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Well it's love at first sight for me with Doomed. Absolutely love the premise and the style. Loads of effort has gone in to the warbands photographed for the book. Looks really awesome. Love Osprey.

So is it gonna be good tho? I downloaded the beta document from the author's blog and it was an incoherent pile of junk*. But I suppose Osprey wouldn't publish an incoherent pile of junk so they mush have done some truly aggressive editing.

*and I say this as a fan of the author and as someone who has drank beer with Ana, their converter and painter

I'm really curious about that Doomed. Curious enough to grab a copy and see if I can figure out the rules.
At the very least the theme and what I've seen of it so far are exactly the kind of design to engage my imagination and get me whipped up into a painting and kitbashing frenzy!

I've had a good read of the book and I think individual mileage is gonna vary a lot on it. It is very rules-light but it's full of ideas - there are tons of monster types ("Horrors", some of which have "Minions", and they're all completely different) and more traditional objectives for player vs player games. There are plenty of follower types and weapons and optional upgrades to customise your warbands with. There's no range measuring (it suggests capping straight line move actions at 6" if you want to be strict) and no wound tracking or anything like that, so it should be very quick and brutal. I'm looking forward to giving it a go. It's got nowhere near the level of precision in the gameplay and campaign structure of something like Frostgrave and there are the typical amount of grammatical errors but no glaring formatting issues I could see.

How's the solo play support for The Doomed?

Also, what sets this apart from Majestic 13 from Snarling Badger Studios, apart from the PVP element? That one's a not-XCOM hunting alien horrors game and this sounds very similar.

The game looks super fun, and I feel like a more RPG-leaning narrative game is often a great palate cleanser after too much 40k "competitive" stuff. I'll definitely grab a copy this morning.

Chris McDowell is also wonderful as a creator, as he makes supremely enjoyable and rules-light weird settings/games. I recommend his work extremely highly, but fair warning, he is very much into the spirit of vague rules, and encouraging players to just do what feels right in the moment. Depending on the kind of player you are, that can range from supremely liberating, to feeling undercooked, or anything in between.

For what it is worth, a friend at Gencon said the book sold through restocks on three separate days, as he kept going back and finding them sold out to his dismay. Apparently their demos were VERY effective at converting interest to sales, from what he was told.

My wife and I grabbed our copy just after my last post, and the next eight or nine hours of our lives just vanished.

The Doomed will not be for everyone as its narrative focus is complete anathema to "hardcore" or more traditionally competitive players, but for those who dig a Mordheim energy, who can give themselves over to a game that straddles the line of RPG/wargame, it will be a lot of fun.

In the vein of games like Frostgrave or This is Not a Test, I am 100% sold on The Doomed and will Day-One preorder any expansions or supplements. It is just the exact kind of fun-forward, weird, light game that made me a huge fan of McDowell's from his RPG work.

If you're into narrative gaming, I STRONGLY recommend this one!

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
My wife and I grabbed our copy just after my last post, and the next eight or nine hours of our lives just vanished.

The Doomed will not be for everyone as its narrative focus is complete anathema to "hardcore" or more traditionally competitive players, but for those who dig a Mordheim energy, who can give themselves over to a game that straddles the line of RPG/wargame, it will be a lot of fun.

In the vein of games like Frostgrave or This is Not a Test, I am 100% sold on The Doomed and will Day-One preorder any expansions or supplements. It is just the exact kind of fun-forward, weird, light game that made me a huge fan of McDowell's from his RPG work.

If you're into narrative gaming, I STRONGLY recommend this one!

Well with your endorsement... I'll have to give the final version a look after all.

A review https://www.wargamer.com/the-doomed/review

On one hand, it sounds cool.

On the other hand, judging by the descriptions it also sounds like less like a game and more like an excuse to do some cool modelling and then occasionally put them on the table.

No it's definitely a game. Objectives, scores, tactics, the works.

 SgtBANZAI wrote:
On one hand, it sounds cool.

On the other hand, judging by the descriptions it also sounds like less like a game and more like an excuse to do some cool modelling and then occasionally put them on the table.

It's 100% a proper game. Some of its rule's wording is intentionally loose to allow for narrative play, but it is a full logical game through and through. We've been playing for a couple days now and it is so much fun!

> The core rules by Chris McDowall are incredibly light, fitting onto 10 pages. Models have a single stat, Quality, which ranges from 3+ for a leader to 5+ for a basic minion. Models get three actions per turn, and everything but the first move in a turn requires a roll equal to or over Quality to succeed.

Isn't that Ganesha Game's schtick?

Review goes to Necropolis28, which also looks interesting. Free rules:
https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-the-old-world/warhammer-meets-dark-souls
https://www.patreon.com/posts/wip-rules-and-83826125?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Review also mentions some non-war wargames, such as an apple-picking game...
https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-without-the-war

Just a small heads-up... OnTableTop absolutely butchers the rules for the game in their four batreps. It still shows what a wild, fun, game it is, but it is VERY embarrassing considering the game has less than ten pages of rules, and they misplay massive things.

