I highly recommend playing multiple "prologue" / preview games. The mechanics are way more different than they look on first blush, and it's important to understand how things will progress.
Also, pay special attention to the 2 setup pages and the order of the steps on them. It isn't as clear as it could be. We screwed up a couple of months by not following it properly.
Did anybody who played Season 1 end up with a character ever taking a scar? I think avoiding those was always top of our list.
Also what did people do with their used games? It seems a shame to bin it, but I suppose I could harvest the nice cubes
Sometimes it's unavoidable. Usually when an epidemic and/or outbreak hits.
Yeah, we had a couple unavoidable, and I think once or twice purposefully did so to win the game when it was close.
As for the game stuff, my copy of Pandemic was the first edition, so I used the cards and components from legacy to upgrade it. I framed the board and some legacy components for my friend who played with us and he has it hanging on the wall.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I took all sorts of scars. Season 2 is much, much scarier in that regard.
In both cases, the emotional cost of taking a scar is much bigger than the mechanical one. I played three full campaigns of Season 1, and with each successive one was willing to take to more scars instead of things that I knew had a bigger impact on our eventual success. Character health is a resource to be utilized, even though the way it's framed makes it seem like scars are always better to avoid.
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Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
Got through a game of Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid on Friday night. Ran 4 player and had a fun time. We had kind of fudged a "loss" early due to all 4 areas being panicked, but then when I was reading up on rules and FAQs later, found out we had actually shorted ourselves on some rules and would've actually been fine! So our win at the end was actually legit and we didn't have to add an asterisk on it. The final fight against Rita came down to needing to beat one card with an attack, and that left us with one energy left for one attack (Tyrannosaurus Slash!) that we needed to take her out and we got enough hits with the reroll! Otherwise we likely would've all been knocked out and needed to start the fight all over.
The coop strategery is fun, each ranger having their own deck and style of play is really cool. I'm looking forward to eventually getting some expansions for more options, and probably backing the new KS next month. All the art and style on the game is the perfect blending of nostalgia and modern updates and it makes the game all the enjoyable.
Did anybody who played Season 1 end up with a character ever taking a scar? I think avoiding those was always top of our list.
Also what did people do with their used games? It seems a shame to bin it, but I suppose I could harvest the nice cubes
Sometimes it's unavoidable. Usually when an epidemic and/or outbreak hits.
Yeah, we had a couple unavoidable, and I think once or twice purposefully did so to win the game when it was close.
As for the game stuff, my copy of Pandemic was the first edition, so I used the cards and components from legacy to upgrade it. I framed the board and some legacy components for my friend who played with us and he has it hanging on the wall.
My season 1 map is mounted on the wall, with comments and in-jokes written on it with gold paint pen.
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I am waiting to get a signature to put my S2 map on the wall.
Also what did people do with their used games? It seems a shame to bin it, but I suppose I could harvest the nice cubes
I used the box from season 2 and the plastic card insert from season 1 to fit a sleeved copy of non-Legacy Pandemic and all its expansions into a single box.
It's not a perfectly organized box but it does physically hold four smaller boxes worth of components.
Anyone have recommendations for good pre-made inserts to grab for Gloomhaven or Twilight Imperium 4th edition?
Never done custom inserts before but both of these games take so long to setup, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet just to improve setup time.
Preferably someplace that's either in Canada or has decent shipping there, so the cost of the things don't double.
Can I recommend the 50 Zippered Sandwich Bags insert for Gloomhaven? Should be available at your local grocery store, and it's both cheap and effective.
Edit: also there's a Gloomhaven thread, you should visit it
I haven't tried to deal with either of those games ever but the broken token for scythe has been great. Literally just pull out each tray, remove lids, pass out player boards, go.
I've been considering it for terraforming mars as well.
Anyone have recommendations for good pre-made inserts to grab for Gloomhaven or Twilight Imperium 4th edition?
Never done custom inserts before but both of these games take so long to setup, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet just to improve setup time.
Preferably someplace that's either in Canada or has decent shipping there, so the cost of the things don't double.
Folded space have inserts for both
I just assembled their founders of gloomhaven one and was very impressed
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Happy to report to the thread that I finally had the gumption to unwrap the enemy factions in Spirit Island this weekend. Threw in a Blighted Island card, as well.
