General Questions

[StarvingWriter82]

I must admit I'm intrigued by this game. Some questions for those that have played before:

1) Is the board static or does it change? I'm thinking of Settlers of Catan here... do you figure out the terrian randomly, or will it be the same every time? Are the hexes with discoveries on them the same every time, or are they different?

2) How does the strategy compare to other games? Obviously this is a bit subjective, but what do you think? At a glance, it seems pretty similar to Axis and Allies ... control resource hexes, make more money, win.

3) If everyone draws the same amount of mission/secret mission cards, doesn't that make the person who wins fairly arbitrary, regardless of skill? The examples of cards in the demo seem fairly easy to complete. Is there a way to gain victory points faster, thus making the game more skill intensive?

[holywolfman]

I must admit I'm intrigued by this game. Some questions for those that have played before:

1) Is the board static or does it change? I'm thinking of Settlers of Catan here... do you figure out the terrian randomly, or will it be the same every time? Are the hexes with discoveries on them the same every time, or are they different?

....The hex pieces can create a new board every time...the "discoveries" are placed at random too!

2) How does the strategy compare to other games? Obviously this is a bit subjective, but what do you think? At a glance, it seems pretty similar to Axis and Allies ... control resource hexes, make more money, win.

...This is a quick (little) combat game! It is like Warcraft meets Twilight Imp. !


3) If everyone draws the same amount of mission/secret mission cards, doesn't that make the person who wins fairly arbitrary, regardless of skill? The examples of cards in the demo seem fairly easy to complete. Is there a way to gain victory points faster, thus making the game more skill intensive?

.....you gain AT LEAST (1) pt for every battle you win....mission cards add more victory pts that can be gained...there are many different combos!

(Overall....this is a cool game! I recommend everyone to check it out! It is a blast to play!)

[boylermaker]

As far as strategy goes, controlling resources is important, but the most important thing is completing the missions. While being huge and powerful can help you complete your missions, being huge at the expense of completing conditions is a good way to lose.

One of the aspects in the game is deciding when to "go psycho" with on final push for victory conditions. If you don't make that 12th point, you're unable to do much before someone else wins, but if you delay it too long, someone else will go all out first and win.

[gryphon202]

I think holywolfman summed it up pretty well. The thing to remember about the AH demos is that as good as they are, they can't be a complete walkthrough. Demos have gotten me to buy most of the AH games I currently own, but in every instance, I have found the actual play experience to be different than the demos were.

That having been said, in an absolute worst-case scenario, you are guaranteed at least one victory point for every battle you win on your turn (with the non-random, identical blue mission cards). Also, you can play more than one secret mission card per turn, provided that the following three criteria are met:

A) Only one of them is battle-win-conditional (i.e. the red-points cards)

B) They are all applicable to how you won the battle/fulfilled the condition

C) You notice that you can play it (You snooze, you lose, after all)

Given these facts, along with the modular nature of the board, it truly is a different experience every time.

I liken Nexus Ops to traditional games such as backgammon and cribbage. Backgammon is played with dice, and cribbage with cards. Random elements, to be sure, but the more you practice and play, the better you will get, and the more often you will win. So Mazel Tov, my friend - if you've not gotten a copy of Nexus Ops yet, I recommend it highly. You will enjoy it.