SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Fnord666
[In gaming, t]he area control genre—troops, creatures, or cubes seeking majorities on a map—is a cramped and crowded one. Though well-regarded titles like Cry Havoc, Inis, and Star Wars: Rebellion all arrived in 2016, the calendar keeps turning and the plastic miniatures keep coming. This time, though, they're positively enormous.
In Assault of the Giants, a horde of titans descend upon Faerûn, the prominent continent featured in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms setting. This Andrew Parks design takes a conflict-oriented thematic chassis and bolts a smooth Euro-style engine to its frame. The game is a hybrid of schools, delivering carnage and tremendous 5" plastic miniatures to satisfy your eyes as well as your brain. The fact that it plays in a cool 25 minutes per player is just wax on the hood.
Game details:
- Designer: Andrew Parks
- Publisher: WizKids
- Players: 3-6
- Age: 14+
- Playing time: 90-120 minutes
- Price: $79.99 Standard Edition (Amazon)/$129 Premium Painted Edition (Amazon)/~£80 Standard Edition
Source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/02/assault-of-the-giants-a-great-dd-game-with-5-mega-miniatures/
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:32AM
Looks like someone borrowed heavily from Vlaada Chvatil and his game Mage Knight. Which might not be that odd since they are both published by WizKids. Overall I'm not a big fan of these D&D games Board game series, even the once made by WOTC such as Castle Ravenloft, Temple of Elemental Evil and Wrath of Ashardalon. They borrow from classic (A)D&D settings and adventures and deliver a really watered down experience. Both Ravenloft (1983) and Temple of Elemental evil (1985) where excellent products back in the day but as cardboard games they kinda sucked. One is only left to wonder what Gary Gygax thought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:31PM
I know it's not what you were saying, but at $50-$80 per pop, I'll happily go back to the days of cardboard counters and unbacked playing maps if the rules are halfway decent and balanced and presented in a way that allows my imagination to picture the giants in my mind rather than in 5 inch miniatures. That is, if they kept the pricing relatively the same as to back 'when. (IIRC they weren't "cheap," but they weren't nearly this proportionally pricey either.)
'Course that doesn't keep places like WizKids happy......
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday February 14 2017, @06:07PM
While not my main intention price is another of the factors. These new boardgames are quite expensive. $80 bucks for the normal version, $130 if they paint the figures for you. A lot of people then like to add extra "boardgame bling" to their games such as extra little boxes to keep all the components in for easy access, more dice, various other bags to draw monsters or tiles from and they sleeve the cards and such. All adding to the cost.
It's not that the old RPG systems was cheap or anything. AD&D 2nd Edition players handbook was $20 when it was released in 1989 - but then it's a 250-something page book, then you have to put down another $20 or so for the DM guide, and another $20 or so for a decent adventure module (in case you don't want to make your own) plus a few more bucks for some dice -- pen and papers are basically free. So I'm sure some argument could be made that it's not that expensive but as a value for money the old RPG system provided infinitely more value, playability and enjoyment compared to the boardgames. But such things are subjective. While the price isn't my main concern what does bother me is how they dumbed down the entire experience, plus they are screwing with childhood (and teenage) memories.
Still it's cheaper then the Games Workshop stuff. Those guys really know how to stick it to the players wallets. A few unassembled unpainted plastic models in a box -- $100. Apparently putting them together and painting them is half the fun, or so I have been told.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @07:11PM
Parent here....
You speak truth. If I remember right I spent $38 including tax for the AD&D version 1 DM Guide and Player handbook, and that would have been somewhere between 1982 and 1984. I found them in a B. Dalton when we were on vacation in Flagstaff, Arizona. That was something around a month plus of my allowance and it was 100% of the money I had with for the three day camping trip with my folks (it was a KOA about a mileish or two from the Flagstaff Mall.) But I used those two books for the next ten years and got lots more enjoyment from that than the Basic set I had. (My best friend had the blue Expert set.) And there was also the revolt of Tunnels & Trolls as well to counter the "buy ten books" mindset of TSR.
I hate to think how much money I've spent on gaming over the years. IIRC a lot of board titles then were in the sub-$20 range, though, and the cream of the crop around $30. And I've painted lots and lots of lead and pot metal and enjoyed the hours spent doing so - I was out by the time lead was phased out and plastic came to rise. (Done lots of plastic models over the years too...)
Anyway, you hit the nail on the head - the true measure is value received for what's paid. And I enjoyed shelling out way too much money for the Firefly game, for example.... But it seems to me that the investments were proportionally cheaper back then. That, though, is likely just my rose colored glasses of nostalgia I suppose. It is still hard to wrap my head around paying $80-$130 for a board game.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 14 2017, @09:58PM
Just played Conan a few times with some friends. Love the mechanics, but at $125 (early), and $250 (retail), that sure feels steep...
Value for the money, plus fun with friends, compared to most other silly entertainment? True, but dang it's hard to imagine spending that much for one game... (AD&D 2nd did it nicely and progressively, not as the entry cost)