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Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




A quick a dirty review on shadespire after getting to play it a few times.

Ive bought and played every GW board game (even calth and prospero!) except lost patrol and hammerhall

Minis - Pretty much snap fit, with 3-4 pieces at most for each. Very little to clean up. I glued mine just because they hold up better with more use. Good chance I wont paint them, as like most of us, the backlog on painting is huge. They are nice though over all

Components - Thick and easily punchable tokens and the board have a nice matt finish. Card stock is pretty standard. If heavy use, would recommend sleeves. Gives you extra baggies to store all the tokens in. Something a lot of board games usually don't do, so that was a plus. Dice are nice. Im always a fan of enough for both players, but most of the time they give you bare min, which is standard.

Gameplay - There is a quick play sheet on moving and attacking. I skipped this as I got to play it at gencon so I had a basic idea how it worked. A useful sheet though for first timers to understand the basic concepts. Rulebook is well laid out, with a reference on the back. Didn't have to much trouble finding rules. Though the critical rule did confuse me. Im not sure if I roll 2 crits if you need to roll just one, or if you need to roll 2 also.

The game is 3 rounds after set up. You can "do over" your hands as they call it. You take the whole hand and dump it of either objectives, power card, or both. It would be better to discard, draw new ones, then shuffle them back in but oh well.

4 Activations a around makes it so there is 12 activations in total for each player in a game. I played Khorne twice. So far not to impressed. They get 1 shotted by every stormcast pretty much, which I understand, its just not great that chances are youll only flip when 3 of your dudes are dead. The game is heavy on objectives, as that's how you win. Games do seem to last 30 min most, to which when both players know the rules well I can see a game taking 20 min maybe.

To me, its kind of Gorechosen has a baby with a little bit of bloodbowl. Over all, I liked it better then a lot of their games. I may get the orruks and undead if I can find them at a discount. It will have at least have 6 expansions before it dies off. No to sound bleak but bloodbowl is the only thing I know that's still going and supported. Maybe this will catch on, and I hope it does.

So a pretty descent game to play, but its future like most GW board games is not great
   
Made in jp
Longtime Dakkanaut





Thanks for the review. I think you are being overly negative about the game's future especially given your own positive review. There are already 3 announced competitive events. Blood and glory sold 32 tickets on the first day, which is impressive since most people don't have the game yet.
I have been told that skaven and fyreslayers are coming this year. That's 6 warbands in 3 months. Bloodbowl had 5 teams in its first 11 months.
Given the way GW operates and the way they have been talking about shadespire, I strongly suspect that the season 2 warbands have already been made.
Most importantly, the game plays well and reviewers who have played a dozen or more games feel like they are just scratching the surface of the card mechanics. I have yet to see a reviewer who actively dislikes the game.
Silver tower was pretty successful but there were quite a few negative reviews early on.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/12 15:15:31


 
   
Made in ca
Longtime Dakkanaut





I kinda agree with you, I can see this as another cash grab quick play then forget by GW.

Oh well...... Maybe soon they will creat a board game for legendary aka whfb that will be a instant buy.

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Made in us
Clousseau




We'll see. In my area it has not registered as even a blip but... who knows. It is designed specifically for the minmax crowd and I think that it has great potential.
   
Made in gb
Executing Exarch





 auticus wrote:
We'll see. In my area it has not registered as even a blip but... who knows. It is designed specifically for the minmax crowd and I think that it has great potential.


I agree, it looks interesting but given GW's way of doing things, ie the Apple way of locking their game to their product, I doubt we will see separate cards and wotnot to enable players to go figure agnostic, which is their choice and equally my choice not to buy it

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Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut





I assume if this game is successful with its 6 expansions already in the pipeline, then we will get a new core Underworld game that is not in "Shadespire," plus expansions for that region.
   
Made in us
Veteran Knight Baron in a Crusader




Oakland, CA

The game seems to be the answer to FFG-style competitive minature games.

As it's GW's first foray into that market, it's difficult to foresee the long term, especially without taking sales figures into account.
   
Made in se
Executing Exarch






Really looking forward to this. Based on the competitive focus, fast play time, X-Wing like release model, pre-release hype, GWs strong IP, aesthetic and model quality, I expect it to do very well commercially and stick around for many years to come. But we'll see.
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






I think the 'best of three' will appeal to most tournament goers.

