ISS Vanguard Review - My Ship is a Notebook

Tom Vasel takes a look at ISS Vanguard, an Awaken Realms game where you explore planets, space, and the notebook that is your space ship!
Support The Dice Tower at www.dicetowerkickstarter.com
Support the channel by becoming a member!
kzbin.info/door/iwBbXQlljGjKtKhcdMliRAjoin
Subscribe to our newsletter, "The Dice Tower Digest": dicetowerdigest.com
Buy great games at www.GameNerdz.com
Check out the friendliest conventions on Earth!
Dice Tower Cruise - www.dicetowercruise.com (January 15-21, 2023)
Dice Tower West - www.dicetowerwest.com (March 8 - 12, 2023)
Dice Tower East - www.dicetowereast.com (July 5-9, 2023)
Find more reviews and videos at www.dicetower.com
Get a great game table here! www.rathskellers.com/
BGG Link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/325494/iss-vanguard

[@matteoprosperi]

I have a different take on this. I have played this up to the very last mission, not included. I love it. Setup/teardown is actually very very fast because it's built into the flow of the game itself: after a planetary exploration, the game will guide you to update the ship book and, doing so, you will store everything back. The insert is also extremely convenient as long as you don't sleeve the cards: the placement of the cards between the provided dividers represents the state of your campaign. The insert is also modular, so you can and should take it out and place the card trays on the table. Finding standees is the only "slow" part of the game but you usually need just 3/4 per mission. A game is long: 3/4 hours, never longer though. Most of the longer planetary explorations had a midway point when I could have returned to the ship (that I ignored because I was having fun and my crew was in good shape). The dice rolls are very non-random: most of the times you can plan in advance so that you have a 80%-ish likelihood of success (after applying mitigation). The map exploration reminds me a lot of Arkham Horror LCG. The lengtht of the overall campaign is also very well balanced: I got to the end of it at the same time as I got to the top of the technology and crew development (I have plenty left to explore, but I am not forced to). The process of getting there was also very natural: I didn't feel forced in a specific direction, but I was usually always going in the right direction and didn't have to grind planets. Overall probably the best game I own.

[@OniTheDarkTemplar]

I wish I had the crew for a 50 hour game. Feels like this would totally be my jam. If any of my mates read this - you suck.

[@bgm-1961]

If you don't have "the crew" for a 50 hour game, don't let that stop you. Why let anything stop you from doing what you want? (within reason, of course) Play it yourself. Then you can inform them what they missed out on!

[@athragan]

I actually dislike Etherfields. Tainted Grail is better, but I still gave up on it. I couldn’t stop myself from playing ISS Vanguard. I agree with Tom, I also loved the ship book, and the story is also great. The weakest part is the dice check system. It would have been my favourite game that I gladly replay anytime, if the core mechanic of the exploration part was better. I’m still waiting for an Awakened Realms game that combines one of their awesome stories, with a central mechanic that would have been fun in itself, creating something truely special.

[@Warchoon]

Deck building would serve amazing as a central mechanism, not like in Grail, but like in Arkham Horror the Card Game or Nemesis. Upgrades both from leveling characters and unlocking the ship parts could be seamlessly introduced to the game.

[@kumanight]

I absolutely love this game. I'm the opposite of Tom where the planetory exploration is the most fun part, but I really enjoy the ship phase too. My play sessions tend to take 1.5-2 hours for exploration and 45-60mins for the ship phase. I actually pause between phases (explore, do the ship phase another day then another exploration day after that). It's super easy to save after prepping for an exploration or finishing one, as long as you don't fully repack the game. This is my game of the year, and it isn't even close. It really feels like Awaken Realms made a game exactly for my tastes lol

[@kumanight]

Oh as for player count I've only played it solo. 2-3 players would be good too, I dunno how much 4 players would slow down the game.

[@rexology_bg]

I have played 2 and 3 and both worked well. I think I preferred 3 player, but I wouldn't dis outage either.

[@rexology_bg]

...discourage.

