Overlords of Infamy: Discussion
Transcript
some viewers may find the following video disturbing viewer discretion is advised hey everyone welcome back to board games UNL and today I'm doing a discussion over overlords of infamy and the misery loves company expansion uh so I actually have quite a history for this game for a couple reasons one overlords of INF was the very first game that I ever received as a demo on this channel back whenever obscure reference games was first putting it on Kickstarter and back when I probably had less than 100 subscribers this game uh and David was the first one to ever actually send me a prototype copy which looking back was like N9 or 10 years ago which is just insane to think about and the version that I uh have here is actually their second printing whenever they were going out for the uh misery loves company expansion so it's actually insane that I'm doing a re-review kind of because I I believe I have a run through and a uh discussion over this game on the channel from way back when um and I'm redoing the review one because my channel has changed and my my style and everything has changed over time and uh two one I want to talk about the expansion and three this past Gen Con in 2024 I actually demoed this game every day except for Sunday uh David and I have
remained in touch and are are friends to this day so take that with what you will on what I say about this game but you might think that me demoing it over and over and over would cause me to hate it but the opposite actually happens to be true cuz I thought the same thing I thought that me demoing it was going to have me never want to touch this game again because I don't play any game over and over and over uh as much as I had to play and showcase this uh during Gen Con uh and what was so fascinating that I found for this was that the more I taught it the more I realized how deep the game uh systems actually are which is very intriguing to find out normally I'm not the kind of guy to try and figure out strategies for each character or to try and break the game in some way or to figure out every nook and cranny because I like to be surprised as much as the next person and feel like the game is the first time every single time I play it but as I was demoing it it was just fascinating to find out that what turn what looks like a Charming uh simple worker placement game uh actually has some layers to it uh so overlords of infamy is kind of a overall wacky theme with deep mechanisms similar to like roll camera where it's comical
in its tone but the mechanisms are very strategic and in this game all you are is you are one of many overlords which could range from waffles the uh the Corgi this is the mascot of the of the game and I was actually given a plushy for this and I was I I could have it here but then uh my dogs got a hold of it which is ironic and it's now destroyed so I don't have my plushy anymore which is fine or pancakes the cat or Monsur beavo ranging all the way to Steve the insufferable roommate to uh Lord ather like they range from wacky to to serious and backstories go from uh very meta to ALS so kind of dark like Lord aether's backstory because every character has one on why they became an Overlord like Monsur beavo is that he was tricked into taking on student loans so that's why he became an Overlord waffles is that he ate uh one of the relics the bone that gave him U yeah the femur of a cute Brilliance and then he realized that the hero kept going on adventures and leaving him behind so they range from that to Lord ather doing like an AOE blast of magic that killed everyone and he kind of isolates himself into uh a Crystal Palace that caus him to go insane it's like huh H okay well all of
the like his doesn't really line up with some of the others so that's what it like and then the plots are so witty like this game has an insane amount of wit to it uh with the way that the world events are worded the flavor text on every single plot like ranging from Navy to villainy to dominations like clearly Navy plots are as as Ste they're like almost mega mind level like steal candy from babies or blanket the region with glitter abolish breakfast or design a zombie board game that zombifies players uh play an awful pop song on repeat 24/7 you're just like yeah I'm I'm causing misery misery that's annoying and and then when you level up and go into dominations you go capsized oil freighter with with your tsunami amplifier merge natural natural disasters with Marine Predators deny the existence of a raging Global pandemic so you can clearly see that they stop being silly and go into a lot more serious uh as you kind of increase your infamy level and that's what I uh love love about this game is that the beginning of the game starts off relatively slow like you are sending out workers you know Gathering some resources filling you know small you're just small fry you're small time plots and then you get into
the nuances like I feel like the beginning of the game which kind of is to its detriment is a buildup for a lot of it uh like once the game doesn't really kick off until kind of everyone is into villainies and dominations so I mean it however it takes like no time at all to get into that but the game also starts ramping up because if this game was just a work replacement Resource Management game that would be no fun but where the game gets incredibly strategic and tactile is whenever you start getting into your infamy uh your uh your Espionage not infamy well it's related to your infamy your Espionage actions this is where the game turns from being like Oh stole candy from babies to okay now I'm going to assassinate all of your lacky I'm going to steal your Relic and you're not going to get to play anymore like it becomes very very Cutthroat and I feel like that can take a lot of players by surprise you think oh I'm just going to send out a Lackey all right I'm going to get some resources to okay I'm at level four infamy I can do the sabotage uh uh Espionage action on you and so I'm going to put a sabotage token on your plot and it's a domination plot that requires a lot of resources you can't get rid of that so I'm going to go ahead and uh place that on there and whenever you complete it you roll a
