Grimcoven Review - The Night Is Dark & Full Of Terrors....

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Crowdfunding Link - gamefound.com/en/projects/awa...
Grimcoven is a miniature boss battler game for 1-4 players set in a dark Victorian universe where only the hunt matters.
To play, you take on the role of a hunter fueled by lament who has signed a pact with a coven of other hunters to venture on one of many modular boss battles. Every character has a distinct development tree you can use to advance. Build and execute your unique combo, such as teleporting into any space on the map, gathering lament, gaining extra dice, and firing up a devastating attack on the boss. Sometimes a special electricity die will help you power up your armor, while at other times, you will forge magical bullets to be fired at the right moment.
Who and where are you fighting? Each game you choose from multiple arenas, bosses, elites, and possible adventures. Every game is different and exciting. Instead of following a scripted campaign, dive right into a boss battle for an intense 2-3 hour gameplay session. Every boss offers a unique gameplay challenge, and bringing them down will be tactically demanding. You must work together and take full advantage of the arena and its resources to achieve your goal.
During combat, strategically use dice allocation to move around the board, fire up different combos, and gather lament to grow in strength. Build your character in roguelike fashion and try to claim the ultimate prize. Collect too much lament, however, and you may turn into one of the beasts you were sent to hunt, with your fellow hunters unable to help you in time!
BGG Link - boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4...
TimeStamps:
0:00:00 - Intro & Disclaimer
0:00:50 - Overview
0:12:55 - Ease of Play
0:14:00 - What I Like
0:17:45 - What I Don’t Like
0:20:45 - What I Can See Other Not Liking
0:21:40 - Final Thoughts
0:22:50 - Recommendations
5.0 - My absolutely favorite games. You can pry them out of my cold dead hands.
4.5 - Love this game! At the same time missing something that would make it a 5. Could be hard to table, lacking variability, a little light, etc.
4.0 - Really great game, almost always keeping, although has meaningful complaints as to what takes away from the experience.
3.5 - Really enjoyed, don't love it, may lose out to better games but the idea of never playing again is a bit sad.
3.0 - A good game, would play and suggest with the right people, if I never played it again wouldn't lose any sleep.
2.5 - A game I'd play again , but will never suggest it myself
2.0 - A game I don't want to play again
1.5 - A game I can't find any reason to recommend
1.0 - A game that is just bad.
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[@djoj20]

How does it compare to massive darkness 2 in terms of character progression?

[@nihilistick]

Asking the real questions

[@srebme2]

I’m going to have a hard time convincing my husband not to back this one. I don’t know if I can do a three hour boss battler that results in a loss

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

I’ve got plenty of house rules that trim the game down to a manageable 30 min to hour playtime. Hit me up if you’re interested.

[@JohnnyMcNabb63]

I would prefer if it only lasted 60-90 minutes and a little bit easier to win. It’s hard to get a 3 hour game to the table.

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

I’ve got house rules that trim the playtime to a fun 30 min to hour Scenario. Hit me up if you’re interested

[@daniels6753]

How do you think this would compare to Cthulu Death May Die? Death May die has this overwhelming boss, and a TON of upgrades.

[@Oaklestat]

Thanks for this indepth info!

[@elqord.1118]

Pretty much done with Awaken Realms production value > gameplay approach. These games never hold up well enough for me for the asking price. They promise hundreds of hours of game but I actually feel like the gameplay can barely support 20 hours before things get old and stop being satisfying. Nemesis is the exception. I think they struck gold with that one but every other game had a terrible gameplay quality to price ratio

[@hermanturnip3984]

Thanks for the video. Great overview. I'm still not sure if there's anything here unique enough to make me back the campaign. Seems like a big pile of been there, done that.

[@xXN0cturnXx]

same thoughts. what i often imagine: put away all the visuals away and imagine just some basic layout with basic meeple/miniatures/standees. just put the whole theme away basically and think about the core mechanics, how the game progresses, what i need to do or what i can do as a player and how it differs to other games or why it would stand out from other games. with this one i dont see much tbh. the typical AR selling point being the visuals here.

[@octavus4858]

thank you for disclaimer. Interesting video

[@williamskogen9895]

Bloodborne combined with CDMD?

[@seansmith2650]

This is speaking to me a lot more than the last 6 awaken realm campaigns

[@4469luis]

Based on your comments I think it should be a 3 or 3.5. Also I feel like you give 4/5 to almost every game.