It's a good way to offset dice based betrayals, which lets face it can wreck even the greatest player's outcome in any tournament. And with the cards being random drawn, that's another factor that might conspire to defeat you mitigated (I mean, surely we've all played MtG when you cannot draw Land for love nor money, yeah?)

   
Made in us
Sword-Bearing Inquisitorial Crusader




Can confirm, there is product support (nice stuff) designed through March 2018.
Monthly prize kits and quarterly prize kits.
Monthlys are unique art versions of cards, quarterly is that, plus a bunch more. Serious shift in quantity, and hopefully a new standard.
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





West Michigan, deep in Whitebread, USA

A question for those who have played:

Are there any rules for spaces of special terrain? From all of the previews I seem to get the impression that all the terrain printed on the boards is just for looks, which is really boring if the models are basically moving around a field of empty hexes.



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Made in gb
Infiltrating Broodlord





England

Some squares are impassable terrain. That seems to be it.

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Made in us
Been Around the Block




It is supposed to be a fast, brutal, in your face board/card game. There is like 3 hexes that are blank that is basically impassable, but otherwise you move about pretty freely. That being said, placement of the board makes it interesting as you don't have to line up all the hexes on the two boards. You can place them in a way that can make choke points, or a long hallway or just one big open space. I think board placement will matter more than any kind of printed on terrain.
   
Made in us
Stealthy Warhound Titan Princeps






So I got this today and played a few rounds with my friend. I was Stormcast and he was Khorne.

He tabled me each time, always killing one of my Stormcast in the first turn. He also rolled a crit on almost every roll, so I don't know if I can really talk about the mechanics...

It felt like defense was extremely weak - if an enemy was attacking you it was going to deal damage. 2 dice = 2 chances to crit. 1 dice = 1 chance to crit. Sure, I defend on 2 dice faces (plus crit, or 3+crit when Guarding) but the odds seem (without doing any math) in the attacker's favor.
On that note, the only successful defenses were on the Khorne side (my Stormcast got damaged with every attack he made - literally) but there were only 2 or 3.
Initiative was always 4-5 rolls because we'd either score no crits or the same number of crits, and that felt really weird.
The Khorne guy with the chained axe getting supported by allies felt "cheap" to me, since I don't think Stormcast have any sort of tactic. I assume we're not supposed to need as much support but considering my guys were cut down time and time again and I only ever killed Targor in any given game, it feels like Stormcast should have more ways of removing support/gaining support when they shouldn't.

Overall: I had a positive impression of the game but an extremely negative judgement of the Stormcasts, which is funny because the OP appears to have had a far different experience regarding the Khornates.

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Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





played a couple times(3) . Won 2 lost 1 (won with stormcast and khorne, lost with stormcast) The game is just above mediocre. Its not great, but its not bad either. I can see it having some appeal, but also see gw dropping it if it doesnt take off. IT really needs more factions sooner. preferably the AoS orignals. Overlords and sylvaneth would be nice asap.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut



Tacoma, WA

Rihgu wrote:
So I got this today and played a few rounds with my friend. I was Stormcast and he was Khorne.

He tabled me each time, always killing one of my Stormcast in the first turn. He also rolled a crit on almost every roll, so I don't know if I can really talk about the mechanics...

It felt like defense was extremely weak - if an enemy was attacking you it was going to deal damage. 2 dice = 2 chances to crit. 1 dice = 1 chance to crit. Sure, I defend on 2 dice faces (plus crit, or 3+crit when Guarding) but the odds seem (without doing any math) in the attacker's favor.
On that note, the only successful defenses were on the Khorne side (my Stormcast got damaged with every attack he made - literally) but there were only 2 or 3.
Initiative was always 4-5 rolls because we'd either score no crits or the same number of crits, and that felt really weird.
The Khorne guy with the chained axe getting supported by allies felt "cheap" to me, since I don't think Stormcast have any sort of tactic. I assume we're not supposed to need as much support but considering my guys were cut down time and time again and I only ever killed Targor in any given game, it feels like Stormcast should have more ways of removing support/gaining support when they shouldn't.

Overall: I had a positive impression of the game but an extremely negative judgement of the Stormcasts, which is funny because the OP appears to have had a far different experience regarding the Khornates.