die oh you rolled a one guess it failed and yeah sorry all those resources are gone or uh using the level one which I always thought was kind of a useless Espionage action it's just like oh I get to see what your plot is however what I that was the one that shocked me the most as I was demoing was how useful that is because in a game about having the most points and sabotaging other players you being able to look at someone's villainy or domination plot knowing that half the deck of villainies have relics and dominations all have relics knowing what Relic your opponent needs to go out and just steal that or from the kingdom of good and hold on to that and or potentially uh filter through the through the decks until you need it can be extremely powerful because while you're not stuck with a plot you can actually start from scratch which lowers your infamy level so you can get a new plot so if I go out and realize oh you need the planet's Relic that is gonna um like have me go out and steal it so then if you're like oh okay well I could try and do uh an active Espionage to steal it back which is not impossible you just do that action and you know if you roll a four you can steal a relic um or because there's only one four on the die you can
just lower your infamy but if you're lowering your infamy takes you from three to two where now you can only take a Navy plot that's that's the decision you made um and what's also fascinating about this game is I I remember a lot of people kind of thinking that the game was going to take way too long well one you only have an hour to play and really you have 45 50 minutes um but as the game goes on cuz every time you complete a plot or harvest a resource the world tension tracker goes up and depending on the number of players that's how many world events need to be completed and then a four player game 10 world events need to be completed before the game ends and it might seem like that's going to take forever but as everyone is in villain and dominations then every villain you complete moves it up by two every domination moves it up by three um every time you steal a relic which like I said half the villain cards and all the domination cards Need A Relic so if when you're constantly trying to complete those then it's just going to start ramping up uh and again harvesting resources which you need more and more of with villainies and domination so the game starts to speed up really quick and before you know it you're just like oh wow we've we've done nine world events and it's on five Like A Game's about to end and that's the kind of nuance that this game kind of hides like it's all in the rule book uh but you don't really see it in action until you play this game quite a few times and then you
start looking and being like Oh that's how this can be used that's how this can be used like a really good example is there is an NPC character uh called the adventuring hero that the overlords use against one another and I really like this system because if someone wants to turle up and not touch the kingdom of good well one they're not going to be able to steal relics or uh not touch the contested zones then the adventuring hero is still a way for the other overlords to mess with them like cuz the adventuring hero will kill Lackey it'll it'll liberate tiles meaning it discards tiles from that player so no one is actually truly safe if it's like okay well we don't we can't mess with you through Espionage then we're just going to send the adventuring hero your way um but it's a double-edged sword because if if we're not able to do Espionage against you you're not able to do Espionage against us but there's also extra levels of strategy because if you need a relic you could I mean it would take some some time and potentially a little bit of luck you could touch the kingdom of good and then use an action to steal a relic if it's the one you need and then if you get lucky enough send the adventuring hero to the the tile that's touching the the Kingdom so you break your connection and it's like oh okay no more sabotage no more no more Espionage against me but you're still able to get your Relic uh
now it might take some time for you to do that but that's still a level of strategy um every hero hero every Overlord has a player power and again the more there was uh like one character that it was never ever picked in the in the games that I was running the Maring Dark Knight I don't think was ever picked sparle was picked uh quite a bit the ones obviously that most people picked is waffles and and pancakes but every single character has a has a special power that is broken but because they're all broken none of them are broken and there are such different levels of strategy for that like I just mentioned you don't really want the adventuring hero to come towards you well Sparkle actually might because uh if Sparkle's Lackey which are the mles are killed by their the adventuring hero they actually gain two of the resources that that Lackey was on so if you just need to hoard a bunch of the same resource well then you could actually place a Lackey out and harvest a resource to try and time it to where you're the one moving the adventuring hero and then you could send him your way because you're the one controlling him kill your Lackey get more of that resource or if you really want to Turtle up mons your bavo lets you discard a uh wood to search the map tile stacks for a wall tile and place it
