Reading NEGATIVE Reviews of my FAVORITE GAMES - Mage Knight Review Reactions

[@robertdascoli949]

I always tell people that's 80 percent of the rules in mage knight are super straight forward and easy to understand. The other 20 percent are super fiddly and will have you cheating the rules over and over. It's those 20% that drag the game down and give it the Super heavy rating that everyone attributes to it

[@iTzTiMeToJuMp]

what rules are those?

[@niall2236]

Just picked up the Ultimate Edition yesterday! The rulebook(s) are pretty intense but watching a few lets plays have given me a good idea of what I'm doing and taking it slow on my first few games, but it seems like the perfect game for me. I love epic games though. War of the ring, gloomhaven and this will keep me going forever!

[@plothos8380]

My passion for teaching Mage Knight actually prompted me to create a youtube channel. Best game evah! #TovakIsWatching

[@cjpny1455]

Help!!!

[@venomenoide]

What's the channel?

[@plothos8380]

Here’s the playthrough: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHumnZ6Ybd1spZI

[@LordKeldar]

Gotta agree on Mage Knight being replaced by Spirit Island on the top spot :-). MK is still solidly in the top 5 though.

[@BeingFriends]

oh absolutely

[@cjpny1455]

That guy who said it’s not a thematic game… it’s super thematic imo. No game is ever the same and you build the world as you play. The combos you have are amazing. I look at the cards more than cards. It’s like reading a book. You need to use your imagination and it’s amazing. Everyone has a different experience.

[@BeingFriends]

I totally agree with you!! I personally find games that ask you to use your imagination a little to be some of the most thematic games of all time!! -evan

[@cjpny1455]

@@BeingFriends exactly bro

[@BeingFriends]

@@cjpny1455 what are some of your other favorite most thematic board games?! Mine are spirit island and oath rn!!

[@cjpny1455]

@@BeingFriends I love the aspect of kingdom death and the journey you go through with the survivors. I never played spirit island. I also love the new bloodborne board game. Wow just wow! The cards that come out and the story line is amazing. Oath meaning oathsworn? The one that’s coming out soon?

[@BeingFriends]

@@cjpny1455 heck yeahhhhh. No, Oath: Chronicles of Empires and Exile! The new Leder games game! We have an unboxing and a gameplay video on our channel if you are interested!!

[@JoshMeyer830]

Fun video! I always thought that Tom Chick article was a bit of a joke, or at least pretty tongue-in-cheek. Mostly because there's no way somebody could have that bad of a take lol. Wish I could share your enthusiasm for Spirit Island. Like, I can tell it's a "good" game, has interesting design, and has a cool theme.....I just....don't enjoy it. I'm also awful at it so that doesn't help.

[@ClOwNyGrIn]

I just bought it!!! I managed to get the Ultimate for $75 and am SOOO excited! It’s supposed to come today. I’ve been watching tons of videos on it and already planning some insert/storage solutions

[@ImperfectBeingX]

Hi, what did you think of the game? I’m in two minds about it. Seems so expensive now and I’m sure it’s due a second edition.

[@FostertheMeeple]

I'm on a bit of a binge of your videos haha this was so fun! We have had Mage Knight sitting on our shelf and have been so excited to play just haven't taken the time to learn it yet!

[@peterxu5043]

Thanks for sharing. I was a Magic the Gathering player and I have to justify that Mage Knight is a very good game! 1) From a TCG gamer's angle, one thing the issue of mage knight could improve is to organize and combine the ruling in one rule book. One information could be found here and there. TCG gamer like me will read and organize all the pieces together, however, lot of new players in my community are more willing to watch video clips rather than organizing ruling content by themselves. 2) Speaking of difficulties, opening the city tile on South East or South West is much easier after gazing the defense of city tiles for less than a minute. 3) The slow pace solved now by a strategy: - choosing Wolfhawk, pushing North hard and then moving South revealing two cities on the second night. And then deck building, leveling up, recruiting elite units. And defeat first city on the fourth night and defeat another on the fifth day if good deck or army built. - Or pushing, and revealing core tile with hero other than Wolfhawk on the second night and enable you hire powerful elite unit on the second night. Then moving to South and try to open city tiles on ideal position and try the best to defeat one on the second night. (you dont want to see a red city defended by two dragons located on North and right in front of you) For other scenarios like Volkare's Quest, Volkare's return, mine liberation all have tips to end game in short time and enjoy the cool game. Ending game faster require a knowledge of tile's feature could be found in the scenario, and a small paper note book to memorize which card left for beginners. Now, before underated cards like Cure Disease and Offer Sacrifice all found useful in good players' video clip. The game is more interesting now. Mage Knight is a fantastic game with mathematical depth. Very good for player who played TCG. Hard ruling is not an excuse. Other games have books to learn before playing a game. Thanks for sharing again.