We did a pretty good job of coordinating our three-Spirit team, but there was a lot of tension once the Kingdom of Sweden started civilizing the Dahan with their explorers and turning them against us. Ultimately, we were able to close the game out only by hitting Terror 3; I don't think there was any real chance we'd ever have cleared all the villages.
Spread of Rampant Green remains my go-to. I'm looking forward to the second set when it gets here, though!
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
Haven't done anything for TI 4th, but I did find some pretty cool 3D print models that will take a couple months to print, that I want my friend to make.
I'll need to look into the Folding Space one. A lighter organizer is likely good for that game.
I also bought what may be the last copy of Burgle Bros from my store. There was either a kickstarter or errata bag attached to it, I'm not sure which. Still no word on whether the store can order BB2, but I'm hoping so I can support the KS and the store.
Happy to report to the thread that I finally had the gumption to unwrap the enemy factions in Spirit Island this weekend. Threw in a Blighted Island card, as well.
We did a pretty good job of coordinating our three-Spirit team, but there was a lot of tension once the Kingdom of Sweden started civilizing the Dahan with their explorers and turning them against us. Ultimately, we were able to close the game out only by hitting Terror 3; I don't think there was any real chance we'd ever have cleared all the villages.
Spread of Rampant Green remains my go-to. I'm looking forward to the second set when it gets here, though!
We also had a rare adversary game this past weekend. We started with France on level 0 (just the setup and Escalation abilities); Shadows Flicker Like Flame and Spread of Rampant Green handled that without too much difficulty.
Then we ran it back with the same formation but on Level 1. Turns out doubling up on Explorers is SUPER BAD for Shadows' ability to pull lone dudes away from building sites and we got obliterated.
Happy to report to the thread that I finally had the gumption to unwrap the enemy factions in Spirit Island this weekend. Threw in a Blighted Island card, as well.
We did a pretty good job of coordinating our three-Spirit team, but there was a lot of tension once the Kingdom of Sweden started civilizing the Dahan with their explorers and turning them against us. Ultimately, we were able to close the game out only by hitting Terror 3; I don't think there was any real chance we'd ever have cleared all the villages.
Spread of Rampant Green remains my go-to. I'm looking forward to the second set when it gets here, though!
We also had a rare adversary game this past weekend. We started with France on level 0 (just the setup and Escalation abilities); Shadows Flicker Like Flame and Spread of Rampant Green handled that without too much difficulty.
Then we ran it back with the same formation but on Level 1. Turns out doubling up on Explorers is SUPER BAD for Shadows' ability to pull lone dudes away from building sites and we got obliterated.
We had a very serious shortage of big damage all game but were great at steering the Swedes around to harmless spaces - or denial - with Shadows, Green, and Vital Strength of the Earth. Closing out the towns was the trouble before power duplication let me teleport a bunch of Dahan right where Shadows could make them go on a rampage.
Only L1 Sweden, too. Surprisingly thin game for blight, considering, but the steering and bonus presence for Earth helped a ton there.
For Gloomhaven I bought three hobby store plastic cases with like forty adjustable compartments in each one and store all the counters, monster tokens, small-size cards and stuff in those. The room pieces go into a larger plastic folder and the cards (and the monster attribute cards) all go in old Netrunner deckboxes (sleeved if they're going to be used). Characters I'm not using stay in the actual Gloomhaven box, and the only time I have to reopen it is to get a new characters stuff and stash an old one.
It's not a storage solution that gets everything neatly into the Gloomhaven box, but honestly having it all in easily accessible plastic trays is better for frequent play.
Yeah three Plano boxes is how most of ours is stored too. All the tokens, tiles, standees, and monster action cards live outside the box and everything else inside.
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
edited August 2019
So basically the core of my Gloomhaven storage solution is this:
It's just the original foam dividers, turned into monster storage. It took me a few minutes to cut each slot. I just left them out on the table with my cutting tools for a few days and did a couple every now and then while I was waiting for something to load/cook/arrive. I backed them with some mat board (stiff cardboard) I bought for a few dollars on sale, to give a little extra structural integrity.
It stacks away neatly with the standard insert:
What I'd like to do is build a small foamcore insert to go in here in that gap on the right, filled with the tokens that are actually used during scenarios - wounds, conditions, coins, summons. Right now they're all stored there in zip bags, along with the boss tokens.
