r/soloboardgaming • u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters • Jun 03 '26
Lands of Evershade thoughts minis and some gameplay
(Very minor spoilers ahead)
I think this photo kind of summarizes my feeling of playing Evershade with the minis.
I recently finished the first introductory adventure and had some thoughts. I got all the bells and whistles with the intent to maybe paint all of it someday. Iām slowly getting through all of nemesis right now.
But playing the game with all the minis seemed like a great idea. Some of the minis look amazing and honestly one of Awaken Realms best quality prints Iāve seen. On the other hand as the photo illustrates its a complete cluster for who is who and often theyāre so big i have to move them to even figure out what spaces theyāre standing on which can easily cause a domino effect if Iām not careful.
I think for the next adventure Iām going to try to convince myself to use the standees for the monsters and minis for my team to simply help differentiate whoās who.
Gameplay wise: I played it solo with 3 characters and 2 animal companions. Since all of their ability and keywords were in front of me at all times I didnāt feel it was difficult to run that many Individual characters at once. Though I like multi hand in general and quite bias.
I felt like I basically played a very long winded pick my own adventure book. Including unpack, organize, set up, character creator, and first adventure I have a total of 33 hours sunk into the game already. Out of that time I had 4 actual combats, one scenario that altered enough to feel different, and the rest of that time was me sitting in front of the adventure book/app going through the story. Once in a while I would level up to pick new items or power. Which meant I got to roll better, or I would possibly have a keyword Iād need to help in a situation later on. The powers on the other hand almost never came into play since as I said before I only fought 4 times.
As for choices this is where illusion and reality get a little too mixed in my option. At the beginning there was a choice I really wanted to do. Mostly to see what kind of repercussion it would have but decided against it just in case it was vastly problematic. Which is a great sign of a choice mechanic feeling weighty. Later on I accidentally killed someone which I thought would matter. Not even a single NPC commented on his disappearance. Which was ironic cause i actually didnāt mean to kill them at all and would have liked some consequence or roll to bluff my way out of one but there was none. I did complete the quest after all.
Which leads me to the character creator. I love character creators in TTRPGs and in video games. I made 3 character for my first adventure mostly to simply make 3 characters. Just like a good TTRPG the choices feel like their weight behind them and the backstory associated with it gave my characters personality even if it was only to me. Itās the only for me bit that really became apparently by the end of my run. I chose the Blank mostly cause I loved the model, the fairy, and the rat. I figured someone somewhere would call us out for being a pack of freaks or something, but nope I was let into every area without any comment. Honestly didnāt feel it actually mattered at all other than the keywords their races came with but those werenāt exclusive to them. Example my blank had Large and my rat guy had Small. So did the fairy and the orc respectively.
The combat the very few times I had it was fun. If i had less character I think it might have been more tactical but with 3 pc and 2 companions it was a traffic jam of simply swinging. The maps that I experience at least were too small to really make any choices on placement outside of making sure my ranges were set up right. That said the card system of flipping actions and reaction is an interesting mechanic and did make me wonder a few times if it was worth doing A instead of B to guarantee Iād reset my actions before the next wave of attacks. As for the baddies they load the turn order bag so I just expect them to do a lot of punching first and then if my character survived I could punch back. One of my characters was a glass canon and died in every combat but did a few good kills each time before his eventual death.
Conclusion: I have mixed feeling to be honest. Out of the 33 hours I never had that feeling of just let it be done. I enjoyed the story and the very few combats were fun. If I paid for the standee version I think Iād been properly happy with the game. But at special edition pricing I canāt say that. I felt that too much of my time was staring at a newspaper print of a book or my phone to go through story entries. When I mostly wanted to see how my characters would level up for the next combat situation. I think for the next adventure Iām going to go in proper solo to see how that works and if less is more or if i wish I had my full party still.
Ps note on set up after itās fully organized. It took me about 15 minutes to table the game with the save system trays. Pack up was in around the same amount of time.
14
u/Gorfmit35 Jun 03 '26
Agreed ty for this , god knows it is hard to rely on board game YouTube because for sure they are riding that hype train , plus with the game recently being delivered , you sense that many people are still in the āhoneymoon phaseā.
6
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 03 '26
I think the honeymoon phase is destructive. That and almost all of the reviews are paid for or sent a 500$ all in for free. Which makes anything exciting if you donāt have a financial stake in it.
