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So, after reading quite a bit about this game here on BGG, I finally took the plunge and picked it up. I played the first scenario twice one night on my own (made a bunch of mistakes that were good to get out of the way).
Next was a game with my buddy Matt. He's an experienced gamer (who got me into games in the first place), so we jumped straight to scenario 3, knowing he'd be bored with anything less. Played it twice (technically, we didn't finish the first, forgetting that after killing Kendall, I had to get the virus and escape the map), and by halfway through the first game he'd figured out that the super-complicated-looking character cards aren't really that bad once you know how to compartmentalize the icon clusters and started asking questions about character abilities and such. After we finished the second game, he got pretty stoked looking at the equipment cards and reading about character abilities (especially Jack Saw's wall-buster).
Game Note 1: In one of those games, Nick Bolter (or "Michael Bolton" to Matt) used his 7cp to just maul Jessica Hollister, shooting her, running up behind her, stabbing her in the back, and running away. It was beautiful. For me. Meanwhile, Matt developed an instant loathing of "Michael Bolton" (more on this in a bit).
For my third go-round, we played with the whole group in 4-player SAGS. The other guys are also experienced gamers, so we dove straight into the full rule set. It took an unfortunate amount of prep time (about an hour to set up the board while explaining/thinking through the process, and another long stretch to explain the critical rules, saving things like search and interact for when they became relevant), then the game ran pretty long, but we enjoyed it.
Game Note 2: So, Matt's hatred of "Michael Bolton" continued into this game, and, remembering the "Kill Nick Bolter" mission from previewing them last time, he had his fingers crossed...and got it! I knew immediately by his cheer, and, for the sake of being sporting, I had taken Bolter already (we may have done some set-up stuff out of order). He had Jack Saw, and set out on a mission to destroy "Bolton," which never happened, but made for a great "subplot" to the game as Jack chased Bolter all over the map, busting through walls and generally terrifying me. It was great.
Anyway, so I think Matt will play the 2-player game with me more, and I think the other guys liked it OK too...BUT, it took WAY too long to set up and ended up chewing up our entire game time. Obviously game play speed/fluidity will improve with experience, but the setup is an issue. Plus, we ended up with a map that was LOUSY for the Mammoth (no room to maneuver).
So, here are my thoughts/questions:
1) Next time, I plan to set up a random-ish board myself ahead of time, trying to strike a balance of indoor/outdoor spaces, room for that Mammoth, and interesting rooms with which to interact. From there, we'll just select characters, equipment, and missions and be off and running. Any reason that would be dumb?
2) Why is Cherokee Bill taken out of the 4-player game? We used him (I had him), and just made his IPS line inactive (like the rules say to do with Frank). I can't see why this is a problem. His flamer is nifty and not overpowered, in my opinion, and he ended up being the only one in the game to die (getting thrashed by Jessica with the titanium claws after she was a victim of grenade splash damage, unintentionally, twice in two turns), so I think he's fairly balanced, overall. Am I missing something?
3) I feel like the search rules are rough. Can't decide whether to use the user-generated sheet on BGG that tells what equipment is on either side of the cards (seems like not knowing is kind of part of the game, but also leads to useless searches if someone else is already using the opposite side of the card you're searching for). Would anyone care to share thoughts or link a related thread (I didn't find a one, but may have used the wrong search terms...is that ironic?).
I feel like I had other thoughts, but this post is long enough, so I won't rack my brain for them. Thanks for reading! (Those of you who made it through to the end  )
(EDIT)
I feel like, if you have a pretty experienced bunch of gamers, you could dive right into the complete rule set pretty quickly (like I said, we threw two guys in on their first go-round). Things like searching, capturing, torturing, destroying and interacting with the environment can be mentioned as possible actions and explained when they come up in the game. I made a little cheat sheet of all the "stuff" you can do, so they'd know what was available and could ask me how to go about it.
HOWEVER, the campaigns I've seen (two- and multi-player) seem pretty fun in and of themselves. Is there any reason one couldn't play the earlier campaigns with the full rules (even if they're not required)?
Ryan
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Shane Larsen
United States
Salt Lake City
Utah
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I've seen people do a full SAGS by forum/email. If you wanted, you could do the set up this way a day or two before y'all get together. Then you could set up the board before they come to your place to play.
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Andy
United States
Piney Flats
Tennessee
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TheCrazyPiper wrote: Can't decide whether to use the user-generated sheet on BGG that tells what equipment is on either side of the cards (seems like not knowing is kind of part of the game, but also leads to useless searches if someone else is already using the opposite side of the card you're searching for). Would anyone care to share thoughts or link a related thread (I didn't find a one, but may have used the wrong search terms...is that ironic?).
Page 25 in the rulebook states in red text: "Important: At any time a player can look at the back side of any Equipment card carried by any Character whether friendly or enemy (Useful if desperately searching for Equipment that might be “hiding” on the other side of an Equipment card)."
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Shoot, that's right! I remember that now, but forgot it in the moment. Poor Chris... That would have helped him a LOT! Thanks!
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J
United States
San Diego
California
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Moved to Sessions
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Posted Fri Feb 3, 2012 4:18 am
