Too Many Bones: Pros and Cons

A cube metal co-op fantasy skirmish/dungeon crawler of sorts from Chip Theory Games (creators of Cloudspire and Hoplomachus) with a variety of scenarios and final bosses. Personally, I prefer the expansion (which can be played as a full game) of Undertow, because there is more variety - admittedly, and more rules.

I LIKE

+ Setting (not a particularly serious fantasy with dwarves)

+ Components (custom dice pile, neoprene game mats, dice tray, poker chips, waterproof)

+ A bunch of different characters, each with their own abilities (some characters from the add-on are especially original). Each character has a unique tree of skill cubes that can be unlocked during the adventure.

+ It is important to properly adapt/level up characters based on the current game situation, group composition, enemies and tyrant

+ Monsters have different sensations, and players have to change tactics, adapting to them

+ Predictable and easily calculated enemy AI

+ Battles are not as random as it might seem at first glance, since the spread of values on the dice is small and they are quite "predictable".

+ The backup plan track on the player's tablet helps to eliminate failure (unsuccessful dice rolls)

+ Diverse encounters and characters provide high variety and replayability. The random selection of enemies also contributes to replayability, offering new challenges to players each time

+ Creative meeting cards; they offer several options for action that make you think about the risk-benefit ratio. Sometimes you will encounter mini-games or new game rules. TMB is not limited to the "kill all monsters" framework.

+ Battles take place in an abstract arena made of cells. Competent positioning is very important. Players are placed on the field after enemies, which adds tactical depth.

+ Units and their health are represented by stacks of poker chips, which is convenient. However, it can fall with careless handling

+ Loot cards with various effects - equipment and disposable items

+ The difficulty and duration of the game can be adjusted. True, the balance swings here and there, and sometimes it is difficult to choose the right difficulty

Ambiguous

= The illustrations are made in a not particularly serious style

= The game requires knowledge of the language

= Sometimes the game is very random. Randomness is especially evident in the initiative roll, drawn enemies (although you can find out who is waiting for you), the encounter deck and loot cards

= TMB resembles a roguelike in places with a random difficulty that swings back and forth due to random sets of enemies and encounters. This unpredictability can create a tense atmosphere or almost eliminate the chance of victory. A snowball effect has also been noticed: if you lose battles, it becomes more and more difficult to play further

= Basically single scenarios. Additionally, you can play in the campaign mode. The "plot" is random, formed from encounter cards

= The game has a lot of add-ons, but some add-ons are either very mediocre or look like chopped off pieces of the base

= 2/3 of the edition with clarified rules and reworked cards was released to the game. You can purchase an upgrade pack

= Each new game element (encounter, character, enemy, item) brings new rules/keywords. The latest version of the rulebook is pretty well done, but it's still inconvenient to constantly consult it

= The party can be very long. Up to 4 hours, depending on the number of players and the selected scenario

= A large box of non-standard sizes. And in the boxes of additions there is more air than content

= The game is literally heavyweight. If you have a bunch of add-ons and deluxe hp tokens, the weight of all this goodies reaches 5 kg.

= Each unit's initiative is represented by colored poker chips, but blue and purple are too similar

= Characters are difficult to master. Everyone needs an individual approach

= The game is quite abstract. The setting and story on the encounter cards are quite banal, I pay much more attention to the parameters of the enemies. And different bosses have little effect on the course of the campaign.

= Cooperation between mouths is reduced to a minimum

= Enemies' AI is very simple, predictable and sometimes dull. He can be abused

= Battles are a bit static. Ranged units have unlimited range, they do not have to move at all

I DO NOT LIKE

- The game is expensive, with overproduction

- Too many bones or an imbalance?.. For most ghouls (for example, Boomer, Ghillie, Tantrum), it is optimal to pump basic parameters (HP, agility, attack and defense), and not to pump skills at all. Many skills can only be used once per battle, and you can attack every round. And most skills don't do much more damage than a basic attack. If you pump attack and agility, you can often vanshot enemies, which is much more effective than, for example, stun skills. Some skills still make sense, including companions (especially Tink) and true damage, but other skills can be safely ignored. This strategy makes the passage easier, but makes the game more boring.

- strong random on dice. There are few possibilities of their overturning. The randomness is especially strong in initiative rolls, which can lead to a one-shot one of your ghouls in the first round.

- Some mouths are not very interesting. Their abilities are either situational, reactive-passive, or require extensive training to effectively apply the skills. Also, if you don't roll the right face of the die, you probably won't be able to use your ability.

- The game does not scale well. Difficulty jumps dramatically from 1 to 4 players. The best option is 3 players.

- a long layout (especially if you have many additions), because you have to sort a bunch of components

- Special encounters at the beginning of each (in the base) game are somewhat monotonous and drawn out. However, the quick start option allows you to skip them, get loot and random damage. Basically, there are only three special meetings, which leads to monotony. New ones appear in Age of Tyranny, but they should have been included in the base

- You will have to check the rules often because of a bunch of keywords; dazed, equipment, assault, etc.

- When several game effects interact, it is often not clear how to solve them

- I don't like plastic cards and letters. They don't smell very good to the touch and they smell a little. And the art on them is not so clear

- Apparently, TMB has a problem with plastic. On the other hand, your game is waterproof, yay! After some time, the rugs may begin to wear out, and the paint on the poker chips may wear off.

IMPRESSION

I rarely use home rules, but in the case of Too Many Bones they are necessary in my opinion to keep the game fan friendly. In particular, the home rule is that the mouthpiece must take a skill die every second upgrade, and that the mouthpiece may gain an additional initiative die (or reroll as an option) for 3 hp.

Despite the criticisms above, I generally like the game and its mechanics. Especially the variety and the fact that every fight is a new puzzle. The need to learn new rules with each new encounter, boss and mouthpiece does not bother me. But I don't like that the skill dice are less effective than the base dice, and that the AI is very primitive (the only difficulty is a lot of keywords). If it weren't for the long layouts and games, I would still be playing TMB to this day.