[@SlugHug]

I’ve been playing as well and fairly middle of the campaign and I’m loving it, specially the planetary exploration, but really everything is great! Best game I’ve played?

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

The game is fun but the ship book is the best part. The biggest issue is the difficulty of exploration as you said. Solo play has you only use two people and that's just simply not enough dice to manage all the stuff you come across. One planet gave me a ton of checks for dice I didn't have and multiple hard as nail threats to deal with and yet you only get 6 supplies a mission. And when you've spent hours doing the ship phase, landing and then setting the planet up, to have a planet that's impossibly hard to succeed at, its deflating. I feel like you need to have all 4 stations just to have all the dice and splitting up is the worst idea ever. Always keep characters with each other to assist.

[@HarleyFirestorm]

My friend and I both backed the kickstarter as we were playing through Etherfields once every two weeks we decided to play this solo. We finished the first campaign on Etherfields and decided to reset my ISS Vanguard and play it 2 play with all four sections, it doesn't make sense to only have two sections, you really need them all, even solo.

[@citizensnips1012]

Love this game! I agree on the tutorial, i actually restarted the game after the 2nd mission and read the rulebook because i just didn't have a good enough feel for what i was doing thematically and mechanically and felt that I was missing out on some of the fun. After doing that, I am super into wanting to play more and more! I really like the planetary exploration, it gives me just the right amount of decision space, dice mitigation and tension without being too bogged down. The ship book is absolutley amazing!

[@RvLeshrac]

I am 100% in agreement with you here. They want to just *CONSTANTLY* beat the hell out of you with negative everything, and that gets incredibly old incredibly fast.

[@AzuritSK]

My group has a very different experience with landing on planets. In very few cases we suffer negative consequences. Even when it tells us to discard 4 equipment cards, there is always a lander's stat that negates this by its value. So discard 4 cards can be negated fully by let's say value 4 of lander's shields or sensors or whatever.

[@HarleyFirestorm]

I agree, however we didn't always get away with it and still lost equipment, but your right it does ease the pain.

[@pedrodelrio6764]

Eu

[@algernonftw42]

You compared it to XCOM (which I fully agree with), but then immediately complained about random negative effects during the missions. To me, that is part of what makes this game, and the XCOM games (I've played the newer ones, but probably my all-time favorite video games), so satisfying. Finding ways to improve and overcome the odds, celebrating the great rolls that avoid injuries or other losses, and working your squad effectively to handle threats. I think XCOM made me a very good Vanguard player, even 2-3 missions in. I am solo playing it my first time through, but I still fist pump when I ace a dice check through tactful planning, or bring down a huge threat while timing my movements to not get vaporized. I adore this game so far, despite some of the complexities and random chance.

[@Biodelic]

My gaming group has started to combine ISS Vanguard with Stars of Akarios. It's a work in progress but shows a lot of promise

[@JohnnyMcNabb63]

I love the game ! The worst part is that the ship/planet phase takes me about 4+ hours every time. So you have to have a lot of free time just to get it to the table. It’s a table hog.

[@kumanight]

Ive found breaking my sessions into either just the ship phase or just the planetary exploration makes it easier to get to the table

[@BaronMalovane]

Etherfields definitely overstayed its welcome, especially the expansions. Tainted Grail's mechanics and gameplay dragged it down. ISS Vanguard feels like a much tighter experience so far; definitely the best persistent progression of the bunch.

[@GettinJiggly]

Played the tutorial and first planet and have enjoyed it so far. Do find it hard to manage dice at the start since you have so few meaning you have to rest or exert more often. Can't wait to see how that changes once you get more upgraded dice.

[@dannyverbraeken3829]

I have a late pledge on this game. Even more excited now after seeing this video. Thanks for your time on making this "taste"-review Tom.

