Ranking Every Awaken Realms Board Game (That I've Played)

[@MarkBlasco]

With Tamashii, I think the enemies work if you don't think of it like a normal combat. You are running from place to place, and every once in a while, the enemies catch up with you, and you have to fight for a minute until you can escape and keep going with your mission. They keep following you until you deal with them, but they aren't your focus. The fact that the different scenarios have different things you need to accomplish makes it feel much more replayable than something like zombicide. By far my favorite game of the last few years, definitely worth you taking another look.

[@a-c-m]

I fully agree and I also think „The Great Wall“ is greatly underrated. I put that down to many players were expecting a kind of traditional tower defence/area control/skirmish game when looking at the martial miniatures and were somehow irritated by the fact that this is a more classic Euro style game around resource management, worker placement and optimisation. But it excels at what it is doing ! The game play is great, it is very interactive (for a Euro style game that is…) and really thematic. The badly written rule book during the first print run did not help….

[@garyfaust6769]

I think that ranking the ALLPlay games would be interesting. You have liked many of them if I remember.

[@Carlos52024]

I haven't played any of these (yet), but I'm looking forward to Dragon Eclipse! I'd like to see you rank AEG games

[@caseypeterson5827]

That was fun, you should do burnt Island games and kid table board games as a one combined video.

[@BoardGameCo]

Ooh! Good choice!

[@kostas_lala]

these kinds of videos can really do with some footage of the games, even if it's still images

[@BoardGameCo]

I totally agree, it just makes them very hard to be viable given the amount of time it takes.

[@antiikhirv]

@@BoardGameCo I would prefer a video-two less in a week and extra time spent on editing (though that probably isn't the most exciting part so I get it)

[@Phalanx167]

The Great Wall I think is hands down the best game Awaken Realms has made and is so far the only game of theirs I can say I like without reservation. The mechanics blend is unique and interesting and I love the tension of having both to work together but ultimately serve yourself when push comes to shove. It fits the theme of a bunch of powerful families trying to do their job but get one over each other in order to rise further in the imperial hierarchy. Ultimately I would put the game at a 4.5 though as a lot of mini expansions I just have to ignore as they make the game straight up fiddly for little gain and it is a pain to take everything apart again after each game seeing as the big expansions are not meant to be mixed together. All the other AR games I have played have just left a bad taste in my mouth with fiddly mechanics with an absurd degree of components to manage, and just generally feeling overproduced for what they are. Their most popular game, Nemesis is one I just can't stand (1.5) as it is just super clunky and so swingy that it makes exercising any player agency feel pointless. I get that it is supposed to be cinematic and give you the feel of helplessness a horror movie protagonist would have, but for me it just creates frustration, followed by resignation, followed by boredom.I am fine with more experiential games where you don't a whole lot of agency over the outcome and are mostly playing to see what happens, but not when it takes up to 4 hours of cumbersome gameplay, especially when someone can be eliminated in the first few rounds due to no fault of their own and are then forced to do nothing for the rest of the game's duration. I have also played Tainted Grail, which was just okay (2.5). It's problems with grindiness are pretty infamous, and while the character building was interesting, the game became almost trivial with the kind of comboing you could do. I also really did not find myself enjoying Lord of Ragnarok either (2) as the strategies I was most inrigued by, monster hunting, felt pretty much non-viable and like you were mostly playing a separate game to everyone else, and it felt like the game just put so many roadblocks between the player and building their hero how they like given how the action/round/upgrade system worked. I also just did not find the actual area control aspect that interesting. Combine these negative experiences with the aforementioned games with how expensive and over-produiced their other games tend to be (in some cases their minis feeling like glorified paper-weights in what essentially are card games like Etherfields), combined with how over-cooked (Nemesis/arguable The Great Wall) or under-cooked (Tainted Grail) they turn out to be, and I have to say that to me they are most overrated, big-box game, crowdfunding company. This personal epiphany is somewhat tragic to me as well because everything about the artistic presentation of their games checks so, so many boxes for me, but when I look into said games the beauty of the art begins to feel like a crutch or mask for relatively limp and ugly game mechanics. Yet, even despite all that I find myself staring down the barrel of Grimcoven, obviously inspired by my beloved Bloodborne, and having to face a crisis because of how seemingly under-cooked it looms (from the fairly incomplete view they have offered the public and reviewers) and I find myself being lured away from my powerful instinct to turn away. I think overall I've learned my lesson on backing games that seem to be in a questionable state though and will be turning my back on this one and maybe AR in general.

