Cloudspire | Chaz Just Played & Reviews

Description provided by Game Night Picks on YouTube:

Cloudspire by Chip Theory Games is a fantastic production. But is this game all frosting and no cake? Let’s find out if its gameplay lives up to its fantastic production! Find the Quick Reference Guide, which lists all the Cloudspire special abilities, at: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/185551/quick-rule-reference-guide Taking place in the floating islands of Ankar, Cloudspire is a tower defense style strategy game for 1 to 4 players; heavily influenced by Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or MOBA, style video games. In the game, players control one of four unique factions in a battle to destroy their opponents while capturing a resource called “Source”. Players will recruit and deploy armies of minions and heroes, build towers to protect their fortress, and explore for resources and powerful Relics to turn the tide of battle. The units you deploy are placed in stacks, with different chips representing their hit points and other special abilities. As armies of minions and heroes approach opposing fortresses, they'll need to contend with Spires - powerful defense towers that can be built around the board. To survive, players will need to fight for control of build sites, and develop new spires and upgrade them wisely in order to hold off the enemy. So, march out your minions, level up your heroes, and upgrade your fortress to unlock new strategies and abilities as you fight to conquer your foes and lay claim to the Source, and the win. As mentioned in other videos that I’ve long been on the look out for the ultimate tower defense style board game. There’s the “panic” line, with Dead Panic, Castle Panic, and (hidden gem) Star Trek Panic, and other recent, more traditional, tower defense games like Age Of Towers. So when I came across the Kickstarter campaign for Cloudspire, which promised a meaty tower defense slash MOBA experience, I crossed my fingers and went all in on it. And then, I waited, for about a year for it to be produced and shipped. And all the while, my expectations for the game continued to rise in anticipation as the days dripped by. So, by the time Cloudspire arrived, I’d built it up in my mind to the point where I felt that if it didn’t instantly become one of my Top 100 favorite games of all time, I’d consider it to be a failure. And so, I played it. And the result? Success! That is not to say that the game isn’t without its faults. But let me start off by saying that Cloudspire accomplished exactly what I hoped it would: a deep, detailed tower defense experience, that kind of makes me feel like I’m playing a tabletop version of something like Warcraft 3. Does Cloudspire accomplish what it sets out to do? To be a highly strategic tower-defense MOBA game with a focus on exploration, discovery, and replayability? Well, even with the finicky details we had to iron out during our first game, I’d say that Cloudspire absolutely does. Sure, there are more special rules introduced over the course of the game than you could ever hope to commit to memory. And while we did encounter several issues that required us to make our “best guess” to resolve, these issues were no greater in quantity or severity than those encountered in other games of this size and ambition. And because there is so much in this game to find and master, that I’m counting the minutes until I’m able to get it to the table again. I built up this game in my mind for a year after Kickstarting it, and it did not disappoint. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Help fund Pair Of Dice Paradise at: https://podpledge.com/podp More board game component upgrades Chaz recommends: http://www.pairofdiceparadise.com/recommendations Board game component upgrades sponsored in part by: TopShelfGamer.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - More Pair Of Dice Paradise on the web: Homepage: http://www.pairofdiceparadise.com YouTube page: https://youtube.com/pairofdiceparadise Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pairofdiceparadise Twitter: https://twitter.com/DiceParadise Google+ page: https://plus.google.com/+PairOfDiceParadise Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/pairofdiceparadise BoardGameGeek Guild: http://boardgamegeek.com/guild/1842