Trashdome - Descent VS Twilight Imperium 3rd

WELCOME TO TRASHDOME!

This is part of a series of bloody matches to the death. Show support for your favorite game so it will do better in the fight. You can support it by writing why you think its the better game and more importantly by betting (i.e. voting for) it. Please make it clear for when I check the bets later. You have until Friday when I tally the bets and declare the winner. I will reserve my bet for any tie-breakers.

Although you should be familiar with both games, there is no rule that says you have to have played both of them. The only rule in Trashdome is this;

Two games enter! One game leaves!

Oh my. This is precious.

TWILIGHT IMPERIUM.

In our gaming group, TI3 is considered a gaming event, not just a mere game. There's something about building a massive army and duking it out with a whole armada that requires you to roll 10 dice at a time that is visceral and downright awesome.

Descent is a strong contender here, and I'm voting for TI3 just because we haven't played it to death, unlike Descent, and there is still a hunger for TI3 that just isn't there for Descent anymore.

Descent has a lot of versatility to it, and my group has enjoyed playing quick semi-random dungeons generated from Road to Legend dungeon floor cards (We haven't even considered trying to do that 100 hour campaign yet). The puzzles and secrets of each dungeon level ensure surprising things happen every time we play, keeping the game fresh and preventing it from devolving into a purely analytical and tactical exercise. The game can drag sometimes, (especially with an over-analytical overlord who might take 5 minutes to choose which card to play... don't get me started on that) but this is probably a fault of the players, and not the game. There is a wealth of homebrew content out there, some of which is actually playtested and pretty good.

I've already aired my grievances against TI:3 in the TI:3/Nexus Ops Trashdome. The wrong game won that time. This time the right game will triumph.

Vote: Descent.

Vote: Twilight Imperium

I've not played Twilight Imperium, although I definitely am willing to clear my schedule for a day to try it out. The theme appeals to me bigtime.

I do really like Descent though. I've played twice now, and it's a good time. So my vote goes to...

Descent

I love both of these games a great deal.

Descent really took the tactical fantasy game to a new level and was the closest thing to a true RPG substitute we had ever played. Heroquest got put away in some dusty corner and never came out again. Descent was the new lord. Doom barley got played, D&D was on hold, and there were Descent sessions every week-end. It rocked, it still does rock. But as time went on it saw less and less playtime until these days we hardly play it at all. It's greatest strength (for our group)was it's ability to do a whole campaign in one session, roughly 3-6 hours, so Road to Legend wasn't a big deal for us... we still RPG regularly so it wasn't necessary to do that with a Board Game as well. Anyway's Descent mostly collects dust now and maybe comes out once or twice a year and that's all.

TI3 is by far the most popular game for our group, everybody has it at either number one or at least top 3 as far as favorite game goes, and each time we vote on what game to play TI3 gets the most nods if it hasn't been played lately. It also has the most epic victories. A win in TI3 is something you can brag about for some time. E-mails get fiered off after a session of TI3 and we argue about what could have happen for maybe two weeks. Nothing has the emotional impact on our group that TI3 does. I've never seen people get as angry as they do in TI3, I've never seen them as happy about winning as they are in TI3, I've never seen them as happy losing/building up armies/buying techs, etc... as they are in TI3.

Both of these games pull off the neat trick of taking cool plastic toys that you would have played with as a kid and had a blast, and re-create that for your adult mind that needs extensive rule sets to have that kind of fun today. They give your childhoods toys meaning... and that is awesome and what FFG means for me. But if you can't tell by now...

vote: TI3

I love both, but really, I didn't even have to think about it.

Finally, a Trashdome where I'm familiar with both games.

I wanted to like TI3. I wanted to love it. But it dragged for me. Perhaps it was the people that I've played it with--but it seemed far more complex than it needed to be. It dragged on and on and on. Now, I don't mind long games. I've played Here I Stand face-to-face that has gone on for 10 plus hours. I loved it. But TI3 didn't do it for me.

Descent is fun. Sure, there's some complexity--but if one person knows the rules thoroughly, it is easy to pick up. I didn't particularly like playing with two characters per player--I much prefer one character per player. But, it was fun and a blast to play--I only wish I got to play it more.

