War Chest: Shock Tactics - Discussion
Transcript
Hey everyone, welcome back to Board Games Unlocked and Deon and I are doing a discussion over the new war chest expansion, Shock Tactics.
Shock Tactics. I throw it plague bodies over your [ __ ] gate. Where's that car?
Severed heads of your comrades.
That's the uh that's the Nightfall expansion where you can do [clears throat] uh poisons.
Um
but yes, Shock Tactics was kind of a surprise expansion uh that they announced. It was um AEG that did like this expansion extravaganza. They did like a bunch of expansions for a lot of their previous games. Tiny Towns Got One, Space Base, um
and this one. Mhm.
And I don't own space, but I picked up Tiny Towns and this one. Oh, and there's another Smashup expansion.
Of course,
it's like at this point like what what are we doing?
But I was very excited cuz War Chest is a game that I've done an initial discussion for, didn't like it originally, and then completely did a whole 180 on it, and now it's kind of one of my favorite skirmish games.
Yeah. Um, you haven't played the other expansions, right? I don't think we've I've played those with you.
We played once before. I don't recall if we played with an expansion.
I don't think so. I think I've done those with keys. [clears throat]
Uh, but Shock Tactics comes out came out with four new units, three adjustable units for previous ones, and a new keyword called shock. Uh, Deon, why don't you give us a rundown on what shock is because you had all the units
and I shocked the [ __ ] out of you
and still lost. Yeah,
I want to make sure you lo you like He lost
the skin of my teeth
badly.
I haven't I felt like I played smart.
I don't think you took a single control zone.
Not very many as many as I like, but man, I had some zone
beating. It was This last game was was actually very very close. Um but yeah, shock
few gamles on your end that luck
that didn't pay off. Two times I gambled and they did not pay off.
Had they paid off, you would have won.
Yes. But yes, shock a wonderful new keyword in that you remove the token and all of its bolster off the board.
Yeah,
I mean it's discarded so it's going to come back, but it's just
yeet.
It's Yeah.
So that's some tar throwers. [ __ ] you.
Yeah. I just
skirt skirt
skirt. I'm too old. God, I threw my shoulder out doing that. I'm 40.
Had some heavy calvary running in shocking folks essentially just disorganizing the armies until you reather
pretty much. Um [clears throat] it you know what's funny is it's a keyword. It's this is actually a really good expansion because one it doesn't overwhelm. It's not like a whole new system of like here's a deck of cards, here's whatever. M
uh it's a new keyword that only a few units have. Kind of like their Nightfall expansion where only a few units can poison. And on like initial thoughts, I was thinking that's not that good,
you know? I was thinking, okay, yeah, you can kind of completely just remove a bolstered instead of trying to attack it three times, right?
But I mean,
you don't permanently get rid of the unit. I can just easily just regroup. But I think it's a sneaky one, like a sneaky sneaky keyword.
Yeah,
that ultimately probably helps more if you have a bolstered [clears throat] unit like a bolstered light cavalry.
I mean, it helps push uh you know, area control. Yeah,
like to assert more dominance, you know, like you had that like you had like a triple bolstered rear guard.
Yeah.
And I was just like, nah.
Right. Goodbye.
Bye.
Yeah. I mean because at the same time it's yes I can get a triple bolstered rear guard out but that means I have to draw them
place them
right
and then you know keep drawing them and that's basically like three rounds almost of just only bolstering them
right back up
and if I don't have any control I think the counter to the shock happened to be the fact that I had good mobility.
Yeah. So it's like I I whenever you were shocking I had control markers that were closer to all the other ones.
Uh so it's like okay I can regroup over here.
Yeah. Know early game you and your calvary I that kept sleeping on them and I'm like oh right they just get to [ __ ] move and attack. Great. And then light calavalry just oh let me just zip on over here and controlled. It was a cool combo. So that if you're attacking my cavalry, it's like great, now my rear guards are gonna move. And then so you attack the horses and then my rear guard comes out behind you and then they get to attack. Yeah.
So I mean a lot of trading in in this recent match. Um
but like it was it was kind of a massacre at some point cuz I remember, you know, there weren't that many of my units killed. Um, but there were a decent number of yours and then all of a sudden it's like [snorts] the stack of my body.
Yeah, I changed tactics completely. I was like cuz the shocking was like helping me control my one zone and it's like but you kept controlling more and more and I was like I held on to like four and I'm like okay we're just going to have to kill him. So just any opportunity I had to to kill units. I was trying to use the marshall more since since my cavalry we were kneecapped so early. Um, I had to rely on the marshals, which gave me the extra action economy from range to be more effective in killing. So, as long as I had two guys, even if you did thin one out, the marshall was going to kick in eventually to let me slay them.
Yeah. [clears throat]
Yeah. So, the new the new units uh so two units have um the actually one unit just has the shock, I think. Who was it? It was the the tar pitchers. And who are the new four? Oh, it was the war drummers, the rear guard, the tar pitchers, and the raiders.