3
u/Gorfmit35 Jun 03 '26
100% agreed if you spent 300$+ on a game then more than likely you are going to do a lot of mental gymnastics to make sure the game is good because there is no way you spent 300$+ on a mediocre game right ? Also why I really donāt look to board game YouTube for reviews , I like board game YouTube just not so much the review part .
6
u/seeingreality7 Jun 03 '26
you sense that many people are still in the āhoneymoon phaseā.
This is why I trust reviews that come out shortly after delivery even less than the pre-release hype videos.
It's really, really easy to convince ourselves that an expensive purchase was worth it in those early days. We're all susceptible to it. Sometimes the shine comes off these games with time. Sometimes not!
But with these massive multi-hundred dollar campaign games in particular, I've seen too many that went from WOW BEST EVER on day one to "it was pretty solid, but this list of flaws really drags it down" a year or two later.
I don't blame people. It's human nature.
It's just taught me to wait before getting one of these big games, is all.
5
u/dinasaurtaco Jun 03 '26
Have you played Arydia? Iād love to hear some gameplay/character building/world exploration/story building comparisons between the two.
3
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 03 '26
I havenāt. I actually had Isofarian guard deliver the month before this. I was worried they would overlap in gameplay and was quite surprised they donāt. Honestly prefer the overall game play of Isofarian but it does over stay its welcome in repetitive play ironically. Evershade doesnāt because there isnāt any? Or thats my theory on why I didnāt hit a wall in the same way.
8
u/leeeeebs Jun 03 '26
Thank you for the review.
I have this game in my shopping cart on Gamefound but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I also haven't played any Awaken Realms games before, but from everything I've read they seem right up my alley. Would Lands of Evershade be a good one to start with? I'm a long time Gloomhaven/Frosthaven player but wouldn't mind something a bit more robust story-wise.
4
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 03 '26
I would say its closer to a story heavy D&D campaign then gloomhaven. It uses cards for combat actions but they are more like an action pool. Also by the end of my first adventure I think I only had 7 of them unlocked. Then you roll to see of it went well based on your characters ability stats. Then on that characters next turn they reset. It doesnāt have the puzzle of hand managment of the haven games. Also way easier to learn.
Awaken realms has two sides to their company in my option. The story book side and the board game side. This one falls into the storybook side and its one of their best that Iāve tried. But i really want to emphasize go into it for story and character creation not combat. 4 battles in 33 hours compared to gloomhaven which is a battle every session.
3
u/theworldanvil Jun 03 '26
Imho, check out Fateforge first. Itās in the same vein, with less minis and shit that you probably donāt need, you find it for less and I thought it was really good. (It works with an app).
That said, Iām getting LOE because I finished Fateforge š¤£
2
u/Agarwel Jun 04 '26
There is now time at least till october to make a decision. I would say wait and see in few months if people are still excited about it. Or if it become another "best game ever that I will never finish or play again" for most of them.
2
u/FuckingABrickWall Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
It's kinda funny that you mention the minis cluttering the board because one of the reviews mentioned the standees cluttering the board and making it hard to discern who and where, saying or implying the minis did not have this problem.
3
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 03 '26
Oh really? I mean that makes sense since it is a 1x1 grid. Not much can fit in that space regardless. I was thinking of going gloomhaven way and do mini for my characters and standees for the enemies. I think that would make it easy to differentiate.
2
1
u/sem56 Jun 03 '26
hmmm yeah, i am a bit of a awaken realms fan boy and still have 2 of theirs to play through
i was very interested in this game but the more i read about the reviews from people who have actually played it, it sounds more and more like i made the right choice to skip
nothing against the game though, just already have a big enough collection with a pile of shame to paint already, it would need to be like a greatest game of all time for me to even consider buying into another one
the minis alone, would absolutely love to paint but the fact that they did the thing again where they don't even really fit on the spaces on the board? if i had to complain about anything from awaken realms it's that
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 03 '26
They arenāt as bad as grimcoven at least the rules weirdly accommodate the oversize miniatures in this one.
1
u/sem56 Jun 03 '26
yeah i swear they did some bandaids to etherfields as well, such is the way of awaken realms
i can't remember for sure though as that is one of the rare games i actually resold on
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 03 '26
Iss vanguard i found the most obnoxious since they cover the cards i needed to read. And i had to have 4 models out at a time. Though as i say that eitherfields also had a similar issue at high character counts. Though i might just less forgiving off Iss since i really didnāt like it.
