Since the Road to Legend app is available on steam now, I’m going to use it with link, move a table into my living room, and throw it up on my 65 inch tv. Then I’ll invite some folks over and we’ll play it co op. I think it will be fun. I did like the co op expansion packs that they released a while back. I would imagine this is in the same vein.
In other news, my copy of Defenders of the Last Stand was just dropped off. I’m a little concerned with this. I backed it in a moment of weakness, and since that time I’ve come to realize I just haven’t liked the last half dozen or so Launius games I’ve played. I fear he’s not a designer I enjoy anymore. But I’ll give it a go and see what happens.
I think you can get them straight from FFG. They appear to be print-on-demand packs, so I’m not sure if/when other retailers will be getting them.
I’m glad to see FFG releasing content for the game, especially since there were some rumors swirling that Games Workshop was possibly messing with the rights with the release of WHQ: Silver Tower. I’m not really interested in character packs though. I’m hoping they’ll announce a campaign expansion at GenCon. I enjoyed the campaign in the box, but the game could use a little more variety.
My KS only arrived earlier in the week. Hope to get the basic game to the table over the weekend. Production quality is superb. Six rule-books. SIX! 2 x programmed instruction style rules layouts (basic and then advanced layering on additional mechanics), separate set-up book, alternate play modes, separate full rules reference, etc, etc. Really nicely done, a lot of effort has gone into this.
So Defenders of the Last Stand is turning out to be a blast. I’m playing solo right now and just got my butt handed to me. It’s a little Pandemic, a lot of Defenders of the Realm, and a whole lot of thematic Ameritrash.
I got a gift card for my local comic and game shop and I try to decide between Zombicide Black Plague and Eldritch Horror. I know they are totally different but has anyone experiences with these games? Through this thread I came to solo board games. I love Darkest Night, enjoy Leaving Earth, have a bit of a hard time with Dawn of the Zeds (maybe it’s the uphill battle situation). So, any tips for me?
My understanding of Zombicide – and this is strictly second-hand from people who’ve played it – is that it’s just a lot of moving bits and bobs around on a board and rolling dice.
Eldritch Horror, on the other hand, has some interesting narrative mechanics. If you go to the front page and search the name, I’ve written a fair bit about what does and doesn’t work in Eldritch Horror, but I can sum it up by saying it’s a game I wouldn’t dream of selling off.
I would certainly recommend Eldritch Horror over any flavor of Zombicide. There’s more variety, more narrative and it’s cheaper to boot. I do think Zombicide is fun and perhaps worth owning but it’s something I would buy second if at all. And probably not the Black Plague release because part of what makes Zombicide an interesting game in the coop space is that it’s not a medieval fantasy setting!
I played my first game of Eldritch Horror today. Enjoyed it a lot. It’s beautiful, the rules are easy to learn, the manual pretty much covers everything and it’s really like playing a story. I’m always a bit afraid when trying a new game if I’ll be able to learn the rules. This game got me started in no time. After reading Tom’s review I’ve one question: I understand that the big expansions with additional board estate are a step away from EH’s elegance. How about the smaller ones that only add cards?
You absolutely want Forsaken Lore, which fleshes out all the base game old ones and adds Yig. The later ones are less essential but don’t dilute the game the way Arkham expansions did because of the way decks are structured. And you will probably want the new investigators and such in the big boxes eventually even if the additional boards aren’t that great.
Yeah, the big boxes are ok even if you don’t play with the additional boards. They do add a lot of stuff that doesn’t bloat the game too much (some decks become very big, though). I do have everything for this game (expect a proper storage solution, but I won’t spend on that until the next two expansions -rumored to be the last ones- hit)
But yes, Forsaken Lore is essential. It expands the base game into the standard the rest of the expansions follow,a nd adds enough variety so cards don’t repeat as much (with only the base game you’ll start to see the same things pop up frequently) . If you get something else before FL, you will find yourself with some AO with significantly more cards per deck than others.
In a similar vein I have been playing the second edition Mansions of Madness with the App. I really like it but the scenarios when played solo have more limited replay value.
I would say Strange Remnants is pretty essential as well. It adds the extremely useful Focus mechanic/tokens as well as more cards and investigators. I have Mountains of Madness, which can be skipped unless you want more cards/investigators.
Out of curiosity, what is your storage solution? I have everything but the pyramids expansion, which I will probably grab at some point, and really don’t have a very good way to store it.
I really dislike the tacked-on focus system. It’s a perfect example of the Fantasy Flight maxim: if there’s a good game design, they’ll find some way to undermine it, undo it, or milk it for more money. It’s as if they have one or two good designers, and everyone else working there is either an idiot or a suit only interested in earning money.
As for storage solutions, I’ve spent scads of time figuring out how to arrange and store everything. I’ve got all the add-ons and of course there’s no way they’ll fit in a single box. So I have all the elder gods decks and monster tiles in the Mountains of Madness box, and everything else in the base box. I have baggies labeled with a black marker to indicate what’s in them, with separate baggies for each elder god’s cards and such.
Yeah, I also use two of the big boxes to hols everything together. I have all tokens neatly arranges on a plamo box and the 4 small expansion boxes as boxes within a box (the 4 fit in one big box) holding all the elder gods cards.
It works really well but I’m afraid the next big expansion might actually break it.
I kickstarted the Zombicide original game and that’s my assesment. There’s some planning but it’s not worth the effort of the housekeeping you need to do in between. Dawn of the Zeds is a much better game.