[@dougsealy199]

All these game reviewers give near perfect scores on everything. Apart from Tom, he is a bit of a bastard!! 😂

[@davidautinify]

ratings will universally skew high because it doesn't make sense to put in the effort of learning, playing, videoing, and editing a video for a mediocre (or bad) game. the fact that there is a video implies it was at least intriguing and high quality enough to warrant the effort of the review.

[@distortedsteeve2980]

They give all their paid promotions good reviews even after trashing it for 20-30 minute. I mean Liege of Games trashed Euthia for 25 minutes just to fall back on his words multiple times in the video. They all do it. We need someone that doesn’t get paid to do this.

[@TravistheGREAT03]

@@distortedsteeve2980 Without commenting on BoardGame Co doing it or not. Channels who are honest about games they were sent by the designers will not receive games for long. They would have to rely on patreon, and with the niche board games are on YT that would be unlikely. And even then, their reviews would only come out AFTER release making good traction even more unlikely.

[@punnatornbook]

His most common rating is still 3.5 I think

[@siriactuallysara]

This reminds me of hexplore it. The layout and the concept of the game. But with a lot less dry erase and complicated abilities.

[@damiankomimasa3609]

Thank you for this vide:) Great job. Especially, thank you for secto what I like, what someoe may not:)

[@cheekymonkat]

Great review - your views match my own after watching a playthrough. Not sure on this - I’ll probably wait for the PM to decide…

[@morgaknightgames]

Hey Alex, I really appreciate your thoughts on this. It helped explain some things I saw on the playthroughs that are out. Sounds like AR will have some streamlining to do in places, but I'm very much looking forward to this one.

[@florianweixler5750]

nice Preview.

[@user-jy3dc5mf1u]

My problem with it so far is it seems like there is too much micro management.

[@seansmith2650]

That's all awakened realms games. No polish

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

I’ve got the app that does all that for ya. Comes in handy.

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

@@seansmith2650 I’ve got the app that does all that for ya. Comes in handy

[@kenzocrespin6682]

​@@seansmith2650 Certainly not all, the Nemesis games are easy to play and highly immersive

[@seansmith2650]

​@@kenzocrespin6682 nemesis is literally the worst time I've ever had playing a board game lmao

[@matotias]

Damn I might back it anyway but the duration could be a problem for us, this game will have tough competition against other games on my shelf if it lasts 2-3 hours

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

I’ve got house rules that trim the game down to 30 min to hour.

[@rosenkrustev1514]

*sees the title* I understood that reference!

[@SleepyGhst]

Great review. Unfortunately this game looks clunky and might hit a lot of bogus moments where the mechanics work against you. I’ll probably just wait for a retail release.

[@DukeJohnny]

As much as I love AR games, this is a pass for me, mostly for two reasons: 1. The setting of the game isn't to my liking. 2. There is a new one coming later this year: "Lands of Evershade" which sparked my interest so much, that it might be an all-in for me. Given time and budget restrictions I need to pick the games I'm willing to back, and you (as always) help to make this decision with more clarity. Thank you for your reviews, unboxings and previews Alex (and prof. Meg as well)!

[@kenzocrespin6682]

There's also "Blood" by Ludus Magnus Studio which looks very similar to Grimcoven

[@fenderkidd]

While I’m a fan of difficult, both of the gameplay videos I’ve seen make it seem unwinnably difficult, so unless something drastically changes, I’ll be passing on this one, sadly. Bummer, was real excited about an AR boss battler.

[@Exozik]

Weird, normally all of their newer games are easy.

[@nihlify]

Seems kinda iffy to determine balance on a couple of promotional videos where people likely aren't that good at the game

[@fenderkidd]

@@nihlify fair point, we’ll see as more come out.

[@barryc6785]

That's not a good reason to back or not to back the game you could always make it easier by giving yourself twice as much health or something. It's a prototype they'll probably have some ways to adjust the difficulty.

[@fenderkidd]

@@barryc6785 I mean, isn’t “good reason” subjective? Also, I shouldn’t need to adjust your game to make it beatable.

[@philtaylor1497]

i get a cthulu death may die vibe a lil bit

[@dickesMomo]

@BoardGameCo, is this a valid coomparison?

[@alexponcio2114]

It’s definitely bloodborne may die

[@rhysbevan429]

Maybe start the game with a free tactics reroll chip. If you want it easier, give yourself an extra starting die, which also makes cards more viable.