[@nuggets1356]

I just bought the last available copy of mage knight off Amazon. Been waiting a long time to find a copy of this game. Can't wait to finally get my hands dirty with this game.

[@BillyIndiana]

I love Mage Knight & prefer it solo. It is a deep game with a lot to remember & I can see why some people don't like it. If I haven't played in awhile it takes effort to get back into it, but there are a lot of great videos to help. I can see that it would only appeal to a certain kind of player, but I am that kind of player, so yeah for me!

[@totibeck6356]

This video is making me super curious about Mage Knight!

[@patriceberle9903]

I LOVE Mage Knight. Yes, it takes ages to play and a table bigger than for almost any other game, yes, it takes ages until your next turn and yes, the rules feel more likely like LOTR, than a booklet. But on the other side I had so many epic moments with 1-4 players, that it always made up for all the downsides. I never played it competitive. Just don't see the sense. But as a co-op, there was always so much going on, planning and exchange about who can do what. I can see, that this game is far from being something for everyone, but it can be a true masterpiece if your on the same wave as the game.

[@SanderPastoor]

Of all the games I have Mage Knight probably took me the longest to learn, but it's also the most rewarding.

[@MilenioOscuroGames]

After.... maybe 10 years? I had finally finished my first solo play, and it was awesome!! Several times I put the game on the table, an it was hard, but after reading the rules (again) and seeing a lot of videos, I finally played and it was a blast! I made a little change, and it was I didn't use the tactics cards in order to not complicate more the game, and it was a very smooth experience. I must confess, I was very afraid moving around the map jaja (sorry for my English) . By the way, excellent video!

[@savintcrew76]

Teach mage knight Battle: SIEGE RANGE : Does the enemy fortified? yes - B no - E B Does the enemy in fortified site? yes - BLOCK PHASE (optional C) no - D (optional C) C. Can and would you enable spell / abilty to remove fortification ? yes - E No - BLOCK PHASE (D) Can you kill the enemy with siege attack? Yes - enemy dies. No - BLOCK PHASE (E) Can you kill the enemy with combined range / siege attack? yes - enemy dies No - BLOCK PHASE BLOCK PHASE i'm too tired to explain..

[@limakeke1846]

Mage knight shines when played solo conquest. That is my opinion btw. I like to always try to improve my last games points its like playing an arcade games for the hiscore

[@BeingFriends]

I think I agree even though I do enjoy 2 player (especially coop!) -evan

[@importjunjun]

2p co-op is my favorite way to play, IF both players are already familiar with and greatly enjoy the game. Solo is technically the "safest" way to enjoy it, but the game definitely comes alive as a shared experience when two skilled and familiar players can ooh and aah as the other player discovers solutions to their problems. This still holds at 3p, but downtime does become an issue, lol (even with high familiarity among all players).

[@BeingFriends]

I feel the EXACT same way! Me and Alex got to play a coop game the other day and it was so fun. Being able to watch him Intimidate 2 different dragons to death over the course of the game was a dream. -Evan

[@andrewjoy4084]

I love the stories you can tell at the table. My brother had injured foresters and chose to remove them to have golems join his team. It felt like he had turned the poor foresters into new golem weapons. Gave it a dark feel which was awesome.

[@VorpalSlade]

+1 to reading negative reviews of things you want to buy! It's habit at this point for me to filter by lowest rating on any product or service. Most of the time any issues are user error (case in point: my local bike mechanic got a 1 star review from someone who didn't bring their bike to the shop - and admitted that in their review! - but still wanted a quote). Edit: Surprised you didn't take umbridge at the fact that they claimed movement 'gets worse at night' (11:10), when it literally just swaps two of the EIGHT types of terrain, and it's actually a positive. I just played a game where I revealed a tile which had a desert on it, then the round ended and it was easier to move through it! It was a really great, thematic moment :')

[@Kentchangar]

I've played Mage Knight 2 player 2 handed a dozen times and those 9 hours just fly by! :D

[@RenbroNL]

I'm considering buying Mage Knight. Mostly because I just love Spirit Island that much. I don't mind a longer game, and the exploration part off Mage Knight seems cool to me. But I do like to keep my collection pretty slim. So I wonder if I shouldn't just stick to Spirit Island.

