Legendary Encounters Review with Tom Vasel

[@sturgeon137]

Just played this for the first time tonight with my wife. We both LOVED it! She told me its now one of her favorite games = happy husband. If you like deckbuilders and even remotely like the Alien universe.... insta-buy. Thanks for the video Tom!

[@lecitadin69]

They should license Ghostbusters and make it compatible with Legendary.

[@bloodnumber13]

anyone that worries thar they are missing cards, all I gotta say is make sure you organize your game and read the cards! there are cards that have the same art, like event cards, or face huggers that go into specific decks and are apart of the card count for specific decks. I thought I was missing an aliens player card, but i read the hatchery cards and found it. I also didn't realize each event cards belongs in specific decks too .. organizing the cards is a chore when you first go through it. but for the amount of quality content you get for a reasonably cheap price, I'd say it's worth it. No game I've ever player has this much theme. Buy this game!!

[@XG2]

+Jonathan George SIR, YESSIR!

[@XG2]

+Jonathan George ...also 013(/Tormentor)?

[@angewomon143]

This comment is very helpful! Thank you

[@mrmacken]

+Jonathan George I had this problem as well. Several of the 'mini-decks' have cards that all have the same artwork, except one, which looks like it's supposed to be in another deck. It took me easily three hours, plus half of a game, to realize where all the cards were, and were supposed to be.

[@MisterAbysmul]

This game drips with theme, and is one of the best game designs I've ever encountered. Other than huge comic fans, I can't imagine someone preferring to play the Marvel version over this one... mechanically and thematically it is far superior. This is a game that will get your heart pumping and pull you in, to never let go.

[@bbblackwell]

Wow, compelling comment. I don't know anything about Aliens so I was going to pass on this one. Is it really so drastically different than the original Legendary? I solo play the original with expansions and Villlains, and although it's somewhat thematic, I don't find it excessively so. Could you expand on your glowing recommendation?

[@MisterAbysmul]

Brian Blackwell Location cards: each objective deck has Hazard cards, what happens when the Hazard card comes out depends on the Location that the current game is set in. So as you play, these hazard trigger specific "events" (for lack of a better word) tied directly to the location your game is set in. The hive deck, which has all the baddies, hazards, and objective cards in it, is activated at the start of each player's turn... that card coming face down and shifting the cards already in play closer and closer to being forcefully reviled (usually a bad thing) is such a thematic tension building mechanism that it's difficult to explain without experiencing it yourself... understand you can look at those cards that are in play, face down, but it costs you "strikes"/attacks... and many of those cards have a nasty effect when reveled (not always bad, but mostly). The character cards (from the movies, all) fit the theme perfectly, not to mention the alien deck (for when you get killed by a chest burster) ... crazy fun. I know I'm not doing it justice, but it's just a tight system, I just can't find fault with it. Hell, even the difficulty (it is HARD) is perfectly thematic. Note: I've not played solo, not my cup of tea... but I've read some people claim the game is much easier when played solo.

[@bbblackwell]

Mister Rob I usually play 2 players when soloing anyway. I have to say, you've explained it well enough to make me take a serious look at this game. I'm not opposed to exploring a new theme if the game is that strong. Is it fully compatible with Marvel Legendary? Could I take Ghost Rider out to fight the Alien? Not necessary -- as that would be a bit odd -- but it would be a plus just for variety.

[@MisterAbysmul]

Brian Blackwell I'd say yes, I've seen people mix in Marvel supers into the game (on line, here on KZbin) but I've never tried it. Might be worth your effort to locate a game store somewhere near you and see if they have a store copy to play (like our local store does).

[@bbblackwell]

Mister Rob Cool, thanks!

[@lutentemedio]

what's that sound at 7:04? :O

[@EyalItsik]

RIP people with headphones

[@Jesper-Music]

You´ll find it at 6:14 in the Medina review. It makes sense there (but way to loud!), so I´m guessing that Tom did the two reviews in the same editing session, but forgot to delete the sample :)

[@Monkeyb00y]

+L'Utente Medio I wondered the exact same thing! I was thinking is he going to do a cut away and magically show the cards he's talking about?

[@metallsnubben]

Where are these sentr- *HARRRRRRP*

[@andrewcardenas1314]

I have never heard of anything like this, much less being into tabletop games. Never really been into these type of games and never tried a deck builder neither. But your review has opened the door to me. This was an immediate buy based on your review. Thank you for your opinion and review!

