It seems that some board game bug developed by Fantasy Flight games is rapidly spreading causing people not normally caught up in the board game scene to randomly crave them and infact spend vast sums of money.

I just bought this game today after debating it with myself over the last month because it is expensive but it looks very very interesting. I've spent some time over at boardgame geek or whatever it is and read the countless comments, taking them with a pinch of salt but ultimetly making my own mind up. Sadly for my bank account 4 games (this included) made the debate more difficult.

1) Descent. Not available until they reprint mroe Anybody know when this would be? This is the game I wanted in the first place.

2) Tannhauser. Felt like a quicker game than the other suggestions on this list and also, the cheapest one. The war theme kind of put my missus off though and as it would be mostly us playing her opinion was important. Also, it feels more PvP orientated than the others despite they are PvP games, this is more of a FPS kind of game or actual 'you must kill each other' game. Am I wrong here?

3) Runewars. The length of the game and the fact that it is not really story driven, and rather player driven giving that the ending is dependant on the players involved. Though the customisation of the game was a boon for the RPG factor. Oh and it looks pretty.

4) Horus heresy. The ultimate winner based on its play time, objective style gameplay and it has a definitive start, middle and end. Also, I am very into the warhammer universe so that helped to. "Probably the game we would fight the least over compared to Runewars and Tannhauser", the missus helped by saying that one thought.

And so I have the game, it is pieced together and ready to go as soon as I read the rule book properly. I hope it is fun as people say and that it has some longevity, at least until Descent is reprinted

TooNu said:

FFG does indeed appear to have a golden goose that lays fantastic board game ideas at their feet. I've spent way more money on FFG games than on any other company and will continue to do so as long as the quality doesn't go down (based on Runewars it seems to be going up!)

TooNu said:

Tannhauser is a squad-based tactical game. Comparisons to an FPS computer game are not entirely unfounded, but not really a propos either. Killing the opponent's figures is definitely something that happens, often quite quickly and bloodily, but the game has a multitude of scenario goals so killing each other isn't necessarily the ultimate goal of the mission. It definitely happens though.

My favourite Tann scenario, for example, was one released on the net after the game was published, involving a prisoner exchange. Each team starts with one of the opponent's peices in their control. Each team must bring their prisoner to the center of the map (no combat is allowed before this happens.) Once at the center, control of each prisoner reverts to the "right" player and each team must now try to escape without letting their recovered team-mate die in the process. It could play out as a slow build up to a frantic firefight, or it could become a race to get your prisoner out first, depending on how the players involved did things.

Both Descent and Tannhauser are PvP in their own way. I would actually say Descent is more adversarial (I say this from the perspective of the Overlord, who I almost always play and who is set against all the other players in the game.) Tannhauser is PvP too, but it's only one on one (you can play teams but it's not a great idea, imho) so it's less "we must kill the enemy" and more "this is how the game is played."

Descent is a great game, too, but it's a pretty generic dungeon crawl so you probably already know what you're getting into there. Tannhauser is a very... unique experience, I guess that's my point.

TooNu said:

I haven't had a chance to see the new HH in action myself, but as a two-player combat game I don't see it being any less "head to head" than Tann or a two-player game of Descent. As long as you're happy with the purchase, I suppose that's what matters. =)

As awesome as Descent is, it also has a lot of expansions, so that's something to think about if money is a concern. I know I'm always tempted to buy the newest expansion when it comes out. =)

Thanks for that reply, good to read things like that so cheers

We played one game so far and it was just learning the game, some rule referencing but overall it went smoothly. It didn't feel much like a game to be honest but I am hoping our next games reveal more of the gameplay, It is expensive to buy and I would be a bit upset if we didn't enjoy it, always a risk I guess.

If Descent doesn't get reprinted soon(ish) I will buy Tannhauser I think.

Thanks again!

I love just about all FF flight games, yet just can;t get into Tannhauser. My friends and I are fast game players, get for some unkown reason tannhauser bogs down for us, and we just all found it kind of meh. It gets zero game time. We played it a bunch whne it came out, and never had that afterwords "what a great game feeling" Not to say it was bad, just very very indifferent.

We like Runewars. I like the hero vs miltary game thing they got going on, they heros questing and the armies marching don;t really interact, yet they do, and both are important and need to be balanced, and then you got the influence thing to take care off. Lots of tough choices to make and you are rarely 100% sure you made the right one. I highly recomment it.

My friends and I loved Descent. Its a lot of fun if you have the same group of players and just go through the dungeons one by one. Its aLOT more fun with the expansions, and the overlord can really start to "theme" the feel of the dungeons once you start playing with custom overlord dungeon decks, it gets really fun. Although it gets better with the expansions, its pretty fun even before you get them. You may find very quickly that descent basic gets too easy for the heros once they get some experience and know how to play, but if players are not reading the dungeons ahead of time and letting everything be a surprise as it should be, it can still be a fun challange.

