Disney Villainous Board Game - I am flabbergasted

Josh Look wrote: I'm going to shit all over anything I don't like as usual.

We know.

Runebound 2nd ed is fucking great. No, you should not play with more than four at the most, but that goes for a lot of adventure games.

3rd edition is even better. Really smart character progression system, and the diceless combat works really well.

Of course it is Mads.

Second game today. I was Maleficient, River was Jafar, Scarlett the Queen of Hearts. Against my protestations, they wanted to play new characters rather than apply what they learned last night.

Still awesome, completely different interactions and strategies. Maleficient is kind of tricky- you have to get a curse into each location, but things take them away- like if Maleficient goes to a location with a certain kind of one. You really have to have the raven out to help mitigate that, but I didnt draw him until too late. The kids pounded me with Fate cards. I had Flora, Fauna and Merriweather on me AND King Stefan.

Jafar has to open the Cave of Wonders with the Scarab, and play the lamp. This calls Genie there. Then he has to hypnotize Genie and take him and the lamp to the palace. River did some pretty fun stuff like hypnotizing Aladdin to beat the Sultan. Abu turned up late in the game as he was trying to move the lamp and he stole it. So he wound up hypnotizing the monkey to get it back.

The Queen of Hearts has the most fun victory condition. You have to play Card Guards into each location and the pay to turn them into Wickets. Then, you need a Take the Shot card. You reveal the top five off your deck and if the total cost is less than your total wicket strength, she wins. Scarlett did really well in her own and actually won. She was waylaid early on by Dodo and Caterpillar, but beat them and then took the shot one turn before River would have won. QoH’s Fate deck has cards to enlarge Heroes, causing them to cover adjacent symbols but her actions card let you shrink them so they only cover one. Virtually every effect and mechanic is like that.

It’s about an hour. I think it will go 45 usually, probably 90 minutes with 6.

Aside from the Fate cards, it sounds like there is no interaction between the players. I suppose it makes thematic sense that each character is immersed in their own story.

ChristopherMD wrote:

Josh Look wrote: I'm going to shit all over anything I don't like as usual.

We know.

I don’t come here to handle garbage games with the kid gloves on. This is a better discussion for a Friday Flashback, so perhaps tomorrow I’ll be back to shit on Runebound 2nd edition and talk about how much I like 3rd (cuz I do, it’s really great).

Villainous sounds really cool. We don’t have kids but we seen Disney fans in this house, so I’m sure we’ll be picking it up at some point.

Shellhead wrote: Aside from the Fate cards, it sounds like there is no interaction between the players. I suppose it makes thematic sense that each character is immersed in their own story.

This is correct. However the catch is that other players COMPLETELY control the opposition- playing heroes, choosing what actions to block, putting items on heroes, playing effects...I had two players completely set on sinking me in heroes and it seriously impacted my efforts. There are also cards in every character’s deck that you can play on another player’s turn based on a condition- like if they have X number of Allies, Items, Power, etc.

It is “siloed” to some extent, but it does not feel like solitaire at all.

I still think a Batman board game where everyone plays the villains similar to this game would sell like ice cream on a hot summer day.

You’ll never make a dime kid. Zombies fighting Cthulhu in a dungeon on Mars. THAT is what sells boxes these days.

I would like to purchase this when Barnes sells it, thank you.

Not likely on this one. Already a family favorite.

ChristopherMD wrote: I still think a Batman board game where everyone plays the villains similar to this game would sell like ice cream on a hot summer day.

This game already exists. It's called Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game and aside from Josh Look, I think it went widely unnoticed. I played it two or three times with him and other assorted F:ATties at Trashfest. It's not bad. Not bad at all.

Target and Amazon have both pulled this game from shelves/availability. Possibly because its street date isn't quite here yet but Amazon usually takes pre-orders. Could there be a recall?

ChristopherMD wrote: Target and Amazon have both pulled this game from shelves/availability. Possibly because its street date isn't quite here yet but Amazon usually takes pre-orders. Could there be a recall?

Target had it on the shelf but refused to sell because of the street date last week when I stopped by.

I ordered mine online earlier this week and had them ship it to a store near work. Picked it up tonight. Looks like a great game.