[@dorkangel1076]

Nemesis is one on my favourite thematic games off all time. Loved Tainted Grail too but stalled after I got distracted by deciding to paint all the figures. (Just the 3 monoliths to go before I might get back to it). However this also awakened my enjoyment of figure painting and I've now started painting a load of my other game figures instead of going back to it but I still have it set up on the table and need the space back. Saw this game on kickstarter but it seemed like one if those card collector binders so I never really paid attention to it. I'd also backed Stars of Akarios which seemed similar in theme but had more of a board and miniatures feel like Tainted Grail. This video however makes me feel like I totally misjudged the game based on my initial impression and I should have paid it more attention.

[@retineshilares2497]

I wonder how diverse the crew member are. I appreciate the use of a binder and different colors for card holders. Those little details really help to keep the game organized a little bit more than the back of the cards styles and symbols or ''numeration marking'' system we usually get. The app seems well developped too. If other game designers teams get inspiration from this design, they might as well print material on punched sheets and assume we already have binders at home. I like the high school nostalgia feeling it brings me. I would rather have the price point lowered and customise my own material, and also get recycled materials and non toxic inks for the prints. Some post-cards and posters also brings old memories associated with gaming. Those can be invested to make gaming informations availible.

[@Sajatzsiraf]

I suppose I am one of those people who will really love this game XD Thanks, Tom. Sounds thorough and honest and well versed. Appreciate your time and efforts.

[@kumanight]

If this is your kind of game you're in for a treat when you pick this up! It's so good

[@LatenightLyle]

Hey Tom! Great review. Were you able to gauge the best player count? Sounds like you played it solo…given the time of year and the new studio that makes sense; but do you feel it would have been better or worse with a couple more people? Max people? Regarding the landing issue, is this something that could be corrected by adjusting the random landing event to a larger die with the added numbers equating to a safe uneventful landing?

[@ronthal]

Well when playing solo, very quickly you realise you have to play 3 characters if not 4,which is a bit of a bear, so to me, the ideal configuration is 2 players with 2 sections (characters on a mission) each. You need a lot of crew on the ground because the best mitigation of dice checks is others assisting you by adding a die momentarily to you dice pool. On the landing phase, we'll you can always houserule it and simply remove it or maybe make it a 1 step process instead of 3-4-5 step thing where each time something ad can happen, or eomethinhg even worse! But removing it would reduce the interest of researching and building new landing ships... The more you play the better and deeper it gets, both terms of story, choices to make, tactics on planets, deck building, equipment selecting etc...

[@jessz6634]

Thanks for the review, was looking forward to watching this. Will you do a group review? Really keen to hear Mike and Camilla's thoughts on this too 😊

[@thedicetower]

Probably not. I think I'm the only one who is going to play it.

[@HarleyFirestorm]

I agree with this review, its a great game, but some elements can sometimes not be fun, like the ship landing and the way things can go sideways pretty damned quick on a planet, but then if you don't struggle in the game sometimes, wheres the challenge, without challenge then there is no fun.

[@Olvenskol]

I certainly like the planetary aspects better than Tom. The game is a "9" for me, with my main issue being the large time & effort to play a session. I have some minor issues, both nothing that really takes away from the fun.

[@voyager5333]

Love both Etherfields and Nemesis. I'm sure I'll be loving this one too. Awaken Realms sure knows how to make a deep dive game ;)

[@noodlemans]

Would it be accurate to say that the ship phase is just the XCOM base? Edit: next time I’ll save my comment until the end of the video.

[@mikewazowski350]

When I was in high school, we used to play Campaign for North Africa. We were young and had no idea what to do with our free time constructively. Today, any game that is more than two hours is beyond my energy levels. The game looks like it could be fun, but four hours? Is that everytime you play?

[@kumanight]

Roughly 2 hours for planetary exploration and 45-60mins for ship phase. I break my game sessions by each phase so I'm not playing more than 2 hours. I'm like you, more than 2 hours into a game and I will lose the will to play.

[@jacobmartin9021]

Now you know why Q is always asking James Bond not to crash the car again lol

[@Ravenblade460]

I am at 9.5 myself. I actually enjoy the planetary exploration more then the ship book. Some of them are just amazing and a few really reward you with some cool ideas for revisiting them. I did not really have any of the issues that Tom was having. The game if anything is a little to easy. Either way I love this game and can not recommend it enough.

