Barbaric: After the Apocalypse Preview - Get the Atomic Core! At All Costs!
Transcript
Hey there gamers, welcome back to the Board Game Co channel. And today we have a preview of Barbaric. Hey there gamers, welcome back to the Board Game Co channel. And today we have a preview of Barbaric by Hexa House. Now this is a current crowdfunding campaign because they're currently running an expansion to Barbaric. So there is a second printing in the game found link down below, but there's primarily an expansion Crown of the Frost. So you can check that out. We're going to be covering Barbaric, the core game itself. I do not have that expansion with me, but either way, this is going to give you a great idea of how to play the game. Now, this is a first edition copy in front of me, so this is a finalized game, but when you check out the link down below that's going to show you everything that is planned for the expansion. Now, before we dive into it, if you'd like to see exactly how this game plays, there will also be a gameplay on the channel between Alex and I, so be sure to check that out. And this is a sponsored preview. Now, in Barbaric, this is going to be a skirmish game where players are going to be these different mutated animals that have gone through different paths of evolution after the world has been ravaged. So, you're going to have these really unique abilities, but you're also riding on top of this gear. So, your gear is going to have abilities as well. So, with your playerboard, you're going to be mixing together those two things, as well as a deck for yourself. And you're going to be using all of these different things available to you to use the best play style for that particular character to win the game. And there are multiple ways that players are able to win or lose the game. And one of them is going
to be the atomic core at the center. So there is also a monster on the board and they are protecting this atomic core. So if a player is able to run in, grab that and run out and exit, that is one way that a player can win the game immediately. Other way players are going to be able to win is if you kill the same player twice. So in a two-player game, that's pretty easy because you'll also win by being the last man standing, which is the third way to win. But when you're playing with more than two players, if you kill the same character twice, you're going to be able to win. Or if you are the last one standing, of course, that's a way for you to find victory as well. So with that, let's dive into barbaric. Now, currently the game is set up for two players with the monster here that is neutral in the middle. they will attack anyone and everyone. Um, but for the characters that you have here, that is something that is going to be new in the expansion. So again, be sure to check that out in the link down below where you can see there is a rider as well as a gear that players are going to be using and there are going to be new ones in the new content. Now, these two players here also have the Komaon, the lizard queen, and her minions to deal with that are also going to be moving around the board attacking players, but also giving rewards when you attack them as well. And taking a look at the player area over here, you can see that this forms a player board, but there are actually two pieces that you're going to put together. And that's because you're going to have your rider, which is going to be this part here. And then you're
also going to have your gear which is going to be the thing that they are riding on top of. So we have Kelts the vagabond which is going to be this mutated bunny and we also have them riding on top of the megalodon. Now these two things are going to determine a lot of what players are able to do on their turn because some things are going to be specific to your rider and their actions and some things will be specific to your gear and their actions. Now, between your rider and your gear, you are going to have those two player boards as well as your figure, but you're also going to be forming a deck. So, you're going to have a deck that's going to consist of cards for both of those different types. And you're also going to have these unique abilities that you are upgrading and gaining access to as you start using these skills. So, depending on what you choose to play as, you're going to have a unique combination that you're going to build out at the beginning of the game.
Now, to start the round, players are going to unveil an event. So, we'll flip this over. It is El Nino. During this round, players cannot regain shields. So, this will be placed over here. And then to show that we are currently in the day, this marker will go up there because, as you can see over here, we are currently in day. You're going to go through a day phase and then a night phase. And then the monster will be able to attack. But within the day and the night, players are going to be able to do a couple of different things. You're going to have your preparation phase and then you're going to go through your different actions. So, first we have that event and then we're going to go on to the first player for this round which is Kelts over here. So, the first thing that you're able to do during the preparation phase is one of two things.
