Lizard Wrangling: Tiny Epic Dinosaurs Review

I try hard to stay away from the "Euro vs...

Read more...

Good review. A thing that comes to mind is the more euro-oriented market isn't really missing the extreme simplicity and tight play that Tiny Epic games seem to pride themselves on---there's so much lineup depth in that area in euros---so maybe it isn't as vital an entry?

Also, the rest of the graphic design doesn't look bad but that is a savagely ugly cover. From the cut rate mobile clicker art file.

Thanks. Yeah, I think that assessment is fair. In some respects, it seems like it wants to be a rapid game and the pace is enforced by the limited number of rounds. However, I never got that constrained feeling playing Western, which has the same number of rounds and a couple similar mechanics (worker placement, most notably.) I'm not sure what it is about this one that isn't quite grabbing me the way most of the others have.

Been playing this one myself and I like it. I haven’t played Dinogenics yet but this definitely has more dino flavor than Dinosaur Island, and with the dinos being harder to maintain, it’s a more exciting game than DI. Draftosaurus is more fun though.

I agree on the Island comparison. That game is more like "theme park design, but with dinosaurs", while this one is more about the big lizards. I've never played Draftosaurus.

This is probably an unrelated tangent, but: At what point does the "Tiny Epic" series devolve into self-parody?

Because at this point the whole Tiny Epic label feels like a cynical exercise in branding. When it was Kingdoms and Defenders it made more sense, as Gamelyn was cramming the vast feel of a world-builder in a small box. And I'll even give them Galaxies, because if you squinted and turned your head sideways you may have gotten a whiff of a very scaled-down 4x game. But now it's just them plastering a crowd-pleasing image on the box (Cowboys and Pirates and Dinosaurs, oh my!) and hoping folks feel compelled to keep completing the set for their game shelves. I have this image of poor Scott Almes as he sits at his designer desk while the Gamelyn dude stands behind him cracking a whip, as poor Almes is sobbing & whimpering, expected to crank out yet another big world in a small box.

I guess I should give them some amount of capitalist free-market credit for creating a brand that has lasted this long, but it feels like with every new "Tiny Epic" game they get further away from the plot, and closer to just flogging the branded corpse for $25 a pop.

It feels like in an alternate universe they would put out one really good Tiny Epic game in an 18-month span, instead of immediately running back to Kickstarter every six months to ring the register on yet another title you're supposed to buy based strictly off of the name.

I think there certainly is a branding effort involved. If you see "Tiny Epic", you're likely to think "Gamelyn", whereas I'm betting there are a fair number of people that don't know that they also produced Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea (their only non-TE game of the last few years, IIRC.)

I don't think the TE label was ever meant to be a constraint; as in they'd only produce large, world-builder-type game in their small boxes. I think the idea was that it was a response to the ever-increasing size and price of what dominates the market these days and an argument that you didn't need either of those to produce a good game with plenty of replayability. Hence, "Tiny" (size, price (relatively) "Epic" (depth, can be played many times.)

I think their design strategy has been oriented more toward exploring genres within the constraints of those two elements. Thus, the 4X aspects of Kingdoms and Galaxies, the adventure aspects of Defenders and Quest, the engine-building aspects of Western and Dinosaurs, the minis aspects of Tactics and Mechs, etc. The upcoming TE Pirates is a pick-up-and-deliver game. It basically plays like a small version of Merchants and Marauders, but with some basic improvements.

I buy their stuff based on the fact that I've at least enjoyed, if not loved, all of them. So, for me, the marketing angle is more a demonstration of intent, than something like GW's normal approach: "It's 40K, but in a sewer! It's 40K, but in the air! It's 40K, but constantly in the same, small village that somehow avoids destruction..."

Tiny Epic 40k!!!

If they ever do Tiny Epic Cthulhu, I'm out.

Josh Look wrote: If they ever do Tiny Epic Cthulhu, I'm out.

I would be, too. That's one of the things that put me off the Kemet KS (aside from the fact that I already have a complete set that is already an amazing game.) They decided one of their stretch goals would be adding a Cthulhu expansion. That's not what I'm playing Kemet or any other game for. If you have your own IP, then stick with it. Don't borrow other crap just because it's popular. Do your own thing.

That said, I do think that Lovecraft Letter is more fun than regular Love Letter and I'm fine with games that are essentially based on others' IPs, like Funkoverse.

I might be called out for not knowing what I'm talking about, but I feel like there's a difference between playing around in established IPs because it's what you do, so to speak and is the case for Funko/Prospero Hall, and merely fishing for hype. That's how Cthulhu in Kemet and most of the extras in CMONs crap (like the DISGUSTING addition of "45" as a playable character in Zombicide 2nd Ed).

Totally agree. Funkoverse was designed to use other peoples' stuff. Kemet has been around for 8 years as its own thing, even if loosely based on Egyptian mythology. Trying to add a Cthulhu angle is just gold-digging. I think Gamelyn has been fully content to do their own thing. Defenders even follows the storyline of Kingdoms, in which the wars are over and the formerly warring people have to unify against the demonic invasion and the majority of races in Kingdoms are represented by heroes in Defenders. The whole series is basically Gamelyn's World and welcome to it.

Josh Look wrote: If they ever do Tiny Epic Cthulhu, I'm out.

LOL, I just stumbled onto this while deciding if I'm adding any of the Tiny Epic games I had previously skipped to my pledge for Tiny Epic Cthulhu...

Ha. Right. To be followed shortly by Tiny Epic Game of Thrones. I'm not really feelin' it. I liked Rahdo's preview of Cthulhu but I'm not really sold on the co-op approach (Defenders is my least played of the series, as it's not typically a genre that I enjoy.) I do appreciate them trying to integrate a "classic" board game approach with a spinner, though.

I like Defenders quite a bit as (rules wise) it’s one of the most streamlined and has the fewest exceptions or weird corner cases. Tied maybe with Galaxies.

If I were to rank them from most to least played, it’d probably be:

* Defenders
* Western
* Tactics
* Galaxies Express
* Galaxies
* Zombies

Haven’t played any others I don’t think.

Western is still hokey with the rules, and the weird custom suits, but it plays well once you get going. I love the boxy 3-D terrain in Tactics, but it doesn’t play like the skirmish game I want it to be — too artificial and gamey, e.g. unlimited LOS from certain map locations.