[@BeingFriends]

it sounds like you would REALLy like it. Id say it’s 100% worth going for 🤩🤩

[@weathertopz4368]

My copy came with a scenario guide and a more general rule book. The cover and back page of each was stapled on the wrong book. I was primed for a complex game to learn so I actually spent a lot of time trying to rationalize the information overload between page 2 and 3 LOL. I wonder if people that call it hard to learn had the same misprint but didn't figure it out?

[@mckayanderson1508]

I actually love teaching games. One of my favorite things about board games!

[@AvengerKit]

I find mage knight to be very fun even playing it with friends, It's the first board game I introduce to my buddies and we're hooked.

[@adams.3738]

The best way to learn a game for me is definitely by watching a video of it being played, it also gives me a better idea of how I would feel playing it. Teaching is by far the worst thing for me, I HATE it so much.. not only is it so hard to make the explanation concise and interesting, but I also tend to game with people with short attention spans who don't really "like" learning new games/rules... resulting in repetitive explanations along with their complaints about how complicated it is and how they are suffering already (Even tho later on they might admit at the end of the game that they enjoyed it) Although what I described is very much group dependant, it's still a pain with most groups. I would NEVER even DREAM of teaching most people a game like mage knight.. it is mainly a solo game in my eyes and it is definitely an amazing game. Regardless, teaching any game is definitely the worst part. Also the first few playthroughs are often just learning practices and only later on when everyone is familiar with a game, it gets to the interesting parts. So yeah, it's definitely a chore that I wish could have been skipped.

[@casestudy26]

I picked up a copy recently. I’m not going to deny the rulebook was a complete slog. It suffers from high rule contingency on other rules. So there is a lot of rule referencing. Lots of “Ahhh, that’s clever” moments when I would finally get clarity. I play solo which is the most efficient way to enjoy this great game.

[@PlayGamzWithMe]

Great vid!! Makes me want dust it off & table it!!

[@BeingFriends]

Do it!

[@kellinwinslow1988]

Not sure what you think but I actually like Star Trek Frontiers far better. That game has a great theme and feels much smoother to play. I personally never really thought that the game has much down time. Once you learn the rules you start going thru turns pretty quick and if you are playing co op you can all plan out a course of attack. I played a 4 player of Star Trek Frontiers and it was great. It took 8 hours but two people hadn't played it before and we took a break. So we could have gotten it down to 5 hours. The down time wasn't a problem,it was interesting teaching and working with everyone. I also love Mage Knight. I can understand why some people are turned off by complex games but I don't think it's that bad. There are other games like A Feast For Odin that a more fiddly. Movement can be bothering sometimes but you get used to it. A lot of the issues were ironed out with Star Trek Frontiers. It has taken my number one spot over Mage Knight.

[@lockedlake]

Mage Knight is amazing, but you have to put your mind into it. One grip I have with it, component-wise, is how difficult it is to read the monster's color on the city's wheel. Luckily, you can find a neat fan made card package with the list of every level.

[@Yarnooee]

one of reason that i sold my mage knight copy is its too frustrating when you miss your calculation. unlike other games, in mage knight if you miss just 1 damage, you can’t damage them at all. its all or nothing. this make the game extremely satisfying when you everything done it right, but its nightmare when you want to redo everything. “what side of mana dice before i changed it?, “did i changed my mana crystal or this crystal didn’t exist in my pocket at all?..etc. so i look forward digital edition of this game. tbh, this game will million miles better when it play on digital.

[@MagicRealmVagabond]

It actually exists now! The adaptation is called Paladin's Oath, the rules are the same, but all terms and names have been changed, you have to get used to it if you have played MK before

[@alvarorodriguez1592]

I'm writing while I watch the video, so my opinion might be stated in the video. I played two player games, and they were the most boring thing ever. I wanted to like this because of the theme, but it's a disguised Excel sheet of which I see enough at work. My main problem is the combat system. The rest isn't so great, but it could work with more player interaction and a completely different combat system. Long story's short, the combat is about summing 15 with the cards you have. Just that. Ok, it could be 8. Or 9 with 2 ice points. But it doesn't matter. Emotion for me comes from seeing a situation, making a plan, and seeing how it goes, adapting while it fails. You will find no such emotions here. The process is: decide to have combat>>flip token and read number to add up to>> look at your cards and find the way to add up to 9. Combat is over. When I told my friend (who taught me the rules) "Ok! I have my way of adding up to 9! 4 from this fireball card, three from this and two from my trusty soldiers! Now what?".. I could simply not believe it when he told me it was over. Wanting to put a plan to action and finding you have travelled so much into the future that people find it already boring to even talk about that combat.... Idk, the theme sells what it's not. And not just the theme. More than anything it's the miriad youtubers who call this superexpensive boring game the greatest adventure game ever! Arg! Had I spent the money it costs..? Im angry just for having had my expectations met so poorly.