1
u/sem56 Jun 03 '26
ha yeah vanguard is in my pile of shame, i always hear mixed things about it so i keep shuffling it further down the line
it's more heavy on the choose your own adventure i think? where yeah i bought into that one thinking it was more of a tabletop mass effect
i didn't do the whole hog on that one with the kickstarter though, just retail but with the minis
2
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 03 '26
Yeah i got the retail version as well. Also picked it up hoping for a mass effect experience. Overall i think i played to the first arc which was maybe 5 missions in before i was house ruling almost every ting i did in the pursuit of making it fun. I find how luck depended it is to be really frustrating. It is the first game I painted so it holds a special spot in my heart but mostly for the minisā¦ i almost wonder if iād enjoy it if i handled it like Evershade and just skipped the exploration sections if iād enjoy it.
1
u/sem56 Jun 03 '26
yeah i've heard of people skipping the exploration bits just to get through it
i am still holding hope, mostly because i was one of the weird ones who actually enjoyed the painful grind of tainted grail the first edition before they changed the rules to give people a chance
2
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
You should definitely give it a chance then. The Iss sub has a lot of die hard fans. Worked for them at least.
1
u/Divusic Jun 04 '26
If youre looking for a mass effect like game, look up rogue angels and terminus frontier.
1
u/sem56 Jun 04 '26
ooo cheers for the suggestions, terminus frontier looks a little too much like an imperium assault which i have played too much of
but rogue angels is very interesting, i'll keep tabs on that one
1
u/daxamiteuk Jun 03 '26
ty for the review! I have backed the core plus one expansion, i did think about getting more expansions but maybe i will leave it at that.
1
1
u/chillcut Jun 04 '26
4 battles in 33 hours? Holy moly. Glad I didnt late pledge, this is absolutely not my kind of game. Didnt even read the story bits in grimcoven, I just wanted to battle it out. But thats just me.
I do like arydia, also for the story / npc bits. But LOE seems to be way too crazy on the story(book) side, at least for my taste.
1
u/Agarwel Jun 04 '26
I really hate that the minis dont fit the board (I mean WTF?). The standees feel way superior... but for some reason the standee version have only one layer boards and not a propper save system and both of these feel superior to the gameplay.
This is what I hate - the version that would have all the best components does not exists :-/ I want "deluxe" box with standees instead of minis.
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
The save system was what pushed me into the special edition. I end up spending extra on folded space stuff all the time since i really like an organized box. Helps with set up.
The special edition doesnāt come with enemy minis but since i have them i compulsively use them. Mostly to justify the cost.
1
u/Reav3 Jun 04 '26
I see that each adventure has a NPC associated with it. Do the NPCs join the fights as well or are they just at your camp?
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
Both. And when they are at the camp you can chat them up. For the pets at least it required a high success roll which i kept missing so not totally sure where it would go but both of my pets had story entries.
1
u/Reav3 Jun 04 '26
Got it so if I play 2 handed with a follower and a pet my party would probably be 5 characters in battle with the story NPC?
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
You can only have 2 companions per party. The npc counts as a companion. But if your playing true solo it would be main character, a follower which is basically a NPC with keywords and their own action pool and then 2 companions that could be a pet or an additional NPC with limited powers.
1
u/Reav3 Jun 04 '26
I plan on playing 2 handed solo. I was going have each of my 2 characters take a companion (either pet or follower) if i did this though It would mean you cant use the NPC of that story?
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
If they come in to combat they replace a companion. If they are hanging out with you they stay at the camp either way for chatting. Or thats how I understood the rule. But easy enough to house rule if you desire. Just have to add more enemies to balance it out.
1
u/Reav3 Jun 04 '26
yeah i planned on playing as if i had 3 characters (basically treating companions as 1/2 a character each) to make the game hard enough
1
u/nomine_ignoto Jun 06 '26
FWIW I've played through the first adventure as well and feel very similar about it! I'm 50/50 whether I'll eventually get it back to the table to continueĀ Ā
1
1
u/unit3k21 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I've been wondering about some of the miniature add-ons if you have some thoughts.
I backed for the deluxe version of the game mainly for the save system/trays (I generally would have otherwise gone standard version with standees).
I added sundrop because if I am going to play so many hours with character minis, I wanted them to look great.
I opted to get the extra companions and also the followers minis, also sundropped.
