Crowdfunding Link - gamefound.com/projects/awaken-realms/stalker-the-boardgame?refcode=eGR9Dz9tzECM326X5-NJ2A 0:00 - Introduction 0:54 - Overview and Set-Up 8:59 - Round 1 31:32 - Round 2 38:53 - Round 3 46:04 - Round 4 52:38 - Round 5 55:15 - Mission Resolution 57:00 - Early Impressions

The first video on the STALKER board game after which I feel I understand how it plays out. No talk about meta stuff, just talk about rules and showing the actual play in detail. Very helpful. Gonna buy it based on your preview

I don't want / need another big Awakens Realm campaign game. But I am rather excited about this one: the Stalker, Fallout and Metro series of pc games were all great and this looks to capture the same vibes. Thanks for checking this one out for us.

Thanks for the playthrough Mike and helping us make an informed decision! Going into this I had no history with Stalker but it sounded really cool. Elements of this definitely intrigue me but boy does the sound mechanic seem cumbersome and fiddly.

Like some others here, I was really excited about this one.....but the whole noise token mechanic really turned me off. I'm sure some will like it, but not me. Very happy i watched this play-through.

Seems strange that the lady could walk in a room with 2 guys with shotguns, snipe someone out the window and get out while the 2 baddies ignore it all and walk out the other side of the building bewildered. Immersion wrecked.

Sadly this is not what I was hoping for. It looks like a very linear, story driven, slow and tactical combat game. it almost reminds me more of a Commandos kind of game. Why is so much emphasis on stealth? Stalker was not about that. I was hoping for a more open world / randomly generated missions and events with loot , artifacts and character progression. Also gameplay should be more action packed and quicker. I don’t know if replayabilty is a problem.

Fantastic playthrough Mike. I was really interested in this based on theme alone and I'm glad that the gameplay from the early prototype looks to be up my alley. Will definitely be looking at backing this as my first campaign of 2023!

I've got the main big games I've wanted but have to admit this one will be added to my collection when it comes out. Can't wait to see the final game when it's all complete.

Good overview, thank you. I already have way too many tactical/ token games. Currently avoiding noise token games. Was hoping for something a little lighter, but it is awaken realms :)

This game makes me exited to see what AR will bring us in a campaign! I can easily see more cool stuff will be there

You didn't mention it but I did want to bring up that the anomaly rules text said that every figure (including enemies) that enters an anomaly space has to draw from the bag and suffer the token effects. In your playthrough the enemies only entered the electrical anomaly, which only does radiation, and I'm going to guess radiation doesn't affect the enemies. But as luring enemies into anomalies was a favorite tactic in the videogame, I think it's worth calling out that that does seem like it will be an option in some cases in the boardgame as well.

Very good video for a first outing with the prototype. So far the only issue that springs up is the noise situation as it seems a bit confusing as to the number of tokens to use. I'm sure that will be made clearer once I get a look at the rules. Or maybe I just need to watch the play through again. Most of the other mechanics seem pretty clear and I really like the way they've done the shooting for the protagonists. Thanks much.

Great play through Mike! If you aren’t aware of this whole genre of fiction I would suggest looking into it because it’s one of my favorite. I believe it all started with the novella Roadside Picnic and was followed up with the movie Stalker by Tarkovsky. In terms of games, I have played Zona: Secret of Chernobyl which has similar themes.

Great review Mike! Im oretty excited for this one. Im hapoy that AR is finally making a more tactically focused coop, with solid narrative. It seems a little fiddly (specifically the noise tokens and cards on the board), but not to the point I'd not want to table it. The enemy facing also adds another layer to both fiddlyness but also tactics, so seems worth it.

As usual, excellent preview play.

Thanks for previewing the gameplay! Like others have said the game just seems pretty "standard": run and shoot and look around till you find what you need. Doesn't seem too different campaign-wise from Zombicide I played a few years back which was look in all the rooms, find the key, and leave. AR also noted that campaigns would be replayable, but this doesn't really showcase that since it seems like it'd be the same setup and same outcomes. I'll keep following the project for now in case they explain more about how things work, but I'm disappointed so far. There's a couple big boxed games I'm looking at so hey, you might have saved me a hard decision to make :)

Thanks Mike. Backing for now. They have a good track record with me so I trust them to improve things you pointed out.

I backed this last night and then decided to watch this video. Backwards. 😂 Great playthrough, Mike!

We love you Mike, please keep making videos

Ah noo cheeki breeki i v damké! Can't wait to play it for myself ^^

Thank you for the playthrough. I liked the gameplay, however it seems that the beginning was quite thrilling and interesting, and as soon as you managed to break it up a bit, it was more or less "easy" going. Not sure, but maybe spawning that additional enemy could have come a round or two earlier (or spawn of more the ak / shotgun guys)

Been waiting on the edge of my seat for this one!

Great material. Thanks. Do the opponents at the end of the round have any movement, such as in Nemesis, or do they stand and react only to the player?

