Gears Of War

If you missed Space Hulk 3rd Ed and don't want to pay $250 or more, get this game. Possibly the best mechanics in a miniature board game I have ever played. Great value i.e. about 30 miniatures in this game. The plastics are so good, they rival miniature war games. They have so much detail, that you could paint them and they would look fantastic. Even if you don't like the Gears of War IP, the game is a major win. If you ARE a fan of Gears, then this is a no brainer. I have only played it a few times, but it fun and it is difficult (haven't won yet). Awesome sci-fi dungeon crawler.Pros:Great random map set up each timeCan be played with 1 playerFirst mission can be played in an hour (not including set up)Tons of great modelsbest enemy AI in a board game to dateTrue Co-op game with not back stabbingGreat art on the board tiles and in the rulebookEach character has individual abilitiesLoot mechanicChainsaw bayonets, nuff saidCons:Quite challenging, but the experienced gamer will appreciate itSet up does take a while the first time, but gets shorter

Let me say off the bat, I am not a fan of Gears of War the Video Game. I have nothing against it, I am just not a fan of First/Third Person shooters. I have played it a few times to understand it is basically your Aliens/HALO/40K type humans vs. the alien Horde romp. What I do like is the quality of Fantasy Flight's board games and I'm a sucker for Dungeon crawls (esp. Sci Fi themed) like Space Hulk, Warhammer Quest and Castle Ravenloft, to name a few. Gears of War was on my watch list and I picked it up when I saw it on deep discount here on Amazon ... Getting a $70+ FFG game for less than 40 was too good to pass up.My quick review of the game:It's a slightly different spin on the crawler boardgame ... you are more or less compelled to take bold actions every turn, else you will get crushed in the unending wave of aliens, who are not anywhere near as squishy as you are. The basic mechanic is that your hand of cards is your bank of actions and your life. You can discard a card and take a basic action like move or perform a basic attack. or you can do what is on the card (in order, with little or no modifications) and hopefully have a big turn, but you must keep enough cards in your hand to soak damage, react to attacks and help your allies out when they need a hand. This game is divided into areas as opposed to the common grid, so movement, range and line of sight are a bit atypical (kudos for a line of sight ruler for determining LOS, instead of counting squares). The game certainly has some Ravenloft DNA (the enemy AI is on rails, but having a semi random deck is nice - no overlord is needed) as well as descent (weapons/abilites will get triggered off of symbols on the dice for a bit of interest and to make the human soldiers not so 'samey')There is a bit of the 'we have to make this an homage to the video game' so there is an ever present aspect of collecting ammo and weapon drops. This game does do a good job of making this less clunky than otrher systems I have played and the scenarios are a nice touch .... but there are certainly enough components to kitbash your own random adventure.My only real complaint is the play time is really through the roof. I thought the game's design to keep the humans constanlty on the move would keep things brisk, but in true crawler fashion, even the introductory scenario can take two hours to finish, becuase the game will choke you with enemies seemingly afgter each advance you make ...that said, it certainly fits into that category of cooperative games that are fun to play win or lose, the game will make for some epic turns but it is a grinder of sorts that you measure more in 'how close were we to winning this time?' than worrying about ultimate victory ... but I'm sure when things do fall in place and the teamwork pans out and you do win that one game against the locust forces, it will be huge!

GM-less co-op? Constantly dynamic maps? Detailed figures and quick turns? Solitaire mode? Sure, you've heard it all before, but this time, you've actually FOUND it! CoreyK & FFG's 'Gears Of War: The Board Game' has instantly risen to be one of my most favourite games, purely on the *delivered* promise of real co-op. A bit more direct and far less lengthy° than 'Arkham Asylum', this has become an instant hit amongst my gaming friends and family because truly, everyone can play: everyone can help set up the map without getting an advantage over any other player; everyone can resolve combat phases by rolling for the enemy Locust Horde while still taking action and rolling for their own characters on their own turns; the shuffled cards leave everyone wondering what will happen next. By the second round of turns, everyone had figured out the flow of their hand and gameplay was speeding up.'Gears' or not, this is a superbly crafted war game simulator, something that isn't 'Warhammer 40K' long but never dull, either! The AI system in particular is just brilliant, offering simple mechanics that result in massive overall effect, making it easy to implement, but complex enough to surprise and thrill you, too! The closest games that comes to mind: this combines the randomly-generated map-building of 'Betrayal At House On The Hill' with an almost 'D20 Modern'-esque combat rule system, creating a game that is a perfect hour-long roflstomp for a gaming group. It's even fun on your own, as I read the 1P notes so much, I had to try it! It's also very modular, meaning you can play to a certain point, then "save game" for another time, because each mission is nicely split up in setup and objectives (as is the map-generation, as a result). This is a nice shift in design than other CoreyK games, like 'Starcraft' (Superb! Infinitely long!) and 'RuneWars' (Great! Did I already use up "infinitely"? Insanely long!), so you can really make this a part of a gaming night, rather than a focus game. With the swiftness of turns that keeps people drawn in, it sometimes becomes hard to break *away* from GoWtBG!° And with everything in box! No expansions, thus far! No real need for them, either, although BoardGameGeeks has had some great ideas for new missions to run. Also! HeroClix figures are just the right size to match the 1.5" figures included in box! This means you could expand the character roster yourself, like I did, to add a female character, AnyaStroud, to the mix. Exceptionally well-crafted game.

I was so excited for this but it is not as fun as i hoped it only comes with Dom,Baird,Cole,and Marcus where is carmine and hoffman?Plus there are not that many different missions where is versus?Plus where are the grenadiers,beast riders.50 dollars for this game dont buy, the lowest i would buy this game for is 30 dollars maybe only 25 dollars.Forgot to mention you need nose plugs, when I opened the box it smelt so bad and wierd (and it still does) it gives me a headache!!