Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak Review - with Tom Vasel

[@florianstock376]

This game was my suprise game last year. It was very liked in our gaming group, and maybe your two last points are a little bit connected. I have made the experience in our group that the heros ("Order without Borders") can win (and often do). One main ingredient is to know and use the spells (even non magic user can use them, as there are many that cost no magic points), when you combine certain spells and effects you can do in the last fight intense amounts of damage. The other is, to hinder Mordak early. When the heros just pop up terrain, when they are capable to fight most monsters that can appear there, Mordak has usually no monsters to fight with, and as he is not on the board, he is very limited in his abilities. Which in consequence means, that he did not get much more playtime than the hero players. All of our group enjoyed the game very much, and it is a comparativly light game, where new player can be easily introduced to. As you, looking forward for the new game. Btw: Dodge and Evade sound very similar in their function, but their effect is dramatic different: Evade let you move away from a field with an enemy, Dodge just gives you the chance to avoid 0..2 damage points (depending on the dice). And there is a small reference card with all the keywords, for each player one.

[@BlackBearThirtyFive]

This has been my experience as well. I thought the villain was op until we played a few games and if the hero's know what they are doing they should win the majority of the time.

[@MichaelB-jw5po]

I really like the fact that the "overlord" player gets an actual character to play as and fight the heroes with

[@john9801]

There already was a Kickstarter for the standalone expansion. It adds a fully coop campaign as well as AI for one shot games. It also adds an easier mode for 1vsMany in which the cost for summoning is increased. And there are many other improvements and new things.

[@BubblegumStuff]

This looks soo good. The artwork is amazing and the way you can upgrade your hero powers is so well thought.

[@jeremyfrost3127]

Tom- how many times did you play each side in this game?

[@justanerd1138]

Hmmm.... I must have been a bad Mordak as the heros felt like they were thwarting me at every turn. Valid statement that Mordak plays more (or has more to manage).

[@johna6108]

Interested to see the review of the next game (hopefully). Hate games where there is such a huge discrepancy between how much each player actually participates.

[@ShakenK]

How would letting heroes do the same action multiple times a turn affect balance? Maybe evens out the dungeon masters advantage a bit?

[@john9801]

That would affect balance greatly. The game is hardest for the hero side when playing with only 1 hero. But the first time I played with my wife, we somehow missed the rule that you can do each of those actions only once. She completely destroyed me and I had no chance. We played it many times now and understand it better. It's true that on 1vs1, the villain has an advantage depending on which hero is picked. With 2+ heroes I'd say the villains advantage is about 60/40

[@spons6843]

Perfect timing! Will add it to my KS 👍

[@rb4551]

Yah like most games from that publisher, fantastic components, so so gameplay. I had this briefly and moved it on.

[@JodouTR]

I have this and haven’t opened it yet due to the concerns people raised. Not a fan of releasing an expansion to fix the game so off to eBay this goes.

[@florianstock376]

The new thing is a standalone game, and is not an expansion (even when they say that you can interchange characters).

[@JodouTR]

@@florianstock376 Nice, even worse that the first game was a beta. 🙄

[@Richard-sy1ej]

This is a really weird take, imho. Mordak does get to control the minions, but the Mordak player has never felt like they have been monopolizing the gameplay time when I've played. And the balance is really not that far off - there are some rules that players get wrong that can make it seem like that, but it is fairly balanced, and if the heroes manage to get some good items, they can easily take down Mordak. The thing that really makes this review sound a bit half-baked is that you didn't comment on the one thing that I absolutely expected: the game time is (too) long. Much longer than what you would expect from a game in this weight class. That you're complaining about your perceived balanced issues and not the overall length of the game raises a bit of a red flag for me with regards to the review.

[@thedicetower]

Well, I didn't find the game length to be a problem.

[@RuNacken]

What is the ± playtime of this game in your experience? I just played Mice & Mystics and noticed: a roll-to-resolve game's campaign should not extend 3 hours. Man, that game drags. I'd say a good length would be half an hour per player.

[@Richard-sy1ej]

@@RuNacken So it'll vary per number of players for sure, but you'll also likely be quite slow on the first game or two. I've mostly played at 5 players (Mordak + 4 heroes) and while it took around 4 hours the first time, it's possibly to get it down to around 2 hours after a few plays.

[@user-fr1ys2wn4t]

Completely agree on the keyword part. Most modern games need to understand that we're tired of having to learn each games' dictionary of keywords. Just write what to do dammit . Hogwarts battle did that right

[@gianlucamorando8339]

This is a grat game ,guys! And children loves it! Thanks Tom!

[@xshadowscreamx]

Maximum mordack.

[@LatenightLyle]

It’s a game I really liked everything about! …except the experience. The pacing is just bad. Overall it wasn’t something I felt I would ever be excited to play again.

[@disciplerocksmysocks]

Pretty much how I felt too. A bunch of cool ideas put into a "meh" game with FANTASTIC components. My first real kickstarter let-down. And Tidal Blades is only slightly better IMO...not going to be purchasing any more of this company's games.

[@JLX5]

Yeah tidal blades was the first and last for me too. Seems the moto of this company and Jason is deluxe components/visuals and middle of the road (at best) gameplay.

[@davidriemaker]

First?

[@davidriemaker]

I did it, I finally did it, after all these years ... I was first.

[@JevousGaming]

Holy shit dude, congratulations! I’m not sure how you ended up celebrating but I’m sure it was fantastic! Once again, you did it. You finally did! Proud of you, for real.