20 Strong: Tainted Grail

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

• Card chaining — Uses chaining of cards for strategic advantage.
• Deck Building — Players engage in deck building.
• Dice pool management — Manages a pool of dice, choosing which to roll for actions and damage.
• Obstacle overcoming — Overcomes obstacles and fights through challenges and bad guys.

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

• It's kind of the biggest retail month of the year.
• So, I've got 19 expansions for you here to run through really quickly, and I hope you find something that you're excited about.
• My board game comedy tour is the next leg of it is starting here soon.
• So, please check out dates and see if I'm coming near you.
• Uh so, the first expansion I'll talk about here is Ten Penny Parks Innovation Expansion.
• Uh, this Winter Lights and Spooky Nights is actually two expansions in the same box.
• So you could play with one of these three expansions.
• So yeah, there we go. Those are 19 expansions coming out here in the month of August.
• Thank you so much for like and subscribe and all that great stuff.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

• Solo only — two of the 20 strong games.

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

• This, I believe, are their two new ones, and they also did a Nemesis one. Uh, this was their kind of collaboration with Awakened Realms, so I got those, which initially I didn't get these.
• The art is absolutely gorgeous and it looks like a very fun game.
• This is a game that is a very puzzly game, very much my cozy aesthetic.
• It is very fun. It is a mix of two different games which is Carcassone and Labyrinth. And that is literally Carcassone Labyrinth. Very cool.
• I really love that it is just a very calming like drafting game slash polyomino game.
• It is a very fun flip right polyomino. You're like digging spaces, placing buildings, and then those buildings give you this really fun engine that you are kind of going through each round, getting things, spending things, getting victory points, so on and so forth. It is fantastic.
• This is the last box I'm going to be showing you, but this is something that is going to be coming a little bit later this year. I'm not quite sure what it is because it is wrapped up, but this is a release coming later this year in October from Office Dog Games.
• This is from Restoration Games as well as Space Cowboys. And this is a like limited edition Witch King miniature, which I think is pretty awesome.
• I do believe that there are a few versions of this coming out. There are like two different versions, but this is a solo plus, so you can play it solo or with more people cooperatively.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

• Boss battles — The game culminates in a boss fight, requiring players to defeat it within a set number of rounds.
• Card Play — Players play combat cards that have abilities and node requirements to interact with enemies.
• Deck Building — Players build a deck of 10 combat cards, which can be upgraded or replaced throughout the game.
• Dice Rolling — Dice are rolled and applied to enemies to deal damage or trigger effects.
• Enemy Activation — Enemies are activated each round, and players must engage with them.
• Resource Management — Players manage health, dice, and combat cards, with decisions like when to use a 'self-sacrifice' ability to draw more cards at the cost of health.
• Stat progression — Players can improve stats like strategy and recovery throughout the game.
• Threat Stack / Menhir Stack — Enemies defeated are placed into a 'menhir stack', and when this stack reaches a certain size, the boss fight is triggered.

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

• It's because of you that Barrett and I do what we do on this channel.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

• action selection — In each round, players choose one of four available enemy types to fight, with strategic implications based on their theme and effects.
• Boss battles — The game focuses on fighting a single boss, with a structured progression involving fighting smaller enemies to advance towards the boss fight.
• Card Play — Players play cards with nodes that link up to gain benefits. These cards can be used to influence dice commitments or trigger effects.
• deck management — Players upgrade their deck by defeating specific enemies, adding new cards while banishing existing ones to maintain deck size.
• Dice Rolling — The game is 'about a dice system' and involves 'roll a bunch of dice.' The color of dice that can be committed is controlled by a color wheel.
• Set Collection — Players collect dice of specific colors (blue, green, gray, purple) to use in combat, influenced by the color wheel and card effects.
• Variable player powers — Each character has a unique starting card that is shuffled into their deck.

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

• Much to my surprise, this is an excellent you know, 20 Strong game.
• If you take out the narration and the exploration and the menhirs, um, and a lot of the game, and you only took the combat, that's what they put in here.
• this one, the way that it is actually structured is it is the closest to Solar Sentinels and therefore, in my opinion, the best way to play 20 Strong.
• I've always loved the way combat was done in Tainted Grail.
• This manipulation of utilizing your cards with items and with the dial actually make for a really really solid card game and dice are also in
• This is the first 20 strong box that I have played where it actually kind of makes sense to do a higher rank.
• So, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm going to give the Tainted Grail one a nine.
• This might be my favorite one that they've done.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.

Mechanics (from transcript analysis)

• Card Play — Players draw and play cards from a combat deck to influence combat outcomes.
• Deck Building — The game involves building a deck of cards, with cards being added and removed throughout the game.
• Dice management — Players manage exhausted and banished dice, and can recover them to use again.
• Dice Rolling — The core of the gameplay involves rolling various colored dice (health, strategy, recall) to perform actions and deal damage.
• enemy encounters — The game progresses through a series of encounters, each featuring one or more enemies.
• Stat tracking — Player stats like health, strategy, and recall are tracked and can be improved.

Video topics + discussion points

No key topics recorded for this video.

Quotes (from this video)

• This is part of why I lose this game all the time, by the way, because I overcommit early on and then suffer for it later.
• This one is hard, but the challenge of choosing your your the fun of choosing your piles and trying to build your character while trying to persevere, I find that enjoyable.
• Also, the one health is like typical hubris for me when I play these games. I'm like, 'I'll roll everything perfectly.' And then you get one bad round and you're dead.

References (from this video)

No references stored for this video.