The obsacles and doors and stuff aren't so important; you only need them once really, during setup, and it never really changes much after that. The round to round markers, on the other hand, are something it would be great to have something slightly better for, that you can just pull out and play with so you're not constantly going back and forth into bags through your entire game. Anyway, that's a future project, which is why I don't really consider this a finished solution. It wouldn't be that hard, and I'd probably get 85% of the functionality of a dedicated store-bought storage solution, for about the same time investment.
Anyway, you can just keep stacking things up on top:
(possibly room for another insert on the left there, if I were really keen to have one for obstacles, doors, etc.)
If I get really organised with the tiles, I can pretty much get it so everything is in the box with a couple cm of clearance and I end up using the spare foam cutoff just to pad the box lid. As it stands I think I could probably repeat what I've done and I'd have a fair chance of fitting the entire expansion into the main box too, if I were super scrupulous with space. Which I can actually afford, seeing as I only spent a few dollars on putting together a storage solution.
Anyone have recommendations for good pre-made inserts to grab for Gloomhaven or Twilight Imperium 4th edition?
Never done custom inserts before but both of these games take so long to setup, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet just to improve setup time.
Preferably someplace that's either in Canada or has decent shipping there, so the cost of the things don't double.
The broken token insert is solid and does make things a bit easier. Rather expensive, so not sure if it fits your goals. Even if it doesnt, you may want to take a close look at some videos of the organizer and see if you can jury rig something based on it. (Like the part that organizes all the cards is great and thats a lot of setup time saved.)
The Go7Gaming insert for Gloomhaven is my personal pick. It can fit every character box (others do not) and every card sleeved, too. I went all out for that game...
...and still haven't touched it yet. I'm terrible. I started playing Journeys in Middle-Earth as my next campaign game instead and am loving that one.
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
I have the broken token insert for Gloomhaven, and it's pretty nice. A few notes:
It doesn't help (really) with one of the biggest issues in set up, i.e., it doesn't really organize the map tiles at all. And, in fact, it kind of requires you to re-stack the tiles in exactly the right order in order for them to fit in the small tray so that the lid will still close and sit flush. It's my least favorite part of the insert by miles.
It took about ~2 hours to assemble, and I've assembled a number of organizers and trays, so if you're comfortable with this sort of thing, expect an evening of assembly. If you're not familiar, it'll probably take you a bit longer than that.
The tuck boxes for monsters, tbh, are also not..great? They're fine. But they have several monsters in the same tuckbox, so it's a bit fiddly to get everything in the correct place.
Also, it assumes you'll be playing 4 player, as there isn't room in the box for all of the character tuckboxes. You have to either flatten 4 (and leave the components in the player trays), or keep them out of the box separately.
Lastly, I think the biggest thing you can do for Gloomhaven organization is to simply use Gloomhaven Helper app to track all the fiddly bits, and just use the Monster standees, the map tiles, and condition markers (you can do it in the app as well, but it's kind of also very fiddly and easy to miss / forget about). With the benefit of hindsight, I would have gone with a cheaper organizer, namely: Folded Space's foam insert
It's roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the BTT insert, and would be easier to use just the bits of it that organize the pieces I still use, while not getting in the way of everything else.
I will say, though, that the Broken Token card trays are amazingly nice. Extremely handy, easy to use, and have floating amounts of space so you can shift cards around as you unlock things and still have dividers in the correct spots.
In other news, Shut Up and Sit Down, No Pun Included, Board Game Barrage, and So Very Wrong About Games all love Pipeline and it's right in my fiancee's wheelhouse of thinky, visual-spacial, non-direct player interaction that means I think I have to buy it?
Even though I already have Brass: Birmingham and love it, and Hansa Teutonica and love it....and already struggle to get them to the table regularly....MAYBE THIS ONE WILL BE DIFFERENT???
Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
Anyone have any experience with Dungeon Degenerates? The campaign for their third printing is wrapping up and the FOMO is starting to creep in. I know some of the expansions especially have been pretty hard to track down between printings.
Anyone have any experience with Dungeon Degenerates? The campaign for their third printing is wrapping up and the FOMO is starting to creep in. I know some of the expansions especially have been pretty hard to track down between printings.