[@kumanight]

I don't think it's too easy, but I agree with everything else. This game is incredible

[@darinherrick9224]

Definitely looks like a game I should only play with a hardcore dedicated group.

[@Garethadvertiser]

That hat and shirt combo is *chef's kiss* Tom

[@TheErnieforss]

We need to do a board game battle! BOARD GAME CAGE BATTLE!!!! ISS Vanguard vs Unsettled vs Far Away

[@Sajatzsiraf]

yes but Unsettled would be making jokes in the corner being all self-deprecating and working on some logic puzzles in a small notebook... not only boring but outright mean to add them to a fight.

[@TheErnieforss]

@@Sajatzsiraf so unsettled is a bad game? Or its just so good that it doesnt need to fight?

[@Sajatzsiraf]

@@TheErnieforss it is highly regarded and most people seem to love it, for me and my group specifically, it was a massive let-down and I sold it after 4-5 plays. hence, if calling the fight was up to me, it would have no chance. :)

[@iansutton7416]

thanks for making a big effort to remove spoilers from the video

[@mindyfranke5279]

This is going to be my first Awakened Realms game and I'm really looking forward to it. Star Trek the board game :) Other than the red shirts.

[@kumanight]

You're in for a hell of a good time!

[@dante58]

I think people generally agree Awaken Realms always nails the theme and story aspects of their games. Where they stumble a bit is implementation. I love, and I mean love the theme of Etherfields. It's incredibly creative and interesting. The gameplay is... not great, it's a mild annoyance at the best of times and just straight up obnoxious for the worst parts. Tainted Grail improves all of that tremendously while simultaneously maintaining an amazing theme and story. I can agree Tainted grail can be a bit grindy and the combat/diplomacy can get stale after a bit I never hated it by any means. I'm very excited for ISS vanguard. I did single shipment so i'll be hopefully getting it at the end of this year.

[@davidriemaker]

Hey, 2-6 players seems incorrect. I thought this game could be played single player as well?

[@olivigarden]

Technically the box says 1-4, but it's just a two-handed solo mode where you control two characters. Could be where the confusion came in. No clue why the label that pops up says 2-6 though, lol.

[@davidriemaker]

@@olivigarden ah, yes, vid says 2-6, even weirder (edited my comment)

[@DTChrisYi]

Typo on my part. Goes up to 4 players.

[@LegoAssassin098]

Hoping to get in through late pledging after the holidays

[@VaultBoy13]

I realize it supports more than one player, but is this another AR solo game with tacked on multiplayer? I ask, because the entire ship book looked like it was designed for solo. Playing it multiplayer seems like Choose Your Own Adventure by committee. The planets look more like they could be designed for multiplayer. But, when that's about 50% of the game, then it really seems like the game was designed as solo with a single player running multiple characters on the planets. Is there anything about the ship experience that makes it multiplayer? Or is it simply making ship decisions as a committee?

[@olivigarden]

The ship book in multiplayer is basically just making decisions by committee; the only real twist when you've got multiple players is that certain parts of the book allow different players to "pull rank" based on which section they're playing as. So for instance the person playing engineering can get final say or be a tiebreaker on what production projects to pursue.

[@Sajatzsiraf]

I think the best count for this is 2 players. Being alone I think I would not fully realize some of the charm and depth of especially the story.

[@remofubu]

Do you think it would take away from the game if you skip the landing phase?

[@kumanight]

It would make the exploration easier and you'd be missing some flavour. Some landing sequences will tell you how to setup the board though, can't really skip those

[@MashingP]

My GOTY.... unlike you I like the planet phase much more than you (I also like the ship management a lot too). The story is well written and the app tracks your progress so that's helpful. It is not easy (we've lost dozens of crew members--but you get rewards for losing crew members so it not as bad as it sounds). We're about 7 missions in we can wait to play more.

