Dunno if somebody posted already and if there’s somebody who hasn’t tried it, but Dead of Winter is pretty dope! If you can, give it a try.
Having just heard Shut Up and Sit Down talk about it in their latest podcast, I really want to try Franchise now:
Anybody here played it?
No, but I just discovered that I may be medically unable to watch Tom Vasel anymore.
Really? While I much prefer other reviewers like SUSD, NoPunIncluded, Rahdo, … (Including some French speaking channels) I find that Vasel reviews do a good job of concisely showing you what the game looks like and how it plays.
His opinions do not necessarily go in a ton of depth. But I find his reviews a useful starting point and him very watchable.
SUSD mentioned they might release a short video about Franchise soon.
He’s reaching a point where his really bizarre clothing, fucking pork pie hats and whatever else he has going are just too much shtick for me. His voice is irritating, he doesn’t put effort into producing a decent video.
I don’t want to see someone dressed like the Joker for no reason droning on in a nasally, monotone voice, staring at the camera like a dog stares at you while it’s pooping.
I don’t know, he just really annoys me now for some reason. He just looks like a walking, giant contrivance/affectation.
Shhh! Dead of Winter is awesome, it’s one of the first board games Tom and Qt3 clued me into and basically kicked off my interest in the hobby.
But if you talk about it now, I’m afraid one of two things will happen:
- Tom recommend it years ago, so he mightl respond by pointing out problems he’s discovered with it over time that I’m still oblivious to because I don’t get to play very often and I will be sad.
- Tom recommended it years ago, so he might respond by pointing out games he likes even more now that replaced Dead of Winter for him and I’ll buy them and still and then not get to play Dead of Winter or the new games and I will be sad.
He’s very happy to publicly state that the Dice Tower philosophy is one of quantity vs quality. They want a review for every game. He’s quite proud of the fact that often-times the Dice Tower review is the only review of a game on the internet.
I’m not so keen on that idea. They often make massive mistakes and just carry on regardless, which tends to lose that “professional” feeling. I remember it most in that series of videos based on “what will I like if I like [mass market game]?”. It annoyed me a bit, because those were the sorts of videos “outsiders” will watch, yet Tom V was practically falling asleep in most of the videos due to a cold, or something, and would continually trip over his words. And yet they just barrelled on, edited it and uploaded it.
At least he wore a different (but equally ugly) hat in each video!
Hey folks, just noticed in my latest BGG email there’s a kickstarter for a game called “Waste Knights” (ew) that looks pretty cool. Also seems to be a second edition so I was curious if anyone has any familiarity with the first ed? I’m tempted to jump in, get my Mad Max on.
I wasn’t highly critical of it, it just didn’t seem to operate the way it should. I haven’t had the chance to play it since, but I do want to.
I feel like a game that offers you multiple strategic avenues should not fall apart if players avoid one of those; I think that’s my concern with Architects. Going after opponents’ workers (or your own!) has value, but also costs. If all the players in a particular session want to focus on other strategies, it’s perfectly fine if their score suffers, but not if the game thereby becomes unfun–in this case because your options collapse due to lack of workers. I’m not saying that’s the case with Architects, but it could be.
This is one of my (and my friend group’s) favorite things to play on Tabletop Simulator! We enjoy the hidden identity and accusation parts of it a little too much, lol.
oh, wait, wrong thread…
Juan,
I think there is a good game in Feudum.
It has an awesome market system. Everything connects to everything else.
The artwork is awesome.
There’s lots of different ways to win and strategies to try.
It’s not any other game I’ve played.
The artwork will make it hard for some to differentiate areas.
Some of the cards feel overpowered.
It feels like some streamlining and editing of mechanics would have been a good thing.
It is a beast to try and teach. There ares some good videos online, but be prepared.
In the end it will depend on if your play group is a 1 and done or if they can appreciate playing the game several times to learn the basic strategies.
Good news! You’re safe from either eventuality! I still like Dead of Winter a lot, and as far as I know, their Gen7 game doesn’t replace it. Although, to be honest, I don’t know anything about their Gen7 game.
The only issue I’ve got with Dead of Winter is that the expansion is a bit of a mess, but it’s got some cool ideas. So I stupidly tried impromptu house ruling by adding only the cool bits. At which point the game fell apart completely, we played without any danger of anyone losing, and now everyone is lukewarm on Dead of Winter. Basically, I single-handedly killed it by trying to fix a sloppy expansion.
And, hey, a bit of good news on the Dead of Winter front, this little solitaire (or, as some of you call it, “co-op”) card puzzle game set in the Dead of Winter-verse does a really good job capturing the Dead of Winter vibe:
https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Flight-Games-PH2000-Raxxon/dp/B07642DG7B/ref=sr_1
Uh-oh. There’s another Dead of Winter expansion?
-Tom
Hah, I looked at Warring Colonies. I think it’s for people who have both original games, 10 friends, and eight hours. I can’t imagine it not being a disaster, but even if I’m wrong about how it plays, I know I would never have the opportunity to even attempt it.
Glad to hear DoW still holds up for you though!
We only played base game and it was pretty fun. Haven’t gotten any expansions yet so I can’t comment on that. I did hear that it can get messy with expansions though.
Raxxon seems interesting. We might give it a try when we get the chance! Thanks! :)
I’m not sure I’ve played with any of the expansions, actually, just the base game - is it “The Long Night” that you’re referring to as a bit of a mess? I wonder if “Warring Colonies” will be cleaner. Either way, and I think this is possibly because I’ve only played the game on TTS, it feels like there’s so much/enough going on, that I’m not sure I feel the need to add more elements to it. Still, I’m curious to try!
@Matt_W Tried a couple of games vs the automa in Wingspan and really liked it. Great components and I love how the bird cards/powers are tied to the actual birds pictured. Next step will be trying to get my wife and/or semi-regular game group to try it out. It seems to play pretty quickly so that’s a real point in its favor too. Thanks again, Matt!
Good luck getting a copy of Wingspan anytime soon. Production is a complete shit-show. Somehow, Stonemaier games end up really difficult to get through distribution (how stores get them) while simultaneously being available on Amazon. For example, I got 1 copy in the store this week (with a waiting list about 30 deep) but many people who ordered from Amazon got theirs just fine. Pretty annoying having to make so many customers upset.
Let me know when you get a chance to play with four! Would love to hear about it. I have been trying to get this going here but always fall short of the requirement. Almost suggested it as a forum game.