If you like the art/style and you like wildly random adventure games ala Talisman and Runebound it's real cool. The campaign system and the world building/writing/overall vibe elevate it a lot. If you don't like wildly random adventure games there's nothing for you here.
Anyone have any experience with Dungeon Degenerates? The campaign for their third printing is wrapping up and the FOMO is starting to creep in. I know some of the expansions especially have been pretty hard to track down between printings.
Its Hippy-Dippy 'We're All A Bunch Of Perverts' vibe does not appeal to me, at all, but some friends of mine played an online campaign and really enjoyed it. It's not terribly expensive, either, so I'd say give it a shot if the tone of the campaign sounds attractive.
Tested the waters with the wife and she was immediately all about the game, so I guess that settles it! One glorious thing about marriage is that you can unload some of the guilt for an irresponsible decision onto another person :P
We picked up Underwater Cities a few weeks ago. Haven't had it long enough to have deep thoughts about it, but it's first impressions are good. We've probably played it 4 times now, mostly 2 player.
The hand management / action selection is the meat of the game, trying to always match your card colour to you action to get the most out of your turn.
We haven't played with the mid game goals (corporate goals?) or the advanced side of the boards, and I think they'll add another layer on.
I keep on seeing it compared to Terraforming Mars, which is mostly fair, but your "action" cards are limited so you don't quite get the same massive tableus (sp?) that you get with TM.
The domes aren't strictly necessary, you could have done the same thing with cardboard and not missed much, and the chips are weird. The player-mats are flimsy, although I've heard that's been fixed in later print runs. The iconography for the payouts only made sense to use when we worked out what it meant during play.
Anyone have any experience with Dungeon Degenerates? The campaign for their third printing is wrapping up and the FOMO is starting to creep in. I know some of the expansions especially have been pretty hard to track down between printings.
If you like the art/style and you like wildly random adventure games ala Talisman and Runebound it's real cool. The campaign system and the world building/writing/overall vibe elevate it a lot. If you don't like wildly random adventure games there's nothing for you here.
I got it almost entirely for the art style. Has not disappointd. Has actually been picked a few nights at BG night because someone found the box interesting and so far everyone has enjoyed the game play well enough.
I feel bad for bashing it, because damn someone actually went through the effort to put it back into print and elevate it beyond being a roll & move game, but it just wasn't fun.
Big review for 30+ year old kids' roll & move game:
The original 1986 Fireball Island is probably the most fun you can have with a traditional roll & move game. Me and my parents to this day still have our annual summer time Fireball island game. It's mindless, but always fun to tensely roll fireballs and screw people over with them along with stealing the jewel.
The remake...is a blah victory point accumulation. It doesn't even feel like a race anymore. Or screwing people over. Or much tension at all. The setting for the game is that the previously deadly island has been turned into a tourist spot. You're not treasure hunters anymore willing to rob each other and leave everyone to die by making off with the only rowboat, you're tourists aimlessly wandering around collecting trinkets and souvenirs and taking scenic snapshots. Getting hit by a fireball no longer makes you lose a turn, just dropping one of the dozen generic treasure tokens you can pick up all over the place. The end of the game has everyone board a helicopter (the "Hello-Copter") that has plenty of room for everyone.
In short, the theme unintentionally reflects the gameplay reality: this is a "sanitized" version of the previous deadly Fireball Island by a company to open it up to the public. You're not being nasty to each other with a winner take all mentality. You're meandering around taking tourist pictures and occasionally causing someone to lose one of their plentiful treasure tokens. The jewel is still there and can be stolen, but it hardly seems worth the trouble because it's hard to get to, can be stolen, and is only worth 50% more points than your typical easy to get generic treasure token. Winner is usually whoever manages to match up more matching colored generic treasure tokens...
Check out the cool original art in what is the 2nd greatest board game box art of all time. It had a pulp novel look to it. Tons of little details all over the place where you could almost tell a different story for each of the bits. Terrified explorers in the grips of mortal peril or extreme courage. People hurling themselves at the suicidal trek to grab that precious jewel for fortune and glory.
The awesome art even extended to the cards.
And the board itself. Caves were carved into the cliffs all over the island. Molten lava spilled down paths and waterfalls. Deadly waters crashed against beaches and cliff walls. There were little details in it that took me years to spot like the snake coming out of rocks shaped like a human face, or a smashed boat with skeleton lying on a beach.
