10 Things I wish I knew before playing | ISS Vanguard

[@nathalievazquez4708]

Thanks for the advice. I'm waiting for wave 2, so I'll definitely use this on my playthrough. I like this series.

[@CdnBulldog1]

Me too - the bit question is "Will I remember this vid when we finally get it next year... " LOL!

[@JM32JM32]

This is SO HELPFUL for huge campaign games. Please tell us more of these!!

[@BeOurGuestHeath]

I would argue get one crew up to level 3 ASAP because then you can use them during the recruit phase in the ship book to start getting some “free” rank 2s and develop that out before pushing for your 2nd level 3

[@Quackalope]

Good idea

[@dacool561]

Perfect. I have the tutorial setup on my table for about a month and just never got around to jumping into it. This has me motivated to get back in there.

[@danhowitt4386]

Stumbled on this by mistake, just about to start it - this is great!

[@ronjapoes]

I really like and appreciate these kind of video's. Made a list of pointers for when my (wave 2) game arrives. Thanks you both!

[@ShmavinShmenhouse]

Loved this ❤ Please do one for Oathsworn for when I finally get the chance to play that through! 😅

[@Deo_ei]

It definitely feels like it should be a common use of command points for dealing with Situations so they don't hit you for morale or other things. So maybe consider command point usage priorities as: Situation > Crew or Manufacturing > Research More people is always important, but manufacturing is also huge for upgrades and some of the gear.

[@jRoy7]

Yeah my play group made Situations the #1 priority. We always resolved them early if at all possible.

[@robertcrist6059]

Currently four plays in to a 4p campaign, this will help, thank you. Our last session we punted on some of the morale stuff - whooops. We definitely pushed our luck against a baddie we didn't need to - everyone made it off world, barely. We haven't done any tech or very minimal production upgrades - prioritized bridge and barracks. I'll pass on the notes to the group and see what we want to do moving forward.

[@Doujou]

I’d love this format on games, preferably for games that are coming out or JUST out.

[@gavanpetracco999]

More videos like this! It’s great having this sort of information before playing a game for the first time. It’s always great doing it for new games coming out, but I hope you’ll also work on doing it for past games. SO many great games out there that could use a video like this.

[@Mr47the]

Great pointers! I just got the game at retail a few days ago so this was awesome timing!

[@scottarmstrong8178]

Perfect timing. Put Oathsworn away yesterday and pulled out ISS Vanguard as the next game for me and my wife to okay. Thanks for the tips. And yes, a series like this for other games would be great.

[@simonhutchinson8236]

Thanks for this video. I only managed to get a few missions in before feeling completely out of control with what I was doing. Been toying with the idea of just restarting and thus has confirmed it. Thanks a million, this time I’m going to take it slow and steady.

[@Quackalope]

That wins the race.

[@ChadHensley]

Thank you so much for this video. Because of the space requirement I have to wait for specific opportunities to get it to the table, so I'm only a few missions into the game, so this information will really help me continue. I appreciate that you all completed a mission. The live playthroughs I am sure are great but I do not want to ruin the story for myself, so I will wait to watch them until after I complete the campaign. It will be interesting to see how different each one turns out, especially now that I have advice as I continue on my adventure. Please keep these kinds of videos coming! I wish I could choose which campaigns you cover to help me with ones I own but will likely watch these types of "10 Things" videos you put out even for games I don't own simply because I love your content. Happy gaming!

[@warwizard]

Great thoughts! Thanks for videos like this and let’s see more ISSV! Play an operation!

[@carloscnd1774]

Great video concept for campaign games!

[@jugvara]

This is an awesome video. I love the input from West as well. Very balanced information and always good to get 2 perspectives on things. I just joined your Patreon to support your content. Would love to see some AT:O as well, but I'd rather see more in depth content on these big games than less in depth content on more games. Keep it rolling!

[@sethwinslow]

Great idea for a video. We're starting our campaign soon - our next campaign game will either be this or Oathsworn, starting in June.

[@joopiegoldberg5091]

Loved the video - more please.

[@Avaniar]

Nice advice. I would add one more that I got through reading the pages of the ship book and experiencing it which si, just live with death situations. Just go with it. You will not be able to save everyone and the game kinda rewards your for people dying (not rewards… but compensates you for losing someone). Letting someone die in the right circumstances is not bad, it can be good.

[@EricWoning]

Great type of content - please make more

[@abranna1]

So by chance I was kind of forced to do what you guys are saying. I was kind of forced to restart the campaign because I had the logbook on my old phone and had to get a new phone and lost it all. I wasn't but a few missions in but when I restarted I had some of the knowledge that you guys were talking about. Thanks for the video, this was great.

[@shazam6969]

Great idea. Please do more of those!

[@Quackalope]

More to come!

[@matthiasroth9945]

I'm sure you both just were one of the players who finished the campaign first, so that's often the case, when you in the front line: Fixes and other stuff are coming out later, too. :) But thanks!!

[@Quackalope]

Just part of the journey :)

[@maxf.7262]

Ty for this video! Quack!