[@cardiner-lv]

Also you get the ship at some point, that completely skips landing, on some other ships reduces the rounds

[@Sajatzsiraf]

maybe a bit spoiler-ish :) but yes, with this ship by mid-to-late-game you can basically forget about the whole landing thing.

[@kumanight]

Dammit I need to upgrade my landers lol

[@GamingRulesVideos]

As the person who helped write the tutorial, only the first rounds is scripted. Not the whole tutorial. After the first few actions, that's it, you are on your own for the rest of the game. So, the scripted part is about 10% of the tutorial, but yet many people seem to keep saying that the entire thing is scripted, which is a bit weird :)

[@thedicetower]

Meh, it's basically scripted. I've played it multiple times and it plays out pretty much the same every time.

[@GamingRulesVideos]

@@thedicetower Yep. I agree that the scenario plays out the same and you don't have much choice. I'm just trying to give another viewpoint to the people who are saying that the tutorial literally told you step by step what to do, and nobody had any choice of what action to take or what dice to roll. That is only the first few actions. Glad you like the ship book though, that's my favourite part too :)

[@ortizlzitro]

I frickin love this game! Blew my mind

[@patricksteele]

I'm really looking forward to getting this game. If you are playing 2 handed solo then does that mean you never get to try out the other ship classes?

[@Rexeven]

Not at all! When you solo, the rules have you use 2 classes, and you get to choose. You could always play it solo as a 4 player game of course, and use all 4 classes.

[@patricksteele]

@@Rexeven that's great to hear, thanks!

[@Rexeven]

@@patricksteele I think you know what I mean, but just for clarity: you pick 2 classes for each landing, so you can and should switch up which two classes you take with you.

[@patricksteele]

@@Rexeven yes I get it thanks. I'm nearly finished playing Vagrantsong and it ties you to the same character for an entire campaign. Being able to alternate sounds great.

[@Rexeven]

@@patricksteele it really is like XCOM, where you actually have a ship full of crew members. I'm only a few missions in, but you don't even use the same character for the same class two times in a row. They become exhausted and if you want to, for instance, use the Science class again on the next mission, you have to use a different Science crew member. There are even cool sleeves with their rank on it! I'm digging it so far!

[@Skarpo89]

The book phase sounds awesome, unfortunate that the other part doesn't look too good to me, and also it looks quite soloey.

[@Christian-cy2pn]

You guys think this game will somehow fit on a 60x110cm table? Dosent seems like it,but maybe if i get creative?

[@JohnClem56]

You'll have to be EXTREMELY creative. Obviously I haven't tried it but off the top of my head I don't see any way for it to fit on that size table. Good luck!

[@RulebooksForYou]

We rate it a 10/10 - almost done with the first campaign!

[@itsMARTIKAI]

Kind of confirmed my suspicions about this game. But the thing is thus will be my first Awaken Realms game.

[@antone1azet]

You made it through the game in 24 hours? For us it took al least 70.

[@petergross7235]

Great review Tom! But I just don't think it's worth the work to play it out.

[@fotoreportaze5797]

Thank you for this review. I didn´t like Nemesis and to be honest, this gives me Nemesis vibes, when it comes to complexity and overall atmosphere. If this is similar, I probably won´t like it either. It looks like it has 1000 000 different rules that I guarantee no one at the game table will remember how to use. But I understand, that some advanced players that don´t mind steeper learning curve might enjoy this.

[@justinrrizzo]

Great to hear someone else didn't find the combat in Tainted Grail interesting either. I saw the writing on the wall after a few encounters. Then I asked myself "Man, I'm really interested in this story.....but is it worth it if I have to grind out all this other stuff? Nah." Felt the same way about Oathsworn. I'm always weary about games from companies like this. Big old boxes of plastic with excellent art and ideas....but really just KS bling packages.

[@liornachmias8980]

Seems like this should have been a video game already 😮

[@TerrierHalo]

Well I am still unsure. It looks like it is fun, but it also looks like it is a lot of time. A lot. I may of course never get a chance to play this, but if I did I am not sure.