[@JasonSmithPsychedelicTherapist]

Way too fiddly. Exactly!

[@Toadbabe]

“[AR] are the most overrated, big box game, crowdfunding company” - agree 100%. I have permanently turned away from AR big box games as they are under cooked, over produced cash grabs with enough play tested content to get good reviews from reviewers that hardly scratch the surface (because “they have so many games to review”), but will leave you sorely disappointed if you actually try to play most of the content. My suggestion - do not buy another AR big box game until you have finished all the ones you have.

[@Torkeep]

Nice list, and interesting that I own (or am awaiting for Stalker, Nemesis Retaliation, and Dragon Eclipse) 9 out of the 15 games (or 12 if you count Nemesis and Tainted Grail as individual games). I would be curious to see a list of your favourite 4x space themed games (or just 4x in general). Games like Eclipse, TI, Xia, and so on. I would leave it up to you as to what games fit the 4x category (that's a whole different kettle of fish).

[@Haniel_wrc]

Great Wall so high! Thanks, Alex! I hope you can jump into Tamashii anytime soon :)

[@TheTabletopFoundry]

I would like a video on Ludus Magnus games :)

[@BoardGameCo]

Oooh, good choice :)

[@moosescorner]

I got in on the reprint of castles and I cannot wait for that one to show up to finally be able to play it! Id be curious on your rankings of stonemaier games

[@JJ_TheGreat]

0:44 Can you rank all the IV Studio games? Thanks.

[@DukeJohnny]

Thanks to you I've learned about the reprint of the Castles of Burgundy special edition, so thanks Alex! Also: Kuzcoooo! ❤

[@stephenwyda2568]

If you get a chance, time stamps would be great! Thanks for all you do Alex, love these ranking videos!

[@utahman06]

Have played ISS Vanguard, both Nemesis, Castles of Burgundy, both Tainted Grail, This War of Mine, and Lords of Hellas. I always love the concept of AR games, but generally feel like their designs are clunky, with complexity just for the sake of complexity. I do enjoy 3 (4 if you even count Castles as one of theirs, which wouldn’t) of these. But they’re the opposite of streamlined and all have various degrees of grindiness

[@Chaaber]

Hey Alex, there is a new Awaken Realms lite title: World in Progress. It is a quick tile laying game, more on the light side of the spectrum. Would love to know your thoughts on it ;)

[@jcapo5]

Etherfields could be my favorite game of all time. There are so many puzzles and secrets in the box. Secrets that aren't necessarily part of the campaigne. You need to figure them out as you play. I've almost beaten the entire game. Just a couple of missions left. To be critical....its just too long. It could be shorter/ more optional content for diverse play throughs

[@jamesalexander8908]

I live Etherfields. It’s the game that I wish would never end! I love how it plays differently each time, like there are different games … dream after dream. You are likely ahead of me, as I’m still in the core game. But this is a game that I would enjoy playing for decades to come.

[@jcapo5]

@@jamesalexander8908 i reccomend writing notes. Theres a moment when I got stuck and had to go online and figure out where to go because I forgot about key statements made and where items were hiding

[@JJ_TheGreat]

What about AEG? And CGE? Thanks!

[@voyager5333]

It would be nice if you could rank MindClash Games, or Lacerda games. Both are creative, heavy games with beatiful artwork, and for me, together with Awaken Realms, they represent the absolute best the boardgaming world has to offer.

[@christopheFr177]

Great video. I would love to see top 10 games for one particular IP (like Marvel) or for a theme (dark fantasy, Space opera, western...).

[@BoardGameCo]

Those could be fun :)

[@raphaelstocker9874]

We are currently playing Etherfields and liking it. Before was Tainted Grail and sometime in the future we will play ISS Vanguard (probably after Oathsworn). Yep, we are in with big campaign games ^^

[@BoardGameCo]

I wish I had time to play all the campaign games I wanted

[@raphaelstocker9874]

@@BoardGameCo I can relate! I hope you can find some time in the (near) future when the kids are a bit older and maybe juggling both jobs is less intimidating/there is again "only" 1 job to beginn with

[@JasonSmithPsychedelicTherapist]

Great Wall is their best game. So... so... good. Love it. My group's favorite. But... Castles of Burgundy is up there. But it's a cheat. Can't count that as Awaken Realms!