You could consume a resource which is going to do different things for you. You are able to consume them to draw two cards and you're able to do them for different things depending on the one that you are using. for example, moving or healing. So, we could do that. But another thing that you're able to do instead would be to play a skill card, which is learning it. So, if we wanted to learn a skill, we would choose a card here. And the cards that you start with at the beginning of the game, you do choose. So, these four cards we were able to select and then our deck was shuffled for what we would draw in the future. So, if we were, for example, if we wanted to start off with this dash bomb here, it would cost us one fuel now during the learning a skill preparation part to put this into play. And that would mean that we chose not to you consume a resource instead. So, we will play this as the skill that we are learning. It is going to cost us one fuel to put into play. And I'm going to go over what this will do for us when we go over the actions that we are going to be doing. But before that would happen during this preparation phase, other players are also able to do the same thing. So now that we have done that, Theodore, who is in the Genboo over here, would be able to do the same thing. So, taking a look at their hand here, if they wanted to play a card, they would be able to play this shield bash here, which would also cost them a
fuel. So, they would pay this resource and be able to learn that skill. So, you can see where this player, although they are going second, they do already have a card in play for when that will happen. and they're going to have their own preparation phase before their turn where again they'll be able to consume one of their resources for the ability or learn a second skill and use both of their skills on their turn. And now to go on to the action phase, players are going to have these two tokens here which are going to represent their energy and then their stamina. And you're going to be spending these to activate different actions on that particular side of the board. So, your energy is going to relate to your gear actions, which is going to help with things over here. And your stamina is in the same respect going to work for your rider actions. So, this card here that we played is a rider action. So, on our turn, if we did want to use this, we would be able to first use a gear action over here. Perhaps we'll flip this over to do a base move. Move into an adjacent unoccupied space. So, we would move over to here. Now, this is a tunnel space.
So, we are able to move onto here as normal and move out of here as normal, but they're also considered uh adjacent to the other tunnel spaces. So, you are able to move from one to the other. So, that is what those are able to do. But, we will first choose to move over here. And other things we would have been able to do as a gear action would be repairing, which is healing our shields here by discarding cards or activating a gear skill, which is going to be a learned card. So, I'll show you what that's going to look like in just a moment because we do have a rider skill over for the other side. But just to note with the shields, you are going to have shields as well as health. And your starting shields and health are going to be two. You can tell by this dial over here. And when our shield would increase, we'll have a higher threshold for how much damage we are able to take, but as it currently stands, we are able to take up to two damage on our shields before we are at full damage for that.
Now, you are able to heal them, but if you are ever fully damaged, that is when the player would be knocked out. So, that is going to be the gear actions over there. But for the rider actions, we are going to be able to activate this skill instead. So, other things that you're able to do as a rider are going to be searching, which is going to be gaining the resources on the spot that you are on. And as you can see, the spot that we are currently on is a question mark, meaning that you would roll this die instead to determine what it would be. Uh, and as you can see, there are some spots with double resources that are double question marks where you would roll twice, but that is going to be searching. And then there's also first aid which is going to be discarding cards to heal your health instead of healing your shield on this side. And then there is also activate a rider skill. So that is what we are going to choose to do. So we will use this token over here and we are going to dash bomb. Now when we do that that is also going to increase this track here for us. So now we have three health and we are going to be able to within range of two deal one damage to the target and then use a move action. Now these minions here do only have one health and because we are range two we are able to attack this minion over here. So we would be able to launch an attack over to him. He would be killed instantly. We would then roll this die to gain a resource for that. So this would be the gear. we would gain one of these. And
then additionally, you're going to track when minions are killed. So, this minion tracker over here would tick up because the monsters are going to get stronger as you start taking them out. They're going to start uncovering these tokens here, which are going to increase the skills for either the monster or their minions. So, it's important to track as they start getting killed so that you can see when that will trigger. So, with that, we did our damage. We knocked them out and then we're able to move one. So, we will move one forward here, setting us up for the next turn because this was the day and we will go through a day turn and then a night turn and then the monsters will activate. So, we are able to move closer and potentially even take out this minion here before the monsters will even have a turn. Now, one final thing to note about initiative is that initiative is going to stay as is.
