Xia: Legends of a Drift System - Shut Up & Sit Down Review

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First published on Jan 16, 2015.

[@docconi]

The good ol' days of 2015. When the box of Xia was considered big.

[@pikebraingaming9659]

Unlike today, when Gloomhaven exists

[@dewiwrites4638]

Damage crystals, made with real damage. I nearly choked

[@Qwufi]

I knew this comment will be here. :D

[@demonikr1]

That's how they are made

[@benjaminadler4633]

I'm fairly sure it's pronounced "Xia"

[@bigdream_dreambig]

🙈😝

[@NoNameAtAll2]

Ksia

[@idontwanttopickone]

"Zia" or "X Ia" would be a better example. Just go watch the Kickstarter video: v.kickstarter.com/1583518218_959183452a3cd37b9e2724b2e099f6edf96cf1a8/projects/482192/video-243252-h264_high.mp4

[@Mythtic]

NOJ It’s a joke

[@idontwanttopickone]

@@Mythtic no shit Sherlock.

[@stevedoetsch]

Wow, I was also considering Merchants and Marauders instead. I guess that settles it. I'll go play Catan.

[@ScottRichards]

Watching this a couple years later, and the "Zeeya/Sheeya" joke still cracks me up, almost to the point of tears. It's such a stupid little joke, but somehow it tickles my humor in just the right way.

[@itsmattg]

The addition of the pear swooning over the bigger ship had me in tears. Best board game content on the internet.

[@Social_Mechanic]

"You are going to get damage crystals made out of real damage", I couldn't stop laughing for a while

[@nothica6811]

And counters made out of counts

[@mrreee4685]

Would love a re-review including the expansion, but I believe that this is something they rarely if ever do. I love SUSD

[@idontwanttopickone]

Agreed. The expansion fixes a few issues and adds a lot to the base game.

[@gagrin1565]

The trouble with Merchants and Marauders is that in my play group we had to keep coming up with ways to stop the merchants from winning every single time. The risk/reward of the core game is strongly in their favour and with the rules as written it is almost impossible to stop them because they can always end their turn in a port and thus completely avoid being intercepted by pirate players.

[@GeetarApprentice]

There are rules to that end :D

[@kazetokumo]

That's strange. In my experience, it's kinda balanced on who won between merchants and pirates. Usually he who role best will be the winner. Merchants can always end their turn in a port? Technically yes, but that would involve doing suboptimal or even skipping action. Are you sure you're playing with the correct rules?

[@severinsilmedin2588]

plus there is cutthroat variant you can use, to scout for merchants in their turn, solved ;) not to say, that port hopping will is so slow strategy, that there should be almost zero chance of winning that way. If you are moving from port to port, that takes all round, no port action. Next round, you will do only port action if you want to stay there.

[@IslanKleinknecht]

Remember when this box was considered huge?

[@HayabusaTaichou]

How frequently you guys do bits where half the games pieces end up in a mess on the floor I really don't envy having to clean it up every time.

[@bigdream_dreambig]

Yeah -- I would be worried I'd damage or lose a piece. 😟

[@meganecro]

The expansion is a must. Fixes almost everything people complained about. Combat is a more attractive option now, movement dice roll mitigation, short trading routes are not as rewarding by adding an economy dial, tons of possibilities for exploration tokens, Events that change how the game is played (planetary shields turned off for several turns, spawn points becoming wormholes connected to each other among others) and lots more.

[@DannoHung]

meganecro sounds like they should stop selling the base edition and just make one with the expansion included

[@SaniFakhouri]

That and getting blown up no longer means you skip a turn (just that you come back with some damage). Absolutely critical for not causing people to flip the table over in frustration.

[@Momo_Mori]

Some really neat new sectors as well. Love the ice comets, and the space station!

[@VodShod]

what happens if you get 6 of a resource can you get 3 victory points?

[@-RTC-]

@@VodShod you have to sell all cargo of that type and you get 1000 credits per, plus 1 victory point.

[@Osborne4Life]

I really get an FTL feel from the design.