for free and there are I believe 12 wall tiles in the stack which are enough to completely wall off your zone of influence so you could completely never be touched by the adventuring hero uh but you are going to be able to be touched by the Espionage actions which is also something cool about this game in that the actions in a game that's a work replacement and Resource Management there is some thought of theme behind it like uh whenever you do the the infiltrate Espionage action which is level two that allows you to send a Lackey from your barracks over to another player zone of influence but it doesn't increase the world tension like harvesting resources normally does it's like why is that and it's thematically it's because it's an Espionage action you're going in and acting as that overlord's Lackey which doesn't cause any alarm and it's like okay then it's up to that Overlord to to sweep for infiltrators and be like okay now I'm oh hey you don't work for me I remember enslaving you and then it's like and then you you kill them off um there's just a lot of intricacies to this game that really actually shocked me cuz I remember playing this I remember liking it like I never had any issues with I've always enjoyed overlords of infamy uh because I thought it was again clever with its
plots clever with its flavor text the world events which I'll get to in a sec are also still clever again with the flavor text and some of the of the titles but I have a new found appreciation for it because I had played it so much or I had demoed it so much meaning I had to teach it to many different types of players um and as far as I'm aware there wasn't a single player that walked away at least well actually there was one um which I just they had something else going on relatively no one walked away from this being like that game [ __ ] sucked um the one player just found one of the plots to be like they just they if if they thought that plot was not funny they just have a very difficult time separating you know uh fact from fiction or fiction from fact whatever it was one of the Navy plots is open up a vegan uh restaurant and secretly Sur meat I like not even thinking because I handed everyone to neighbor which is how you start the game and she was like that's not funny that should be taken out of the game it's like oh and I was like oh [ __ ] like cuz there's some political jokes in here and I mean to each their own which is fine but it's like oh that one upsets you oh boy okay uh you've never laughed before in your life have
you but there's like one of the one of the plots is is um oh God it's uh oh build a wall and make the kingdom of good pay for it there's some uh uh some world events that are very um pop culture referenc like like I said the world events some of them are are kind of dated like this one which I probably would never do and it's called Uh the game uh when this world event is revealed say the following I just lost the game after your friends are finished yelling at you continue playing as if nothing happened literally a world event but uh I mean that that's that's a that's a dated reference but you could completely like stack your world events you don't have to just shuffle them and the world events are your main source of I think like or dislike honestly because the world events are so polarizing they're really good for everyone or really bad for everyone or wacky in that there's one in there that makes everyone stand up and swap seats um there's one in here that makes everyone discard all resources their entire plot and basically reset the game so there's there's some in here that are just kind of outlandish that it depends on your player group and there's a ton in here I don't know how many world
events but you can either curate it and be like okay here are 10 world events that we find funny or instead of meticulously doing that you could just draw it and be like okay here's our world event the game no and you can discard it and just draw another one or if it's the one that makes everyone stand up and and your group likes that kind of stuff there's one in here about uh doing a staring contest um but there's also ones that could only affect you like it could only benefit you or it can only hurt you and you you just have to kind of accept that Randomness in the game like the other element of Randomness is searching for map tiles when you need specific resources but I think that's mitigated by going out towards the contested zones which are the printed resource on the board and I actually really like that I like that the map tiles are random because you could get lucky and get the resources you need but it's incentivizing you to go out and uh exploit the land towards those contested zones because that means that if your uh neighbor is going to do the same then you're going to start doing acts of Espionage against one another which is where a huge part of the game is that's where I feel like the game is unique from others and stands out and is kind of where uh a lot of the game feels like it really uh exists if that makes sense
like everything else is bog standard work replacement you you know Resource Management to fulfill a card but the Espionage actions are such a like a part of the theme and how you're going to actually compete and get ahead of your opponents so really the world events I kind of accept um like I I don't really like I love some of them I hate others uh and then what's also really cool is the domination and villainies all have special abilities navies don't like neighbor I there's a ton in there I think that's almost a little misleading uh because that's where most people are going to start or not most that's where everyone's going to start and you think that the game is just kind of a silly fun party game almost but then it quickly turns into not that so if you're not expecting a Cutthroat game and then you start realizing it is then that can be uh a huge down like a huge um I don't know whatever whatever the word is like a huge turn off there we go because if your if your group doesn't like Cutthroat games then this game might not actually be for you because it's it can be very very Cutthroat uh I mean I guess you could turn it into not that you could be like oh let's talk about what relics we need but then why play a competitive game and