Now for the remake we have what now looks like a Saturday morning cartoon show.
How is it someone is being burned alive yet it still feels all kiddie?
Look how boring and nondescript the cards look now.
For the board itself, there's no more tiny details that bring life to it. Special mention needs to be made of the caves. The caves in the original were dark caverns carved into the rock and very easy to spot. Quick, can you spot the cave in this screenshot? It's that teeny tiny, hard to spot, washed out '3' in the top right. They don't even show actual caves anymore, just washed out numbers on random spaces.
Did Restorations Games even play the original? Did they think it was too scary and mean for kids and had to be softened up? Good lord I was only 7 when I first played it and I managed to not be scarred. It *feels* like you're simulating a tourist attraction of a dangerous island mock-up rather than a dangerous island.
By the end of the 2nd game, we all looked at each other with the same "Did we really just spend $60 on this?" look and just went back to playing the original. The Fireball Island remake technically has a more strategic design to it, it's just that none of it is any more fun than the mindless original.
MrBody on
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
I was quite underwhelmed by the FIREBALL ISLAND remake, too. They are doing DARK TOWER next, let's hope that has more of the original's spirit.
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Nice! It's been a while now, but I think I prefer the narrative in S2, and the gameplay in S1. But nothing will compete with the big twist of S1.
I highly recommend playing multiple "prologue" / preview games. The mechanics are way more different than they look on first blush, and it's important to understand how things will progress.
Also, pay special attention to the 2 setup pages and the order of the steps on them. It isn't as clear as it could be. We screwed up a couple of months by not following it properly.
Definitely need to review the rules for season two, as I've heard how they changed it a lot.
Also what did people do with their used games? It seems a shame to bin it, but I suppose I could harvest the nice cubes
Sometimes it's unavoidable. Usually when an epidemic and/or outbreak hits.
Yeah, we had a couple unavoidable, and I think once or twice purposefully did so to win the game when it was close.
As for the game stuff, my copy of Pandemic was the first edition, so I used the cards and components from legacy to upgrade it. I framed the board and some legacy components for my friend who played with us and he has it hanging on the wall.
The coop strategery is fun, each ranger having their own deck and style of play is really cool. I'm looking forward to eventually getting some expansions for more options, and probably backing the new KS next month. All the art and style on the game is the perfect blending of nostalgia and modern updates and it makes the game all the enjoyable.
I used the box from season 2 and the plastic card insert from season 1 to fit a sleeved copy of non-Legacy Pandemic and all its expansions into a single box.
It's not a perfectly organized box but it does physically hold four smaller boxes worth of components.
Never done custom inserts before but both of these games take so long to setup, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet just to improve setup time.
Preferably someplace that's either in Canada or has decent shipping there, so the cost of the things don't double.
Edit: also there's a Gloomhaven thread, you should visit it
I've been considering it for terraforming mars as well.
Folded space have inserts for both
I just assembled their founders of gloomhaven one and was very impressed
We did a pretty good job of coordinating our three-Spirit team, but there was a lot of tension once the Kingdom of Sweden started civilizing the Dahan with their explorers and turning them against us. Ultimately, we were able to close the game out only by hitting Terror 3; I don't think there was any real chance we'd ever have cleared all the villages.
Spread of Rampant Green remains my go-to. I'm looking forward to the second set when it gets here, though!
I'll need to look into the Folding Space one. A lighter organizer is likely good for that game.
I also bought what may be the last copy of Burgle Bros from my store. There was either a kickstarter or errata bag attached to it, I'm not sure which. Still no word on whether the store can order BB2, but I'm hoping so I can support the KS and the store.
We also had a rare adversary game this past weekend. We started with France on level 0 (just the setup and Escalation abilities); Shadows Flicker Like Flame and Spread of Rampant Green handled that without too much difficulty.
Then we ran it back with the same formation but on Level 1. Turns out doubling up on Explorers is SUPER BAD for Shadows' ability to pull lone dudes away from building sites and we got obliterated.
We had a very serious shortage of big damage all game but were great at steering the Swedes around to harmless spaces - or denial - with Shadows, Green, and Vital Strength of the Earth. Closing out the towns was the trouble before power duplication let me teleport a bunch of Dahan right where Shadows could make them go on a rampage.
