Switch Theme:

Godtear - Anyone playing, or interested?  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
  • No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
  • Times and dates in your local timezone.
  • Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
  • Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
  • Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.




Made in ca
Junior Officer with Laspistol





London, Ontario

Hi Folks,

I went to my FLGS for a Demo day, and checked out Godtear. It’s a hex-board skirmish game, and fun enough that I bought a starter set and played 4 games with my eldest son today.

The models are decent, but not spectacular. For $60 CAD it comes with the board, unit cards, tokens (lots of tokens!) 2 champion models and 8 duders. It also comes with 10 custom dice. 2/6 = 0, 3/6 =1, 1/6 = 2. In general, you roll to hit, needing a certain number of successes, then roll to damage needing to exceed a number of successes.

Game size is determined by how many champions (1-4) each side has. A “normal game” uses 3 champions and their followers for each side. Each champion fits one of 4 broad categories. Slayers (champion assassins), Maelstroms (chump shredders), Shapers (can create new scoring zones) and Defenders (tough / control).

There’s no ally structure, so you could take any combination of 3 Champions for your team. I think there are currently 15 bands... so 15 choose 3 = 455 army combinations to choose from... x 455 your opponent could choose from gives over 200 000 different matchups to choose from.

Games are to 5 points, and you score at the end of turns. 1,2,3,2,1 points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th turn. 3rd turn being the most valuable.

What I’ve liked, so far, is that the mission changes between turns. For example, in one scenario there are 4 scoring tiles in the centre. After the first turn, the losing side adds 2-4 more scoring tiles. After the second turn, the losing side can then add 2-4 more scoring tiles. Since only champions can move on the scoring tiles, you can use these new tiles to wall off the opposing grunts, or even potentially surround them, making it so they can’t move!

In another scenario, there are 10 scoring tiles spread along the length of the board. After each turn, the losing side *removes* 2 scoring tiles. Potentially, on the fifth and final turn, there could be only 2 scoring tiles left... and you might be on the wrong side of the board!

I’ve found it interesting, in that there have been situations where I could see a strategy of deliberately losing a turn, to gain a (risky!) Advantage in future turns. In particular, the 1st turn is almost irrelevant if you can win turns 2 and 3 (for 2+3=5 point victory). Similarly, a turn 3,4 win (3+2=5) in which you lose the first two turns to create scenario advantage for the mid-late game is a viable strategy as well.

For $120 CAD, I could buy both starter sets, have 4 bands (and 4x 3 Champ army options) were I to then spend another $80 I could buy 2 more “solo” bands, for 6 bands total. That’s enough for 20 different army configurations, and an Identical number of combinations for an opponent to be able to use the spare teams. Compared to other geeky hobbies I’ve been interested in, $200 CAD looks like it would go a very long way towards variety of gaming.

Has anyone else been checking this out? Am I just really late to the party?

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/02/09 04:55:07


 
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

I backed this on Kickstarter. There were two main pledge levels a basic set which is boxset plus stretchgoals for £80 and an all in for over £200. The stretcgoals made up over half the product so the lower price total was definetely more appealing, so I did what 80% of backers did and got the basic package plus stretchgoals and nothing else. I wanted one or two more gangs but they cost £30 each or thereabouts while the core set had eight gangs.

The product is well packaged, each gang comes in its own seperate box in vacuum formed plastic to keep the mins safe. The downside of this is that it takes up as lot of space for the actual size of product.
There are now two core sets in larger boxes, with two gangs and a double sided board.

I am yet to get around to playing it, I have not had it long and it joined the back of my paint queue.

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

I bought both of the starter sets (Borderlands and Eternal Glade) and played a demo game (me teaching, the other player had no idea how the game played). Got a fairly solid beating, since Finvarr and Titus (Defender and Maelstrom) are solid on their own and have straightforward gameplay. Nia and Morrigan are more difficult to set up and need support, and they don't necessarily help each other.

I'm looking forward to playing again, hopefully against someone who already knows the rules so I don't have to split my brain between teaching the game and thinking about my own gameplay.

I've been looking for a cruncy, hex based skirmish game, and I thought that Underworlds would be what I want, but the deckbuilding and need to buy everything to get cards put me off of it. Godtear might be what I want since the warbands are all separate entities.

   
Made in ca
Junior Officer with Laspistol





London, Ontario

My experience so far, is a tight rules set, a lot like WMH if you simplified it a bunch, and instead of building armies, you just add more battle boxes.

You have “Champions” and each has a passive ability or two, a couple of active abilities, and an “ultimate” once per game ability.

You have their followers that generally work in concert with their Champion.

You have tightly controlled movement, able to block lanes / etc for movement without the 1/16th of an inch too far / too little.

Some scenarios feel like smash in the middle, but others are deliberately spread out, and I played some backfield shenanigans with Nia in the one scenario, so there can be play all over the board. Probably more so when playing with 2 or more champions per side.

I think it’s hitting my complexity to available time quite nicely. Even if I got hammered in a first game, I’d still have time for a rematch, knowing what the opposing side could do.
   
Made in ca
Knight of the Inner Circle




Montreal, QC Canada

I watched a bunch of videos on the game when it was still in beta. I actually like how it plays and the minis for it are really nice. my FLGS has it in stock and I've been meaning to pick up one of the starter sets.

