I can’t swear there wasn’t something else going on, but the timing was suggestive. 
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Well, Nemesis is up. I’m in a spot, as the new box ended up appealing to me a lot more than I expected, but the pricing on it really seems to suck. For a few bucks more I could just get the original and 2 expansions, and it’s the theme and game that I was otherwise wanting in the first place. No chance I’m going all-in, I am the antithesis of rich! What do do!
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If I were you, I’d just pick up the original box as cheaply as possible.
Maybe throw a dollar on the new campaign if that’ll get you access to the pledge manager.
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Things to consider: 1) The core box will be available at retail even if it’s not right this second. Not clear if Lockdown will be yet. 2) The core box is a known quantity, Lockdown isn’t. 3) Awaken Realms heavily skews the value towards core pledges - addons are usually a lot worse money-to-content ratio. 4) They will use (and probably leave open for months) a pledge manager, so if that helps you could spread it between KS and the pledge manager.
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Good tips from the both of you, and I’d normally totally just do retail with the core box, but my preferred OLGS has set the price at the same rough cost as the pledge, which includes the two expansions. I’d end up paying more overall due to shipping, but it still wins that proposition, especially since I’m ok to wait for it.
Meanwhile though, there are some really compelling changes/additions to this standalone box. I went in expecting to pass on it immediately (again, the primary appeal is Aliens-not-Aliens) but they caught my attention.
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I’ve never been more conflicted about any game as I am with Nemesis.
The first point is the theme and production. It absolutely screams to me!!!
Beyond that, is the actual game.
On the one hand, there are a number of positive reviews on BGG, the game has reached 33 on BGG, and SU&SD gave it a tentatively positive review.
On the other, SVWAG and Board Game Barrage have outright panned almost every aspect of the gameplay, as have a couple of other reviews.
It seems to be a game that survives on the story it tells more than the gameplay, as every positive review seems to discuss the feeling the game gave, or the stories people tell afterwards. I’m not sure that’s enough for me…
I also have zero interest in the hidden traitor game, and I’m not entirely sold on the full coop vs other games. The core elements of the game make it close to a game that could be perfect for me, I’m just not sure it gets there.
I’m genuinely extremely torn on this one…
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It’s definitely the Awaken Realms game I’m most on the fence about due to the traitor elements. But from everything I’ve seen they are incredibly good at what they do and I’m all-in on anything they choose to do going forward if I have space and any interest at all.
(Which is to say, like, if they did a game completely premised on social deduction, I’d be out. Or, I dunno, a vicious stock-manipulation game or something. But an asymmetric mostly 2 player wargame the size of a workbench that I’m unlikely to get to play more than a couple times a year (The Edge: Dawnfall)? Certainly.)
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If you’re not interested in story or hidden traitor, I’m not sure why you’d back it. Those sound like the selling point of the game. I’ve not seen a single review that says it’s a tight coop puzzle
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Definitely seconding this sentiment. By most accounts it’s a sloppy theme-fest full of rules quirks and fiddliness, plus the traitor is such an enormous part of the overall dynamic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m apprehensive for almost all of the same reasons, but in my case the traitor and messiness-for-theme-sake are the two main draws. It’s a big ticket item, think hard on this one.
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Having played 4 times now I’m definitely on the side of SVWAG. The first game felt a bit hollow, game 2 annoying with the missions. Game 3 my missions were unachievable from the start of turn 2. However I was playing the convict so I set off the self destruct and ran for an escape pod after betraying my guard with an amusing double cross and git screwed out if escaping by random bullshit and another player throwing the game someone else’s direction. It was a great story (if told properly) that will live long in the memory. Game 4 the ship burnt down on turn 5 maybe so no one really did anything at all. So far one in 4. However the friend who bought it likes it so much they’re in for the new version, so they’ve enjoyed it more than me.
My core problem with it is that it’s an overblown prisoners dilemma. The game fails to add enough to make that choice interesting and justify all the extra time and fuss around that one core decision.
I’d like to try it coop to see if it’s undoubted narrative immersion and feel can hold up past the annoyance of the arbitrary and ill thought out missions.
If I want to play a game that doesn’t care about fairness or if I’m in an insurmountable losing position from the off then I’ll just play Too Many Bones. That’s got meaty strategy and the promise of extraordinary feats to derring do with some luck and inspiration that just doesn’t happen for me in Nemesis.
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When I saw the reviews, it seems it boils down to “Do you like Ameritrash? If so, do you like the theme?”