I played six games today. Some of the most decisive victories were with Stormcast. Just remember that you can place the boards short end to short end, creating a long corridor, and you don't need to deploy them up front. Deploy them as far away as you can next to an objective, and with your actions cycle your cards until you find the appropriate objective card to score. Stormcast upgrades seem to be way better than Khorne, so beef you guys up, go on guard, and let the fight come to you
   
Made in us
Archmagos Veneratus Extremis






Home Base: Prosper, TX (Dallas)

 thekingofkings wrote:
played a couple times(3) . Won 2 lost 1 (won with stormcast and khorne, lost with stormcast) The game is just above mediocre. Its not great, but its not bad either. I can see it having some appeal, but also see gw dropping it if it doesnt take off. IT really needs more factions sooner. preferably the AoS orignals. Overlords and sylvaneth would be nice asap.


Well we'very got aos original bloodbound and stormcast in the starter. AoS original ironjawz in the second release (original as it's got its own battletome, fluff, and got new units), in the third wave we've got aos original fireslayers and in the last one back to the two aos originals. I expect if it goes well the second season will have a similar spread.

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Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





 Hulksmash wrote:
 thekingofkings wrote:
played a couple times(3) . Won 2 lost 1 (won with stormcast and khorne, lost with stormcast) The game is just above mediocre. Its not great, but its not bad either. I can see it having some appeal, but also see gw dropping it if it doesnt take off. IT really needs more factions sooner. preferably the AoS orignals. Overlords and sylvaneth would be nice asap.


Well we'very got aos original bloodbound and stormcast in the starter. AoS original ironjawz in the second release (original as it's got its own battletome, fluff, and got new units), in the third wave we've got aos original fireslayers and in the last one back to the two aos originals. I expect if it goes well the second season will have a similar spread.


Stormcast i consider originals, and fyreslayers, the rest so far are just rehashed warhammer. I personally want to see AoS breakout and finally really be its own thing. there is mammoth potential that I feel is being wasted and not exploited so far.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





 thekingofkings wrote:
played a couple times(3) . Won 2 lost 1 (won with stormcast and khorne, lost with stormcast) The game is just above mediocre. Its not great, but its not bad either. I can see it having some appeal, but also see gw dropping it if it doesnt take off. IT really needs more factions sooner. preferably the AoS orignals. Overlords and sylvaneth would be nice asap.


I feel you. Even my local GW manager admitted that GW has done little to inspire confidence that the company will support the game. It comes off like a child that wants to start a new project but when they don't get immediate praise by the parents, they decide that they hate it and never touch it again.

We've got two more factions coming up, as well as two more after that should be available before 2018. Six warbands and all the cards they bring should be enough to get the tourney scene kicked off in 2018, but it's not going to kick off if the people that got the core set don't show it off at their local game stores. GW hypes it as best they can, but if people don't buy and play the product, then they will drop it like the aforementioned child.

I really want to see it succeed because I've watched games that were easy to follow and were really intense. It's got a lot of promise, especially as people start building their decks differently to feel out the meta.

But at the end of the day, you're right. If GW does what they did with ALL of their other specialist games and just... drops it, then it'll die off and all of the people that bought into it early will probably not be very happy. :/ I'm justifying it as "Well, at least I get a small sampling of neat unique units that I can practice painting on."

This is GW's only chance. If they drop support for this, nobody will take any specialist game from them seriously again, and those with less popular armies in AoS and 40k will feel disheartened as well. "They dropped all those specialist games and we still don't have a codex, so... guess that's the end of that" they'll think.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/22 20:36:06


 
   
Made in se
Executing Exarch






They're releasing two new warbands in a week, two more at a later date, they've been hyping the game up as a competitive game, already got it into tournaments, and have announced supported competitive play well into 2018... what more should they do? This is the first explicitly competitive game they've ever done, and they're making a big deal of it. It's not like any of the other specialist games they've done before. I see no reason to expect them to stop supporting it anytime soon.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/22 21:09:36


 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





 Mymearan wrote:
They're releasing two new warbands in a week, two more at a later date, they've been hyping the game up as a competitive game, already got it into tournaments, and have announced supported competitive play well into 2018... what more should they do? This is the first explicitly competitive game they've ever done, and they're making a big deal of it. It's not like any of the other specialist games they've done before. I see no reason to expect them to stop supporting it anytime soon.


