Reichbusters campaign query

[lawnor 25939xp 1]

Reichbusters is at sea and lands in Europe at the end of the month and on our doorsteps shortly afterwards,  I was a late backer to this.  I wasn’t planning on backing it so I wasn’t paying full attention to all the content or the KS at the time.  However all the BoW content and the talk of it having a narrative campaign, and them supporting this by releasing future themed expansions (Reichbusters on the Moon, Reichbusters vs Godzilla, Reichbusters lost in time, Reichbusters  vs Ghostbusters Vs Mythbusters: The Bustening, etc??) I finally decided to cave and buy in.  After the fact, I looked closer at the fine print and saw the campaign was 6 missions long (With a 7th bonus with the extra character).  This seems worryingly short (Although I’d have issues if it was Gloomhaven sized.  Having an attainable end is important.  I’ve been playing Gloomhaven for 2+ years and we are nowhere near the end), but perhaps it unlocks side missions and rescue missions etc they aren’t counting?

I’ve also played through Space Hulk’s “Campaign” for the first time recently.  Calling it a campaign is a joke.  There is no connectivity between the missions and we didn’t feel the need to read the fluff.  Given I grew up on hero Quest it is probably comparable to that and fine enough if that’s all you’re after, but I bought in to Reichbusters expecting a more developed campaign.  I understand that Space Hulk was GW not Mythic so there’s no reason to expect them to work the same, but it does make me wonder.  I have a barely touched copy of Mythic Battles: Pantheon and the campaigns in that are simplistic from what I’ve seen, but that’s a different type of game.

Anyway, that’s my ramble over.  On to the actual questions: Does anyone know anything about the campaign?  Will there be consequences for success and failure?  Will there be meaningful choices?  Will there be a campaign system beyond merely doing missions in order, and feeling like you could ignore that and the fluff and still have the same quality of play?  I’m looking forward to giving it a go and I want it to be awesome.  I am just concerned that I might need to manage my expectations in advance, or end up not feeling as happy as I probably should. As an example, I am currently disappointed with my Godtear KS purely because I expected crisper sculpts after seeing the 3D Renders and the metal beta minis.  They are perfectly fine Best Bang For Your Buck minis and I’d be happy if I had expected that.

[redbenParticipant 9415xp 1]

You’ll play the missions in order. They do tell a story as you go but there’s no branching. The core box has six missions then there are four more across the expansions that slot in if you have them.

[lawnor 25939xp 0]

Are there advantages/penalties in subsequent missions for doing well/badly in earlier ones?  Might you unlock new Reichbusters, equipment, etc by completing side goals within a mission?  If an ally dies during a mission does he stay captured until you do an optional extra mission to rescue them?  Do you keep looted equipment?  I like the idea of having to make choices that matter between missions.  Even Hero Quest let you save up to buy better equipment.  A little something extra so you can play the campaign through again and potentially have a different experience.  I suppose we could just pick 4 different characters.  With different skills and abilities it could feel like a whole new game with different challenges.

[redbenParticipant 9415xp 1]

This is stretching my knowledge as I wasn’t on the dev and testing teams, but from memory I believe there’s a central pool of available Heroes and items which is impacted by how you do in the scenarios. I don’t recall whether rescuing captured Heroes was part of the campaign.

[lawnor 25939xp 0]

Its good to hear our play can impact something.  I seem to recall talk about rescuing characters, but having skimmed the beta rules earlier that might have been me misunderstanding a mid-mission game mechanic.

However the campaign works, I am keen for this to turn up.  As soon as I get a delivery date I’m booking a week off work so I can deep dive in to getting as much painted and ready to play as quick as possible.

[limburger 21708xp 1]

I wonder if one could build a campaign generator using the ‘raid mission’ system.

It probably would be a bit iffy at times, but then … plots in 80’s actionmovies aren’t perfect either.

Besides, there’s supposed to be only 36 ‘dramatic situations’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Six_Dramatic_Situations

😉

It’d be an interesting little project.

[lawnor 25939xp 1]

I don’t know if the box has a random layout generator, or if it just comes with a handful of layouts, perhaps just the ones from the missions.  I’m hoping there.s some kind of generator, or at least some guidelines on what might be an overly challenging or easy layout.  As for the plot, I’m expecting 80’s B Movie cheese all the way.  I’m expecting the expansions to crank this up to 11.  You could possibly build mini campaigns inspired by movies.  The Reichbusters are trapped by nazis in Nakatomi plaza during a christmas party and have to fight their way down through the floors one by one.  Reichbusters vs the Army of Darkness as Hitlers agents open a portal through time trying to steal the Necronomicon Exmortis.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

@limburger – I remember seeing Patrick Stewart alongside Ian McKellen in “Waiting for Godot”. It was an exceptional performance (IMc was particularly good, while Picard did sometimes stray into slightly-too-hammy for my liking) and even Simon Callow turning up and bellowing didn’t spoil it for me.

But it does introduce a 37th into your exhaustive list: people bimble about for a bit and nothing happens.

[limburger 21708xp 1]

@blinky465 a movie titled “waiting for Godot” is going to involve a lot of waiting for stuff to happen 😉

@lawnor IIRC the ‘raid system’ is more like a set of fixed map layouts combined with randomized objectives (and enemy sets).
Computer games of the ‘rogue-like’ variety do have ‘random’ maps, but I suspect the creators could not explore all options due to time/resource contraints (the game had to be finished in a reasonable time frame).

 

[lawnor 25939xp 1]

I’ve had all the old BoW RB content on in the background while painting this weekend.  So far theres a lot of promising talk about carrying over salvaged equipment, swapping out skills between missions (perhaps a la levelling up?  Maybe you just have fixed options?), and leaving men behind at the end of missions and having to go back to rescue them or not have them available any more.  It all sounds primising, but it’s all still pre-KS content so might have changed.

I’ve been thinking about a low mission count campaign.  it might actually work out for the better.  If its a 15+ mission then its going to be hard to get people to commit and to actually play it all the way through.  With a lower count I might get to play it a few times with different characters and different people.  We will see.

[limburger 21708xp 1]

yeah, a short campaign that can be finished in a few evenings definitely is easier to manage than a 200+ hour campaign in something like Gloomhaven.

We’ll have to wait and see for proper post-KS reviews, although campaign reviews might contain spoilers.

[Author]

Posts