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Space Cadets: Away Missions – Rocketeering the Casbah

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23 Oct 2015 08:10 #213213 by SuperflyPete
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23 Oct 2015 13:29 #213214 by SuperflyPete
Such a great review. One of my best in a lot of ways, I think.

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23 Oct 2015 13:57 #213220 by OldHippy
Nice job Pete! I haven't had a chance to play this yet but I've heard a lot of positive comments on it from both you and the Doc. I'm pretty excited to give it a whirl... hopefully within the next couple of weeks (busy working on a kids app right now). I have to say though the package was very impressive, especially on the number of campaigns front. I love the hardcover book. My kid and I have set it up and played a half assed version of it a couple of times. He absolutely loves the brain in a jar and I've had to make up a couple of bedtime stories about them for him. I have some buddies near my new home that want to give it a whirl so hopefully I'll get to try the real game soon.

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23 Oct 2015 14:28 #213226 by Michael Barnes
Yeah, I'm enjoying this. Well, I've just had it since yesterday afternoon and I've only soloed it, but I've played the first three missions and so far it's good. At first I thought the mandatory scan was a bit much, but I like how it creates a sense of urgency and escalation without having a formal timer. The third mission was really good, we got the blood samples and got out right as the horde was becoming unmanageable.

Overkill is BRILLIANT, but I'm kind of scratching my head as to what it actually represents in terms of narrative. I don't think there's quite a connection between the action, resolution and follow-up. But I love it when it happens, and I love that you have a choice of effects to apply. It's kind of like the good ol' exploding sixes thing that everyone loves. I'm OK with one damage per hit roll- considering that this game doesn't feature an armor stat or a comparative roll, I think that works out OK. Especially since most enemies only have one HP anyway.

There are a lot of components, but it still feels pretty controlled compared to some of the other games in its class out there. I love that there are no stun tokens. Just tip the damn figure over, I don't need a punchboard full of markers to show that.

Haven't gotten to the crafting (schematics) yet, but that is also a really awesome- and very on trend- concept.

I am kind of concerned that all of those scenarios are superfluous or redundant, but we'll see.

Very excited to play it again tonight...not sure my regular gang will go for it, but it is working really well alone with four characters.
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23 Oct 2015 14:38 #213227 by mads b.

SuperflyTNT wrote: Such a great review. One of my best in a lot of ways, I think.


I absolutely love - and I don't mean this in a sarcastic way - that the very first comment for your review is yourself praising your own work. That is very SuperflyPete.
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23 Oct 2015 14:43 #213228 by Michael Barnes
Nah, it would only be classic Pete if he compared himself to a wheelbarrow full of crusty tampons or something like that.
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23 Oct 2015 15:34 #213231 by Egg Shen
Nice review Pete.

Thank goodness this game is starting to get some reviews. I was just toying with making SC:AM my next review, but it seems the heavy hitters are going to have it covered. So I'll continue with my regularly scheduled programming of weird, obscure, shit. Though I still have an idea for a SC:AM review that I might pop off before the end of the year....

One thing I'm gonna disagree about is your complaint of not being able to do more than 1 damage. Like Barnes said, most aliens are 1 HP and they turn to space dust. So it mostly only comes into play with the Sentinels. So when they show up it really means something. It gives the Sentinel battles a cinematic flair of figuring out how to best injure them before you can finally figure out how to kill em. If you could just have Desoto light em up with his rifle and one shot them...we'll fuck it would be boring. I played with Al and Uba once and we had to use the doctor (me) as bait so a Sentinel would run into a mine. That was awesome and we had to come up with that scheme which felt totally in line with the theme of the game. I dunno...I just don't see the 1 damage thing to be a even a minor negative with the game.
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23 Oct 2015 16:23 #213232 by ubarose

Michael Barnes wrote: Overkill is BRILLIANT, but I'm kind of scratching my head as to what it actually represents in terms of narrative.