[@JJ_TheGreat]

LOL

[@nirszi]

Have you played the revised/updated version of STALKER?

[@BoardGameCo]

Not the updated version

[@Achill2105]

yeah, Great Wall is amazing

[@s_215]

Nemesis is my all time fav game and The Great Wall and Castle of Burgundy are also among my top 10. Tamashii is just okay for me

[@apokai]

Nice video! Thanks for doing it! What about Stonemaier and/or CTG?

[@Luca_BoardGames]

+1 for stonemaiers

[@JJ_TheGreat]

Ah, Stonemaier! Yes, that's a great idea! I will add my vote for them!

[@Pestilents]

Chip theory please

[@MerrillWhiteKalEl]

I love The Great Wall. Lords of Ragnarok fell very flat for me and my group. ISS Vanguard was good, but very grindy and punishing for no reason.

[@BoardGameCo]

Glad your enjoying the great wall, sorry about the other two

[@TGF00Buck]

Tainted Grail is pretty weak as games go. The story telling is great, but it falls off hard after that. The combat keying system while interesting is a slog and ends up being a negative for most players in our experience. The survival aspect of the game was grindy and did not advance the story or make the play enjoyable, it was monotonous hunting for resources. The biggest issue we ran into with TG which AR has fixed in games like ISS Vanguard is they mixed the story and play together which led to long player turns and boredom for many others. Games like ISS Vanguard, and Oathsworn(I know its not AR) have done an excellent job of separating story and game play making it fully engaging and shorting player turns. We love Tamashii in our play group, the programing aspect and mostly simultaneous play does make it play quick it is far lighter than a standard campaign game, it has legacy aspects to it where you modify the game as you go but you always reset to zero at the beginning of a scenario. We put about 16 hours into TG 4 play sessions before we abandon it. We have finished ISS Vanguard Core we loved it but felt it was too easy, we are going to pick up lost fleet when we finish Oathsworn. We are on Chapter 5 of Oathsworn and very much enjoying it. Tamashii we have completed 8 scenarios and enjoy it but like i said it feels much lighter than OS, ISS, and TG. On the Nemesis front I totally understand what you are saying some games are just disappointing, we have played through untold stories 1 and 3 and enjoyed those as mini campaigns that they were. We always play nemesis as the co-op mode no corporate objectives. The traitor aspect kind of ruins the game because it is so easy for one person to just tank the game or black mail the group to exclude one person so the others can hit their win con. I backed Stalker and am looking forward to getting it. Greatwall split our group. Myself and one other person enjoyed it however there was some major salt on the part of one of the guys that lost and he pointed out quite a few things he thought were imbalanced. I would try it again for sure.

[@Grooty6226]

Great one! I like AR games generally and, yes, Castles of Burgundy is my favorite one too. It was also my first one.

[@Madgaar]

Lords of Ragnarok is one of the worst designed games I ever played and one of the few times I 100% agree with No Pun Included's review. The copy I played is up for sale from the day after we played it and seems unsellable...

[@MaxwellSchmalzried]

Lucky Duck games?

[@Oaklestat]

ISS Vanguard is awesome!! Man I can't believe you cheated with Castles of Burgundy....😅

[@JJ_TheGreat]

LOL 😆 🤣 😂 Technically, they made a version of it!

[@ogre83]

You need to play ISS vanguard up to "the moment".

[@BoardGameCo]

I do :)

[@amagrude]

Chuckle. If you want some serious list diversity, do FFG.

[@JasonSmithPsychedelicTherapist]

The old Fantasy Flight Games was an amazing company. Not interested in anything they do anymore.

[@nickdols2953]

Steamforged Games next?

[@BoardGameCo]

Ooh, they could be a fun one to do :)

[@siriactuallysara]

I backed dragon eclipse and I am looking forward to playing iss vanguard

[@fastpoose]

Tainted Grail stopped me from getting anymore awaken realms games... So so bad. At least i got my money back on ebay. And saved me from getting lots of future poorly playtested bloat kickstarters😅

[@davidshull9905]

I don’t think you’re a big enough fan of Garphill games to rate them eh?