I agree with you 100%

I just can't help the doubt that creeps up into my mind. GW have made a lot of promises to their fans and instead of delivering on those promises, they chase the biggest dollar. All I'm saying is... Let's see if GW can keep their word this time.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





drbored wrote:
 Mymearan wrote:
They're releasing two new warbands in a week, two more at a later date, they've been hyping the game up as a competitive game, already got it into tournaments, and have announced supported competitive play well into 2018... what more should they do? This is the first explicitly competitive game they've ever done, and they're making a big deal of it. It's not like any of the other specialist games they've done before. I see no reason to expect them to stop supporting it anytime soon.


I agree with you 100%

I just can't help the doubt that creeps up into my mind. GW have made a lot of promises to their fans and instead of delivering on those promises, they chase the biggest dollar. All I'm saying is... Let's see if GW can keep their word this time.


the thing is, its not being hyped or promoted anywhere but GW (tbh our local GW doesnt really care about it one way or the other) I bought it and took it to my main LGS, and its not being carried or supported there at all (already DoA) most of the local stores are the same. Not sure how it is where you are, but here , GW has little "juice" and if their broomcloset of a store is the only place for this, its future here is pretty bleak. GW has made all manner of promises and claims in the past, they have pretty much kept few to none of them, so I am very very skeptical on this. Its a ok game, but its no great new star, its a boardgame with miniatures, but the cards are really the more important part.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/23 01:45:31


 
   
Made in jp
Longtime Dakkanaut





It has been clear from the start that GW has been treating this differently than their other one off games. They have taken the game to several cons. They have sent review copies to numerous websites that are not usually connected to GW.
There are already 8 teams confirmed to be coming in the next few months. They have announced competition prize packs with unique art.
They have rearranged their warhammer live schedule to accommodate it.
This is more support than I have seen for any sub game including bloodbowl.

They cannot force LGS stores to carry it so there may be some places where it does not catch on initially, but many of the big internet retailers in America seem to be doing quite well from it.

The very first shadespire tourment in th uk has completely sold out. There are already three tournaments sheduled in America that I know of. It is currently the 5th most talked about game on boardgamegeek with an 8.6 rating. It is still early days obviously but it is currently the bast rated GW game on the site.

There is a tendency on dakka especially to default to cynicism, but the last 6 moths of evidence has strongly suggested that GW knows they have a hit on their hand.
Atia has said on her blog that GW has already made further releases for the game until well into 2018.
   
Made in us
Clousseau




I find that the how AOS and things based on AOS are treated and received much more warmly over in the UK than they are in the States...
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





 auticus wrote:
I find that the how AOS and things based on AOS are treated and received much more warmly over in the UK than they are in the States...


really hoping for more boards.
   
Made in si
Foxy Wildborne







 auticus wrote:
I find that the how AOS and things based on AOS are treated and received much more warmly over in the UK than they are in the States...


Well, Stockholm syndrome for GW would obviously be much stronger in the UK.

Sounds like this is another one of those mediocre games that will be played only by people who only play GW games just because they are GW games and actively ignore the existence of anything else.

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 thekingofkings wrote:
drbored wrote:
 Mymearan wrote:
They're releasing two new warbands in a week, two more at a later date, they've been hyping the game up as a competitive game, already got it into tournaments, and have announced supported competitive play well into 2018... what more should they do? This is the first explicitly competitive game they've ever done, and they're making a big deal of it. It's not like any of the other specialist games they've done before. I see no reason to expect them to stop supporting it anytime soon.


I agree with you 100%

I just can't help the doubt that creeps up into my mind. GW have made a lot of promises to their fans and instead of delivering on those promises, they chase the biggest dollar. All I'm saying is... Let's see if GW can keep their word this time.


the thing is, its not being hyped or promoted anywhere but GW (tbh our local GW doesnt really care about it one way or the other) I bought it and took it to my main LGS, and its not being carried or supported there at all (already DoA) most of the local stores are the same. Not sure how it is where you are, but here , GW has little "juice" and if their broomcloset of a store is the only place for this, its future here is pretty bleak. GW has made all manner of promises and claims in the past, they have pretty much kept few to none of them, so I am very very skeptical on this. Its a ok game, but its no great new star, its a boardgame with miniatures, but the cards are really the more important part.


