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Sherlock Holmes is dead! And with London's greatest detective out of the way, those with villainous minds decide to wreak as much terror as possible on the populace — and you are one of those dastardly no-goodniks!
While Europe sits unprotected in Victorian Masterminds, you and other players send your henchmen to different cities to use their varied abilities, collect material for your steampunk-inspired contraptions, destroy buildings, and complete missions. At the same time, the Secret Service follows your path of destruction. Every contraption is unique and allows you to take different actions, leading to highly strategic, asymmetric gameplay.
In more detail, during the game, players take turns placing one of their five agent tokens — Henchman, Machine, Saboteur, Pilot, Number 2 — face down on one of the five action spaces. As soon as three tokens are on a space, those tokens are flipped and activated, first in first out, with each agent carrying out its individual action in addition to whatever takes place in that space. When an evil mastermind completes their contraption or the Secret Service brings this villainy to a halt, the game ends, and whoever has generated the most victory points wins.
12 Days of Giveaways - Ep 1
- Looks really cool
- Unwrapped but never played
- Strategy and planning game
- Victorian era
- Strategic gameplay
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- you can recruit monsters to your army that give you super powers
- it's a beautiful scary, it's a beautiful looking game
- this game is just a mini explosion, it's great
- gizmos is a lot of fun so we're giving this away our very first giveaway gizmos
- this little box the game when you see it it's not very pretty but it's so fun
- blood rage is a fantastic game
- massive Darkness two is freaking amazing
- the origami zombie side black plague is by far our favorite zombie side
- if you're gonna buy any zombie side game off the shelf Black Plague favorite one favorite one
- Cthulhu death may die is absolutely fabulous
- we can't stop playing this game
- zombie side Gear Up is getting another board game coffee seal of approval this game is so much fun
References (from this video)
- strong thematic flavor for a light to medium game
- variety of strategies across factions
- some viewers felt there were pacing or balance issues
- the theme and mechanics may not be for everyone
- gadgetry, intrigue, and competing agendas
- Victorian era with masterminds planning schemes
- thematic, somewhat steampunk vibe
- Seven Wonders
- Lords of Waterdeep
- Stone Age
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- area of control / drafting — multiple factions vie for influence with their own agendas
- take-that elements — intentional disruption and interaction with opponents
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the druids expansion is a must-buy
- it's not difficult to teach because what if essentially does it gives you more of the same but with a slight twist on top of it
- the biggest decision you're gonna have to make in this game
- it's a take that element and balance it out
- all in all it's a decent game, a alliance of convenience and towers, but at the end of the day everybody's got their own agenda
- Neon has kind of only just hit the market and most people don't have a clue what it is
References (from this video)
- strong theme and clever mechanisms
- thematic density can be off-putting to some
- villainous masterminds and intrigue
- steampunk Victorian era
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- engine-building — develop circuitry and plans to outmaneuver opponents
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- they are kaput they're gone
- the rights of the game has reverted back to the designers
- this expansion sounds neat
- expansion fatigue
- as long as I get to just shout boy all the time then I'm good to go
- I'm looking forward to cool things happening in the board gaming community