Interesting noise mechanic. Seems sort of finicky but might be worth it for the benefits of tactical usage...will be interesting to see more plays.

Nice playthrough. I've backed this - looks very interesting. Very different to a "dungeon crawl" (e.g. Gloomhaven, Mage Mnight, Euthia) and also very different to other stealth (e.g. Burncycle, sniper elite). Noise mechanic definitely looked like a nice concept in the way it makes you play, but did seem a little fiddly: constantly counting tokens and distances and the variable shaped spaces did seem to make it a little more awkward, but it didn't seem too overly cumbersome. Player scaling needs to be addressed. I'll play solo and can see different character counts can change the tactics used, so I would like to explore that. Not only will less characters give less actions (easily adjustable) but also more to do and therefore requiring more total actions. Campaign replayability is also something to work on - e.g. somehow randomising the locations would do that (I can think of several ways).

Awaken Realms needs to take a pause as my wallet just can't take another must have, and this one looks that way for me. Saw another poster mention Metro, and that sort of video game turned board game is exactly my jam!

Like the IP and the theme very much (need more post apocalyptic games). However, gut feeling tells me this is going to be super finicky and token heavy. Bummer. Appreciate they are making it accessible as one shot adventures.

the game looks nice.. my big problem i see with this playthrough... i do NOT need a gane with like 50 different tokens that do something each and have like 10 of each token. too much keepup stuff.. idk

This playthrough matched every one of my stealth games: 30 seconds in, it becomes a massacre. I could see replacing the sound tokens with d6s, which might make it less fiddly.

Thank you for another incredible video, Mike. You are the best! This game looks cool and I’ve backed it. Thus far I’ve liked Nemesis, Tainted Grail, etc-AR are one of my favorite companies now. I’m surprised by the complaints about tokens and mentions of Zombicide! For a tactical skirmish game like this, tokens aren’t surprising, at least for those who have played miniatures games or wargames. But at the same time it has strong story and a campaign. So I feel maybe it’s for a niche market. But I happen to be that market, so I’m looking forward to it! Of course the art etc look amazing as to be expected from AR.

Thanks for putting this video out. I was on the fence and was quite curious about this one but since it looks super fiddly, I think I’m gonna sit this one out and wait to see what Dragon Eclipse does later this year from AR. My wallet (and my not-game-obsessed wife) appreciates you 🙏🏻💸

As huge fan of video game series created by my compatriots, I will back this board game all- in.

seems like a cool game with quit a bit of thought. only thing i would comment on is instead of stickers, should be Velcro so they can be reusable.

This game looks great. I love awaken Realms!

Is the guards setup fixed for this scenario? Looks like when you solve the puzzle, there is just the chance that the random AI final movement could is the only variable for the next gameplay with the same scenario, that's 0 replayability...

I was in for the theme, but don't see much stealth based gameplay. The noise tokens are just an elaborate way to determine enemy movement. Seems better than Zombicide, but much rather play Conan or Deep Madness, where you can also tactically avoid enemies, while no need for noise tokens. As to implement stealth, I was hoping for some mechanic to sneak up close to an enemy and take them out with a slit throat. If they spot you, based on some luck factor, only then a battle ensues, which can be kept quiet by melee but more chance to get hit back, or open fire and then cover is blown. Is there any such game?

I really wanted this game but damn it’s fiddly and the noise part looks super annoying

Great video! How does it feel compared to burncycle?

Heya Will there be a playthrough of the second one aswell? Ty

I was onboard until the Noise tokens. That was a bad idea in the old Zombicide editions, and it's bad here. So much fiddliness. Thanks for the video. Saved me some money.

Isn't Snork one of the Banana Splits? (Maybe before your time, Mike lol) Thanks for the preview play and thoughts. Will follow the campaign as I don't have this sort of game (theme and playstyle) Do you know if the video game has any connection to the Tarkovsky film, Stalker? Don't remember the snorks, and the "Zone" was more ambiguous, but it feels very similar. iirc people would hire Stalkers to guide them into the Zone where a wish could be fulfilled.

Question, can you stop on a space where an enemy is facing on over watch and you get to shoot first? I can’t wrap my head around how your shoot without getting shot first. Seems very punishing. Unless you only shoot enemies from behind but that seems restrictive.

You forgot mamy times to roll direction dice after enemy move. Also they can't be facing wall. So you should play like this: 1. Move enemy figure 2. If he can't see you after move, roll direction dice 3. If enemy is facing wall, turn him 90' until there is open zone in front of him.

Having seen this playthrough I'm now a lot more interested in this game than I had been-the stealth mechanisms look very interesting. Thanks!