[@randomz5641]

Clank is good to

[@dregen77]

Finally spent the mandatory 60-90 minutes sorting the cards out. Ready to play for the first time. Can't wait!!!

[@completlyrandom5455]

edkofuzz great can you make a video on sorting them lol

[@TimGaastra]

One huge issue with this game that didn't get mentioned but probably should: It's not exactly rare that this game's box as it ships will be missing cards. You are going to HAVE to count your cards and use an online inventory to be sure (Nuking from orbit will not help). Upper Deck seems to have been pretty good so far with replacements, though of course you'll have to wait at least a couple of weeks for them. It's not every box, and it's probably not most boxes, but it's not statistically insignificant either. Good game once you have it all, but be sure to do an audit when you buy it.

[@bbblackwell]

Had the same with the original Legendary. Count yer cards, folks!

[@MMODoubter]

That is terrible. Enough to keep me from buying it, TBH.

[@bbblackwell]

MMODoubter Eh, I had one card missing, I called em up and they sent me a replacement. It wasn't a big deal. If you think you'd like the game, don't let that stop you; it might not even happen.

[@ExBruinsFan]

I did a check on BGG, and some people had dozens of cards missing. Some were missing rule books. I am not going to pay for slop like that.

[@KabukiKid]

Yeah, I was missing one card. Definitely annoying, but UD said they will send me my card in 2-4 weeks, so I am patiently awaiting it. :-) Despite this annoyance, I am not regretful of my purchase. Love the theme... love the game!

[@DuelistVash]

I've never really been interested in Marvel Legendary but this I like the look of. I hope the first expansion adds Predator to the mix, then I'll definitely pick it up.

[@pascalculate]

14:55 "Can you imagine Spider-Man fighting Aliens" boy oh boy Spidey boy even quoted it!

[@Dan-ie2ip]

Was about to comment the same thing haha

[@homelessjoe]

"That's it....GAME OVER MAN...GAME OVER!!!!" Yeah, I couldn't resist.

[@desertgamers6065]

Really enjoy this game. It has started me on a deck building craze. Since playing it I've bought Star Realms, Marvel Legendary and ThunderStone. Really enjoy all of them. Legendary Encounters being my favorite!

[@Gustave154]

very hard game but its the best legendary yet

[@billyw8186]

I found this game as a FANTASTIC deal on eBay, sleeved and broken token divider. I had been wanting Legendary Marvel and decided to go ahead and get this. I was scared that maybe it was a bad buy, but you have greatly eased my concerns. Thank you!

[@jasperzanjani]

game over man! we're dog food!

[@daekwankim]

The difficulty isn't that bad compared to Ghost stories. I played 4 times and won twice(4-5 players, no advanced rules). It's just enough for a challenge. With easy mode on Ghost stories, my win rate is around 20%.

[@tigermuppetcut]

Played my first game of this today, 4 player. We played the Alien 1 scenario, by the book. It was great fun though we lost but we had the Alien in the airlock and had a shot at the win when we finally succumbed... can't wait to play a game, the theme is wonderfully woven in.

[@Sylvaantye]

Wow, a video from 9 years ago and still going strong. If your reviews pop-up, I always go there first. Clear and concise! Would you say this game is more difficult than Nemesis or around the same level? It sounds like a very similar game, except it is a deck builder and less expensive.

[@-FLIPSID3]

I'm a WICKED huge fan of the Alien movies - especially Alien and Aliens. Bought this game a long while back and it is awesome! LOVE it! Definitely brings the feel of the movie to a board game. Recommend this game 100%

[@obrienastro]

thank you for explaining the game. I was having trouble understanding it all from the game manual. Love this game! Thank you! :)

[@antoyal]

I backed the XenoShyft Onslaught Kickstarter project and I'm wondering if there's a lot of overlap with this game. It seems like there is some, both in theme and in the feel of a desperate co-op, castle defense deck-builder. Has anyone here played both games?

[@whitesoxMLB]

Many cards that are meant to combo with same-type cards, but it was very light in ways to thin your deck out or search the market for the right pieces, so you don't really get to use those cards to their full potential.

[@jasperzanjani]

great commentary, thanks Vasel

[@supercommando440]

Which game do yall prefer; this or Legendary Predator?