For those watching, Horrors and Minions get exhausted just like player units. Basically OTT makes the Horrors about 800% more deadly than they should be, by giving them 8x as many turns every round.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Just a small heads-up... OnTableTop absolutely butchers the rules for the game in their four batreps. It still shows what a wild, fun, game it is, but it is VERY embarrassing considering the game has less than ten pages of rules, and they misplay massive things.

For those watching, Horrors and Minions get exhausted just like player units. Basically OTT makes the Horrors about 800% more deadly than they should be, by giving them 8x as many turns every round.

Good to know. Thanks for the info

I couldn't make it very far into the OnTableTop videos.

I haven't watched any of their stuff since they were still Beasts of War. Does dollar-store Alan Moore always do videos with the energy and coherence of someone who just woke up from a ten-hour nap?

Found another video about how to play Doomed

People seem to be going Ga-Ga over this game.....

Goes to show that I have no idea what people like or want to play.

Agreed. I don't get it, except that maybe the art is top tier and inspiring, but its not like there are minis out there to match that aesthetic.

 Psychopomp wrote:
I couldn't make it very far into the OnTableTop videos.

I haven't watched any of their stuff since they were still Beasts of War. Does dollar-store Alan Moore always do videos with the energy and coherence of someone who just woke up from a ten-hour nap?

Thats rude. He's a pretty nice guy... but yeah, he is kind of low-energy and discusses games with all the excitement of a golf broadcast. I have trouble holding attention on some of his longer videos, unless its one of the few things that he's *really* excited about and it sparks him into more energetic conversation.

I still think a far worse sin than being dull, is being paid to do a week of content for a small, indie game with rules teachable in five-minutes, and then posting ten hours of video content that gets those rules incredible wrong the entire time.

I'll never make fun of someone for their aesthetics, energy level, etc... but for the love of God, your literal job is to present the game in a solid way...

Now that is something I can agree with.

Yes OTT have the ability to un-sell a game to me with their low energy making everything look like a snorefest. I'll watch the occasional slow but informative unboxing.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Just a small heads-up... OnTableTop absolutely butchers the rules for the game in their four batreps. It still shows what a wild, fun, game it is, but it is VERY embarrassing considering the game has less than ten pages of rules, and they misplay massive things.

For those watching, Horrors and Minions get exhausted just like player units. Basically OTT makes the Horrors about 800% more deadly than they should be, by giving them 8x as many turns every round.

This is the main reason I have drifted away from watching the battle report channels that do a variety of games.

I would rather watch battle reports from channels that focus on one or two games and play them well, versus getting a shotgun blast of videos all played poorly.

 Easy E wrote:
People seem to be going Ga-Ga over this game.....

Goes to show that I have no idea what people like or want to play.

Maybe it combines the Turnip/Sludge kitbashing appeal with the Frostgrave simple-rules-complex-scenarios appeal and the One Page Rules “I don’t have time to learn more than 10 pages of rules” factor?

 ced1106 wrote:
Isn't that Ganesha Game's schtick?

IIRC SOBAH has two basic stats, Combat and Quality. But yes, each model’s activation begins with an activation test. The neat part is you can choose to roll up to three dice for this test and take up to three actions if you succeed — but there is a push your luck element because if you fail on two rolls (our of two or three rolls) then initiative passes to your opponent. It’s quite fun but models are more defined by the plethora of special abilities you can give them than Combat and Quality. It can be tough to keep all the Special Rules in mind but the bigger challenge is designing warbands that match up well. (See my blog for my own hamfisted attempts.)

Seems models in The Doomed also get up to three actions upon activation but without a push your luck element for initiative. It seems that the Special Rules component comes in with weapon profiles?

I know “Inq28” refers to Inquisitor — but is the comparison to The Doomed just highlighting the Blanchitsu-inspired conversion scene? Inquisitor is a fairly crunchy rule set after all. One thing I love about Inquisitor, which is really a kind of RPG, is the way players describe what they intend to do with a model before rolling dice to see how many action the model can actually take. This results in all manner of fun, such as only getting halfway to the next bit of cover. Seems from the review that something similar is possible here, where your opponent gets to place a model that fails an activation test?

I will likely pick it up if I can find a good price.

Shame that OTT botched the rules for this brand new game. I generally have a tough time grokking their sleepy mumbling anyhow.


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 Easy E wrote:
People seem to be going Ga-Ga over this game.....

Goes to show that I have no idea what people like or want to play.

Never discount glossy production value!

The bastion land video is excellent, and just 10 minutes long!

BoW/OTT certainly have their own style and approach, so I'm glad to see other channels getting this played.

 Shadow Walker wrote:
Found another video about how to play Doomed

This is the best game play video I've ever seen. It doesn't have a host that drones on endlessly, it tells you what you need to know with just enough words, and plays in more-or-less real time. I've seen some videos for games where it takes them 45 minutes to show you how one round works and the host makes me want to rip my eardrums out.

As for the game itself; it's curiously simple but still seems to have quite a bit of depth. The single player mode seems to run pretty smooth.

I may have to grab myself a copy of this!