[@ryandavis8277]

BigBryan I was recommended this game after asking for an FTL like board game, and it did not disappoint!!! just make sure that if thats the experience you want, you'll need the expansion as it adds the excellent solo mode, really making it very FTL like, just without character management.

[@benanderson46]

Check out Deep Space D6, too!

[@d.aardent9382]

Made with REAL damage!? I'm sold!

[@CesarRamirez]

Haha! Best reviewed I’ve seen for a board game! I’m definitely subscribing to this channel. Thank you for the review, bought the game after seeing your review, even though you recommended another game... might buy the other after but, I needed my spaceship fix!

[@claymeyer5046]

About every month or so, my kids want me to pull up this video and let them watch it. If you take into account the near-infinite choices for internet viewing, the fact that new and exciting content is delivered every second, and the fact that they are teenagers, you should understand how great this video is.

[@Ejohrik]

I played a four player game of Xia once and it's one of the most dissapointing game experiences I've had. Everyone just took their turn and then didn't care in any way about what other players were doing. A couple of players even left the table for long periods between their turns. I ended up winning by getting the ship which gets to move on other peoples turns simply because no one was paying attention to anyone but themselves. To me, the by far greatest appeal of board games is social interaction and this game (and some others which I dislike equally) didn't have any of it.

[@hellboy7424]

Bad people for boardgames then. You need other kind of friends for this. But dont blame the game that, imo, is awesome. The expansion is a must.

[@Ejohrik]

Could be. Some people seem more in love with the games themselves than with the experience of playing it with other people.

[@robertyoung8615]

Who cares

[@millerh4500]

My favorite part of this game is the economy and money. Once you get some money it's really rewarding as you get a brand new miniature ships and slot fancy parts into it. Having the coins be metal makes being rich even better.

[@HeySteamsters]

Quinns, daft question, where did you get your table from?

[@Melancthon7332]

When I saw him pull out the leaf and drop it in place *without shifting the gamestate* I went ooooooohhhhh

[@Kelfuma]

Thanks for this. I got all expansions and played a few games but passed the game on. Downtime was too long (even at the minimal 3 players) and the reliance on dice rolls made actions and events too random.

[@Kirkmaximus]

This looks like the PC X- series games (X2,X3, X4) put into a board game. Which, in all fairness, is the only way you will get to play it with friends.

[@HaviccB]

The board games in a heap on the floor hurts my heart..

[@duckrutt]

It's slightly better than when they intentionally smear food on things..

[@BoogieTimeWithJigglets]

Would really like to see an updated review with the expansion! This is by far my favorite game of all time

[@jwolfe9589]

"...and like rocky balboa, this came out in 2010..." (12:35) "adrian! do these gloves clash with my robe? what about the sash??"

[@nozhki-busha]

I happened to agree with the ending and I own BOTH games and the expansions for each of them :)

[@DarthSmirnoff]

Manchester class ship? Under attack? Don't worry, David De Gea's got it covered.

[@1teamski]

Sweet game with a sweeter expansion. Kickstarted this thing the first time around and it have had hours of fun with it. The force is strong with this one!

[@stumbling]

4:00 Weird audio bug there, the audio from the cutaway is only in the right side speaker. I feel like I'm in an ASMR board game channel for weird people now.

[@walterhaider869]

"may you should mim"

[@darrenmurphy480]

Wow that house rule noise really kicks you in the earballs when your listening on headphones.....

[@itbrvilla]

I've watched all their videos 4-5 times through each but somehow I've never seen this one before!!!

[@AhJong0]

Ah cracking stuff. Weird I had the memory from when this first came out that SU&SD didn't like it.

[@wfp9378]

Watch review. Love it. Look on line to find out where to buy it. See the price is ASTONISHING. Go back to work knowing I will never see this game.

[@freakgib]

any change u going to do a review again but with the expansion it changes a lot and i love it and can't play without the expansion anymore especialy solo play is real fun.

[@indianajo883]

What kind of table is that?! I like the way it just pulled and expanded!

[@SephonDK]

It unlocks at tier 4 of the boardgamer tree

[@unlustig1]

why are you not linking the Merchants&Marauders review in the description?