[@seansmith2650]

Whats grim co-vin

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

Grim Covid the game.

[@aarondumoulin9106]

Sounds a lot like Cthulhu DMD, with the progression and boss aspects. I'll keep an eye on it. Great preview!

[@nirszi]

This looks like SO many other boss battlers/dungeon crawlers...

[@octavus4858]

Wondering if it is better then Bloodborne or not. How it feels comparing to stellar Oathsworn

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

It’s more or less similar to Bloodborne but vastly longer playtime.

[@JoeHuddleston]

I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'd like to get a better idea of just how brutal the difficulty is.

[@newatlantisrepublic6844]

So far, not one video reviewer has defeated this. This game is undefeated so far.

[@randybookman]

Can you speak to the differences between this, blood, primal

[@cfosburg]

Alex, with the advent of ‘Grim Coven’ and the arrival of ‘Primal: The Awakening’ and others, is it time for another lollapalooza video of all the boss battlers, like you’ve done in the past for Skirmish games and Campaign games?! 🤔 I think so… ✋

[@darkjuly8360]

Hey Alex thanks for the great content per usual. I know this is just a you thing but if can be helped at all, please slow down when youre showing rules and gameplay. The speed talk is manageable when discussing opinions but trying to follow the gameplay elements at that speed is nearly impossible.

[@floridamarlins454]

Massive Darkness 3!

[@kanalune]

Gosh, the minis, the theme, the art… it’s a definite back 😅 and here I was thinking I’d take it easy on crowdfunding this year

[@colinhamilton7365]

How would you compare it to Deliverance skirmish mode?

[@ramonosuke]

I couldn't decide between this or Blood...Went with Both...for the time being. I'm more keen on Blood, due to the fact that AR handling of the "prototype" version of this game is been wonky. However AR usually delivers and I truly hope that's the case for Grimcoven. Last thing I need is for the first AR game I decide to back, to completely bomb.

[@blazius1726]

I'm not sure if I should care about this game since I supported Dante Inferno. And in addition, I will probably support Odalin. And so?

[@BoardGameCo]

I mean...you gotta pick and choose :)

[@AlBundy4td]

Plays and feels very similar to God of War - just matter of what theme you prefer.

[@jeffrey107]

after looking at the minis, so much of it reminds me of bloodborne

[@alexponcio2114]

It’s bloodborne may die

[@toddferrullo1871]

I usually do not find Alex's reviews of AR games to be too biased but he really missed the mark on this one. It may just be that he did not really do enough due diligence on this one. Folks should watch the Shelfside review as he points out lots of very valid points with some pretty major problems with the game. The fact that Alex says the game is hard when it seems that the first 2 turns are hard and then it always becomes a cake walk where you are just going through the motions for the next hour or two but have already won the game after downing the elite is a huge pacing problem. This game really seems like a 2.5 out of 5 not a 4 in its current form. Note that AR may fix many of the issues post campaign but then again it might still have issues like Etherfields and Tamashii do even though they tried to fix them before release.

[@adamswierszcz5586]

Played this game a couple of times, I'll definitely back it!

[@Jammy88]

Ps 91:5

[@dobrzpe]

it's just sad that AR sent out a prototype this... well... prototype-y. ALL the videos on Grimcoven talk about AR & "what they say" and "what they want to do" all the time while having a lackluster-beta-prototype to play. the game looks interesting, but based on ALL the videos about this prototype and NOT ACTUALLY WHAT THE GAME WILL HAVE/BE - i'm going to pass on this one. i *REALLY* wish AR sent this to crowdfunding in another 6-12 months... so we can ALL see what this game WILL be.

[@lthudgins]

Gonna go all in when it drops on GF

[@user-qh8fi7th9e]

awaken realms create amazing stuff

[@maverickmuezzin]

Your pronunciation of Grimcoven as Grim-CO-ven was so distracting

[@sabamesa1748]

English is not my first tongue... but how should it be? xD

[@morgaknightgames]

That's literally how the Awaken Realms guy pronounced it too.

[@saveversus]

Yeah, I guess we're wrong. King of Average pronounces it with a long O too.

[@dannyf1168]

Grim-coven

[@BrooksA-xm8fh]

Alex's pronunciation wasn't distracting for me; however, "coven" is typically pronounced as "kuh•vn" (similar to "covenant"). Perhaps AR has altered the pronunciation for this title? Regardless, this was an awesome review by Alex! I'm looking forward to this game.