the game that is matching everything to the theme uh but I also love the fact that the villainies and dominations have aftermath abilities which are special abilities that could be you know passive ones for you or onetime use which could just be huge like one villain I've had is that the special ability is if anyone's going to do an active Espionage against me I can just cancel that be like nope you're not going to do that to me and completing those can be very very helpful um other things that I don't really don't really like I mean from a production standpoint I don't like the world events uh you have a world event like this and then the cards are upside down if you if you flip them like over like left like horizontal um I'm guessing they they want to do the flip it vertical which works uh that's just I'm always like flipping I'm like okay what's the event so but it's that's a that's really a nitpick the expansion and everything fits in the game in the second version my copy cuz I this is the second time I've had this expansion cuz I back this thinking that there wasn't a second printing so I was like okay cool and then this was like not really compatible with my version at all um there's just a level of charm to to it because you don't really see games like this anymore
the art style is unique uh it feels fully produced but still kind of homey at the same time other than that like I really don't have many many complaints what's also neat is you can actually play this as a five player game and the fifth player plays as the adventuring hero and that could be really cool because uh in the expansion yeah the expansion adds personas for the adventuring hero so normally they would just control it and it's like oh you know the world tension hit three six or nine now you know turns interrupted adventuring hero the person playing him rolls a die and moves and then once everyone has gone the adventuring hero always goes last and now they have actions that they can do and they're trying to complete hero quests and these hero quests could be brutal like because they're trying to complete a certain number of quests equal to the world events uh two for every two world event needed to complete the game they have to complete one hero Quest meaning in a four player game 10 world events end the game hero needs to complete five quests and they win so it turns into kind of a one verse many wall tiles Spike tiles and certain special abilities become a lot more beneficial but it's it's fascinating because these world events can be so uh damaging to the players like one that I have actually seen a player complete was
the Steelo Relic Action Now costs three actions when it normally cost two so it takes pretty much your whole turn to steal a relic and the more hero quests they do the more damaging it is to the overlords which again can be a uh a really interesting game so it does support up to five everyone I talked to that played as the adventuring hero said they likeed it some actually preferred it over the others which was kind of interesting um and the game also does play solo and I got to be honest I really don't like the solo like at all and not that it doesn't work I feel like that you miss out on the AXS of Espionage like these are so to me crucial to the game that not being able to do these feels like they missing half the game it's like oh I guess I'll collect Resources by myself and complete plots that affect no one like it just feels like I I would never play this solo I I don't have I just it's like all right yeah it can like you can play it solo it's it's functional you're just missing out on a lot aftermaths that affect other players world events that would affect other players uh Espionage that affects other players it's just you're missing out on many key components when playing it
solo um so that's all for the base game of overlords of infamy the expansion uh is a really cool expansion too like one it just adds more characters uh pancakes which is again like just something small and clever waffles or pancakes dog versus cat um and her ability is really good too it adds Steve like all these characters on the front yeah Sparkle uh moner bavo Steve the insufferable roommate and then the girl that no one picked um The marauding Dark Knight it adds more characters more world events more plots all of that is is just added which is just good and then it also adds Huff the tragic Dragon which is also interesting because this adds a new tile of Huff has destroyed the kingdom of good and now the adventuring hero is kind of allying with the overlords like he's still trying to complete Journeys which uh if I remember right the journeys he has to try and complete is uh I think I'm I'm paraphrasing but it's like find a noble Steed get a magical sword and slay the dragon uh but he's also weirdly allying with the overlords but the uh dragon is now kind of the big bad NPC that is moving around trying to complete
indomitable I think it was indomitable Dragon imperatives are what they're trying to what they're trying to complete so it does add a new level of spice to the game if you've played this quite a bit and also gives a fifth player playing as the adventuring hero kind of more purpose which is really cool like I think adding more to the adventuring hero as a fifth player is a very neat idea and it all works if the adventuring hero is an NPC too so it's not like oh we have to have 5DS the expansion no it all is all functional if the uh if the adventuring hero is an NPC or if he's actually being played um then I mean just extra stuff there are secret schemes which are just kind of private objectives uh have most your completed plots require uh specific resource could get you 10 points there are in the game with the most FAA tiles in your zone of influence gets you seven points so secret private objectives um and there's also kind of new actions that players can take of putting out piles of meat or putting out ballistas that will be used kind of as traps for like the meat is whenever the dragon moves it's going to run towards the meat instead it has to go towards that or the ballistas If It Moves and it's carrying something it takes damage and drops what it's carrying so it gives all the players a little bit more to do and just adds again more theme to the