[@christianjorgensen4621]

I've played this game three times now, and really want to say I like it. All the things said here about why it is good are bang on, Xia is a very clever game that draws you in. There is one HUGE downside that kills this game for me, which probably means I won't play it again. The down time. The first two games were four players, and the wait for your turn to role around again seemed to take forever. The last game was five players, and you could see players completely disconnect from the game in the 20-25 minutes it took for it to become your turn again. Christ, we were joking that you needed to have a game of something else running to play while you waited. It doesn't help that you can plan several turns ahead, and literally have to wait hours to see your plan develop. AND, if you know what you are aiming for the turn you have waited 20 minutes to arrive can be done in a minute or two, and then its back to waiting.

[@pixxelwizzard]

Most games have ideal player counts. Even my favorite games of all time I refuse to play at certain player counts. Don't stop playing a great game just because it's bad with X number of players. :)

[@dennisduigou5384]

Binmby's Strange Coins.

[@reubenm.d.5218]

I should love Xia. I love all the things covered in this review. I just... don't. It's boring when it's someone else's turn, and you spend a lot of time dead or having a bad turn on top of that

[@lukasklees3081]

Expansion apparently mitigates the luck swings

[@andrewzpeng]

13:37 video length on purpose?

[@Athavir]

i come back to this review again and again when i need a good laugh! :-) along with bear chess it's one of my all-time favourites!!! :-)

[@safirswe]

I don't get it, why was this reuploaded? Nothing was added to the review. Any ideas?

[@majesticpurplebiscuit4646]

Seriously where did you get that table, I want it.

[@Stinow]

Waited for the Sexy Aliens from the script...

[@theBoonarmies]

More space games please!

[@masterofroses777]

Time for my SU & SD dose.

[@noahb-x6j]

2:29 - Stargate Atlantis.

[@miccrhaafetl5101]

I prefer Gate Ship

[@Barjack521]

Upvote just for the "Skitching" reference

[@SamSitar]

how do you discover new sectors?

[@merciah]

A rule that has helped with the game. For movement, you can always choose between rolling the engine dice or taking half. And for shields, use a die that is one size smaller, ie instead of a d6 use a d4, instead of a d8 use a d6 etc etc..

[@adrianpop4809]

That's great, but how does it compare to Catan?

[@varangia1122]

When the only copy you can find is $300 US ;_;

[@Avioto]

Really nice of them to include a pear with the game. Eat healthy kids!

[@barelyprotestant5365]

Am I the only person who absolutely hates this game because of the wildly ridiculous RNG? I mean, I love Merchants and Marauders, and I don't mind RNG; in fact, I think a good amount can make a game great. But I never at all, in the least, felt even slightly in control in Xia. It was a constant slog of getting bad rolls which would simply decimate my ship for things as simple as mining. It seemed that no matter what I did, I got major amounts of damage either on the way there or on the way back, with absolutely nothing being gained after repairs. I literally slammed my fist on the table after yet *another* bad roll that completely decimated me; I neverget angry playing board games. I felt that I might as well just flip a coin every mission or project I took: heads, I don't die but don't gain anything either; tails, I explode.

[@branwell]

Economic reorganization of a drift system. :)

[@mauriceoksman8594]

Is this a re-post? I swear i've seen this

[@ClayDoghs]

Yep! Oldie but a goodie.

[@mauriceoksman8594]

Clay Dogh ok good-I'm not going crazy! I look foward to SDSU reviewing of Embers of a Forsaken Star, to see if that changes his opinion. It could be a very cool opportunity to review both the new M&M expansion and Xia expansion in the same video, since both games get regularly compared.

[@Bodyknock]

Lol, yeah I actually watched this for the first time just about a week ago. I was surprised to see it pop up again in my Recommended videos. :) Personally Xia is one of my favorite games. Also the expansion sort of directly addressed some of his minor complaints about randomness screwing you over in movement and such (there is a cheap mod you can buy for your engines that adds two to the minimum possible roll of the engine, so a d6 engine becomes a 3-6 engine for example.) More exciting for me is that the expansion included a solo mode that also works well as a cooperative mode where you steer the solo ship by consensus. I've had a lot of fun playing that solo/cooperative mode by myself and with friends, it's challenging to beat and being able to play the game on the same team as my friends gives the game a nice feel, almost like you're a crew going against those bastard NPC ships trying to steal all your fame from under you. Hopefully SUSD will review the expansion, I'd be curious to see what they think of it and if it improved the overall Xia experience for them. (You can tell they liked the game, just not as much as they like Merchants and Marauders.)