Thanks for the video. I was interested in this game until I saw the core gameplay. This will be an unfortunate pass for me even though I've been a huge STALKER fan since the first game came out on PC. It just looks like rather dull and incredibly punishing combat, with a lot of token clutter which is a shame. Too bad they went for the "shooter but it's a board game" route with this as I think something more akin to Tainted Grail with the STALKER theme would have been a much better choice. The amount of text, symbols and tokens to keep track of everything is really getting out of hand. Awaken Realms really need to streamline their rules design. Games such as CONAN and Cthulhu Death May Die have fast paced, easy and interesting rules for miniature combat without this much information to keep track off. Having been following Awaken Realms since This War Of Mine which was my very first kickstarter ever, I find that they now produce as many "hits" as they produce half baked misses. Again, very thankfull for your gameplay overview and information videos that show the gameplay. I'll make sure to click that like and subscribe button.

Here we gooooo

I see a lot to like, but the noise management seems like a hassle.

Thx Mike, though as much as i was looking forward to this it seems way too fiddly. Did u get the promo box out of interest? Oh also, no mention of melee stealth kills like Metro on PC? Or silencer attachments?

I hate campaign games, but I love Awaken Realms and STALKER, Nemesis is my favorite game ever. Is the Survival-Zone mode enough for purchase in your opinion?

Thanks for the playthrough. It is a really cool stuff and the board game itself has definitely some video game vibes. I'm wondering, did AR really make the reference to Firefly with that custom AK?)

Hi! Would you still say you like the game as much with the new changes?!

Can i remove bleeding with bandage?

I was super pumped for this, but the prototype looks super fiddly and slow in terms of gameplay. I hope AR will work on that.

Looks... alright, I guess? Not bad, but also just "standard", no single element really gets me excited for this (except the theme, maybe, and that's not enough). No wonder they felt like they had to bling out the box to a ridiculous degree to make this game look more exciting in the previews. Likely a pass. Thanks for the play-through! :)

Many thanks for this presentation ! Mmm, a lot of enemies in such a small area, we expect a rush from the slightest action, and I don't see anything that logically responds to the shots they are supposed to hear at (close) distance. As it is, it doesn't seem very believable to me. Of course we are not on Assassin's Creed but still, I don't see anything that could reduce the impact of attacks against enemies in a realistic way. I hope they will at least change the scenarios to something more realistic. Is it planned to hire more than 2 characters on this scenario? There are no objects in the LOS which could reduce the attacks and with which we could play, surprise effects too? a silencer? I am surprised by this gameplay.. not in a good way for the moment, or am i too demanding?

This looks interesting. I like to see more of the campaign system.

Looks very STALKER-Y which is the most important thing. A good combination of stealth, action and exploration. I'm only concerned about the excessive amount of tokens. Overwatch should be some kind of rule (line of sight) vs overwatch token. And noise tokens should just be one, not 2-3 types.

Thank you for the presentation, Mike. Life in the Zone, back in the days, was harsh, brutal and unforgiving. With every step you were one foot in your grave but it was smooth and slick. And most importantly, it was fun. A continuous challenge with wonders and marvel's to discover. This fiddly token fest doesn't seem to be fun and there is also no Zone feeling. It's more like Escape from Tarkov. All drowned in AR worst antics. I rather play Zona or Fallen Land than this. Yes, I know, it is a prototype but come on. It's only S.T.AL.K.E.R in name and maybe some cosmetics. My $ will go towards some other project, plenty of awesomeness upcoming.

player boards seem close to Lords of Ragnarok in some ways. the cards on the map flipping over to alter the state as an "overlay" is straight out of Etherfields. The noise mechanics definitely smell almost like Nemesis Lockdown with the way they start to clear The enemy movement/facing seems similar to Tainted Grail's Guardian die the dice success system is ISS Vanguardy it's a "best-of" mechanics reunion from AR's whole catalog!

10:00 Sorry, to be critical but, considering how strange LoS is I would have liked a better explanation with examples.

No doubt the production value, art, mini figs are all cool, but not sure what the replay value is after completing a scenario or mission. Since you know where all the bad guys are, where is the element of surprise? Wanna love it and possibly support the KS campaign, but maybe these dungeon crawler/ shooter games are just not for me.

Great video Mike. I was so excited for this game, but now I'm not ... not your fault, it just looks so fiddly. Might pass on it.

So it’s awaken realms zombicide?

T.O.K.E.N. The Counting Game. Damn, I was looking forward to this one, but I'll be skipping it.

where he rolls the 5 blue stars there is a small video cut. guess he tried a lot of time until he got that result 🤣

Honestly, looks like a cash grab. An orgy of plastic and cardboard without giving you that important Stalker feel. I think, if you want to feel like Stalker, go play Zona: Secret of Chernobyl. Poles made the greatest Stalker game without being called Stalker (even though it is almost a carbon copy of the world and setting). It is simple, fast to play and has an excellent atmosphere. But that is my personal opinion. If one is willing to throw $100 just for the basic box, be my guest. I might play it in a club if they get a box, just to try it out, but I am not buying it.

Tainted grail- i hated all the house rules to make it barable Nemisis- some of the most boring game night ive ever had Iss vanguard- one of the most fiddly games ive ever played ive never went back in to a box to grab something that many times in my life. Etherfields- do i need to say anything? I feel like awaken realm games are not for me

Oh my gosh--playing with you must be exhausting!