Only L1 Sweden, too. Surprisingly thin game for blight, considering, but the steering and bonus presence for Earth helped a ton there.
E: Good lord, this new phone.
It's not a storage solution that gets everything neatly into the Gloomhaven box, but honestly having it all in easily accessible plastic trays is better for frequent play.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
I'll see if I can take a pic when I get home in like... 12 hours.
It's just the original foam dividers, turned into monster storage. It took me a few minutes to cut each slot. I just left them out on the table with my cutting tools for a few days and did a couple every now and then while I was waiting for something to load/cook/arrive. I backed them with some mat board (stiff cardboard) I bought for a few dollars on sale, to give a little extra structural integrity.
It stacks away neatly with the standard insert:
What I'd like to do is build a small foamcore insert to go in here in that gap on the right, filled with the tokens that are actually used during scenarios - wounds, conditions, coins, summons. Right now they're all stored there in zip bags, along with the boss tokens.
The obsacles and doors and stuff aren't so important; you only need them once really, during setup, and it never really changes much after that. The round to round markers, on the other hand, are something it would be great to have something slightly better for, that you can just pull out and play with so you're not constantly going back and forth into bags through your entire game. Anyway, that's a future project, which is why I don't really consider this a finished solution. It wouldn't be that hard, and I'd probably get 85% of the functionality of a dedicated store-bought storage solution, for about the same time investment.
Anyway, you can just keep stacking things up on top:
(possibly room for another insert on the left there, if I were really keen to have one for obstacles, doors, etc.)
If I get really organised with the tiles, I can pretty much get it so everything is in the box with a couple cm of clearance and I end up using the spare foam cutoff just to pad the box lid. As it stands I think I could probably repeat what I've done and I'd have a fair chance of fitting the entire expansion into the main box too, if I were super scrupulous with space. Which I can actually afford, seeing as I only spent a few dollars on putting together a storage solution.
The broken token insert is solid and does make things a bit easier. Rather expensive, so not sure if it fits your goals. Even if it doesnt, you may want to take a close look at some videos of the organizer and see if you can jury rig something based on it. (Like the part that organizes all the cards is great and thats a lot of setup time saved.)
...and still haven't touched it yet. I'm terrible. I started playing Journeys in Middle-Earth as my next campaign game instead and am loving that one.
It doesn't help (really) with one of the biggest issues in set up, i.e., it doesn't really organize the map tiles at all. And, in fact, it kind of requires you to re-stack the tiles in exactly the right order in order for them to fit in the small tray so that the lid will still close and sit flush. It's my least favorite part of the insert by miles.
It took about ~2 hours to assemble, and I've assembled a number of organizers and trays, so if you're comfortable with this sort of thing, expect an evening of assembly. If you're not familiar, it'll probably take you a bit longer than that.
The tuck boxes for monsters, tbh, are also not..great? They're fine. But they have several monsters in the same tuckbox, so it's a bit fiddly to get everything in the correct place.
Also, it assumes you'll be playing 4 player, as there isn't room in the box for all of the character tuckboxes. You have to either flatten 4 (and leave the components in the player trays), or keep them out of the box separately.
Lastly, I think the biggest thing you can do for Gloomhaven organization is to simply use Gloomhaven Helper app to track all the fiddly bits, and just use the Monster standees, the map tiles, and condition markers (you can do it in the app as well, but it's kind of also very fiddly and easy to miss / forget about). With the benefit of hindsight, I would have gone with a cheaper organizer, namely:
Folded Space's foam insert
It's roughly 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the BTT insert, and would be easier to use just the bits of it that organize the pieces I still use, while not getting in the way of everything else.
I will say, though, that the Broken Token card trays are amazingly nice. Extremely handy, easy to use, and have floating amounts of space so you can shift cards around as you unlock things and still have dividers in the correct spots.
In other news, Shut Up and Sit Down, No Pun Included, Board Game Barrage, and So Very Wrong About Games all love Pipeline and it's right in my fiancee's wheelhouse of thinky, visual-spacial, non-direct player interaction that means I think I have to buy it?
Even though I already have Brass: Birmingham and love it, and Hansa Teutonica and love it....and already struggle to get them to the table regularly....MAYBE THIS ONE WILL BE DIFFERENT???