It represents how skillfully, efficiently and quickly you were able to do whatever you were attempting to do. Each roll is a simulation of a very small unit of time.Think of each die as a fraction of that unit of time. So, for example, if you were firing upon an alien and say, rolling 5 dice and get two successes, that might represent you firing off 3 misses and then hitting on your fourth shot, you now have one fraction of that unit of time (the second success rolled) to close a door or move or whatever. If you use that success for an alien overkill option, consider that time the split second it takes you to process, react and report to your team the weirdness of a whole mess of aliens suddenly falling to the ground stunned, or whatever. Unused overkills just means that you were so good, you have time to make witty, well scripted remarks to your team mates.
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23 Oct 2015 16:43 - 23 Oct 2015 16:45 #213234 by SuperflyPete
Consider this turn of events:

Sentinel is running at the team, and the Captain has a pistol, and holster (versus it sitting in his waistband). He whips it out, and fires! 5 hits!! WOOT!!

What really happened:
In 6 seconds (he rolled 6 dice, for giggles), he -
Fired and hit his target, who was stunned and is weaker now (-1 hit for the hit, -1 hit for the Overkill that stunned him)
Issued a cry of alert to his allies, giving them extra time to react (extra free command Overkill effect) (-3 hits)

Me, I ~STILL~ wish that Overkill was optional, because rolling 5 hits on 6 dice should've eviscerated the baddie. But, in THIS game, the guns are only so powerful and even a point-blank, direct hit to the sack only pisses a Sentinel off. BUT....because of the lucky turn of events, the Overkill in this case abstracts what happened in that very small time period, which results in the ability to issue orders, run a step, weaken the bad guy, etc.

It took me a while to not be pissed off. I'm still a little salty about it when this happens. But, I think the real fix here (not that there's a problem, just more a matter of taste) is to make bigger guns hit harder - an Atomic Rifle allows 2 total damage (like the proton blade, sort of), but a pissant ray gun is a relatively weak weapon, so it only can do a maximum of 1 damage.

ALL THAT SAID.......

It's still incredibly narrative in nature because of the Overkill, rather than in spite of it.

@ Egg Shen: HEAVY HITTERS LOL! I'm a fucking wanker, brother. Just spitting out my vapid and mostly-valueless opinion. I'm like a Congressman: I represent a larger group of players when I write these reviews, but that doesn't preclude that group of people from being biased zealots. I'm the Kim Davis of boardgaming, basically. LMAO Dude, review it. Every time someone reviews something and they happen to agree with our analysis, a demon gets its tongue cloven.

With regard to enemies, more than just Sentinels have 1 damage point, but I'm not going to disagree with you - part of me feels like you're absolutely right. Being able to kill with lucky rolls versus wound and do other stuff would probably make it much more dull, and less tactical.

@JJ: Play it. It's really so awesome.

@Mads: LMAO, yeah, I read it and then was so impressed with myself that I had to make a snide, self-congratulatory comment. Actually, I saw it on the front page and not in the forums, so I added a comment to get it in the forums. I know that my bookmark goes right to the forums, and figured I'm not alone.
Last edit: 23 Oct 2015 16:45 by SuperflyPete.
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23 Oct 2015 16:50 #213236 by charlest
I think at it's simplest, it directly corresponds to narrative momentum.
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26 Oct 2015 20:56 - 26 Oct 2015 21:00 #213421 by engineer Al
Thanks for the great write up Pete. I'm always happy to hear that people are enjoying the game. However, I am going to have to start calling you "Maurice", 'cause you speak of the pompitous of love.

As for overkill, I like Shellie's explanation. Personally, I've always conceptualized it based on Star Trek (big surprise). Specifically the episode A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR. When Kirk is ambushed by the mugato, he goes down. McCoy then manages to pull out his phaser and disintegrate the heck out of the beast so quickly and efficiently that he is instantly by Kirk's side applying medical aid. McCoy rolled an overkill.
Last edit: 26 Oct 2015 21:00 by engineer Al.
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27 Oct 2015 09:09 #213445 by SuperflyPete
So, essentially, rolling the bones for Bones to both disintegrate enemy bones and repair Kirk's bones.

Got it.
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