Doom Boardgame

Mekt-Hakkikt

Mekt-Hakkikt

Mpanty's bane
Hi!

Recently I replayed with some friends the Doom boardgame (though we didn't finish it) and I remembered having read here that at least cff and psych have played the game as well and I'd like to hear your opinions about the game (and everybody else's opinion who has played the game).

All in all, I like the game, we played it about five to six times. But I think it's not very well balanced. First, of course, there are the events that rely purely on chance: the cards drawn, either the marine cards or the invader cars. IMO, the Marine cards are not really all balanced. Especially the "Prepared" (? The one which allows a marine to cancel three invader cards) is not up to par with the other marine cards. Though I have to admit, we never drew it. When I played the invader, it took me more than five rounds to get a spawn card but I collected three times "Darkness". Ok, those random weaknesses are hard to avoid in such a game and you have to live (and play) with it.
What I found to be awkward is that, if you don't play with four marines, the types of enemies on the map depend soley on the colour the marine players choose to play. If they pick red and green, you get two mancubi, if they pick red and blue, you get a mancubus and a archvile (or other examples; can't recall if that's accurate).

But what I found to be the biggest weakness is that the scenarios get increasingly harder for the marines without compensating it (more wound/armour tokens or ammo on the map etc.). While that is normal for a video game, I think it's inadequate for a boardgame. Thus, the marines only won the first scenario but already the second and the third (even without that stupid time limit) proved to be too hard for the marines to win. We did change roles and played with two and three marines as well with no different outcome. I think the 2nd scenario could be won by the marines if we played it again now since we understand it a bit better now. But it'd be tough. Now, for the 3rd and the following scenarios: the marines need excellent die rolls to win those, IMO.
[Note that we didn't yet use the expanded rules about adjusting the difficulty level. We'll try them out next time]

If you have any thoughts to share about this, I'd be happy to read them.
 
I have not played this game...Its certainly one I'd be willing to try. I typically like games that are more strategic in nature rather than tactical. Fantasy Flight Games has a good reputation for making good games so I expected Doom to be on par with expectations. I believe Frosty owns this game so he could probably give a good response to your post. All I can say is I'd like to try it...however I don't think my gaming friends would be much into this one.
 
FFg isn't exactly known for good playtesting/balancing of theri games however. In the case of DOOM most players seem to agree that the game isn't balanced as you'd expect a boardgame to be. Rather look at it from the point of view of a (paper and pencil) roleplaying game. In the case of DOOM this means that you seem to be supposed to replay a level again and again until you finally pass it. Wether this is good design or not is to be discussed.
 
FFG is, however, far better at playtesting their games than Eagle Games for sure. The latest game from Eagle, COTE, had dozens of ambiguities in both sets of rules. Our gaming group was quite frustrated by the unclear rule sets and lack of logical forethought. (Combat was quite poor in my mind as well).
 
Maj.Striker said:
FFG is, however, far better at playtesting their games than Eagle Games for sure. The latest game from Eagle, COTE, had dozens of ambiguities in both sets of rules. Our gaming group was quite frustrated by the unclear rule sets and lack of logical forethought. (Combat was quite poor in my mind as well).
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The master of desaster is still avalon hill for me. Namely in the form of "Betrayal at House on the Hill". Has to win the price for a completely unplayable game out of the box. Its a great game and all, but the errata is almost as thick as the rules... And it is absolutely needed as the shipped one misses unimportant stuff like the combat values of 1/3rd of the monsters...
 
cff said:
FFg isn't exactly known for good playtesting/balancing of theri games however. In the case of DOOM most players seem to agree that the game isn't balanced as you'd expect a boardgame to be.
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I cetainly agree with most players then. :)

We played again yesterday: 2nd scenario, 3 marines, standard difficulty. We barely managed to get into the last room and we only managed it because the invader player was rather nice with us (not always attacking the weakest, not always taking away the last ammo with the "Dud" card). When we arrived at the last room, two of three marines had no ammunition at all, so the invader placed some ammo (1 grenade, 1 cell, 1 shells - the ones we didn't collect from anoterh room). We managed to kill all mosters except the Cyber demon, which we wounded down to its last wound (thanks BFG!). Sadly my last attack was short of one damage point (chain gun, 7 spaces) to kill it. Next round the Cyber demon killed one of us - thus scoring the 5th frag for the invader. The 1st frag for him was already in the starting area.
But the invader had good luck with his cards (he spawned twice a Mancubus, one or two archviles and one Hellknight)
Our marine cards on the other hand weren't so cool: one had Medic and Unload (those were ok), another one had Special ops (good) and Sniper (we could use it only once in the whole game) and I had "Specialist" (you may ready and attack) and Alertness (when you advance, get a guard order at the end of the turn) - both cards are good but the combination of both is rather useless.

There is too little ammo and armour lying around and the invaders just do too much damges (why does the tick has a red and a green dice?)

cff said:
Rather look at it from the point of view of a (paper and pencil) roleplaying game. In the case of DOOM this means that you seem to be supposed to replay a level again and again until you finally pass it. Wether this is good design or not is to be discussed.
Click to expand...

Sounds more like a video game than a paper and pencil rpg - too bad there's no quick save. :)

Well, thanks for the input. It's good te read that others experience similar problems and that we're not just incompetent.
 
cff said:
The master of desaster is still avalon hill for me. Namely in the form of "Betrayal at House on the Hill". Has to win the price for a completely unplayable game out of the box. Its a great game and all, but the errata is almost as thick as the rules... And it is absolutely needed as the shipped one misses unimportant stuff like the combat values of 1/3rd of the monsters...
Click to expand...

Used to I would have disagreed with you but recently it has seemed like AH has let some things slip (there was a rather large FAQ on their recent revised Axis and Allies game). I havent' played Betrayal at House on the Hill (for some reason it just hasn't appealed to me) but I have heard complaints about the missing things. Still, AH, when they try, can produce some really great games. I've heard lots of good things about Nexus Ops. I hope to acquire it over this coming Christmas season.
 
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