[@kumanight]

It's definitely a lot. I'm 21 hours in and I can't even tell you if I'm halfway. The manual says the campaign takes between 20 and 60 hours lol

[@joshhart379]

Sounds like a lot of busy work with all the different boards and dice. Not sure on this one

[@astrophe-cat]

Can't you simply house rule the landing part? Somehow reminds me of Privateer where you start with a crappy ship but then can get upgrades to get better

[@cthulwho8197]

You can always add any number of house rules to any game, alternatively you can give your money to a designer that produces a game where you don't feel that you need to. 😄

[@RuneGamborg]

This is a solo review?

[@DarthStig]

My group set up the game in 3 minutes. Same packing it down. Great game, don't get Tom's view on this.

[@madquest8]

I went all in, wave two shipping, so I'm expecting to see this in 2025...

[@callahanjohnson]

16:11 - Final thoughts

[@jalanaga7289]

Are we just going to ignore the tattoo on Tom Vasel's wrist? How long has that been there?

[@polischristodoulou4357]

My thoughts 2

[@Greggiexplore]

One of the games to take if shipwrecked on the island with some others? It’s….long. …..Wilson! Wanna play game? 😂

[@wilky3236]

2-6 players? i thought it is 2-4??

[@DTChrisYi]

Typo in my part, it goes up to 4 players and can be 2-handed solo played.

[@brandonshelp4682]

This sounds more X-com than the X-com board game.

[@Exozik]

This is a 7 for me. The tediousness of playing 2 games at the same time having to put everything in and out of the boxes. The dice system is unexciting and it is the core of the game system. The way the game deliver the story is not bringing me in at all. The system to land on planet is simply throw dice and hope you roll well. The good thing of this game is the app been well implemented in the game and the components. A typical Awaken Realms game.

[@IndianaGeologist]

Thanks for the review, Tom. Based on your review, this is a hard pass for me.

[@danacoleman4007]

Shouldn't this just be a video game? Star Control, maybe?

[@Puzzu]

Looks complicated….

[@samyoung2885]

Star Trek in box

[@kghhgkgk6322]

Board games are out of control

[@Polovene]

ech.. it's really a shame that all these games are exclusively puzzles. I feel so much in the minority who likes games, you know with a competitive aspect. It's just a shame how much effort is put into these products (such as frosthaven) which don't let players face opposing intelligence (no, none of these games oofer an "AI" :) )

[@utahman06]

Simply begging AR to make a game that’s not a total slog grindfest with mechanics upon mechanics stuffed in. Clunky, gorgeous games with so much potential. They’re so close but dang I’m growing weary of it. I backed KoR under the promise that they’ve backed way off the grind. We’ll see.

[@thecuriousboardgamer]

I don't find Nemesis to be a slog grindfest or overwrought mechanically. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@kumanight]

This game doesn't feel grindy at all. You never have to revisit planets if you don't want to, the only grind comes from attempting a skill check multiple times.

[@Andrew_NJ]

I don't know anyone who is excited to literally play a game out of a binder. This looks absolutely horrible.

[@Fissi0nChips]

Tattoo Tom just doesn't feel right.

[@Anubid]

Concept art realms strike again with mediocrity covered up by quantity of distractions.

[@rachelandryan]

Head over to BGG, you'll notice most people think the mechanisms are solid. 9.1.

[@12345678abracadabra]

@@rachelandryan that's not a true representation as people who like the game is more likely to rate the game

[@Anubid]

@@rachelandryan YES! Thats who we ought to trust! KS backers who put hundreds of dollars into this and definitely dont have sunk cost fallacy problems! Every KS publisher has fanboys who rabidly upvote their projects on bgg, what an objective metric!

[@Anubid]

@@rachelandryan The dice mechanic has depth as games for toddlers but look at the bgg rating man!

[@thecuriousboardgamer]

@@12345678abracadabra Super flawed logic. Every game would then suffer that problem, therefore the high rating relative to other games is a valid data point.