So, [snorts] actually, now that I think about it, the o the only new unit that comes with shock is the pitch throwers.
Um,
yeah, these guys were just rekey. They're they're heavy calvary. They were the lancers and now they're heavy cavalry.
Yep. They came they came with three new units that modify the previous one. So, the original was the Lancers. Uh, which I hate. I hate the Lancers cuz they move one or two spaces and then attack all in a straight line.
Yeah.
Uh, I
I was really bummed when you took those away. I was like, "Oh, I had some effective I see. I saw you had two cavalry. Oh, I had effective cavalry."
Right.
But
but they got replaced with the heavy calvary that can move two spaces in a straight line, but they shock who they land on.
Uh, which that's really good. I think that's a little bit more beneficial. They kind of are a path clearer um more so than attacking, but they still have the decent movement because the Lancers, man, I hate how you have you just have to set them up so gross to be able because they have to attack in a straight line. Meaning that it to attack him, I have to basically be like here and I go one, two, and attack,
right?
And they can only attack using this tactic.
So the Lancers I've never been a fan of. I think I had them the first time we played
probably and I always they always just kind of show up so I'll probably never play with them again. But then we have the Vanguard and we haven't played with these but they replace the where are they? The footmen. So originally the footmen they you can have two footmen units out.
Mhm.
So uh and you can perform one maneuver with each footman unit on the board. So you can have two stacks of them and then you could just move move both of them.
Oh, okay.
But um the vanguard is whenever the vanguard is deployed, it may maneuver. So they can immediately come out and move.
Oh, nice.
And their tactic is just shock an adjacent enemy unit.
Nice.
And then the last one, funny enough, is your replaced marshall. So, the original marshall, which was key to your strategy, [clears throat]
um, would they do again?
Uh, yeah. Tactic. Choose a friendly unit within two space of the marshall. Uh, that choosesn't unit attacks if Fable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's because it wasn't in a straight line, just within two.
If they're within two, they're like, you kill him.
Um,
okay. Both.
The Okay. Uh, the warlord is choose a friendly unit within two spaces of the warlord, maneuver the chosen unit, and then shock it.
Maneuver it then shock that unit.
Oh, like an enemy unit.
Uh, no. Choose a friendly unit with
uh of the warlord. Maneuver the chosen unit and then shock it.
So, it sounds like it's kind of like a a tactical retreat.
Oh, maybe shock your own unit. Yeah, if you see that like
maybe they're in a bad spot and might die,
right? Just to preserve them.
Okay.
Um Yeah, cuz I don't necessarily know why you would move them.
Mhm.
Why it would matter if you got to move it? Huh?
Well, I mean, again, just kind of like with these guys, um you know, if I had their token and it just gives you more variability. So essentially, you could double the action economy of one token if they're within his range.
Yeah.
So move with him and then attack with their own token, you know, in a little wombo.
I Oh, I see. Yeah,
I see. I see. Yeah, but I Well, what I'm saying is I don't know why you would maneuver the chosen unit if you're just going to shock it anyway. like what is moving it and then popping it back to the uh
I guess you're right
to the um thing again. Yeah,
move it then shock it. Yeah.
I don't know. I mean it there's probably a
like other card.
There's probably a card that says if they Yeah. If they move Oh, actually no. That works with the uh war drummer cuz the war drummer says after the war drummer moves.
Oh yeah. So then it's like, oh, I'm gonna move the war drummer supply, you know, pull something from the supply and then pull the war drummer back. So pretty interesting. I like the fact that they actually came with variants. Uh so
that leads me to believe that if the designers want to make expansions, they don't have to add more units. They could just add variants. Yeah.
To previous units, that'd be really cool.
Um and then the two that I had that were new is the War Drummer. After the war drummer moves, you may choose a coin in its in a supply and put it on top of its owner's bag. This is the next coin they will draw. Um, so I mean obviously you're going to probably choose yourself. Uh, the way I strategized with the war drummer was by having having a constant advance towards the control points.
So I didn't spend a lot of tokens to recruit myself. I had the war drummer do it. But it's also a guaranteed draw and that was very nice. So if instead of spending a coin to like recruit, I spent it to take initiative and then move the war drummer so that it's like, oh cool, I'm going to move my cavalry in a position that I'll recruit that and guarantee get the cavalry that I want as well as get to go first.
No.
Instead of relying on drawing from my bag. So they were pretty clutch uh at times. And then the rear guard after another friendly unit is attacked, the rear guard may move, which again doesn't sound like a whole lot because it's like, well, I don't want my units to be attacked,
but it's going to happen anyway. So, if you can just get them in the way.
Yeah. And then there's action economy, and that's kind of where this game's at.
Yeah. [clears throat] Um, and shocking does not count as attacking. So, it's not like, oh, you shocked my cavalry, my rear guard now gets to move. So, it does feel like that with the the new units, there's always some type of counter to it.
Uh because I know who is it?