[@destineewray8492]

i like watching this type of video even though i don’t play this game

[@prash11leo]

I picked up a used copy of mage knight and lost legion recently. I want to start off with base game first. The box has everything mixed in. There are a few tweaked/replacement cards and tokens in the expansion. Can I use the replaced new version of the cards to play the base game or should I use the original cards?

[@lastburning]

Snowballing is fine if it was earned but ideally the game should end when the winner is clear. Always having a tie breaker is also part of my commandments of game design tbh. I dislike variants too. Variants are like: "Hey! There were some rules I wasn't 100% sure I made the right call on. Feel free to tweak these as you wish." Here's my old BGG review for Mage Knight (5.5/10): - I don't like how taking different actions is encouraged by giving achievement bonuses instead of them being useful on their own. - Too much like a solo game. Do some stuff to get VPs. - Combat is uninteresting and puzzly.

[@MangloreDog]

I don't mind teaching games at all but it can also really depends on the kind of people you are playing with as well. Though usually at this point in my life I will learn a game but by the time I get a group together to play I have to relearn it as I teach which is not fun.

[@Wolcik3000]

before buying a game I usually read all comments starting from 1 to top - usually I skip 8+

[@albertolopes829]

I adore teaching games, but I hate teaching them to impatient people

[@mike9139]

YOU ARE AWESOME! ❤❤❤

[@rodneyhrvatin4692]

I prefer video tutorials to rulebooks. However I've watched most of the tutorial videos and am yet to find one that gels. Can someone pay Rodney Smith to do one?!?!

[@mobilefan702]

Which is your favourite, Mage knight or Spirit island and why?

[@BeingFriends]

Spirit Island! But Mage Knight at this point is #2.. Both are fantastic, but for me I find that Spirit Island just checks all the boxes, and it has just become so dang special to me. there are a ton of reasons why I love it! I think the 2 reasons why, compared to Mage Knight I prefer SI, are that I highly prefer the theme, and that something about Spirit Island makes me much more enthralled with the game during the time that I’m not playing it! To further explain, I find myself thinking about the game more and wanting to try certain strats, and spirit combos and such, so I wanna play it more! I talk about this comparison further on episode 5 of the Meeple Tavern podcast!

[@mobilefan702]

@@BeingFriends Is Gloomhaven better than spirit island and mage knight and why?

[@BS-bv9rg]

Mage Knight ❤❤❤ The best game ever!

[@Trotskyification]

Always learn from rulebook - just don’t have the patience to learn from a video

[@flow3730]

Mageknight has nearly no player interaction combined with super long and brainy turns. It has many superfluous terrains and unnecessary magic and ranged rules. Also the day/knight changes are just another unnecessary thing. The core of the game is so great, but for me it feels like you had a WV Beatle and hande it to pimp my ride. If the game was more streamlined and had more interaction (which is a core feature for me, otherwise I play PC games instead), it would be the best of all time

[@evandyck3839]

this is the real evan here. mage knight sucks. this was an imposter don’t trust him.

[@BeingFriends]

🥸🥸

[@Wolcik3000]

15:15 Git Gut ?

[@SlumbertimeASMR]

I don’t like teaching. I usually learn from KZbin videos

[@alexdyckson7404]

Ive only played mage knight once and I know that article at the end is crazy insane

[@paulchabot9689]

2024 modern bg commandment : « Thou shall put lgbtq+abcd heroes and forbid white cis male in your game. Everybody wins and there are no losers…or just losers… »

[@Kentchangar]

On thing I agree with negative nancies: Mage Knight is a horrible competitive game.

[@swagwizard4376]

first comment. im just that cool

[@BeingFriends]

you ARE that cool 😎🆒

[@Wolcik3000]

8:00 why rate something you don't want to play? There is no rule saying you need to play the game to give it 1 or 10. The rating itself in the words says "how willing you are to play".