Let's Talk Cry Havoc - Nexus Ops' rival?

Tom Vasel went gaga over this game. For some people that's not saying much, but after seeing his video on the mechanics, this one seems like a really good game.

The combat resolution is especially interesting. It's non random and objective based, but you can play cards. There are 3 objectives and you can choose where to concentrate. Attacker choose first, and then defender. You can attempt to conquer the region, capture enemies, or kill enemies, each with its own advantages. This makes battle fast, and even the loser can gain something without an artificial catch up mechanism. No dice, but much better than the generic flip a number.

Activation is card based, (like the old Dust), but movement is more fluid, as in you can spread or concentrate movement points (like Survive). And you can build your deck.

The factions are all different (I think there's marines, robots, gorillas and some kind of protoss/eldar). The marines are trying to get objectives, the robots just want to kill anything, the protoss/eldar try to amass resource, and the gorillas are everywhere (they're the native of the planet).

No modular board, but there's a board for the two players game. The 3 and 4 players game use the same board, with the gorillas being a neutral faction in both 3 and 2 players games.

There's definitely more movement in it than Blood Rage. Seems very interesting.

My only concern is game balance, since the gorillas are surrounded, and while they're very strong at the beginning, I can see the game balance hangs on the group dynamic (whether they gang up on the gorillas or not). Also, there's only 1 unit type per player.

I have high hopes for this one. When I first saw info on it I really thought, "OK, this is like a pumped up version of Nexus Ops".

It looks to do it's own thing, but at a glance it really has an Avatar meets Nexus Ops meets Portal Games thing going on. It also reminds me of CIty of Remnants which nobody seems to remember.

Egg Shen wrote: It also reminds me of CIty of Remnants which nobody seems to remember.

I remember it. First play, the yellow player happened upon a series of cards that could be played infinitely to build up money. Awesome experience.

I hope Cry Havoc is nothing like that.

I remember City of Remnants and also not particularly fondly. It was one that F:AT adored for about a month and then was never mentioned again. Cry Havoc could very well be a version of that which actually works.

I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to CH. What I've seen does make me think it's a jumped-up Nexus Ops, which to me is a downside. I like Nexus Ops a lot. I think it's great as is. I don't think it needs more stuff piled onto it, and think it would suffer with just about anything else added to the mix. For me, it's very very difficult to compete with Nexus Ops. Even Chaos in the Old World, which I like, doesn't win that fight.

A year or so ago I would have been all over CH, but I feel like lately Portal is just not hitting the mark. Most of this is just sourness on my part, since so many of their games were targeted exactly at me and now this is less so. It's like your favorite band suddenly having a breakthrough hit and you sort of resent that they're not exclusively yours anymore. But also there just seems to be something not quite there, and I'm not sure what. Legacy was a weak euro with one interesting idea, Rattle Battle was a mess, Tides of Time is not bad but slight, and Crazy Karts looks not great. I just don't feel like I can jump on Cry Havoc like I might have done once. (Which is a shame, because I'm pretty sure no one else I know will either.)

After more plays of Crazy Karts, it's definitely not great. I am looking forward to this though.

No. Not a rival.

As much as we want to justify to ourselves why we need to make a purchase (in this case for another supposed upgrade), there are some titles that are simply peerless.

TITAN, Dune, Talisman, Cosmic Encounter, Nexus Ops...

It looks cool but...so what. There are a million cool looking games. I just can't get excited about it. Charlie requested to do the review at Miniature Market and at first I thought "we must settle this with a duel" but then I just didn't resist.

I am _really_ fatigued with/disinterested in most new releases right now, if something doesn't look really fresh or unusually compelling then I'm having trouble mustering any interest.

GW addiction at the root of this fatigue perhaps?

It's more the other way. The fatigue lead to my addiction to GW games. It's been refreshing to have my interest focused in a more centralized way. I've enjoyed following the GW releases more than watching an endless stream of Kickstarter junk filter out to the public. I see these things pop up on Miniature Market and I'm barely interested enough to assign them to one of my writers...it feels almost pointless, knowing that 4 out of every 5 games are going to roll on out to the clearance pile within six months of their release. And then be completely forgotten.

Even the good games are a flash in the pan these days. Y'all mentioned City of Remnants, that was a really cool game. But it had zero staying power. Not necessarily because it wasn't worthwhile, but because it's like one really good piece of sushi on a conveyer belt. You eat it, and then something else comes along.

Fireteam Zero was kind of my breaking point I think. Cool looking game, big production, should have been fun. But it was total garbage that no one will remember by the end of the summer. So many games like this. And I've already spent more time with Deathwatch Overkill than just about any other game I've played this year - and that's without painting it yet.

As much as we want to justify to ourselves why we need to make a purchase (in this case for another supposed upgrade), there are some titles that are simply peerless.

Note that I deliberately use the word "rival" instead of the usual buzzwords such as "killer". I don't think this will surpass Nexus Ops, but as Nexus Ops went OOP for the second time, I'd looking for new options.

I think you guys should really check the video (for those who haven't). I dismissed the game at first (contrary to Barnes, I think the game looks crap and the factions uninteresting), but battle resolution is really good (Tom Vasel said it's the best for DoaM, and I'm inclined to agree!). That what swayed me. And despite all the additional baggage, it runs around 2 hours with 4 players (our 4 players Nexus Ops usually takes 90 minutes).

I love City of Remnants.

Mike, you've been playing so many new games and reviewing them every week for years and years...I think fatigue is just a natural step at some point. Of course you love doing it, but it's still quite a time investment, hunting down the games, reading the rules, popping every piece out of sprues, learning the games, teaching them, playing them multiple times, then selling and mailing them to make room for the next ones - week in and week out, year after year - it's quite a marathon you've been running.

Fatigue? Nonsense! Only 5,007 boardgames released last year...

(rest moved to new post)

Cry Havoc interests me, mainly for Michal Oracz. I really wish it used Neuroshima factions instead of new ones. If it had, there's no way I wouldn't already own it.

I'm actually super interested in cry havoc.
But as interested as I am in finding out first hand how it plays, it just seems like a more complex version which I probably won't play more than once a year if I'm lucky considering how strapped for time I already am.
Likely falls into "I'll happily play it but won't buy it" category.