Upcoming Alderac (AEG) board games

They have several due out at GenCon and more on the way this fall. Has anyone any scoop on which (if any) might be good? The production values look promising at the very least.

I really, sincerely hope that their L5R boardgame is good. It seems to be a heavily thematic DOAM game that draws upon the strategic elements of the CCG. However, there is a steep learning curve to board game design, and this will be their first wave of attempts, so I would expect no better than what we've seen from Twilight Creations or White Wolf, for example.

The Adventurers looks pretty bitchin'.

mjl1783 wrote:

The Adventurers looks pretty bitchin'.

Yeah, it could be pretty cool. The art and production values are certainly sharp, and a 45-minute play time could make for a fun, quick game. Hardcore player elimination certainly sounds promising, and I love that the game can end with everyone getting stuck inside the temple.

Just remember that these are the folks that brought us TOMB, probably the worst AT game released in the past 10 years.

Shellhead wrote:

I really, sincerely hope that their L5R boardgame is good. It seems to be a heavily thematic DOAM game that draws upon the strategic elements of the CCG. However, there is a steep learning curve to board game design, and this will be their first wave of attempts, so I would expect no better than what we've seen from Twilight Creations or White Wolf, for example.

Whoops. Looks like they pulled the plug on The Art of War after years of sluggish development. Too bad, because Rokugan is too good to just be used for a dying CCG and an unpopular RPG.

Shellhead wrote:

Whoops. Looks like they pulled the plug on The Art of War after years of sluggish development. Too bad, because Rokugan is too good to just be used for a dying CCG and an unpopular RPG.

Arg. I was looking forward to that; I used to play the CCG and I really like the setting. But as you said, maybe it's better for them to get more experience first.

Shellhead wrote:
Whoops. Looks like they pulled the plug on The Art of War after years of sluggish development. Too bad, because Rokugan is too good to just be used for a dying CCG and an unpopular RPG.

Are you sure ? I read about this game lately, and didn't see any cancellation notice.
They did hint they are going to show a L5R boardgame (I think). I thought they are talking about reviving Art of War.

They took down the Art of War page at the AEG site, and the page at BGG is gone as well.

www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25931
and
www.l5r.com/products/board-game/art-of-war/ ... What the ? It was there two days ago, and now I get a 404 !!! However, I get 404 for half the links on the site now, so maybe it's temporary.

raviv wrote:

www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25931
and
www.l5r.com/products/board-game/art-of-war/ ... What the ? It was there two days ago, and now I get a 404 !!! However, I get 404 for half the links on the site now, so maybe it's temporary.

Hmmm. Both those links work fine. I got that 404, too, but I guess it was temporary. And I was searching at BGG by publisher, and for some reason this game didn't show up as an AEG game. Still, neither one of those pages has been updated since 2008, which is a bad sign.

Jason Lutes wrote:

mjl1783 wrote:

The Adventurers looks pretty bitchin'.

Yeah, it could be pretty cool. The art and production values are certainly sharp, and a 45-minute play time could make for a fun, quick game. Hardcore player elimination certainly sounds promising, and I love that the game can end with everyone getting stuck inside the temple.

I watched the final 90% of a game played by some folks who scored limited copies with pre painted minis and my impression is that this game would be quite fun for maybe five plays and then would become quite repetitive. It's a game where a group of adventurers presses their luck inside a mayan ruin. While they loot the ruin, they can be crushed by a huge boulder (aka Indiana Jones), squished in the main rune area by ever closing walls, fall into a hot lava pit, drown in a waterfall, or fall through a treacherous wooden bridge into an endless creavass. The person with the most loot who makes it out of the ruin wins the game.

There are some really niftly props and game design elements within this game. But, because the board is largely fixed, my impression is that players will become all too familiar with the stages of the game with limited plays.

As a game that is played rarely or with new groups of players, I'd say it would be a big hit. As a game that you want to pull out often because of the short play time, I wouldn't think this will hold up.

If AEG makes a second edition with modular board sections and adds a bit more to the gameplay I think they might have a game with some serious legs.

I thought the bridge planks mechanic to be quite a good one. They needed either a longer bridge or more of them IMO. Another nifty mechanic was how adventurers more burdened by loot, moved slower. It made a lot of sense, and allowed the less treasure laiden adventurers to gain ground.

I didn't see any way for players to interact with other players adventurers, directly or indirectly. It would be nice to have some element of direct or indirect interaction in place too.

If I can pick this game up inexpensively in the future, I will. At the current price, I don't see if being quite worth it. I'd call this a near miss, with room to be a hit.

That's too bad. I thought the theme was really cool, and the production values looked pretty slick, too.

Still, I play games with my drinking/poker group from time to time, too, and this just might be the kind of thing they'd dig.

ubarose wrote:

Sounds like one of those kids games from the 70's and 80's. When you are 9 years old, all games have infinite replayability, especially ones with huge crushing boulders and squishing walls.

To be fair, the entire group I watched play had a complete blast playing sans one player who thought the game was enjoyable but had similar replayability questions.

For kids of a younger age, I bet you are correct that they could play this until the cards wore out and have a lot of fun. The rules seemed easy to pick up and the components were top notch.

I just wish they could have attempted some more modularity to the board sections. Adventurers do have asymmetry, however, so that helps a bit.

Adventurers is a press-your-luck race game at its heart where pressing your luck can get your adventurer offed. If you like the short game time, you could overlook the lack of interaction.