GL in your choices.

Still no copy of Descent but I am not giving up! and for the record, FF games are pretty addictive. Playing AND buying them. Horus Hersey is pretty good, quite important to understand the rules exactly so you can develop your strategy properly though, no real room for much customisation in that field. Also, the traitors have it really hard, everything is stacked against them.

Greetings Toonu,

I have spent many a dollar on sending some FFG employee's child to college... Smirk

I don't own Tann, so I can't say anything about that game... However in relation to the other games, Descent is one of my favorites - especially with the new campaign expansions which allow you to really get into a quick theme game instead of just a ritual massive dungeon crawl. Thus if you only play for a few hours, the vanilla Descent might take too long.

Runewars is decent... But I have found that it becomes pretty repetative quickly. The board is modular but not nearly as dynamic as say Twilight Imperium which is unfortunate. I've played it about 6 times, and have pushed it on the "sometimes" shelf when we get too bored with other games.

Do you own Runebound already? If you are not into adversarial games, I highly recommend it. My GF and I frequently sit down to play this game sometimes just to see what happens against the NPC cards. There is a considerable amount of expansions for it, some of them are quite cheap ways to change the focus of the map and the storylines so for the same price of Descent or Horus Heresy, you have a board game that has 4 different scenerios with different game dynamics each time.

TooNu said:

Just go to Ebay and you can find some great deals on decent and all of the expansions. Many times sellers will package deal the expansions with the base game for a huge discount over msrp. Be advised that descent is a totally different game than Horus Heresy. I own them both and they are great games.

Warstrider said:

Excuse me? The advance campaign is a "quick theme game" while the vanilla game might take too long? Are we talking about the same Descent here? Last I checked the campaign expansions were designed to take several game sessions to complete, even going to far as to include a save game mechanic on the assumption that you won't get finished in one night and will need to tear it down and set it up again later! Don't get me wrong, the advanced campaigns are loads of fun, I'm with you there, but I really don't see how the campaign can be considered quicker than the vanilla base game.

Steve-O said:

I tend to give people a bit of slack before haranguing their post.

I'm pretty sure Warstrider was referring to the PER SESSION time, not the cumulative advanced campaign time. In that sense, he is correct and you are wrong. A dungeon card level takes much less time than a full blown vanilla Descent scenarioyou know that. Give people a break.

Not havinh HH (still shoping around for my next FFG purchase) i have played most of the other games mentioned and, while i liked decent a lot at first, after the second expansion it just didn't keep up, sure, the senarios were a little different and each one had new critters and tiles, its just felt like more and more of the same. We play a lot of Taun, TI and Song of Ice and Fire though, all good games, but each in its own way, and all of them are longish. Still, can't wait for the next Microcon and our max player TI, thats a game thats more fun the more people you have.

Warstrider said:

This. Runebound is a good time.

While I like Descent (and DOOM), the base game, at least, seems to be balanced in favor of the Overlord player. Or maybe my group has just played too many war/minis games. Still, it looks so good, and the game play is definitely fun. FFG production values are tasty.

Tannhauser is....meh. It plays quickly. The production value is there. The pathfinder LOS system is probably the coolest thing about it. The scenarios that come packaged with the base game are neat...but quickly degenerate into death match shootouts. I've found that it is almost always easier to eliminate the opposition than it is to complete a mission. Maybe I'm just bad at the game. For me, it was $60 of disappointment.

Horus Heresy. Shoot. I'm checking the forums to see if I want to buy it Same thing with Rune Wars.

talsine said:

I felt the same way about Descent at first and shelved it for a while. Hoever Road To Legends fixed most of my problems with the game. If you can find someone with RTL get a game in with them or even just see how they have made the dungeon crawls short, modular and very streamlined.

Didn't play TT so no comment here.

As for descent, i own, only vanilla one but its long as hell to play but definitely fun. But vannila desc after few games can be a bit boring unless you give heroes bronze stuff only and throw 2 master demons and dragons at the same time ^^

Runewars is just perfect boardgame for me. No two games are the same, order and season system is just great heroes gainig stuff and exp just great. Played only 2p game since now on weekend i plan 4p game and I guess it will be even greater. I don't regred a penny spend on it.

HH got yesterday. We played only two "turns" with my wife mostly to familiraze with rules and we found it great. Great thing is that when it comes to battle your not limited to just drawing cards but you actually command your units during it. Rules that covers really LOT or war aspects i can be a little intimidating at first are really really simple to learn.