A bit late to this party as it only has 68 hours left, but is anyone backing the new Core Worlds?
I know @tomchick is quite the Andrew Parks and Core Worlds fan. This is two products, a solo expansion for the original (Nemesis) and a stand-alone sequel (Empires), which has solo built-in.
I don’t have any Core Worlds stuff, was thinking of just getting the new one but the whole original shebang has a lot more tasty cards.
card breakdown
“Core Worlds” base game: 210 Cards (2.5" X 3.5")
“Core Worlds: Galactic Orders” expansion: 93 Cards (2.5" X 3.5")
“Core Worlds: Revolution” expansion: 97 Cards (2.5" X 3.5")
“Core Worlds: Nemesis” solo expansion: 64 Cards (2.5" X 3.5") [+ 30 Promo Cards (2.5" X 3.5") = 94 Cards if 2nd Stretch Goal unlocked]
“Core Worlds: Empires”:
• 179 Cards (1.5" X 2.5") [+ 6 Extra Cards (1.5" X 2.5") = 185 Cards if 1st Stretch Goal Unlocked]
• 45 Solo Cards (2.5" X 3.5")
Is there any point getting both? I’m not sure how different Empires is. I read ‘spiritual successor’ so maybe very different, more worker placement than deck builder.
This one is another, apparently quite substantial legacy release that’s intended to wrap up the current narrative arc. Aeon’s End Legacy (as much as we got to play before COVID hit) seemed like one of the better Legacy implementations I’ve seen so more of that is good in my book.
I could wish they’d slow down a little, though. I still haven’t had a chance to play with New Age or Outcasts…
Yeah it’s too much - I think I have enough now. I have all the stuff except the first Legacy game so won’t be getting this either.
If you haven’t played Outcasts, be aware that there were a couple missing cards (just a couple sparks and dividers) and they’re annoyingly making us wait until this new Kickstarter fulfils before they send replacements, so you might want to check the FAQ.
Most places I’ve contacted for replacements say ‘sure, we’ll send that immediately’, not ‘we have a new kickstarter out soon, you’ll need to wait until that ships’.
I agree with @malkav11 and @Profanicus . I really like Aeon’s End, but I had to jump off the merry-go-round a few years back. It just became too much of adding another stack of cards to the already large collection annually. Sometimes I regret it as some of the newer stuff sounds cool. But then the other side of my brain that is feeling big time KS (house space) fatigue, thinks I should ditch it all and just play the digit version now and again since it only takes up a few 0’s and 1’s inside my PC. I say this as someone that loves physical games and, again, AE. I just…games are devouring my house. It is a backlog of shame that stares at me from every cabinet and Kallax shelf.
You got to give Scott Almes credit for his hustle if anything. Tiny Epic games are a bit formulaic now but he does crank them out, and every one is him trying something new (although, perhaps with the last couple, basically riffs on larger, more popular games).
The base version includes no stretch goals. The Deluxe version incomes a 5-6 player expansion, and a ‘Frontiers’ expansion with nothing in it… except stretch goals. That seems really weak. Especially since…
“All stretch goals and game expansions for ‘Stellaris Infinite Legacy’ have been fully developed and playtested.”
Goddamn I hate this shit. Also, in light of that statement, there’s no real info on mechanics, no rulebook. They’ll be doing a live playthrough on TTS on Sunday, explaining the mechanics and decisions and their ramifications there.
All that said, what they have shown is pretty cool. There was another article on Polygon I read this morning about how they’re keeping the game length down to 2 hours/game, by basically chopping a normal epic 4X game down into legacy chunks. So instead of playing your empire from its nascent stages to building War Suns and blowing up planets, this happens across a bunch of games. Every game you get a new objective card, with the difficulty of the objectives balanced on how old/powerful your empire is - so races that have been played for a bunch of games have harder objectives than brand new ones.
I’m not backing yet, but I’ve flagged it and will be keeping an eye on it.
Not backing any more board game KS in a while, but it does look interesting, and I like what Academy games does with their Conflict of Heroes series (well, except how slowly they release new stuff). Their component quality is high and their rules pretty good and with some effective design choices (which smells like good albeit slow development).
They are also not afraid of complexity. This has the potential for some crazy stuff.
They seem to have been developing this for a couple of years at least, which bodes well. Even though I’m not backing I hope they release a rulebook.
There’s no interesting KS exclusive (the stretch goals go into an expansion anyway), so I’m fine with getting it in a year or 2 if it lives up to the potential. And if they add a solo mode. One can dream with them hiring John Butterfield again.
Ah, yes. I consider their website as “retail”. Reasonable EU shipping costs too. The point is that there are no KS exclusives, things will be available later.
Right now mostly all-in just adds 5-6 player and a few cards. One assumes the plan is to have enough stretch goals to actually constitute a full expansion, but…this is one of the ways in which I think this is a poorly structured Kickstarter. I’m not even sure what 5-6 player would contribute at my table since I never have more than four players and while a lot of games, adding player count also means adding new player factions/heroes/etc with their own unique abilities (e.g. Etherfields 5 player adds a Reaper dreamer with a unique deck and lucid dream form and signs, Lords of Hellas 5 player adds additional asymmetric heroes to choose and i gather 6 player even more so, Empyreal adds new companies you can play for up to 8 player support), Stellaris specifically is about customizing your own race(s) from the sounds of it. So one assumes it just adds more components, rather than necessarily any unique content. Maybe I’m wrong.
The 5-6 player expansion doesn’t seem to add any unique mechanics, but the “stretch goal” expansion already has a lot of unique gameplay unlocked. I don’t see it necessarily as much more poorly structured than other successful campaigns, but the fact that all the stretch goals are pre-planned and pre developed is more obvious (less marketing chops). While I’m not backing, I don’t see that as bad, and I appreciate the transparency to some extent.
Well, what I’m saying is they’re forcibly bundling a 5-6 player expansion I don’t need and the stretch goal expansion, with the result that I would be basically paying $60 for the stretch goals. Which…paid expansions are fine and maybe $60 will even be a fair price for that in the end, but stretch goals are almost always free bonuses so it feels bad. And if it isn’t really a $60-substantial expansion, which it probably won’t be because they’re assuming the 5-6 player expansion has value, then that feels even worse.
But I’m certainly not backing on the vague info so far. Maybe the playthrough they’re going to stream tomorrow will make it look too cool to pass up. Who knows.
BoardgameCo has a good summary of the issues with the campaign:
With added VAT and delivery charges, it better be an exceptional game to be worth that kind of price. And they have shared nothing so far to tell is whether it is or not.
