Shelf Life - June 2025 (games covered in November 2024)

0:00 Welcome to Shelf Life, the monthly series where I talk about games I covered about six or seven months ago on the channel and let you know whether they're still in my collection. And today I'm looking back at games I covered in November of 2024. Let's see which of them had shelf life. So, first in the crowdfunding corner is Storyfold Wildwoods. Uh this was one of my favorite crowdfunding games from last year. I'm still super excited for this one. It's quick to play. The action system is actually pretty crunchy and fun and interesting. And the narrative, the art just kind of blew me away. It was actually kind of in a slightly emotional game playing which is really impressive for this kind of thing. So yeah, I can't wait to play this one more. That is storyfold wildwoods. This would definitely be a keep if it was out yet. Next is Tenar's Expedition. This is the new mode for the Tenari system. And yeah, I mostly liked this one. You have four characters. You have these varied ability cards to use. Yes, it is like a d20 attack system and some things do get a little sy, but at least from what I played, the gameplay is quick. The leveling up is really fun and your characters like level up very consistently in a quick fun way. Now, I did not get to play like a full campaign and get to see kind of how uh things evolve beyond the basic missions, but uh I really enjoyed my play of this one.

1:09 You know, it's not like a top game of the year for me so far, but I wouldn't mind playing more of the final product that is expeditions. One that I'm much more hesitant about, although I hope the final product is good, is Enormity. Uh this is the latest from the Aon Trespass Kingdom for Lauren people. And yeah, the boss battling is great. Yeah, I want to reiterate. I think the boss battling was awesome. Clearly between Aon Trespassing Kingdom for Laura and they know how to do boss battling in a really great way. But uh yeah, the sort of like stealthy exploring the spaceship stuff was kind of a let down at least so far. I don't really like the blip system and kind of how they're spawning enemies. So I hope they reexamine some of that stuff and try to design it differently. Although they didn't seem to they didn't seem to like my video very much, so I don't know if they'll take any of that feedback, but that's okay. You know, that's their game to do with as they choose. But that is Enormity, one that I'm not as confident about. But it is a very good design team and certainly like Aon Trespass from the the initial preview to the final game got way better. So hopefully this one will too. Uh but yes, that is a third game on crowdfunding in Normandy. And the last one I don't have any footage of cuz I only did a review for it after I played the entire thing.

2:14 So I guess it's not really a crowdfunding game cuz you know what? But I'm going what's going to be released finally is the exact same thing as far as I know. But yeah, this is Ministry of Lost Things. This is the newest puzzle narrative kind of riddle game from Post Curious. This is not in my top Post Curious games, but it is solid. It's very quick compared to their usual things. It's a smaller box. It's a cheaper purchase h but it's very charming. The world is very interesting and I think they're going to try to do I mean the fact that it says case one lint condition makes me think they're going to do more things kind of in this world of like lost items and tracking them down. But like all this stuff, I like the little story that was being told. I like the mechanics. Uh, it was a solid experience. That's Ministry of Lost Things. But let's get to the actual keeps and calls. So, first is Mage Noir, a sort of Magic the Gathering 1v one card battling game that also had a solo mode with an expansion. And this one didn't work that well for me. It is a call. I found the the Mana system sounded super cool on paper, but kind of became pretty like obvious and derivative in the actual play. Uh, there was a lot of card draw luck involved.

3:14 The solo system didn't make me too happy. See, I just didn't have a great time with this one in general, sadly. That is Mage Noir, a call. Next is Heat the Heavy Rain expansion, and this one is a keep for me, but I've said this several times that I said it recently on my Tunnel Vision video as well. This is an expansion that I would not buy myself if they had not sent me a review copy. I don't think it's really worth it, just to be honest, cuz you get two new courses, which are pretty cool, but only one of them uses the new flooded mechanic, so it just seems like a bit of a waste, a missed opportunity. They do have some new uh cards that have uh this like super cool ability that is pretty fun. But yeah, I mean I don't know. I just don't think there's enough there to justify it. I wish that they had like held off on Tunnel Vision, held off on Heavy Rain, done a like bigger, more fully featured expansion, but I know they wanted to capitalize on the game's excitement as quickly as they could. So yeah, if you're a huge fan, you just want more tracks, this is a fine one.

4:04 But, you know, if you want kind of more stuff to really change up the feel of the game, I think the core game of Heat Pedal to the Metal is still more than enough. But it's still a keep for me because they already sent it to me and I do love heat so I'll keep the extra tracks. So that is heat heavy rain a keep. Next is Arkham Horror the feast of hemlock veil which is actually for a second I thought it was the most recent campaign release for Arkham Horror the card game but no there was another one after that but yes I said at the time and I still feel this is maybe my favorite Arkham Horror the card game campaign ever. I love the feast of hemlock veil. So yeah fully recommend here. This is definitely a keep. I mean I keep everything Arkham. I have almost the entire collection at this point, but yeah, this is one of the best. You know, if you want to pick a good campaign to get into, although maybe not your first, there's a lot more to track, so I wouldn't like play this as your first campaign, but this is one of the best out there. The Feast of Hemlock Veil.

