Ascension - How to Play 🎲 and Why It's a Gem 💎

[@robwhite698]

Terrific, informative video. Thanks for taking the time. Like you, I've played a ton on the app (iOS & Steam) over many, many years.. Such a quality app! After playing the cardboard version for the first time at BGGCon last November, I decided to keep my eye out for anyone selling a "lot" of expansions w/ base game. I didn't care about what edition it was and I wasn't aware of the crowd-funding version. Got lucky spending ~$87 to a guy in London for his collection. I was in London on vacation, so no shipping :). I brought the collection home and sorted it into 4 sets (Chronicle of Godslayer + Return of the Fallen; Soul of Swords + Immortal Heroes; Rivals of Vigil + Darkness Unleashed; Dreamscape). Each of the 4 sets fits in a 500-count card box (cards are sleeved), so I can quickly grab a set to play w/o board & rule book. And I only need 2 original boxes for the total of 4 sets. I agree w/ you about keeping sets separate for better synergy. Thanks again, Rob

[@toller99]

Thank you so much for this complete overview and suggestions on expansions. I just got the app and had no idea what the expansions were or what worked well together. Now, with your thorough explanations, I know what sets work and to try together. Kudos to you. Appreciate it very much!

[@spfurm01]

Thanks to this video I've downloaded the app and expansions and now have 60 plays and going. 😬 Appreciate the expansion rundown as it's been instrumental in figuring out what plays well with what

[@a.d.samano7873]

I tried it and liked it too. Good gameplay. Try to check Warmachine and Hordes High Command. Its also a deckbuilding game.

[@mikheilkhachikian1339]

Your video has helped me a lot to choose what I need, and what I should skip. Thank you! 🤜🤛

[@ryanthewired]

The current printings of Return of the Fallen and Storm of Souls have been updated to match the current third edition style frames of the base game. As you mentioned, Immortal Heroes hasn't been updated to match yet (I wish they would because there are some cards I'd like to add). To my knowledge the rest of the sets match. Like you, I went with the base set, Return of the Fallen, Storm of Souls, Realms Unraveled, and Gift of the Elements (no Dawn of Champions though). I removed the duplicate cards so every card is unique, keeping the main deck a reasonable size.

[@omrilapidot6770]

Great video of a great game. I have it on my iPhone for 10 years now and it's always fun. Oh, and I think that Unite rule only applies to Lifebound heros. It's their main thing.

[@BoardGems]

It's most common for Lifebound but you see it and Multi-Unite sometimes for the other factions too. (At least in the expansions; you're right that in the base game Unite is only found on Lifebound cards.) Cheers!

[@mike9139]

YOU ARE AWESOME! ❤❤❤

[@BoardGems]

😊 shucks

[@sab6261]

Dominion was the major inspiration, but some Magic thinking gave him the idea for the row of random market cards. I'd post a link, but it'll get filtered out. You can search "Justin Gary An Ascension Design Inspiration Story" if you want to see his blog post about it. It's worth noting that Vaccarino considered doing the random row for Dominion, but rejected the idea because he felt it was overly lucky. Read that in an interview a long time ago, but good luck finding it.

[@warpathh]

amazing video. Can you rank them or help us pick just like 2 or 3 purchase bundles to have?

[@BoardGems]

Sure, I can recommend a couple of bundles. If you want the base game and the big expansions that work well with it, that'd include Realms Unraveled, Gift of the Elements and optionally Dawn of Champions. (Some people HATE the Rally mechanism DoC introduces.) Or just Gift of the Elements + Valley of the Ancients, that works well too. (VotA doesn't integrate into a big set very well, but if you limit your set's size, it's pretty good.) If you don't want to be tempted by future expansions, you could limit yourself to expansions that introduce an extra currency. One such currency is energy, and that bundle is Rise of Vigil + Darkness Unleashed. Another is dreamstones (or something like that) and for those the bundle would be Dreamscape, Delirium and Deliverance. I'm a base-game guy myself but all those combinations work well. Hope that helps!

[@warpathh]

@@BoardGems nice thanks! I have the new base game now thanks to your video and the first few expansions. I think i'll stick with this combo till they get more updated. I am still trying to figure out how to mix expansions into the game lol.

[@keatonhawkswell5714]

Looks like the app is free, I’ll have to give this one a try.

[@warpathh]

Do you like Mansions of Madness? If so, what other games like that do you recommend?

[@BoardGems]

Never played. When you say games like it, like it in what way?

[@warpathh]

@@BoardGems its a blast to play.. .simple rules, but feels like an adventure, especially if you get the expansions that journey outside the mansion and into the streets and stuff... It's a co-op adventure and really fun.

[@BoardGems]

Ah, so the second edition, a co-op with a companion app, aye? (I remember the first edition was 1 vs many because no app.) I don't generally play board games that use an app. One exception is actually a children's game, Whoowasit, that despite some God-awful voice acting is quite charming. I do have Forgotten Waters, haven't played, and am curious to try. Not cooperative, but Tales of the Arabian Nights has a great book of adventures. It's a bit disjointed, not a coherent story, but great fun. In the same vein, there is the cooperative Agents of Smersh. The first edition was a let-down for me but I have the second edition, as yet unplayed. Cautiously optimistic!

[@donniehendricks6537]

What do I start with? the regular ascension game, the 10th anniversary or ascention eternal? I’m so confused on what to get first

[@BoardGems]

10th Anniversary is the same as the regular game, with updated art and some balancing fixes to bring it more inline with what they did with later expansions. It's a great starting point.

[@tkzubaran]

(writing before watching) Very unexpected to see this one on your videos. I think this one is strictly worse than Dominion (which I think is fine, but do not love). The generic fantasy is (to me) trash. It strips the best part of dominion to me, which is to strategize at the beginning according to the selection of cards. It also felt stale to me with few sets much much faster than dominion. It is much less elegant than Dominion as well. I remember you said something like "Every new area control game must tells us why it needs to exist, when El Grande exists". To me if you made the same question to Ascension with regards to Dominion, the answer would be a resounding "it does not need to exist".

[@BoardGems]

That’s fair. And I think I mentioned in the video how it normally wouldn’t be my cup of tea, especially with the fantasy setting. The game surprised me over time, via the amazing app, such that I was won over. I’ll disagree with you about Dominion, though. It’s true Dominion allows you to strategize, much more so than Ascension. But I found I don’t like games that front-load ALL the strategy. Random setup that you analyze at the beginning, decide on a path, then the whole game is just following the path. Now a LOT of games do this, and it’s a trend a greatly dislike.

[@tkzubaran]

@@BoardGems I fully agree that in Dominion 90% of the meaningful decisions are made before the first play, and the rest feels like autopilot (I think Dominion is a fine game, but not great, I score it a 6 or 7). Yet Ascension feels like autopilot all the time. I now watched the full video, and It is the first "gem" video I saw of you with which I disagree. All others I may feel the game is not for me, but I feel your points are solid. For this one, I can not see it as a gem. I enjoyed the video anyway. Cheers from Brazil.