok with playing on a board with discrete positions,Space Hulk is a really good game (although you control a squad or two, not really armies).
Greatatlantic,
Lol. I know of warhammer, but don’t much about the ruleset if there is anything interesting there. I suspect it is a little more heavy than what I’m looking for.
I too had cry havok. It was okay, but I sold it. I just felt there were better area control games in my collection.
Clank! is awesome, but have you tried Clank in Space! Sci-fi themed clank, but now when someone exits the dungeon (space station) you can’t use the same exit as the escape pod is gone. Oh, and there might be a broken pod too. It adds some other mechanics. I’m not sure it makes the game better or just makes it more for gamers.
Juan,
I have started to look at infinity. What makes the rule set interesting? I think the only thing that kind of turned me off, was how eclectic the squads were. She ninja with robot and alien against samurai marine punk biker. Also how much of a pain is assembling the minis?
Infinity is cool, but it’s rules a very, very complex and the game requires a very full table of terrain. The minis are easy to assemble for Infinity, but very finely detailed for painting.
I’d actually suggest 40k these days as the recent edition is very streamlined and user friendly.
I have plenty of Terrain . I’m using the battle systems terrain for Imperial assault and AVP, and want to make good use of it. Good to know about the rules. I don’t mind complex, but I don’t want to stop every second and go oh character x has this ability let me check my chart or mechanics that are going to constantly bog down the game. That said infinity sounds cool. Can you really do all the crazy things they talk about in or is that all just flavor. Hacking units. Bringing in hidden unit.
Warhammer 40k isn’t a heavy ruleset at all, but I can’t say if it’s good. I feel like I’m usually just moving my melee units toward the enemy ranged units, firing my ranged units at their melee units, and then hoping the 1,000 D6 fall in my favor. To be fair: I only played a small chunk of 5th edition years ago and a few small army games of 8th. Would love to hear from someone who’s really gotten into it though.
Yeah, you can do a lot of cool stuff like hacking and closing in Infinity, but that all makes the rules really intricate. That said, I’ve seen it played by people who really know the ganme well and it does seem pretty smooth once you get to that point. For me the rules were just too overwhelming so I ended up selling off/giving away my Infinity stuff.
My favorite version of WH40K was the third edition of Space Marine/Adeptus Titanicus, also known as “Epic 40K”. They radically overhauled and streamlined the system (too much so, some people thought). It’s 6 mm scale so you have masses of tiny troops (on grouped holders), piles of vehicles, and even giant robots if you add the Titans in.
I really liked the rules. It focused more on disrupting/suppressing the enemy rather than outright casualties, and instead of every single unit having its own idiosyncratic special abilities, they streamlined them to be a bit more generic, which lost a bit of flavor, but made it play much faster.