4:51 Totally a keep. Next is another keep, another expansion for a game I already like, so it's not a surprise. That is the Spawn of Shadow Wreck expansion for Ash's Reborn. And yeah, this is one of the final sets. They're going through seven of these boss sets before Ash's ascendancy comes out and kind of restarts the stuff. I'm not sure how to feel about Ascendy yet. They just released the rules and I like some things in it and I'm not sure about other things. But in any case, Spawn of Shadow has a solid set. This one has like a spider creature that's webbing your creatures and then like they'll do nasty things to them if they were main web, but you got to reroll the rage dice and potentially get more ultimates firing off if you try to unweb them. So yeah, pretty interesting mechanic. Not one of my favorites. Not one of the worst. The deck that came with it was really good. I mean, all these sets are fine. Only a few like stand out, but I just love the Ashes Reborn system and these sets overall. So it doesn't really matter. And this one does. Yeah, I don't remember too many details about this one, which means it's not one of the best, but it's still really good. Spawn of Shadow Wreck, that's another keep.

5:43 But the next one is a call, and that is Catharsis Divine Wrath. So, this is one that I was really excited for because it's been sold as kind of like uh what is it? Dice Throne, but more strategic, more interesting, and it definitely is that. It's dice thrown with more like variety and character powers and stuff, but it's also just kind of a chore to play. I don't like a lot of the decisions. The core one that kind of annoyed me is that every time you use an ability, you like hurt yourself with it. So, I don't know. I felt like the balance is a little bit weird sometimes. Like, there's some abilities you just never want to use because they just aren't going to be good enough. Um, yeah. So, I don't know. I didn't like this one overall, although some people might love it. That was a call for me. Catharsis Divine Wrath. Well, the next one is a big keep. Not a surprise if you've uh been watching the channel because this was one of my favorite absolute favorite games on my top stealth games list recently, and that is SAS Rogue Regiment. I love the stealth in this one. the uh variety of scenarios, the way you can build your own scenarios, the different like character powers chaining together, the great uh quick event system to give replay to the game. Uh it's just awesome. This one is great. If you like stealth games, definitely check it out.

6:43 It's a favorite. SAS Rogue Regiment. Big keep. And another big keep. It was one of my favorite games from last year. Although it's going to be like honestly because it was a.5 like sort of inclusion on last year's top game list. This time it's going to be in my top game for sure. And that is the Fellowship of the Rings trick-taking game. You know, I love the crew. I love trick takers in general. I've been playing Hearts and Spades and Bridge since I was a baby. This one does a great job with it. I love how the different characters kind of change things up, the different scenarios. Uh it's very easy to teach. I've taught it to my kids. Just a lot of fun. And I am a Lord of the Rings fan, so that helps out too. So yes, obviously I keep the Fellowship of the Rings tricktaking game. And finally, one that might surprise some people cuz it's a cull, but that is Star Trek Captain's Chair. The re-implementation and kind of reinvisioning of the Imperium deck building system, but for Star Trek. I did enjoy the design of this one. I do think for me it is an upgrade to Imperium in almost every way. But the problem is that I really didn't like Imperium in the end. Like it went down for me quite a lot just because it's hard to get to the table. Like this is a great design, but it just takes longer than I wanted to. It's more like crunchy and like calculating scores and stuff is more annoying than I want it to be. Uh that being said, if they send me a review copy of the new set that they've announced, which is a standalone, just like Imperium had several standalone sets, I'll definitely still play it and I maybe I'll keep that one. But yeah, for my taste at the time I was playing this one, it's really good design. Like, I don't have any complaints about it. I just don't want to play it. I just don't want to get it to the table. That is Star Trek Captain's Chair, A Call. So, this was a pretty dang good month. Five games kept out of eight. Although, three

8:14 of them were expansions for games I already really enjoy, so none of them were very surprising. Well, let's get to the contest results and see which of you were able to guess my keeps most accurately. All right, and let's get to the contest results. And sorry that my mic sounds different. I actually had to send in my main mic for servicing after it's had all these issues recently, but I recorded all the other parts of the video with that mic. So, this one's just a little bit changed. But, yes, round one or group one, Heat Heavy Rain, easy favorite here. 76% got it right. Mage Noir and both only got 4% of the vote. For group two, another pretty confident one for people. Most people got it right with both 68%. 23% thought I'd keep Feast of Hamlock. 6% thought Just Spawn of Shadow and 3% thought neither. Uh, group three is really interesting. First of all, this is the one where the majority got it wrong. 64% said neither.

8:59 SAS Rogue Regiment, 34% got that right. I think Catharsis and both got one vote each. So, sorry to those people. Uh, but not correct in this case. And finally, group four got Lord of the Ring Trick Taker, but only 46%. So, along with SAS, this one that messed people up the most. Many people said both that I kept captain's chair as well. Uh, 10% said neither, and 8% said just captain's chair. So, we had 12 people who got it 100% right this time, and two of them, Chris and Keith in yellow, are Patreon supporters, so they get double the entries. Let's roll it. We're going to do a d20, and I'll just reroll a 15 plus. And here we go. It's an eight, which means Mike Owens, you are our winner for the month. I'll be in contact to see which game you want for my collection. and all the rest of you. Feel free to check the video description for the entry for next month and see who can win shelf