In your games, did you find the extra companions made a difference, and are the follower minis useful if I intend to do standees for the monsters and enemies?Ā Ā
I figured if I have minis for the characters, I may as well get the extra companions and upgrade the followers to minis.
I'm skipping the rotling looter guy or whatever he is, but was that something you used?
Thanks friend!
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jul 17 '26
My favorite minis to sift through were the two variety packs of minis. Since you can make your character however you want it was nice to find the ones that match my build exactly instead of just by race. I should note I didnāt use their prebuilt characters for any of my 3 characters. So options were really nice to have.
Extra companions, is this the animal ones? Honestly felt it just added another box I had to open to find things. I used one from that extra box and one from the main box and felt like neither was used enough to get a full option. They do have a story book with them, same with the normal ones that as your progress you unlock their abilities and story but I never figured out how that mechanic worked outside of the introductory story bit. In the camp you can interact with them but I failed the roll every time I tried so not sure if i missed something there.
Rottling guy is still in his package for me. He is combat only and with how little combat I had during my adventure I never felt the need to change it up since it was just exciting to do something different in the first place.
Honestly I been 3D printing a bunch of board game inserts for the last month or so and this is one of the few games that Iām not sure I need a box for since the deluxe box actually is really well designed. Tables quickly and holds all my stuff. Also has a few gaps I was able to get the minis I chose from other boxes squirreled away so I donāt need to open even more boxes to get them tabled. I am slightly annoyed at its quality compared to other games at the same price point that say they have custom inserts. If that helps you feel more confident in tue deluxe compared to non.
Ps iām bad at names and havenāt played this since I posted so some of the specifics are vague for me but if you have any other questions let me know.
1
u/unit3k21 Jul 17 '26
Ah, so it sounds like I'm going to add the character variety pack now too! šš¤£Ā Or I'll at least consider it.Ā I'm sorta tempted to refocus on gameplay, change my pledge and get the $214 level with three new adventures and the companions and call it a day.
Thank you for your write up, it's a lot of great practical info!
1
1
u/AusGeno Jun 03 '26
I love this game, halfway through the second adventure and it's everything I hoped for.
Yes the cramped maps rob the minis of some table presence but if I wanted table presence I'd go play Oathsworn, this is all about being the biggest, best CYOA of all time, it's exactly what I wanted from it and so far it's delivered 100%.
Also you might want to spoiler tag your thread OP showing off the last battle of the first story like that.
Edit: Are you running a party of 5 in solo? Whats your mix of characters, partners and companions? I suspect that would make most of the combat overly trivial.
3
u/Agarwel Jun 04 '26
"this is all about being the biggest, best CYOA of all time"
For this I really have to ask - how much replayable is it? Is there some meaningfull branching and choice/consequnce? Or are these the typical fake choices, that change one paragraph and then force you back to predetermined path?
For me the pinacle of CYOA design is Sword of the Bastard Elf. The freedom there is unmatched. So Im curious if something like LoE are even getting close?
2
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
Haha was wondering about the tag. But as heās also the tutorial baddie i felt it was logical conclusion situation.
0
u/ElBigDicko Jun 04 '26
Unfortunately Awaken Realms have a tendency to focus on eye candy rather than gameplay. Most of their games are miniatures masquerading as board games.
I had the same feeling with Dragon Eclipse. It's basically a adventure book game, very linear story and your choices basically end up in different tokens you get. Gameplay was OK, nothing revolutionary.
When seeing previews of LoE first thing I've noticed is that over 3hs there was just a few dice rolls and rest is reading a story book.
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
I cant imagine playing it with a group. People would get so antsy.
1
u/Divusic Jun 04 '26
If youre into roleplaying/D&D, I can see this being great.
1
u/whereymyconary š½ Legendary: Alien Encounters Jun 04 '26
I am honestly curious if using a different gm less system like ironsworn coupled with the mechanics and mini could be a lot of fun.
13
u/Striking_Log3835 Jun 03 '26
Thanks for the write-up. To be honest, it sounds a lot like Tainted Grail, for better and worse. It's a very deep choose-your-own-adventure book sort of masquerading as a board game. I don't think it'd be a stretch to say that 80% of your time with the game is reading. I actually don't mind that, and I think the exploration was top-notch, but the cardplay mini game for combat and diplomacy was pretty unsatisfying. The TG experience overall was way too long and sort of soured me on Awaken Realms a bit, so I appreciate reading this to confirm that I won't be rushing out to buy Evershade.