game so it's a small expansion but I like it I like that there's basically a new mode and then the rest of the stuff it's just more to the game like it doesn't have you can just buy all this for the extra stuff and what's also cool is like the new cards will reference the half the tragic dragon or whoever but it's like if not playing with that then do this like it's not like oh this card's obsolete because we're not playing with that no it just now has a different function which is cool some characters who have plots or abilities specifically for the dragon just do something different now it's not like they don't have an ability or you can't use them so the expansion is also a really good add-on I this game just just has a soft spot in my heart honestly like I pride myself on being very unbiased with my reviews um if anyone has watched any of my reviews or seen most people who do actually talk about my channel know that I mean I'm not getting paid by David or obscure reference games to do this review is even though I've known uh known them for years at this point and was given the opportunity to do a review for a prototype as the very first one when my channel started um if this game sucked I would tell you guys it sucked but I really just think that there's
something special here it's a unique worker placement game that I've still never seen like I've never seen this theme done uh I'm sure it's out there but it's never hit in the same spot like this one has I've never seen worker placement games where you're trying to complete plots that give you special abilities for that and I've never seen something like the Espionage actions that increase with your power that adds more levels of of um strategy as the game goes on uh and then the game and the game's also not insanely long even though your first couple rounds it's going to feel like it's going to take forever and then the game ends and you're like oh [ __ ] like maybe there's a meta but like cuz I've always thought oh first person to complete a domination is going to win well then I've seen people do different strategies I've seen people only take Navy plots until they get to five and then they start taking dominations like just ramp up to five there's world events in here I'd have to search for it but it's called winter has come that literally says increase all over infy level by one like or you killed my father prepared to die and the adventure hero is going to move four spaces and kill all lackes in those four spaces and take
all resources from tiles he stands on there's world events like the snap the adventuring hero Huff the tragic dragon and each Overlord discard half of their resources I wonder why what that references to uh dance maob any lacky killed before the next world event card is revealed are returned to their overlord's Barracks at the end of the turn and every single card has flavor Texs there's just such a charm um to this game that I still find I mean yeah some of it's dated and but it's stated to me there could be people who are playing this game who draw the game card and are like oh you [ __ ] like it's like oh it's been 30 years since I ever thought of that and I was I was on this streak um but it it hits different groups differently like some people like I had such wildly different groups of people taking it like really seriously and still had a great time and I've seen people who were cracking up at every single card um or some people like my last group that I demoed for would had me rolling because all of their plots and world events were just a kind of weird uh to [ __ ] on the adventuring hero they're like this guy's a nerd like it we're just bullying him one someone's plot was uh fill up the adventuring Heroes gauntlets with mayonnaise and it's like oh man now I feel but and before the demo ended we got the you killed my father prepared to die and he like ran in and just annihilated all all
of someone's lackes except for one and it's like yeah well I mean you kept you kept making fun of him and now he got he went out and killed all your all your people now you're kind of screwed so and they just had a blast I think they ended up buying the game too but it's it's it hits a spot for every Group which is something that I can't say for a lot of these types of games um yeah so on a scale of 1 to 10 uh I'm going to give overlords of infamy uh and the expansion a nine I think this game is great uh if I it would be lower if I had you know demoed this and by the end of it I was like if I even see this game I'm gonna throw up but that's not the case like I'm as Charmed with it as ever and I'm even more Charmed with it as I'm doing my review over it because it's just I don't know it's it's it's something that's that's unique here and I think that it it could fit in a lot of uh people's uh collection and it's going to kind of be unheard of like I don't hear anyone talking about this game unless they're going to a convention so that's my thoughts on overlords of infamy I mean come on there's a corgi like what else I should have just said that this should have been a two-c review and I should have just been like look there's a corgi as a playable character there you go oh you hate dogs well get the expansion now there's a cat who cares about everyone else oh you
hate dogs and cats there's a beaver like you're done you're done what what more reason do you need but that's my thoughts on overlords of infamy and the expansion misery loves company let me know what you think of the game in the comments below other on that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time upd is for you hey everyone thank you for watching and I really hope that you enjoyed the video if you would like to see more of my content go ahead and click that subscribe button and the bell to be notified whenever I upload any new content if you feel like supporting the channel you can go ahead and click that patreon link to be taken to my patreon and any help is truly appreciated other than that stick around for any any other run throughs or reviews or cool top 10 or whatever I feel like putting on other than that like comment share and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day it is for you