meaning that Kelts will go first, followed by Theodore, unless Theodore takes a repair or first aid action because when you do take those actions, it will move you forward in initiative order. So that is an incentive for players not only to heal, but to change the initiative order to have them going again next. Now, finally, players are also going to have masteries that they are able to unlock. So once you use your skills enough times that you are increased here on this tracker, you're going to start to hit these star symbols. And when you do, you then are going to be able to gain one of your masteries, but you'll still have to spend a token to unlock it and be able to use it. So for example, down here we have gear snatcher, and this one is when Megalon Megalodon deals damage to an adjacent target, increase the damage by one. So that's a way that they're able to do even more damage. Or for example, there is chronommancer over here. When Kelts takes a damage, inflict the attacker with time dimension. And time dimension is going to be a unique ability. It's this token here. And that just goes to show that a lot of these characters are going to have very unique abilities that are going to affect other players in different ways. So, for example, this time dimension one, when another player is inflicted with it, they're only able to use either a rider action or a gear action and not both on that turn. So, that's really going to slow down players in that sense. Now, as you may have also noticed on this track, there are green symbols that look a lot
like the stamina tokens and the energy tokens, but they're going to be sub energy and substamina tokens. And you're going to gain these and be able to use them in different ways. So you are going to be using these to activate your different masteries that you unlock, but you're also going to be able to use these to use your ultimate cards, which are specific to the deck that you have built. And then finally, players are going to use these to play reactions as well. So you saw us play a skill card and how they are going to be used, but another card that we have here is going to be those reactions. So you would need, for example, this sub energy token here to play this card for the megalodon, but then you would be able to react with it, which is ambush. When megalodon takes damage, reduce the damage by one, then deal three to the attacker. So you're able to not only reduce the damage that you're taking perhaps to zero, but you're able to attack them back for quite a bit of damage. Now, to take a look at what the ultimate cards are going to look like, here is one for Kelts, which is the rider side. So you would need one of these here to be able to play that. But this one is sweet carrot kelts heals all health. Move your initiative marker to the first position. So you can see where in a pinch this can be extremely useful and throw other players for a loop as well because if they just did a huge attack against you, this would basically undo all of that damage that they worked toward. Now, finally, activating these different skills and increasing your
trackers here is also going to be very important because that's how you're going to increase your health as well as your shield. So, as you start moving this dial up, it will increase and that's how players are going to get stronger and stronger as well because as other players are gaining these abilities, you're going to need enough health to combat those attacks as well. Now, you saw what happens when a player would attack a minion. When a player would attack another player, the other the player that is being attacked is going to be able to determine where the damage goes, assuming that they are not killed immediately. Uh they'll place their damage either on their health or their shield or perhaps activate things that they might have perhaps things that they have available or if they have any reactions that they are able to play.
But another thing that players are able to do is attack the monster directly. So, for example, where we do have dash bomb and it's a range of two. In the future, if we were to attack the monster, when you attack them, you'll roll a dieice. So, here we will roll this and we rolled a three. So, you'll consult the chart over here. And that one is going to be ruthless tail, which is perform a move then attack all targets around. And so, with this, you would be attacking with the monster. So, we would be doing this if the other player was much closer, but for this example, we would be able to move the monster and then perform their attack. So, the monster is at the top. They're currently attacking for two. But as their frenzy level track increases, the damage that they're dealing is also going to change. But another thing that this did was unveil that atomic core because as I said at the beginning of the preview, another way for players to win is going to be able to grab this atomic core and run off with it. So once the monster is no longer protecting it, a player would be able to move in on their turn, grab it, and then move out.