[@Trinketorium]

If you look under the video it says originally published Jan 15. Its part of them putting their older videos from vimeo onto youtube :)

[@shichitenhakkihd]

Though reposting IMHO isn't a good idea since ... it looks like a new video to the normal viewer sumbling upon it, who might just notice that the reviewer totally ignored the existence of the expansion, fixing almost all problems XIA had.

[@Valordar]

#pearswoon 8:13. /shrug, cracked me up

[@leonfreire8958]

Zia, Shia...

[@youreallinsane]

"tetro-meenos"? I've always said "tet-ron-i-moes".

[@afourthfool]

diverse pronunciations! Neat! I replace poly in "polynomial" with tetri. It works.

[@citylifechurchlivestreamin7160]

Is this game still worth getting?

[@pixxelwizzard]

Nope, its entertainment value expired on October 27, 2020. You just barely missed out! Better luck next time. :(

[@AluminiumPanda6]

Xia? Shia? Chi-chi-chi-chia?

[@mockier]

I have both :D

[@OmegaViper]

I personally pronounce it Z-eye yah

[@pixxelwizzard]

I pronounce it Ex-zee-ӛ

[@khristienpennanen1810]

Couldn’t find this game for less than 300 bucks haha

[@pixxelwizzard]

Same, but apparently they reprint it once or twice a year. Picked up a copy last week for $85.

[@garettsuperloser804]

There's a female Chinese mukbang named; Xia Zie, she pronounces her name as; "she".

[@adamchristensen2648]

Dude...in the base game when you roll a 20 it means you made a sex tape. That's where fame comes in. Did you even read the rule book?!

[@krassenedyalkov4076]

i am looking to buy this game. is there anyone over here trying to get rid of it ? :D

[@roisinoshea9497]

Please put some socks on.

[@Trueflights]

Loved everything about this video, even the mispronouncing of Xia, right up until you said that Merchants and Marauders was a better game. Then I lost all respect for you. Not even a chance for M&M as Xia beats it in almost every way right out f the box.

[@GeorgiosD90]

Merchants and Marauders???? Are you serious??? You mean this sandbox wannabe boardgame, where you roll dice to fight, just like in Risk? What a shame

[@Social_Mechanic]

Didn't you guys hate on Arkham Horror because of its RNG but now you are praising this game because of its RNG?

[@fugitiveunknown7806]

Rick Wolford Well, Arkham is a co-op game, so typically I don't feel nearly as bad when one player has good luck and another is a cautionary tale in dealing with elder gods. Also, the luck in Arkham is somewhat mitigated as they generally involve lots of D6's which is nowhere near as random as single dice and non luck based locations. So I kind of see their point.

[@marxxplaysgames]

Seeing this reminds me a lot of Endless Space 2

[@BoogieTimeWithJigglets]

I was actually dissapointed in a review for once. This game is absolutely amazing and emediatly became my favorite after playing (and loosing) the first two games. No other game including muaraders does it quite like xia!

[@VereChrono]

Can't wait for the video about the expansion.

[@sacrificetosotec]

M&M is great but the kids (random ones) love to durdle around the drift system while the parents play a serious game around them. I have never seen a game that let players literally do whatever they want to, including decide if they would rather be a NPC for all the other players to interact with. Love the review!

[@pixxelwizzard]

Not interested in Merchants & Marauders in the least (ok, maybe a little), but I'm head over heels with the idea of Xia (Chia?). I haven't been this excited about a board game since, well, I don't know when. I also hear the expansions fix a lot of issues, so I picked up two of them and now I'm just waiting for everything to be delivered! Oh, and I'll probably look for variants that cut down on the PvP. Just not my thing.

[@stellaleecampbell6877]

X-X-X-Xia!