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@malkav11 That’s fair. The Edge is still the only game they’ve done that I was completely sold on, with Lord’s of Hellas coming behind it. I will say that few publishers make games with themes I find more appealing, I’m just not sold on they’re recent focus (don’t care for storybook games).
@KIR2 @VictorViper that’s my thing. I have a handful of tight tactical coops, that play faster and smoother. While the theme of Nemesis is more appealing than any of them, I’m not sure that’s enough.
@EnterTheWyvern That seems to be the general consensus for those that don’t dive head first into the theme and story.
@lalunaverde I love Amerithrash, and the theme is tops for me. I think it’s just a little too lose for me.
As tempted as I am, I think it’s best to pass on this one for me. I do hope to play it one day, but @VictorViper said, it’s a big ticket item,.and best to pass if I’m at all hesitant.
Thanks for the talk!!! 
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Nemesis seems to me like a slightly bigger Sci Fi Dead of Winter. I’d love a friend buy it so I can have 2 or 3 epic game nights, then never play it again!
I was very tempted by the first campaign but ended up getting turned off by their laissez faire attitude to game design. I think I’ve naturally grown away from that type of game now.
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I’m not so convinced that’s an attitude they have. Tainted Grail is, IMO, a beautiful beast. I guess I’d be hard pressed to call it perfectly tuned (we had so much Reputation we couldn’t possibly fit it on our character sheets even with five-spot cubes), but there was a lot of really smart design going on there. And while I’ve not had a chance to personally play The Edge or The Great Wall, the playthrough videos I’ve watched have been very impressive. For that matter, Etherfields seemed really neat, though that’s the one that’s hardest to properly evaluate given a lot of the design is intentionally obscured until you actually unlock whatever.
Nemesis might be sloppier. Or I might just disagree with people’s definitions thereof. I’ll be finding out!
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It’s more the way they run their campaigns. They’re very open to backers ideas, and it gave off the impression they’d chuck in any design idea thrown at them. “You want that? Sure we’ll chuck it in. We haven’t designed it yet, but we’ll figure it out between now and manufacture!” It was probably all smoke and mirrors to make the backers feel more involved. Ask enough people what they want and someone is bound to say the thing you’ve had in your back pocket all along. But it was enough to make my internal alarms go off.
Suddenly announcing the comic driven gameplay halfway through the campaign was the final straw. It was like they were deciding the game was something totally different mid-campaign to what they originally proposed. It didn’t end up being that important, but they made it sound quite intrinsic to the gameplay. It felt like they only way they could keep up the hype was to decide the game was something completely different each week.
It sounds like the game all ended out well, but the campaign was a directionless mess IMO.
One thing I will say is that I’m somewhat firmly decided upon the new content if I do continue my pledge. Some of the new elements make it seem like things have tightened up to be a little more mechanically rewarding.
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They’re definitely very responsive to input and feedback. I just feel like they’ve demonstrated the design chops to make that work.
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Oh yeah, people seem happy with them. At the time they didn’t have much to their name though. They just had Lords of Hellas.
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Now you have me intrigued again! Lol.
Just for the record, I owned Nemesis and then gave the whole lot to a buddy in exchange for… something? Oh, money. I sold it to him (I thought for a minute I traded it for Star Trek Ascendancy, but that was something else).
We played it 5 times “regular”, and then did a pretty hefty run at the fully-co-op “campagin” comic (I think we got most of the way through our run, but didn’t finish). And to be honest if I never play it again I am 100% okay with that. Each of the 5 playthroughs of the original version felt sloppy, with the rules nonsensical in some cases and impossible to find in others (and even after 5 playthroughs there were rules that I hated… the “pull a token out of the bag to cross-reference this chart” mechanic is like the fever-dream of an AD&D 2nd Ed player who thought the charts were the best part of role-playing but weren’t fiddly or stupid enough).
That stated, I didn’t hate it… I don’t play games I hate 5 times. But I didn’t like it… there was this nebulous… “promise”. I could tell that if I had the right players, and the right cards, and the right roles selected, and the right moments of tension, that there might be an absolutely amazing story to tell after the game.
But it never really happened, and after trying 5 times I was done. The fully co-op campaign was neat (needs an app desperately, but the comic book idea is well done, honestly), but not nearly as good as other fully co-op games designed specifically for that purpose.
But on the gripping hand, the guy I sold it to did play it with me twice and for the co-op run, and was super excited to own it and I think it will fit his playstyle much better than mine (I am really lousy as a traitor because I feel guilty if I win at the expense of everyone else winning together). And it is beautiful, and there is always that promise of a perfect game coming out if everything falls together just-so.
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