If you like the art/style and you like wildly random adventure games ala Talisman and Runebound it's real cool. The campaign system and the world building/writing/overall vibe elevate it a lot. If you don't like wildly random adventure games there's nothing for you here.
Its Hippy-Dippy 'We're All A Bunch Of Perverts' vibe does not appeal to me, at all, but some friends of mine played an online campaign and really enjoyed it. It's not terribly expensive, either, so I'd say give it a shot if the tone of the campaign sounds attractive.
The hand management / action selection is the meat of the game, trying to always match your card colour to you action to get the most out of your turn.
We haven't played with the mid game goals (corporate goals?) or the advanced side of the boards, and I think they'll add another layer on.
I keep on seeing it compared to Terraforming Mars, which is mostly fair, but your "action" cards are limited so you don't quite get the same massive tableus (sp?) that you get with TM.
The domes aren't strictly necessary, you could have done the same thing with cardboard and not missed much, and the chips are weird. The player-mats are flimsy, although I've heard that's been fixed in later print runs. The iconography for the payouts only made sense to use when we worked out what it meant during play.
I got it almost entirely for the art style. Has not disappointd. Has actually been picked a few nights at BG night because someone found the box interesting and so far everyone has enjoyed the game play well enough.
Meh, didn't really like it.
I feel bad for bashing it, because damn someone actually went through the effort to put it back into print and elevate it beyond being a roll & move game, but it just wasn't fun.
Big review for 30+ year old kids' roll & move game:
The remake...is a blah victory point accumulation. It doesn't even feel like a race anymore. Or screwing people over. Or much tension at all. The setting for the game is that the previously deadly island has been turned into a tourist spot. You're not treasure hunters anymore willing to rob each other and leave everyone to die by making off with the only rowboat, you're tourists aimlessly wandering around collecting trinkets and souvenirs and taking scenic snapshots. Getting hit by a fireball no longer makes you lose a turn, just dropping one of the dozen generic treasure tokens you can pick up all over the place. The end of the game has everyone board a helicopter (the "Hello-Copter") that has plenty of room for everyone.
In short, the theme unintentionally reflects the gameplay reality: this is a "sanitized" version of the previous deadly Fireball Island by a company to open it up to the public. You're not being nasty to each other with a winner take all mentality. You're meandering around taking tourist pictures and occasionally causing someone to lose one of their plentiful treasure tokens. The jewel is still there and can be stolen, but it hardly seems worth the trouble because it's hard to get to, can be stolen, and is only worth 50% more points than your typical easy to get generic treasure token. Winner is usually whoever manages to match up more matching colored generic treasure tokens...
Check out the cool original art in what is the 2nd greatest board game box art of all time. It had a pulp novel look to it. Tons of little details all over the place where you could almost tell a different story for each of the bits. Terrified explorers in the grips of mortal peril or extreme courage. People hurling themselves at the suicidal trek to grab that precious jewel for fortune and glory.
The awesome art even extended to the cards.
And the board itself. Caves were carved into the cliffs all over the island. Molten lava spilled down paths and waterfalls. Deadly waters crashed against beaches and cliff walls. There were little details in it that took me years to spot like the snake coming out of rocks shaped like a human face, or a smashed boat with skeleton lying on a beach.
Now for the remake we have what now looks like a Saturday morning cartoon show.
How is it someone is being burned alive yet it still feels all kiddie?
Look how boring and nondescript the cards look now.
For the board itself, there's no more tiny details that bring life to it. Special mention needs to be made of the caves. The caves in the original were dark caverns carved into the rock and very easy to spot. Quick, can you spot the cave in this screenshot? It's that teeny tiny, hard to spot, washed out '3' in the top right. They don't even show actual caves anymore, just washed out numbers on random spaces.
Did Restorations Games even play the original? Did they think it was too scary and mean for kids and had to be softened up? Good lord I was only 7 when I first played it and I managed to not be scarred. It *feels* like you're simulating a tourist attraction of a dangerous island mock-up rather than a dangerous island.
By the end of the 2nd game, we all looked at each other with the same "Did we really just spend $60 on this?" look and just went back to playing the original. The Fireball Island remake technically has a more strategic design to it, it's just that none of it is any more fun than the mindless original.