Anyone have the revised edition or BG&E? What are your thoughts?

Please keep in mind that I have only played 3-4 games with the new expansion and JUST bought the revised edition:

I really like the brighter art and the feel of the cards in the revised edition. I was shocked about how much detail I was missing in the original edition, even when it was new and ESPECIALLY since that version of the game is now very well worn.

Game play wise it's a crap shoot. While I LOVE the fact that the Final Missions have the Crisis gameplay added to them, I absolutely HATE the fact that the regular missions are not compatable with the expansion.

Please note that while I have not yet tried the Crisis game play in the revised edition, all of the games in BGoE with the Crisis mechanic have been exciting, suspenseful, and even brutal (In my second game, we lost against the Final Crisis Mission, something not possible in the original game). I am a 100% supporter of the Crisis gameplay, and as an added effect it cuts the play time - I have had original games go HOURS too long, which Crisis fixes.

The one downside is the fact that the Missions in the updated game are STILL worthless in a combined game with BGoE. I was hoping they would have updated each of the Missions so they would be compatible with BGoE, but as the game stands, when you combine both sets, you use everything BUT the Missions & Final Missions. Okay, the reason you want to combine the games is to increase the different cards you can see in one game. However, now, you will ALWAYS see the same Missions/Final Missions in the game, no matter if you combine them or not. I can understand removing the old missions from the original edition of SoO, as there was no real way to update those cards.Eratta would just muck things up for such key cards. However, I felt the updated version was the PERFECT chance to have both sets combine completely and they threw that chance away.

That being said, with my version of the game being pretty ratty, I found it a perfect opportunity to buy it and I am happy i did and look forward to playing big games with both sets. If anyone in the North Texas area wants to play or learn the game, feel free to contact me at this account!

A few points I've noticed:

• BG&E is far more brutal than the original. Be aware that you can't really expect to hold onto any party of 4 for too long. Even a lvl one (Curse you Cursed Tree) creature can get an easy kill off a party.
• The backs of the 1st print of Shadow are black, the new print is white (which matches BG&E) Other than that they can be mixed fine.
• Missions are better balanced in terms of rewards, no more will someone end up completing both their missions with a +1 speed +1 attack while someone else has +3 attack from just one mission.
• Arcane Characters range from AWESOME to OH NO NOT KAGAMI AGAIN
• Traps are mostly nothing but a set of rules to learn. Maybe if the rules didn't say that upon entering an area you MAY explore and rather you MUST explore. However has is, they mostly just cause a delay of one round, if someone choses to encounter them in the first place.
• Males have staying power finally, in Shadow you wanted a mostly, if not all, female dream team; now there are men that are worth seeking (Knight + Arcane character = pwnsome)
• Somethings are still worded very poorly.

Is it just my sets (Revised and BGoE) or are the cardstocks way to rough? They have this dimpled grid-pattern that makes it really hard to see the art and words. I don't remember the original SoO cards being like this. Maybe I got a bad batch? Did anyone else notice this on theirs?

Though they shouldn't be so rough that it makes the cards hard to read. the Dimple pattern on the card occurs from the process Fantasy Flight Games uses to coat their cards with a thin plastic layer that increases their longevity. Pretty much every FFG game has this coating. If its so thick that its truly obscuring the cards I would probably contact them and see if they can replace your set because that will probably be considered a defect.

As to what I think of BGaE.

-Totally agree that it is way more brutal than SoO. There are many cards that will make you cry and discard a character. Not to mention the Judgment card which could make you possibly lose your entire current party. I consider this in some respects a good thing because SoO seemed a little to easy on players in this respect.

-I think the trap system is at best clunky. Problem I have found with it is that unless you know a player needs to go to a specific place for a reason the traps are almost always avoided by other players. However it is still nice to see a little extra variety.

-I think the arcane characters are a little male heavy and I would liked to have seen another female instead of Kagami aka 'Hope I don't draw him'.

-Missions both regular and final are given a nice difficulty upgrade which was needed in my opinion over the missions in SoO which were much to easy.

Over all I think it was a very nice addition and still very fun and addicting to play. I hope there will be a 3rd expansion down the road that continues the stellar job done so far with the core game, but is a little stronger in innovation.

A question I have after reading this...

How exactly do they make the new cards compatible with old locations? I'm assuming it's something along the lines of, for example, requiring you to go to "The Palace", which can be found both in Archangel and one of the new cards... is this right, or is it something else?

If that's the case, why wouldn't the old locations also be compatable?

LinkN said:

The old locations are compatible for just the reason you said, the new missions list both a new location and an old location.

Did you mean the old missions? Those could be used but it would be harder to find the location to do your mission. Also, I don't think the old missions are as fairly balanced as the new ones.

Right, I meant old missions there...

Basically, I just want to know if the new missions list two different "objectives", or is the objective the same and it just appears in two locations instead of one? For example, are there any new missions that tell you to go to "the Palace" in either Archangel or (the new location), or does it say "go to the Palace in Archangel or (some new objective in a new location)"?

Pretty much the main thing that makes the two sets compatible is the fact that on the BGaE mission cards have a land printed on them to fulfill the mission in both the SoO and BGaE areas. Other than that you just need to mix the cards together, but not use the SoO mission cards unless you are only going to play SoO land cards, but if you play both sets of lands then only use BGaE missions.