[@Kindlesmith70]

Wish I knew: 1) how much luck is involved in the game. The entire game comes down to luck, and can bring you into a death spiral. There aren't hard desicisions to make. There is plenty of guesswork, hoping you are where you need to be, and hoping you have whatever item/tech you need at the right time. 2) how limited exploration is. The game is not one of exploration so much as it is hunting down alien McGuffins at every landing to progress towards the main story plot game goal. You aren't on a luxury cruise, but you can't stop to smell the roses either.The game enforces continuous moving forwards. Squatting at solar system because you couldn't accomplish everything, or because you may want more resources, and no backtarcking to previous systems. Doing either of these punishes you with morale hits that affect the ship phase. There is also an ideal path to take, one that avoids failing attempts to visit places because you don't have the tech for. This makes the game less open world. 3) how difficult it is to upgrade your people. The cards for the upgrade requirements are randomized, and gradually eleminated as they are successfully accomplished. Some are very difficult to achive on planets without squandering turns, and resources needed elsewhere. 4) how quickly the biggest aspect of game mechanics becomes the most tedious aspect rather quickly. Rolling die. With Pathfinder the Adventure Card Game, the numbers, and combos get bigger as the campaign moves along. It's fun to combine cards to make crazy sized dice pools and achieve giant values. It became an fun thing for us to record our highest scoring number defeating each boss. ISS Vanguard, your dice pool isn't increased all that much, and it becomes less meaningful when you want to succeed at tasks later in the campaign. 5) Characters are largely the same. The only outstanding thing about them are their abilities written on the card. Everything other aspect is used by every other character played. 6) We needed a magnifying glass for this game. The iconography for the d8s is terrible.

[@Quackalope]

Excellent list!

[@Kindlesmith70]

@@QuackalopeStill has one hell of story. We haven't completed it as we're exhuasted rolling dice, and face planting into situations we had no control over. I love Star Trek: Voyager. Even they had time to take a break, to study something, or to just have fun. Every situation being like Galaxy Quest, hunt the beryllium sphere, is exhausting. (I love that film) I think the one thing I would change in this game is loss of morality due to 'failure to accomplish mission' on research missions as long as nobody was seriously injured or killed. Even in Voyager they make several visits, with people beaming back and forth as needed. I am aware they have teleportation, so perhaps a better example might be Battlestar Galactica, or even a few other episones from Star Trek: The Next Generation. At the very least, provide more exploration in a game about exploration. There's more ISS Vanguard content to come. :) Mythwind is making it's way to me next week. I'm getting slightly swamped in campaigns.. :D

[@gavanpetracco999]

Hey guys, do you know if there are other games similar to ISS Vanguard? My game group really likes Forgotten Waters and I feel like ISS Vanguard is a major evolution of Forgotten Waters mechanics. Any other recommendations on games like this would be appreciated!

[@Newt211]

So invest in tech, manage card selection better, upgrade peeps to level 3 quickly. Don’t press your luck. Take time to read the planet board. Got it. Anything’s else?

[@xanserpaints]

Hi! Great video. I have one question about ship facilities. You say that the first action you take (lab, barrack and so forth) is for free. I Can’t find that in any rules. Can you point me in the right direction?

[@pascaltheroux413]

Helpful. Thanks!

[@aaronarnold6444]

Keep doing these types of videos. Love content that isn’t driven by the selling of a current KS (yes, I know you need to do those types of videos).

[@allezpsg17]

Great idea!

[@edwardkirick5690]

nice video. really enjoyed it

[@Dnicole32]

I do find it funny that at one point during the playthrough Jesse is like “oh they won’t kill us this early on” I believe he’s played awakened realms games before. That’s like one of their big MO’s lol.

[@traccas01]

Great idea for a video

[@aaronarnold6444]

Mingo…if I recall, you’re not a huge campaign fan or there was something about ISS you weren’t sure about. Now that you’ve played 40 or more hours, what are your thoughts on the game itself?

[@stefanlow3055]

Nice video

[@dobrzpe]

what am i missing?? the link to the late pledge in gamefound says "You can't add items to your pledge at this time." but elsewhere in Gamefound it says ISS Vanguard pledge manager is 'open for all'... HOW DO I GET THEM TO TAKE MY MONEY!?!? (lol)

[@djoj20]

Late pledge closed a couple weeks ago unfortunately. I don't think you can pledge anymore

[@Mr47the]

It's in retail right now in the USA and probably elsewhere.

[@gizmothecat854]

Is there an ISSV right / wrong for you video out there?

[@RiHa_Games]

Really first again, that's no fun 🐦😂 You have my permission to start over, maybe include a bird ;)

[@cardiner-lv]

SPOLER ALERT! having 4k content does not help with this :D For some reason all the things you wished you knew was pretty much self explanatory for our group, but we all are heavy video gamers, for us top 3 priorities were deal with situations, level up and get best gear as soon as you can :D, but dont feel bad, by doing this everything became very trivial till very end of the campaign for us, so if we would do it again we ether would play on hard mode or just explore more. One example would be getting the OP lander very quickly and pretty much completely nullifying landing problems another was because we went hard on level ups we had all the dice by the time we hit around 70% completion, success tokens becomes useless. Minor spoiler - lean heavily in section dice having specific icons, one thing we actually did wrong was made every section jack of all trades, later missions are much easier if you lean in specific icons for specific sections, just thematically think what is responsible to do what! My one suggestion would be get Veterans if you have personal files, as that made much more difference than level ups, most of the times we had lvl3 sections only every second or third missions, but having Veterans was game changer!

[@monstercookie96]

more please

[@Renegade_KT]

Is this video spoiler-free? I want to watch it, but not if it contains spoilers about the story since I'm actively playing it with my group and it's so good 😅

[@Scooterspade]

you can listen, but you cant see. They mistakenly show a mission that you shouldnt see :) on a camera edit

[@cardiner-lv]

It definitely does, watch on 480p :D

[@semperfidelus]

This video gave me whiplash because I came from your other video on tips and tricks and _almost_ everything you said in the tips and tricks is the exact opposite of what you're saying here.

[@CaptainJWesker]

Joking about putting the dog down? Not cool.

[@albertkirvesmaki2352]

Did you really just casually say you'll have to put your dog down because it's barking? Damn jessie dogs are not games you cop for dopamine and get rid off when it's too complicated for your group...😢