You must be in a really non-standard area then. I've seen it all over different gaming sites - both board games and miniature games - reviewing it (mostly positively) and talking about it. Every FLGS in my area has copies and did preorder bonuses.

As for "nobody hyping or promoting it", you're pretty wrong from what I've seen. Most AoS podcasts I've listened to has had some coverage of it, and LVO (one of the biggest miniatures events in the States) is having a Shadespire tournament that they're promoting. Blood and Glory is a relatively large UK tournament next weekend and they already had 60+ people signed up to play in a Shadespire event before the preorders went up.

So unless you are willfully not being part of the internet Warhammer community, I don't know how you could have missed it, like, at all.
   
Made in us
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Requizen wrote:
 thekingofkings wrote:
drbored wrote:
 Mymearan wrote:
They're releasing two new warbands in a week, two more at a later date, they've been hyping the game up as a competitive game, already got it into tournaments, and have announced supported competitive play well into 2018... what more should they do? This is the first explicitly competitive game they've ever done, and they're making a big deal of it. It's not like any of the other specialist games they've done before. I see no reason to expect them to stop supporting it anytime soon.


I agree with you 100%

I just can't help the doubt that creeps up into my mind. GW have made a lot of promises to their fans and instead of delivering on those promises, they chase the biggest dollar. All I'm saying is... Let's see if GW can keep their word this time.


the thing is, its not being hyped or promoted anywhere but GW (tbh our local GW doesnt really care about it one way or the other) I bought it and took it to my main LGS, and its not being carried or supported there at all (already DoA) most of the local stores are the same. Not sure how it is where you are, but here , GW has little "juice" and if their broomcloset of a store is the only place for this, its future here is pretty bleak. GW has made all manner of promises and claims in the past, they have pretty much kept few to none of them, so I am very very skeptical on this. Its a ok game, but its no great new star, its a boardgame with miniatures, but the cards are really the more important part.


You must be in a really non-standard area then. I've seen it all over different gaming sites - both board games and miniature games - reviewing it (mostly positively) and talking about it. Every FLGS in my area has copies and did preorder bonuses.

As for "nobody hyping or promoting it", you're pretty wrong from what I've seen. Most AoS podcasts I've listened to has had some coverage of it, and LVO (one of the biggest miniatures events in the States) is having a Shadespire tournament that they're promoting. Blood and Glory is a relatively large UK tournament next weekend and they already had 60+ people signed up to play in a Shadespire event before the preorders went up.

So unless you are willfully not being part of the internet Warhammer community, I don't know how you could have missed it, like, at all.


again, I would expect warhammer to promote it, but since noone else here is (and I am in a major metro area) I am not all that confident in it. This is after all just a boardgame, its not some new miniature game. It also is not M:TG so around here it might as well be nothing.
   
Made in se
Executing Exarch






 lord_blackfang wrote:
 auticus wrote:
I find that the how AOS and things based on AOS are treated and received much more warmly over in the UK than they are in the States...


Well, Stockholm syndrome for GW would obviously be much stronger in the UK.

Sounds like this is another one of those mediocre games that will be played only by people who only play GW games just because they are GW games and actively ignore the existence of anything else.


Sounds like this is one of those posters who will gak on GW games just because they are GW.

Shadespire has gotten great reviews from all the board game reviewers (is there a negative review? I haven’t seen one). It has 8.7 on Boardgamegeek. Board gamers generally don’t give a crap about GW. Saying it’s “mediocre” with this in mind, not having played it (I assume) is asinine.
   
Made in se
Regular Dakkanaut




 lord_blackfang wrote:
 auticus wrote:
I find that the how AOS and things based on AOS are treated and received much more warmly over in the UK than they are in the States...


Well, Stockholm syndrome for GW would obviously be much stronger in the UK.

Sounds like this is another one of those mediocre games that will be played only by people who only play GW games just because they are GW games and actively ignore the existence of anything else.


So what exactly is a "mediocre" game then? Because Shadespire is pretty original with some new mechanics and gameplay that most who have tried it seem to enjoy a lot.
The starter set comes with excellent miniatures, high quality components and seems to be way more balanced then most games will ever be. And the plans for how they will expand and develop the game is overall appreciated by players.
   
 
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