[@BrianGeringer]

Fun video to watch but I disagree on the judgment. Xia is an amazing game that the expansion takes to an entirely insane level. Please try the game again with the expansion and I'm sure you'll come to a different and result. I'm not a pirate-themed gamer so M&M has no interest to me.

[@jimsmith7445]

Quinns... Thanks for the review! I want this game! Love all the sarcasm, as usual... keep up the Monty Python... I love it! What! No "Red Dwarf" jokes? SMEG!!!

[@XShrike0]

This game really needs the expansion. I don't think I can go back to the base game.

[@Bodyknock]

That expansion is FANTASTIC! :) Especially the solo mode - I've played the crud out of that not only on my own but also with friends where we jointly steer the solo ship by consensus. Cooperative/solo Xia is a blast. :) I also really like the engine, shield and weapon mods, they directly allow you to mitigate some of the potential risk of bad die rolling that could really be a kick in the teeth at times (eg rolling 1 or 2 three times in a row for your movement rolls, with the engine mod the minimum is always 3 per die.) And the economy board is pretty cool too. (The events are decent as well - having the Rikishi Comet event for instance through a giant world killing comet hurling through the board destroying everything in its path is pure gold.) ... Man, now I want to set this up and play again. :)

[@davidsobieralski8311]

it has one, that fixes a lot of the core game issues. boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/199329/xia-embers-forsaken-star

[@boardgamerinct]

Agreed! The Expansion is great!

[@Bodyknock]

I think you misread Xshrike's comment. He said Xia needs "the expansion", not "an expansion"; he knows about the expansion and is saying that it's a "must-buy"

[@pixxelwizzard]

@@Bodyknock "Cooperative/solo Xia is a blast. :)" You made my day! That's great!

[@jeffnoyce6449]

What a nice pear of games. 😀

[@Friariello91]

A new review considering the expansions?

[@stephenwalker1984]

Puddle Jumper? I thought we were going with Gateship.

[@adamsansom2605]

Such a good show :)

[@sebastiantrost6409]

I really love XIA (and I've gotten soooo many 20 rolled and therefore points just handed out XD ) The dice can really screw you over, but you'll roll a lot of them and that gets you (more or less) average turns for most of the time... and hilarious moments whenn not^^

[@OriginalPiMan]

I choose to pronounce it with an exaggeration of the 'voiceless velar fricative'. Think how you would pronounce loch if you were pretending to be Scottish. (Contrast with how the Scottish actually pronounce loch, which is not nearly as phlegmy as I'm suggesting for Xia.)

[@haydenmaines5905]

OriginalPiMan Complete honesty I did the exact same thing

[@pixxelwizzard]

I have no idea what you just said.

[@1teamski]

....And played M&M quite a bit in the past and it was getting really samey with the map the way it is. Xia is a lot more dynamic and the expansion fills a lot of holes....

[@MattCrawley_Music]

M&M?

[@pixxelwizzard]

@@MattCrawley_Music Tell me you didn't watch the whole review without telling me you didn't watch the whole review.

[@jackmccormack125]

You absolutely should do a video review of merchants and marauders game, it seems right up the alley for Sea of thieves players

[@pixxelwizzard]

I play Sea of Thieves strictly PvE. Would jump on a PvE version of M&M. EDIT: I know, I know...It'S sea OF ThIEveS, NoT SEa OF FrIENdS.

[@YerkesMatt]

367 Rodriguez Harbors

[@Doc_Tar]

"space famous" as in "spamous"?

[@samiraroy5127]

Hilpert Squares

[@kosterix123]

2:40 puddle jumper! SHSD totally missed the joke here.

[@SephonDK]

The game doesnt seem that big... Only slightly larger than my thumb. I just measured. You can test it yourself. Open your eyes sheeple

[@eyalbinstock4885]

Space talisman

[@inevitablepuma5919]

This is the first review where I genuinely found the reference pare useful. It helped me see how big this game is...

[@CaptStefan]

Gzia. Say Gzia. GZIA!!!!!

[@Friariello91]

1:22 I almost choked to death laughing

[@jacobclark8659]

The original battle of the Bastards

[@alexcrossland2329]

Mmmm bimnbys strange coins...

[@carnalito80]

omg i love your reviews :D