Was it the There was one specific unit. Um yeah, uh the knights. Uh the knight can only be attacked by units that are bolstered.
Oh, nice.
Um so again, you kind of want to bolster them up because then you other you have to basically waste other people's chips. So, that's a good counter with shocking. Um, and then the pikeman. Oh, you know, this is probably this is what I was thinking with like the warlord. The pikeman. When the pikeman is attacked by an adjacent unit, remove a coin from that unit.
So, the pikeman become very just like whole up in one spot. And if you want to take this from me, you're going to have to attack them. We'll just I'll just shock those away.
Trade. It's um [clears throat] it's it's just this game's great
except for the Lancer. The Lancer's pretty ass. Uh but I mean, yeah, that's it's a it's a small box expansion, but was there anything because we I haven't talked about War Chest really with you. Is there anything about War Chest itself that you just don't like?
No, I can't say I do. It all seems very balanced. Um, and you know, I mean, yeah, there's a little bit of draw, but I mean, no, I really enjoy this game.
Yeah.
Um, just the action economy to it. There's like the chestlike thoughts with different pieces. I always love that [ __ ]
Mhm.
Um, yeah. Enjoy this game.
Yeah. And, you know, it's funny. We were just uh talking about another skirmish game earlier today.
And this game probably took around the same time of that other game, if not a longer. You're very engaged.
But you're engaged. Yeah. The entire time. I never feel like I'm getting tipped over by like my bag draw.
Um cuz I don't know. It It just feels like there's there's a difference of randomness of okay, let me draw. This is what I got. This is let me see what I can do with this versus here's what I want to do. Hopefully I draw well. You know, there's just like that element of RNG never really bugs me.
Mhm. It's [clears throat] no different than games that have dice as your actions where you roll them. It's like, "Oh, okay. Here's what I'm going to do with what I rolled versus I want to attack. Hopefully, I roll well."
Mhm. No, I like that you can also measure kind of how effective your opponent's units are at any given time. Like, okay, I definitely killed three of his calvary. So, unlikely he's going to draw, so I can take this gamble.
Yeah.
And then I take the gamble, so lose. But [clears throat]
or
but you can make those gamles.
Yes.
With limited knowledge,
right? And then if you do make that that decision and it doesn't pay off, you can be like ah damn like I tried. Uh versus like oh I I didn't know like what the [ __ ] is you know like oh wow of course you top deck
donut card.
Yeah the donut. You got to get wood to win the game. Uh or even like this last game that we just played where I'm sitting here like, "Okay, how I just have two light cavalry tokens left. I can still move. I can still control. I have more movement than he does." And then I look over and I was like, "Wait, what? Oh, wait a minute. That's your only marshall left. That's your only uh pinchth thrower left. You can't do anything." And then it's like, okay, so but so if I move here and take initiative, you can't even control that. I'll attack that last unit and then there's just nothing you can do. Uh I know originally I hated the idea of the fact that even if you had one coin left that
they were it basically meant you had zero,
right?
Um
just one to block one of your control areas
pretty much. Uh, it is still weird, you know, you have technically a heavy cavalry token, but yet you can't do anything with it.
Yeah.
Which is why I always, we were talking about this earlier of like having the royal coin
be a wild so that you can't like your last coin wasn't just a [ __ ] dead nothing.
Mhm.
Um, I still kind of think that. I still think it's odd, but at the same time, I probably would hate it if it was a wild.
Yeah.
And the expansions do at least add some extra element of something. So, the the expansions do kind of um do make it a little bit more versatile. So, it's not just a well, I have nothing left, so just do it.
Mhm. But yeah, I mean, if you're a fan of war chest, I [clears throat] would recommend Shock Tactics. I think the all the units that they added, besides the warlord, not quite sure how to effectively use him, but I haven't played him. Uh, and the shock keyword's pretty neat.
Yeah, I agree. And
so hopefully, what is it? Trevor Benjamin and and and David Thompson. Hopefully [clears throat] they continue to support this game. Not even really with more units. I just think I mean there's a good amount of units and if you just effectively doubled
all of them that'd be pretty sexy cuz I think one thing that is kind of lame is hey new expansion. One unit has the new keyword. Yeah. There's 20 others. Yep. One unit has shock.
It was same with Nightfall. Two units have poison.
Yeah. Um,
I mean, don't need to make whole four units with
No, I know.
But just having the extra variety.
No, exactly. Uh, that's just kind of what what I'm thinking. Uh, but other than that, what would you give the Shock Tactics expansion on a scale of 1 to 10?
Oh. Um, I mean, I really like this game, so uh, give it a nine. It's hot. It's fun.
Yep. As an expansion, I would also give this a nine. I think it's a great addition to a game that like is simple to learn, but has a lot of depth to it and you just add a little bit more units. So, that's everyone. That's our thoughts on Shock Tactics. Let us know what you think of it in the comments below. Other than that, like, comment, share, and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day it is for you.