[@Hic_Erit_Dracones]

Thanks a lot for a fair rewiew, game looks and plays nice, it's a buy!

[@paulstaker8861]

I'd worship Satan if Upper Deck shakes hands with Fantasy Flight and put out an FFG edition of this game with FFG-tier art. I love FFG's gorgeous super-produced art. I pay good money for that. I don't like comic-book-y art in this one, doesn't fit the Alien theme for me. Or maybe I should make my own one with movie stills. Yeah...

[@Reggie1408]

So how did that work out?

[@Fokahusi]

Can you use the recruit/attack points of a coordinate card in your turn? Not to coordinate yourself of course.

[@andrewcardenas1314]

You can coordinate with yourself, though.

[@Hieronymus-Pseudonymous]

What's the game he's got underneath the Marvel Legendary games on the shelf?

[@OlderNick]

Hieronymous Pseudonymous Carnival Zombie?

[@Hieronymus-Pseudonymous]

Thanks! That was a lot faster than I thought I'd get an answer. :)

[@MikeTrauma]

Great review going to pick this one up

[@MissMismagius]

Big thing to mention is that upper deck completely screwed up with sending correct amount of cards. I was missing several grunts making it unplayable without the blank cards (which they include like 50 of, because they know they fucked up) when playing 4-5 people. Many others have had problems with missing cards, more important cards too like the objective cards. Those can't be replaced with blank cards! I love this game, the game is genius and fun, but I will never trust Upper deck again after this mistake, and the horrible box that it comes in.

[@andrewcardenas1314]

The blanks are included every box. They are supposed to be dividers for game organization. Did you ever contact customer support about your missing cards?

[@alessandromassi3659]

I'm playing this on Table Top Simulator....the price is so damn high...but the game is so damn GOOOOOD!!!

[@tardersauce3578]

I prefer legendary, but that might be just because I have little interest in anything from legendary encounters. If there was an encounters game with something I am interested in, I would be more willing to use the game. I am also a huge marvel fan.

[@relmarrowny8860]

Great game. Hadley's Hope is damn near impossible with 5 players due to the first hazard.

[@derrickmarais]

Legendary Doctor Who!

[@Afterword.]

I'm debating on Legendary Villains, but there would be no debate for that. I'd drop the 70 bucks for the game and sleeves.

[@JayChampagne]

Legendary Doctor Who: Instead of the attack "slashes", would you have speech bubbles?

[@bbblackwell]

***** I found Villains to be a great expansion to the original Legendary for building a lot of variety and creativity into the game. I still would go with Dark City first, if you don't have it. I would not, however, recommend Villains as a stand-alone game, as the original is better for this purpose; unless, of course, you have a very strong bias for the bad guys. My humble opinion.

[@Afterword.]

Jay Champagne Still attack. A lot of the companions use attacks and shoot, and some of the episodes have shown the Doctor to be pretty rough. The Doctor is violent, but he's indirectly violent. He won't shoot you, but he'll find some way so that you die or get warped into the void anyway. Maybe mechanics could reflect that. Just imagine 13 Doctor heroes + Companions!

[@Mind_of_MATT]

Original Alien film is a masterpiece. Lifeform game seems true to the source material but it's a board game.

[@borda87]

Would love to see a ghost in the shell version of this game.

[@ProPeanuts]

This game looks so cool!

[@EquipKilt]

As a huge Alien fan I love this game, but unfortunately the difficulty was a turn off for a few in my game group. During our second game a bad card draw resulted in one player dying after their second turn. Having a game group that can still have fun when losing is a must.

[@EquipKilt]

devaloki Trust me, it's possible and we weren't playing the game wrong. Multiple xenomorphs appeared that when revealed kept adding more cards into the complex that resulted in them being pushed into the combat zone. He then had to draw four strikes which ended up killing him. None were close calls and he drew the massive blow one that does 5 damage.

[@mixoweber6928]

Shuffle a facehugger from the core deck into the aliens deck and you can die on the FIRST turn....

[@mixoweber6928]

devaloki Which still means that you CAN die on the very second turn of the game.... (counting turns as after the second player made his move and could not or did not want to remove the face hugger from the first player...