Now, to be able to exit with it, you need to be on a spot that is connected to one with an exit. This little diamond over here or triangle. and you're going to be on that spot and use a move action to exit the board with the atomic core. So, that's another thing that players are going to be able to do on their turn. But, taking a look at the board, a couple of other things are going on here. So, you do have your spawn points for the minions. And as you start killing them, they will respawn at the end of each night phase. So, just keep an eye out for more minions coming. And players are not able to stand on these spots so that those minions are able to spawn. And another thing is going to be these spots here on the board. There are six spots where you can see survivor tokens. And players are going to be able to perform a search on that spot to not only gain the resource that is there, but to also draw a card for this survivor token. So you would remove the survivor token and then draw a card from their deck over here. This one is timid researchers. Hidden underneath a fallen tree covered in branches. three researchers watching cautiously and you're able to rescue them. Spend one sub stamina and one sub energy to gain the card. And this card has the ability when you use the search action, gain one additional resource of any type. Or you're also able to plunder, take one damage, and then gain two food. So you would be able to do that instead, but take a bit of damage. Or ultimately, you
would be able to ignore the card completely. So, if you choose not to do either of those two actions that were unveiled, you are able to ignore it. Now, finally, there are these whirlpool spaces, and they are all of the spaces around the atomic core. And when a player ends their turn in a whirlpool space, they're automatically going to move one clockwise. But if, for example, we were here and not able to, we would take a damage. So, if you're not able to move within the whirlpool, you'll take a damage. Uh but otherwise you will be spinning along with it as you're trying to move in toward the center. Throughout the game, players are going to be primarily focused on learning their different skills and then executing them because you do have basic actions you're able to do such as repairing or searching. But these skills are what are going to help you increase your shield as well as your health. You're going to use that to gain access to the different sub tokens and it's just going to make you stronger. That's how you're going to unlock your different mastery skills.
And learning these skills is how you're then going to activate them and use them. So, with the different things that you are playing as with your gear as well as your rider, you're really going to have a unique game every time with the different skills that you are able to draw and learn and pay into because not only do you have the skill that you saw, but there are two copies of the card. So, you are able to increase your skills as well. And when you play the second card for that particular skill, it's going to get even stronger. So players are incentivized not only to learn these different skills, but perhaps upgrade them as well because if you're finding synergy with a particular skill that you are using, you would rather upgrade that one than perhaps learn a new one. So for example, here where we have dash bomb, if we were to play a second dash bomb, we would be able to increase the damage dealt by one. So where we are getting stronger again the more skills that players activate the more stronger they're going to get as well. So players are going to be learning new skills that are going to be increased in strengths so that when you do activate them not only are you getting stronger but you're able to compete with the other players that are increasing their skills as well. Now just to give you an example from the core game here are the other gear. So we have Midas the golden throne and we also have Mobia the gigantic. So these are the other two gears. And then for the other riders, we have Pa Amber, the mercenary, as well as Kira the assassin.
So you have all these different ones to mix and match with. And there's also now the expansion Crown of the Frost that you can check out, which will add riders and gear. Barbaric is going to be a fast-paced skirmish game where players are trying to balance the current versus the future because you are going to want to learn these different skills and then activate them to get stronger. You're also going to want to gain resources for yourself to use in future rounds, but you're also going to want to be sure to keep your eye on the prize. For example, the atomic core is something that a player can just run off with. So, where you might be building up your character to be strong enough to perhaps battle and skirmish it out with the monster as well as other riders, another rider might just swoop in, grab that core, and run away. So, as there are multiple ways to both win and lose the game, you're going to have to be focused on different things at once. Because if you start to notice someone running off with that core, you might hope that you are fast enough and able to be strong enough to stop them and take them out. because if they do start running off with the core and you're able to kill them, they'll drop the core and you're able to pick that up for yourself as well. But as I showed you with the monster, they are going to get stronger and stronger as well. So, if you're able to turn that monster against other players and activate them to go and do attacks for you, that's another way for players to gain victory. But ultimately, being the last man standing is never something to complain about either. So, if you'd like to see exactly how this game plays, as I said, there will be a gameplay on the channel between Alex and I. You can
check out the link down below for everything that Hexa House has planned for Barbaric: Crown of the Frost expansion. I've been Professor Meg. Thank you all for watching the Board Game Code channel and I'll see you next time. Bye.