Okay, so I’ve been eyeing the $100 tournament bundle and just keep wondering “is it worth it?” I really want the minis and have some other uses for them as well, but the day I was going to pull the trigger and finally just buy it, I see the announcement that GtG is completely dropping all support for Tactics. So, are the minis alone worth 100 bucks? Is the game good enough to be worth owning despite the company abandoning it? Sell me on Tactics (or convince me to stay away).
Thanks.
You should be able to purchase minis separately if that’s what you are primarily looking for.
Yeah, but getting all three sets of minis pre-painted cost similar to just buying the bundle.
Also, if it wasn’t clear, I AM interested in the game, but seeing that GtG isn’t my question stands: is it worth picking up at this point?
It's a competent tactical game. The scenarios are fun, each of the heroes plays recognisably differently, it nails the feeling of using a superhero's powers to change the battlefield and it looks amazing. Seriously, it's some of my favourite boardgame art.
In the interest of honesty, I play solo almost exclusively (so my experience is atypcial) but it's still a blast.
The minis aren't top quality, especially painted. They remind me of the early MageKnight minis in quality (i.e. acceptable but just barely). They're fun enough though, since they're of all the familiar characters (though, in their Tactics incarnations, so don't expect them to match the outfits from the card game). IMO, I don't think they're worth $100 and would recommend waiting to see what the newer, higher-quality minis are like that should come with Prime War. But only you know how badly you want them, so it's up to you. :)
In the Prime War announcement, they mentioned that they'll be offering a conversion kit to bring Tactics in line with the new ruleset. (They are hoping to be able to offer the kit for $10). I suggest reading the what gameplay info there is for Prime War, and deciding whether that game (which will be noticeably different) sounds fun to you.
I am not otherwise a tactical minis player, so I enjoyed that the rules were quite light, for a tactical minis game. I particularly liked the dice system -- how dice encompassed both a range of attack and an ability to block an attack.
I found the skirmish version of the game somewhat 'samey'. There was an awful lot of rush into the center and try to do your biggest attack as soon as possible. On the other hand, in a tournament situation where you get the meta of which characters got chosen for each team, I found it fascinating. I didn't play through many of the packaged scenarios, but I'd take them with a grain of salt. I'm not sure they got the playtesting they needed and some of them are very unbalanced. On the other hand, there were some posted solo and team games/scenarios that looked like a lot of fun, though I never ended up playing them.
You can probably find better tactical minis games -- in fact Prime War will probably be better. If _you_ enjoy the game and can find people to play with (or enjoy solo play) then it could still be great. I have fond memories of many games played. Perhaps try watching some Youtube videos of game play to see if you like it.
Well, bias here as one of the designers of Prime War, I still enjoy Tactics, and my company’s love of Tactics is what got us here in the first place. If you want to get the game for the whole experience (game scenarios minis) go for it. You’ll have that and with the upgrade kit you will be able to play those characters (though changed for balance and to fit in our system) in Prime War.
If it’s just for the minis, meh. I echo sentiments in here, the minis are not the best. Our copy had the aggravating propensity to pop out of their plastic stands whenever we stored them causing us to have to figure out how put them back together everytime we wanted to play.
Edit: Also if you follow Arenson’s advice of watching YouTube videos, you should watch us, the owners of Lore Forge, place 2nd as The Adaptive Subroutines in the World Finals. We had some really fun matches there =)
Thanks for weighing in everyone.
CodieH, follow-up question: I just have The Flame of Freedom. If I buy the conversion kit and nothing else, will I have a playable game using the Prime War rules? Or will I need at least the Prime War core set?
Sorry for the late reply.
However, we’re still determining what the conversion kit will consist of, so I can’t definitively say. I know we’re trying to keep cost low so it’s easy to get to people who want the kit. 100% the Flame of Freedom characters will be playable in Prime War with it. However, once we have a more solid answer, I’ll be waaay more comfortable answering that question
Thanks for the answer.
I don't get to go out much, to see demos at cons or whatever, and my friends even less so, so a low-cost way to demo the game this way would go a long way in getting me to buy in.
That’s a really interesting idea - would they put the conversion kit out well in advance of the Prime War core game release, so that we can try the new system on the old boards?
Do we have any idea what time frame we're looking for with Prime War? I've come to take GtG release estimates with a gallon jug of salt, but I'm getting frustrated hearing about the "Tactics Timeline" on the Letters Page and not seeing any activity relating to the actual game that uses that setting.
It's the Mist Storm universe, not the Tactics Timeline, and it has been for a while.
And the official announcement was 12-18 months. Obviously there are things that alter that, but I'm confident in their ability to provide a roughly accurate estimate.
Why are you confident in that? They haven’t been able to provide an accurate estimate for OblivAeon, Earth Prime, the RPG, the Tactics Pre-Order for the game that is literally not going to exist. Has GtG ever has an accurate estimate on any of their products?
Because this is something they've done before. OblivAeon grew in scope and had the case, I can't speak for Earth-Prime but I can't imagine the OblivAeon delay helped there, the RPG has been pushed back because Kickstarters still needing fulfillment and the Tactics pre-order was so long ago with a game they decided needed improving upon that I'm happy to wait for the product I paid for.
I'm also willing to give them the benefit of the doubt considering this part of the announcement:
"Given our the history of delays and false starts with Prime War, we are unable to honestly guarantee a specific release date. However, given the speed at which development has been happening the last few months, it seems very likely that Prime War will be released some time in the next 12-18 months. We are not planning a Kickstarter campaign for this product, which speeds up the timeline quite a bit. In addition, we are starting an intensive playtesting campaign for Prime War in August, as soon as the intensive playtesting cycle for Sentinels of Earth-Prime is completed. Once that gets underway, we should have a clearer idea of the targeted release date."
If anything else, at this point, I'm pretty sure they have a good idea about turnaround time for a project they're in complete control of.
Plus, it's just a game. Yes, I paid years ago for it. Yes, I would like it now. But stuff happens. They're still going to honour my purchase, so it's all good by me.
I can dig up the previous updates regarding Broken City and For Profit where they likewise said they were confident in the (at the time) current development while they were advising of delays. They've given this line more than once. They outsourced the game development for Prime War to Lore Forge Games a year ago and didn't mention it despite frequent requests for anything at all about the status of the game. GTG has stonewalled the customers for years regarding the status of Prime War other than a rote it will be done when it's done and they won't say anything more about it. Whatever we may think of their products, their service and customer appreciation leaves much to be desired IMO. I'm through with any other GTG Kickstarters and pre-orders. As for Oblivaeon and Prime War, I'll believe them when it is on my doostep, not before.
And it's your right to do so.
I thought Lore Forge were involved (as in, the creators) with Tactics as well.
I'm not saying the communication has been great, by the way. I'm just happy to accept their honest estimate.
The people who make up Lore Forge were tourney players of Sentinel Tactics, not designers.
Edit: please note I do not say this to disparage them, only to clarify the facts. I look forward to seeing what they will do with the property, however they are a fledgling game company with only playing experience in their CV, and knowing this may have affected people’s decisions to maintain their investment in Prime War.