[@KabukiKid]

EquipKilt Wow! What terrible luck! heh

[@michaelnemo9803]

I definitely prefer this over marvel legendary, the only issue I have is the base game only has 4 scenarios while marvel allows you to mix and match

[@mazedor]

is this the only good alien game there is?, isnt there a minature game worth for aliens fans or another boardgame gender? or is this the best one to get for an alien and boardgamer fan?

[@andrewcardenas1314]

This is a great deck builder but if that doesn’t appeal to you then other board game with miniatures are available. You have the old school board game Aliens, this time its war. Or you could do miniatures like another glorious day in the corp. free league has a current Alien RPG and module/premade adventures ready to play for roleplaying if that interests you as well.

[@fustercluck666]

I approve of this review.

[@dashalpha]

just heard about the Matrix version of this that just launched, hoping it is good, I love the Matrix!

[@PwndNewbie]

The fewer players you play with, the easier this game seems to get.

[@MMODoubter]

I like the premise of the game, and really enjoyed the movies, so re-living them is very appealing, but the idea of recruiting new characters to fight for you doesn't fit the movies. It's also disappointing that the cards use drawn art rather than movie stills. Although the characters look enough like the actual actors.

[@metallsnubben]

The "recruiting" part feels really weird in the marvel game too- especially as you recruit the same character multiple times in different ways... I guess the more thematic way to see it is that you convince them to do certain tasks?

[@TeChNoWC7]

I STILL can't figure out why people say this game is hard. I've quadruple checked the rules and then some but nope, 2 player or less is really easy. I even use handicaps and we still smash through it. Sure, lose sometimes, but not usually. Sometimes you might draw a really bad strike but usually the pace of the game can't keep up with your deck. However, alien players are super OP.

[@jc8322]

Agree it's easy with 1 or 2 players but 4-5 players is quite difficult

[@Dextergec413]

Man, the sound balance in this video was atrocious lol. Great review though!

[@kell_checks_in]

If nobody's chest gets busted, there's no point playing. Wait..! Where's VASQUEZ???!!!

[@loozerid]

after trying marvel legendary it turned me off to deckbuilders all together and i am hesitant to try another i'm not sure they are my type of game.

[@homelessjoe]

If you were turned off by the mechanics of the marvel version this isn't going to change your mind. It uses the same mechanics with some differences (not significant) as the original. The big difference here is theme. If you are not a die hard Aliens fan, I would recommend you pass on this as well.

[@DefiasBrotherhood]

Try Dominion if you are looking for an introduction to deckbuilding games.

[@maxwellvaughn6114]

I wouldn't say Legendary is a good representation of deckbuilding games in general. Something like Dominion or Star Realms would be a better thing to try to get a feel for the genre.

[@josh1674]

You don’t like Aliens?....

[@bbblackwell]

I would have liked to see a different style of artwork for this game. The comic style gets a pass for Legendary -- its appropriate there for obvious reasons -- but the style is sub-par outside that particular genre considering the high standards of the industry. The dark, vintage mood of Alien doesn't come through via the artwork in this game.

[@KabukiKid]

I don't mind the comic book style art. My major complaint is the Apone card doesn't have him giving the proper middle finger when he says his, "Look into my eye." line. Grrr. I almost hope they reissue that card with fixed art.

[@bbblackwell]

KabukiKid Hahaha good point. I still think a grittier, vintage style would have amped up the mood and made it less trivial.

[@DanielDavissynthman]

+Jaundiced Jape Looks like the old Alien and AVP comic book art to me - those were fantastic.

[@KabukiKid]

Daniel Davis The golden age of Dark Horse licensed comics. :-) Alien, Terminator, Predator... they were all killer.

[@DanielDavissynthman]

+KabukiKid exactly. Love it.

[@swvi9459]

it's not important if you like or don't like horror movies, Alien and Aliens are movie classics and everyone should see it.

[@barelyprotestant5365]

"I'm not showing you more cards, deliberately." Spent already about two minutes revealing different types of cards

[@DaimondRus]

How repayable this game is? I heard this game consist only of some few scenarios.

[@maxwellvaughn6114]

It has 4 scenarios (the 4 movies in the series), each of which have 3 objectives and 4 characters that are meant to be used with them. But, you can also mix them up to create custom scenarios, and the way the different objectives/characters interact with things from different movies makes for some very interesting game dynamics. I say it has a good bit of replayability.

[@alessandromassi3659]

Not to mention that you probably won't win the first time you play it xD