VOTE: Descent

I played Descent once. I didn't mind that it was a long game, but the entertainment value dropped hour by hour, until I just wanted it to be over. The combat system is decent, but not interesting enough to sustain my interest for four hours, and there is nothing else to the game. If I want to play a long dungeon crawl without any role-playing, it seems like the current version of D&D would work just as well.

I haven't played Twilight Imperium yet. I've read through the rules and know that this is the kind of game that I like, but I'm not going to buy at this time because I know that it's too long for my current players, who won't tolerate anything over three hours unless it's Arkham Horror or Battlestar Galactica. I'm aware of the flaws of the base game, and understand that the Shattered Empires expansion fixes those problems. I probably just need to search out some local players and try to get into one of their games.

Vote: Twilight Imperium

VOTE: TI3

I love the "everything but the kitchen sink" approach that TI3 has but somehow doesn't collapse into itself by its own weight.

For me, TI3 signifies the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Being born in a transitional time in terms of game design thought, I feel something magical was created that for me was an instant classic. To me nothing in the past was like TI3 and I feel nothing will come out in the future like TI3 in size, scope and breadth of mechanic types and genres infused into one package. Its uniqueness alone I greatly admire. Even though this is a game that I'll be lucky to get onto the table every few years, no other game leaves me as satisfied and fulfilled as TI3 does.

LvT

Descent is like a grown up version of hero quest. It is cute and fun every once in a while but if you play too much of it you are in danger of becoming a D&D player and that's a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone.


Twilight Imperium is the king of Ameritrash, it is epic in scale and fun. If given the option between Twilight and any other game I would vote Twilight.


vote: Twilight Imperium

TI3 failed to deliver for me and I eventually traded it away. Descent started off mediocre but then came on strong with the release of Road to Legend.

vote: Descent


-Will

Twilight Imperium.

Whoa...armageddon has come!

OK, so these are two of the chief designs of the modern AT movement. They're both truly great, already-classic games that will be played 20 years from now. Both designs have innovations, originality, and homage to past design styles. Both have incredible production, limitless replay value, and vast expanses of material and opportunites to explore.

Ironically, neither game I liked the first time I played them. It took expansions to really get them to where they needed to be.

So it's pretty even down the line...but I'm voting TI3. It's the one out of the two that I wish I could play more, and I also think that on points it's the better design. DESCENT stumbles becaus I still think that the pace is WAY too slow ("crawl" indeed) and in the time it takes to explore two rooms in DESCENT I can have taken over half a galaxy. DESCENT also turns too often into a min/maxing exercise, with players spending 15-20 minutes to figure out how to coordinate moves. I don't like that. It slows the game down to a near-halt.

But either way, this is truly a contest of champions.

Descent is fun, but it's no Twilight Imperium.

Vote: TI3

Oh, great. Descent lost to Doom, how is it going to stand up against TI3? Well, if anything the Descent v. Doom match up was the first Trashdome and had a grand total of like 16 votes, we get a lot more voters now, so we'll see if that swings things Descent's way.

Descent is a great game. Get four or five people gathered around a table (a large table) and you'll get cheers when a gold chest is opened, moans when an X is rolled, shouts when a big monster is taken out in one blow and sobs when a player gets turned into a monkey.

It really is dungeon crawling at its best. It features hordes of nasty beasts, a wealth of treasures and equipment, tricky traps and customizable Overlord deck and a pantheon of heroes. Even if you play multiple times with the same character each time will be different thanks to drawing from the skill decks.

Playing against a human Overlord is what really makes this game shine over other dungeon crawls with game mechanic controlled enemies. Descent is at its best when both heroes and Overlord are playing their best, playing to win.

The game rewards careful planning and crafty card play by the Overlord, and strategic advancement through the dungeon by the heroes.

3-4 friends and I had a blast playing Descent back when it first came out. The only complaints where that there was no real campaign mode taking heroes from one mission to the next and some of the dungeons took too long.

Road to Legend seemed geared to fix that, but it was too late. By the time it came out my friends had moved away, I moved away (then came back) and my brother-in-law went off the deep end into other things. So now it's just me and my main gaming buddy, and Descent isn't that great of a 2-player game. Which is why I've toyed with the idea of putting it on the sell pile. Still, it's a great game.

Vote: Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Well of Darkness, Altar of Despair, Road to Legend and Tomb of Ice.