Barnes on Games- Titus Tentakel in Review, Lucky Games, Epic, Stronghold

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If I remember right you weren't high on the original Stronghold... Did you actually get in any good plays?

What's selling you on the new edition that wasn't there in the earlier editions?

wadenels wrote: If I remember right you weren't high on the original Stronghold... Did you actually get in any good plays?

What's selling you on the new edition that wasn't there in the earlier editions?

I'm curious about this too. The positives mentioned are all in the first edition. Also, I'm glad that they've pared the rules back a bit, but I'm not thrilled about some of the other aspects of the new edition: the new art direction is very... brown, the use of cards instead of mounted/overlayed artwork for the buildings seems unnecessary and adds more stuff to bump out of place on the table, the all-white-with-some-yellow-highlights cards look unfinished and ugly, and the new meeples are kind of lame and incongruous with the orc/goblin/troll cubes.



Ok so the aesthetics are kind of borked. That's subjective. But the rulebook is fixed, right (not what I'm hearing)?

This edition just seems like a mix of weird editing decisions that were made simply because the game was getting produced again, not necessarily to make the game better. But, I guess it's at least available again, so there's that. I half-regret selling my old copy but it kind of suffered from the Mage Wars syndrome of requiring a dedicated 2nd player to develop the meta.

"Not a lot interesting releasing"

fire your proof reader.

The first edition of Stronghold was fiddly and chromed-out as fuck, and it made the game a miserable slog. I wanted to love it because it seemed to have all the hallmarks of "THE Siege Game", but no. I wanted it to be a game that I'd be OCD compelled to replace all the cubes with GW orcs or something. Never materialized.

I'm interested in hearing why this version is so much better.

Epic is for Timmies and that's why I don't think I liked it at all

Ya, Stronghold might be something I need to get. There is a dearth of reviews on 2nd Edition. Not even MM. Get on it Barnes, give it the full treatment. The people have spoken.

The kickstarter & pre-order copies of Level 99's Millennium Blades are shipping out in a few weeks. Given that you've enjoyed some of Level 99's other titles, maybe this one's worth checking out.

I read an online review of Stronghold and my 2 biggest questions are:

How is the rule book?

Does the math get in the way of the fun?

Example:
Invader STR is X, I have Y at this wall. Advantage will be Y-X. But if he moves this unit next, his STR will be X+2, then the advantage will be X+2-Y in favor of him. Minus the units I have, I still need to move Z worth of units to support this wall. But wait. Maybe he can use an order and multiply his Goblins STR by 3. Then his STR will be OMG*3+2, and his advantage will be OMG*3+2 - SOS. So with 2 hourglasses in my hand, what should I do?

Epic is great. Turn 7 Magic is spot on. Draw your cards, start throwing haymakers.

I picked up Epic for $9 at the FLGS - gotten my moneys worth - Fun to draft, turn 7 magic indeed - after a few games there is a little bit more bluffing and timing to winning than initial expected - Very swingy and sometimes holding back and baiting your opponent into sweeping the board can be the way to go -much better the the thrid or fourth game with an opponent because those feints and bluffs mean something at that point.

It's like turn 7 MTG with one distinction. Half of all MTG games one of the players will be mana screwed and unable to make a 7 mana or even 6 mana play.
The problem I am having is my gaming buddies all have MTG decks and they don't want to bother with Epic. The advantage MTG has over it is people get emotionally attached to seeing how a deck they built is going to perform. So it's like MTG draft or danger room varaiant

Paging Michael Barnes.... we want to know what's up with Stronghold.

quozl wrote: Paging Michael Barnes.... we want to know what's up with Stronghold.

www.miniaturemarket.com/strongholdreview...13&mc_eid=89858cec68