As I'm on hiatus when it comes to buying for the rest of the month. It'll have to wait but it seems like a lot of fun.

Commodus Leitdorf Paints all of the Things!!
The Breaking of the Averholme: An AoS Adventure
"We have clearly reached the point where only rampant and unchecked stabbing can save us." -Black Mage 
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





It's a cool game. I've got a few Champions and its very positioning based with a lot of tense turns a great "its not over til its over" feel. Pretty easy buy in and very easy to pick and choose to buy and play with what you want. It's a little mechanical in nature over setting a stage or telling a story. Very much a product of that MOBA design bubble, but arguably the best of the lot in terms of translating that genre's appeal.
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

I backed this on recommendation of someone who played the demo at Salute 2018. I hear good things about the game.

I reckon you will get more out of the game when you have more factions, so you can find which work together and which suit your play style. No news on balance so far, some gangs may be better than others.

As you might tell by now, i bought into this blind because I got a lot of stuff for only £80 and already had thumbs ups from friends. Still don't really know what I have bought, and will take my own time to find out.

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





 Orlanth wrote:
No news on balance so far, some gangs may be better than others.


From what I've played its fairly solid. The dragon man is the only one that seems a bit over the curve, but there's a lot of variables at play that people aren't accounting for. A lot of what I've experienced and read comes down to players still stuck on the intro scenario, which is pretty perfect for a demo but not ideal for the full 3v3 game.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

 LunarSol wrote:
 Orlanth wrote:
No news on balance so far, some gangs may be better than others.


From what I've played its fairly solid. The dragon man is the only one that seems a bit over the curve, but there's a lot of variables at play that people aren't accounting for. A lot of what I've experienced and read comes down to players still stuck on the intro scenario, which is pretty perfect for a demo but not ideal for the full 3v3 game.


I haven't played Guildball since Season 2 (game got a little too involved and I'm too much of a wargaming butterfly to commit), but I think Steamforged is still pretty good about releasing timely tweaks or updates to models to either help balance or shake up the meta.

Potential pitfalls I can see will be the rules making some types of Champions way more worthwhile than others, in the same way that in Guildball it's a constant balancing act between Guilds that want to score goals and Guilds that want to do takeouts, and which is easier due to the core rules. So we may have to worry about, say, Shapers and Guardians having an easier time scoring points in a round than Slayers or Maelstroms.

But I haven't seen anything too problematic, especially since the early release kit has made it so that even before release Godtear was pretty heavily playtested by a wide variety of players.

   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





I do find it odd that Shapers bonus is almost strictly better than Guardians, though I agree I prefer not rolling dice to score points whenever possible. For the most part though, the only class that reliably gets multiple bonus points a turn is Maelstrom though, and even then they're getting most of their points on dropping banners most games I've played.
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

It may behoove you to check out the Kickstarter page, it contains a lot of info and a link to buy things, maybe at discount. There is player feedback in the updates, basic background info etc

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/steamforged/godtear

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Maryland

 LunarSol wrote:
I do find it odd that Shapers bonus is almost strictly better than Guardians, though I agree I prefer not rolling dice to score points whenever possible. For the most part though, the only class that reliably gets multiple bonus points a turn is Maelstrom though, and even then they're getting most of their points on dropping banners most games I've played.


It seems like in general the name of the game is drop banners, which doesn't help Slayers.

I guess the bonus for Guardians is being a protective barrier in the end phase when remaining banners are scored.

   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





Sometimes on Knowledge(?) when your VP track gets severely reduced, the early extra Shaper point can cause you to cap out, where the Guardian point can't really ever be "wasted" that way. Niche, but not nothing. Mostly Guardians thrive on being pretty good Slayers that aren't worth trying to kill as well, which also makes them good at stomping on banners, so they definitely have their place.

Slayers aren't bad, just unreliable. The push and loss of action from a kill is often as relevant as the points for the kill itself and due to being aggressive in nature, they're often good banner stompers. They also have pretty great followers in my experience, which is only a problem because the followers get the kill more often than I'd like.
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.

 infinite_array wrote:
 LunarSol wrote:
I do find it odd that Shapers bonus is almost strictly better than Guardians, though I agree I prefer not rolling dice to score points whenever possible. For the most part though, the only class that reliably gets multiple bonus points a turn is Maelstrom though, and even then they're getting most of their points on dropping banners most games I've played.


It seems like in general the name of the game is drop banners, which doesn't help Slayers.

I guess the bonus for Guardians is being a protective barrier in the end phase when remaining banners are scored.


You are supposed to have two or three gangs in your warband, so group dynamics might have more play here. One of the core sets is a Slayer vs a Shaper, and the game has been heavily playtested.

n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in ca
Junior Officer with Laspistol





London, Ontario

While it’s baseless conjecture, I suspect Defenders are perhaps slightly stronger, overall, than Shapers. That would help to offset the greater challenge to score their bonus.
   
Made in gb
Highlord with a Blackstone Fortress






Adrift within the vortex of my imagination.



n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.

It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. 
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





 greatbigtree wrote:
While it’s baseless conjecture, I suspect Defenders are perhaps slightly stronger, overall, than Shapers. That would help to offset the greater challenge to score their bonus.


Shapers feel stronger too me, but I learned ages ago to always bet on blue, even if the plastic is green.
   
 
Forum Index » Board Games, Roleplaying Games & Card Games
Go to: