FATcast Episode 03 Hot

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!!!

I think the interview came out great. You're welcome!

Battleship Galaxies appears to have a half-life of about 90 minutes.

S.

I had originally done a more serious, in-depth review of why I don't like it, but we scrapped it for "It's fucking terrible."

Yeah...Battleship Galaxies really has kind of turned out to be the disappointment of the year, huh?

I was going to wait for expansions but I pawned it off on Billy Z. Maybe if they come out (big if) and look good I'll give it another shot.

Sucks when something so high profile and with such great potential kind of flops.

I have yet to hear a solid list of negatives for it. It seems to be the consensus that it's just not inspiring. Not much to go on, but I won't be buying at this point.

Glad I held off. Sounded too good to be true there.

S.

Negatives for Battleship Galaxies

-Well, for one thing, it's fiddly as all get out. Shit is sliding around constantly as you fiddle with your shield and hull pegs and you find yourself asking your opponent, "This went here, right?" Yeah, one could argue that you keep some pennies or markers or something set aside to keep track where something was as you fiddle with it, but for a game of this light fare, is that really something you want to deal with?

-The cards are *USELESS*. Card play could have really made this game, but it just does nothing with them. The bonuses that heroes incur are never worth the cost in energy to get them out. I don't think that's some big strategy that I missed, I'm now certain that that's the way it is. The weapons are a bit more useful, but again, that's energy that could be put to more useful things. If you do put a weapon on your ship, your opponent counters that with putting one on one of theirs. Great. So we now have two bonuses that function differently, but give each player about the same amount of edge over the other...therefore, what's the point? Huge amount of wasted potential there.

-One thing I touched upon in the review in the podcast was that it's bad value. Only five scenarios in the box, one of which is a flat-out crappy introductory game, and two of which are only for 3-4 players. The game as it is, with the limited amount of ships and the game as designed as it is, wasn't meant to be played with 3-4. It's agonizingly slow and just feels more lackluster than the 2 player game does. Anyone buying this game is pretty much buying potential for more in the future, because cool looking components aside, it's not worth what you pay for. $65 is a hefty price to pay for the hopes of it someday being a great, expansive game. I'm sick of FFG for doing it, I'm not going to let anyone else of the hook either.

-The idea that shield facing and firing arcs would have over complicated the game is utter bullshit. I and I'm sure countless others have pondered the subject and found it would actually have been quite easy. If they were concerned about it complicating the game, a light version of the rules, ala Heroscpae, would have been just as easy. If it weren't for a few of the cards, I think I'd say the game as it is is like the Basic Heroscape rules. The truly suffers for those exclusions.

-The differences with some of the different versions of the same ship are tremendous, to the point where I have to ask why would you ever not take some of them. Building your force seems somewhat arbitrary.

-The only important decision to make in the entire game is for what ships you want to carry in a bigger ship. That's it. No exaggerations.

-The comic sucks.

Awesome. I'm soooo fucking happy I picked it up now! I should have asked Colby if he knew whether any expansions where in the works when I saw him at GenCon.

Are there any decent variants o the internets?

Ouch...it looks like I should have waited for more review on Battleship galaxies before making the plunge. Its an expensive game, and reading all these nagative comments about the lack of meaningful choices makes me feel I have spend the cash for a Ferrari but only found a Trabant under the hood.

I truly hope the expansions will add depth.
The team behind the game should not be afraid to lure a more hardcore audience into the game by adding some layers of tactical possibilities with the risk of losing the toys-r-us crowd.

The game could definitly use an advanced rules set including facing and such to lift the design to a new level that could also satisfy the hobby game audience that was lured into bying the game based on its flashy components and interesting concepts.

The team behind the game should not be afraid to lure a more hardcore audience into the game by adding some layers of tactical possibilities with the risk of losing the toys-r-us crowd.

And there lies what makes what its lacking completely inexcusable: It's not being sold at Toys R Us or any big box stores. They're selling it as a hobby game.

You are correct. It's a minis skirmish, whihc are generally somewhat so, but the pegs makes this much more fiddly. Truth.

Utter and total bullshit of the highest magnitude.

Again, BULLSHIT. One guy reduces energy usage, other guy adds +1 damage. And those are the more suckage powers. The guy who allows you roll a 7 on a D10 and not get damaged? Are you serious? That's a gamechanger.

This is a ludicrous argument. NEITHER OF YOU KNOW WHAT CARDS ARE IN HAND BECAUSE YOU STACKED THE DECK SECRETLY. Oh, and the other cards? There's cards that allow re-rolls, tanking additional moves, chaining moves....cannot possibly see how you came to this conclusion.

Ugh. No.

I have to admit that it's not a great value, in retrospect. Not enough ships, not enough unique cards. It clearly is a 2P game, although we played 4P several times and didn't hate it. Again, not enough shit.

I don't think I agree. I've played this game at least 20 times at this point, but honestly, I ain't playing it again. 20 games is a decent value for a game at the 45$ I paid for it. I don't know where you're paying 65$, but you got fucked. I gave my review copy away and bought it AGAIN. Then my buddy won a copy at GenCon, and we put 2 copies together. That's some big, badass battles.

Totally agree. I'd have liked to have seen it, especially since the pegs are PERFECT for indicating shield facings. They wanted it light, "Ravenloft V. Descent" but I think they could've added this and not slowed it too much more.

It's a points thing. The challenge is to fit your ships into a smaller point value, less cards...a light skirmish. We have a couple of homemade missions, like saving/killing an shuttle that needs to get from one side to the other, with Wretch starting at midpoint on the right side of the map. It's a 22 point match. TOUGH choices.

This statement is a 25 foot pile of bull shit awaiting distribution to the farms. I don't know how/what game you played, but it sure as hell ain't BG.

I knew something pissed you off on this.

Even Wings of War has firing arcs and, as a parlor trick, I teach people how to play that game without speaking to them. It's not the slightest bit complicated. WoW also has vector movement without being complicated. It sounds like the design was more geared to the die-roll "G-4 it's a hit" part of the combat.

The marketing on this one almost makes me think it was a late decision. Presented with the finished package, the sales team decided to slot it into the hobby channel because it didn't make the cut for the toy channel? Really curious.

S.

I totally agree with you Josh, every line item. You'd have to be friends (or at least cozy with) with either the designers or somebody at Hasbro responsible for sending out advance copies to ignore the widely reported issues with it. Or a die-hard Heroscape fan without experience in other space combat games for comparison.

I also totally agree that this "it'll be great...one day" business is crap. Too many games like that these days. An expansion used to be an addition, not a patch.

Billy Z- no refunds.

No, it wasn't like that Sag. It was planned to go hobby market the whole time. There was some rules paring, as Colby said in an interview somewhere, but in the end, they chose to stay on the side of simplicity. One might say err.

You chewed me a new asshole for mentioning this in your review and now you totally agree? God Almighty if Barnes said something like that you'd be popping a gasket on him for a week.

S.

Nice potshot Mike. Always a class act. Guess it's, again, not OK to like something if you don't like it, or disagree. Either way, that's the last straw with you. You and me are gonna have a chat one day.

And FTR: I owe Colby no favors, nor he, I. Same goes with "Hasbro Employees", since the one guy I do know isn't a designer at all.

Wonder...does Drake owe people shit too? Shill too? How about Vasel? How about Jeremy Salinas? UndeadViking?

Huh?
http://fortressat.com/index.php/blogs-by-members/2645-battleship-galaxies-the- saturn-offensive-why-ive-never-been-so-thrilled-to-be-a-wretch
Don't see much chewing, brother. Or at BGG.

But I did say, clearly, that shield facings would be a no-branier.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/6953037#6953037

I still agree that inertia would've been too much for this game; would've pushed it into the 4-hour snorefest zone. This is what I said:
This game might've been cooler if there were facings like in some aspects ofStar Wars Miniatures: Starship Battles, and with the pegs, focusing your shields would've been a no-brainer. I'm positive someone will come up with a variant like this. The only problem is that it will take a 60-80 minute game and make it into a 3 hour game, and that's not what BG tries to do. And I like that it doesn't, because there's a LOT of those kinds of games out there.

How is that different now? It might've made it a cooler game, but longer. I said that. Shields (the only thing I'd have really wanted) would add little time. Facings...that's diff.

Hell, you'd think from the underhanded comments obviously referring to Pete that nobody else in the world liked this game or that it's absolutely incredible that anybody gave it a good review. I mean, the game is still getting pretty positive vibes on BGG for what it is, not what it isn't.

Also, how bout some mutual respect? If the new F:AT is more baby gloves, maybe the reviewers should at least respect an unwritten rule not to get in each other's shit?

You know, the one thing I don't get is how when everyone calls it a "light skirmish" game in space, somehow people think it fails because it's a "light skirmish game". WTF did you expect? It's LIGHT. It was meant to be LIGHT.

Do I think, after 20 plays, it could've been a little more? Sure. But is it bad? Fuck no. I think it's stellar. I wish the shield thing would be in there primarily because the pegs are perfect for it; missed opportunity.

But failure? Shit? Fuck no. That's someone who wanted Starfleet Command and got Heroscape talking.

Fellas, please take the brouhaha off the front page and into the forums. This is a kick-ass podcast that Matt and Josh put together, so let's not shit all over it.

By the way thanks to the Engineer for separating the voices on the channels. Most podcasts put all the voices down the center and it's difficult to pick out which is which. Josh and Matt's voices are similar enough that the separate channels really helps.

S.

Do we still have the Thunderdome? I sense a prime opportunity to test it.

Agreed Ken- sorry all (especially Matt and Josh) for the unnecessary snarkiness.

I deleted the link to the forums at Pete's request. I tried to edit it but it kept spazzing out so I just unpublished it.

Another great podcast. Listening to it made me want to play more games, see more movies, and generally find more excuses to have more fun in life. Thanks!

I really enjoyed the podcast. I hope you keep putting these out.

Me too. I love the format, I love the chemistry, and thos Smirk and Dagger dudes have a cool story to tell.

For the record, while I would in general prefer more topical discussion, as long as no one gets called a homo derogatorily or makes fun of chubby chicks in chainmail, trust that I don't give a fuck if people want to shit talk each other with wild abandon in the podcast threads.

On BG, I got nothing to add other than that Bobby Tweaks couldn't stop playing it long enough for me to even get to try it at WBC, so apparently it's got at least something going on.

Listening to it made me want to play more games, see more movies, and generally find more excuses to have more fun in life.

I'm having a really terrible last 24 hours and this is doing a great job of cheering me up. One of the best things I could ever hope to achieve in life is to inspire people to live life hard.

Finished the podcast last night guys and another job well done. I love the energy you guys put into the show. You keep cursing, I'll keep listening.

Another great podcast. As Sag mentions, the channel separation was a great idea (not that it's new here, you've done it all along); it certainly makes it more distinctive.

But who was that MattLoter impersonator? Couldn't have been the real one, there was sod all swearing. Or did you just tell him that for every "fuck" everyone else got to drink a shot?

Thanks guys, it's nice to have my work appreciated even though it's "behind the scenes". This episode was relatively difficult to mix because Justin is such an incredibly soft spoken guy. I struggled to make it listenable but still capture that "Jay and Silent Bob" quality of the duo. I'm glad everyone is still enjoying these 'casts as much as we are enjoying putting them together. Thanks to everyone for listening!

Might I suggest a suitable cure for soft-spokenness? More tequila!

I finally caught up with all the Fatcasts during my new lengthy commute. Really awesome stuff guys. You both are so damn nerdy. I mean, you've got it going on.

Scorched Earth sounds amazing from the other fatcast. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself at WBC, Matt, but I was pretty fixated on getting TI:3 setup for our tiny playing window.

Tech Issue.
I had some issue trying to figure out how to get this thing on my Android phone since the download link does not work in the Android browser. I ended up downloaded it to DropBox and accessing it directly on my phone. It would be cool if these were available on Google Listen in addition to iTunes. Maybe I just haven't figure that out properly with the RSS feed.

Thanks!

I do nothing but run my mouth but I'll be sure to pass along the technical suggestions to the boss if she doesn't manage to see this.

Next year you can buy me a shot and we'll meet proper like!

Matt,

Google listen handled the rss feed just fine. I am ready for the next episode.