[@romainb9174]

Interested in Grimcoven also if prototype is enough to compare it 🤞

[@toddcontino7271]

Why is Grimcoven not part of this? You’ve played it. Just put an asterisk about it being a prototype

[@BoardGameCo]

I hadn't played it yet when I filmed this, I talk about that in the video :)

[@toddcontino7271]

@@BoardGameCo I didn’t hear the part where you talked about it. My bad. Where would you put the prototype now having played it? I also love Etherfields and LoR and think both of them are extremely underrated because all the noise from haters/mechanic snobs 🙄😂

[@abrahambardalez4703]

Where would you place grimcoven now that you played it?

[@paulwastney5134]

How about red raven games? Rank them for us

[@aaronprieto9567]

Love to see you do Stonemaier Games!

[@BoardGameCo]

Another good choice!

[@sarahracicot2299]

Tamashii is such an interesting game. It’s done by the same team that did Great Wall, yet it’s an AR Lite title. I think that’s probably part of the reason it feels so different than the other AR Lite games.

[@user-tq8mu4vy2m]

Would be interested in similar game rankings from other producers such as fantasy flight/chip theory games etc

[@BoardGameCo]

Ooh, chip theory is a fun one, I'll do them next

[@JJ_TheGreat]

6:57 That would be a great video topic! What makes you like vs. not like a skirmish game! 😀

[@kyletasler7354]

I have only played nemesis lockdown but I find I really like it cooperative.

[@whytemeet]

The changes made in both Tainted Grail Kings of Ruin and Nemesis Lockdown definitely improve on the gameplay in the originals.

[@BoardGameCo]

Yep, always good when a company tries to improve on an existing design

[@abrahambardalez4703]

Where would you place grimcoven?

[@twphillip]

What are your thoughts on Chronicle X?

[@dannyverbraeken7729]

I suppose your ranking is made up for playing multiplayer. From a solo perspective my rankings are a bit different 🙂, with ISS Vanguard in the lead.

[@BoardGameCo]

Yep, most are multiplayer

[@haxan6663]

Edge: Dawnfall was my first Kickstarter game. I like skirmish games and so this is still in my collection. Nemesis I also like. Tainted Grail, not so much. Love the theme, but I find the gameplay boring. Haven't even bothered to unbox Kings of Ruin. I forgot that I have Lords of Ragnarok, which says all that is necessary.

[@danieldonnelly591]

I’ve only really played Tainted Grail so far solo: had to hard house rule some stuff into it to avoid grinding and to get to enjoy the story (I don’t have a lot of free time). It’s been great so far! Keen to try Etherfields and ISS Vanguard next.

[@UnluckyHydra]

It's a big one, but Z-man Games come to mind as a publisher. ThunderGryph Games is a smaller one.

[@UnluckyHydra]

Plaid Hat Games, Greater Than Games, and Lvl99Games could be options.

[@FordMrson]

Now i want a small box game from awaken realms so i can play outdoors and in beach

[@JJ_TheGreat]

21:58 Castles of Burgundy Special Edition!

[@OnlyHeStandsThere-Healer]

I'm guessing you've not played Siege Storm or Bees: The Secret Kingdom?

[@BoardGameCo]

Neither of them

[@warpo007]

Parker Brothers.

[@BoardGameCo]

I don't know if I've played enough:)

[@twistedthistle]

I love Awaken Realms games. They are by far for me the company who's games seem to consistently click with me best. I would love to see them do a traditional fantasy dungeon crawler. I love this genre but despite all the choice I still haven't found the perfect one for me. Hero quest is great for nostalgia but doesn't play well imo. Alter quest is fun but quite fiddly with too many tokens. Massive Darkness 2 is a great game but the theme and art work just doesn't click with me. Also the rediculous sized boss models take up 80% of the box 😂 Anyway, my point is I'd love to see ARs take on this sort of game so here's hoping they do and knock it out the park one day. Also great video Alex, been a subscriber a while now and always enjoy your content. One of my go to channels for all things board game related!

[@sirtrevis]

You're an outstanding speaker, Alex. So very dangerous. Thanks for Tsukuyumi. It's been fun so far.