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Fallen Land: A Post-Apocalyptic Board Game

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17 Jan 2018 17:06 #261228 by Cranberries
This meets many criteria for a "Cruel Shoes" type of game

1. Outdated mechanics
2. Tempting theme
3. Five hours long
4. Probably undeveloped rules cloud that keeps shifting
5. Unwieldy
6. Nobody you know will ever play this, but supposedly someone on F:AT has a super fun group that gets together, plays this game, gets drunk, and then they all hang out with Neil Young on his lake and play electric guitars until 6:00 a.m., then head out to his Heroscape Pleasure Barge.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Shellhead, Jason Lutes, wkover, ChristopherMD

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17 Jan 2018 17:19 #261230 by Shellhead
Because it was a Kickstarter, the designer made his expansion ideas into stretch goals for the base game. So I think that your criteria points more to Fallen Lands being a Shelf Toad. The Cruel Shoes label is similar, but involves aspirational purchases of expansions when the owner can't even get the base game played by his friends.

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17 Jan 2018 17:28 #261231 by stoic


YES...the ire of the last few posts are clear signs that you both know that you want this game even if you have to play it solo. Can't be worse than buying a 22 lb. box of Gloomhaven which you'll never ever be able to trade away because so many copies have been sold for too much $$$ and the shipping costs will always be prohibitive enough to act as a permanent barrier of ever getting rid of it--it will set the standard for the 21st Century shelf-toad. ;-)

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17 Jan 2018 17:44 #261234 by Shellhead
I can easily resist temptation, because a close friend already bought Fallen Land. I'm interested in trying it, and will probably find it to be moderately entertaining. But it definitely looks like a Shelf Toad.

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18 Jan 2018 09:08 #261326 by charlest
I have a copy of this coming for review purposes. Will report back in a couple of weeks.
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18 Jan 2018 09:50 #261336 by stoic

charlest wrote: I have a copy of this coming for review purposes. Will report back in a couple of weeks.


Can't wait to hear your opinion!

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05 Feb 2018 09:49 - 05 Feb 2018 09:50 #262829 by charlest
This is a tough one. It's so so messy and cluttered and lacking editorial oversight. It's one of those obviously Kickstarter games where they didn't have a proper developer. Your first game is a headache with your group of five characters and multiple pieces of equipment tucked under each one, typically obscuring a couple of key effects.

The first time you're dealt six characters, each with like 8 different stats and special abilities, and then 10 pieces of equipment, and you need to decide which five to bring in your party and how to parcel out the equipment, it's crazy. It will take a good 5+ minutes just to figure all that out, although my second game was a bit faster.

The turn structure is also split into multiple phases and convoluted. You have an auction house phase where you can buy equipment from other players, a resource phase where you gain stuff from resource spaces on the board you've claimed, a town event phase where each player rolls a D10 to see what random shit happens (and which may progress you towards victory or away from it by sheer chance), and then a hire phase where you can hire NPC mercs from your hand or sell cards back to the bank.

This is all before the turn proper which is an action point system where you have 4 'weeks' to move around the map of the U.S. and have encounters. You're usually moving towards resource spaces or mission tokens and having random encounters from one of the 8,000 cards in the game (actually 400).

But there's something actually very entertaining about it all. It's a bit of a slog with other players - at least until they've grown accustomed to the system, but solo it's actually not bad. The turn's a little more procedural than I'd like (you have to constantly refer to the sheet), but it can move along a pretty good clip once you're familiar.

The best part about this game, and what saves it from falling under its criticism, is that this thing generates wild and crazy stories that are completely memorable.

Let's talk about two games solo games in particular. The first I was the Sigma Corporation, basically a Blackwater clone that was working for the government and retired under these underground bunkers when everything went to shit. My group co-mingled with members of congress and the government and is this quasi-official U.S. remnant coming out of the vault into the new world to join the Council of the 10 Towns.

My group of badasses is lead by a cool-headed surgeon who is armed to the teeth and wears a Jason hockey mask. I pictured him as Jack from Lost meets Rambo. I had a number of other interesting characters including a business woman who was savvy with recruiting people to my settlement and a mechanic that loved his flamethrower. My group drove into battle in their old world police car brandishing an shiny American flag that was in perfect condition. This gained me Prestige (VP basically) at the start of the game.

I also had an item that gained me 1 Prestige but was used up, which I popped at the beginning of the game and a toolbox which let me discard it to regain an item from the Spoils discard deck. So I grabbed the Prestige item again and started with a ton of VP right from the get-go.

All of this was due to random equipment dealt out at the beginning of the game.

My group patrolled the North-Eastern U.S. claiming resource spaces for the good of the newly formed government. I ran into a cyborg on the road and fought off a group of 20 foot tall centipedes. I also hired these GI Joe wannabes who completed a mission for me. It was pretty easy going for the most part.

My second game I was the Highwaymen. Basically 90% of the biker population returned to Sturgis at the onset of the apocalypse and formed this faction. My biker gang was lead this time by an old cop wielding a sawed-off and sword. It was pretty awesome.

This group hit hard times. We tried to quell a mutant uprising in Idaho and couldn't pull it off. Their leader escaped before I could land the killshot.

While this occurred one of my resource locations was raided and reverted to neutral. We travelled back there (in North Dakota) and I ran into a large gang in the nearby rubble strewn city and had to flee (this was a Warriors themed card). We lost them in the labyrinth of destruction but they ambushed us on the way out and things got bloody. I did manage to find John Wayne's cowboy outfit (like, literally), which one of my bikers proceeded to don.

After re-establishing my resource, we hired a some high-tec mercs to claim another resource location for the Highwaymen. I ran some odd jobs and took shelter in an old farmers homestead. All this old dude had left was his loved tractor that his wife gave him, but it was broken down and he asked for help. My mechanic tried to repair it but no dice. As we were leaving the homestead we heard a gunshot ring out from the house and my party lost some of their sanity. Two of my members cracked when we later fought a horrific flying monsters and they ran off with some of my stuff, never to be seen again.

I won this game due to raising my town health high enough over time as I developed my town with a nice communications array, strong militia, and some great infrastructure.

So the game is a bit convoluted and not nearly streamlined enough. The art is weak and garish at times. It's also painfully long with three or four players.

But, those stories, man.
Last edit: 05 Feb 2018 09:50 by charlest.
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