As it stands the digital parts of the game still look like demos, which never look good. But, I can put that aside and trust that they’ll eventually get that bit finished up.

There’s not enough there for me to say if it looks fun or not. It looks interesting and the art direction is pretty rad. For me it’ll come down to the background fluff.

My only concern is the inability to use house rules. It’d be interesting if there was a way to adjust settings and rules in the app. Or also publish a book of the rules for people that want to take this game onto custom terrain or something. I’m also less interested in the leader board functionality but I know that’s important to lots of video gamers.

Still, looks good.

Thanks for taking the time for the thorough response.

I admit it is rarely the ideal position to “judge” a game from the very limited exposure of a Kickstarter/You-Tube video.

Star Wars X-Wing would a good example of a game where I had a similar experience to the one you describe with your Gen-Con playtest.

Seeing Star Wars X-Wing played on a video, etc.. is fairly boring. It takes actually playing it, trying to second-guess your opponent, to “get it”.

So I am perfectly willing to accept that the same may be true for Golem Arcana.

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Pre-painted, as said, isn’t a huge deal. Even pre-painted plastic could be primed and re-painted.

The resin options, unfortunately, seem truly only that – add ons – there is no “the-game-but-in-resin” pledge that would also qualify you for stretch-goals (Kingdom Death, I seem to remember, had one of those, even though for most people the game will be sent in plastic).

The only options to get the resin would be to use the “A La Carte” pledge and add all miniatures separately. You’d be missing the game though. Or to pledge for the game (with pre-painted plastic) and add Resin on top (effectively leaving you with a bunch of duplicate models in plastic).

Note: Golem Arcana does have paintable resin miniatures in their Kickstarter capaign as add-on options.

Now, coming from the Shadowrun/Shadowrun returns crowd (the developers other recent Kickstarter hit), and being concerned the developer would leech resources from “my” game in to their new Golem Arcana project, I was more than just skeptical. I also wasn’t convinced the tabletop/mobile device mix would work, particularly after Ex Illis failed trying to do something similar.

However, at GenCon I played the Golem Arcana demo, and…I had more fun than I expected to. The game wasn’t just adequate, it was good, and I wanted to play again. I also learned the developer wasn’t leeching team members from Shadowrun Returns, as they plan to use Kickstarter funding to build a new team for Golem Arcana, growing their studio. Fears alleviated!

Now, I did find Golem Aracana to be more of a tactical miniatures board game when using a limited number of mini’s, than a full on hard core wargame. I think this is an amazing game to get people who won’t break the “learn the rules” barrier on their own, or for those whose time becomes limited due to kids, work, life. It’s easy to play it casually with friends and family, and might be perfect to give them an idea, if not the whole landscape, of what hard core miniature wargamers like about their games.

From there, I can see employing a greater number of mini’s on the battlefield will absolutely give some tabletop fantasy wargamers the experience they’re looking for in a miniatures game. And I hope creating our own landscapes with the microdot paint utilized in this game becomes possible. Though, as mentioned in your article, certain aspects of tabletop wargaming won’t be delivered by this game any time soon, such as lining up shots by eye and measuring them out. I can see it being possible in the future, and line of site obstacles do exist in Golem Arcana’s gameplay, but the experience is not as crunchy and involved yet. However, the tactics are there.

This is a good tactical miniatures game, and one where setup, breakdown and pace are much faster due to the overall design and implementation of mobile devices to handle the rulebook referencing for us.

Although the developers themselves don’t present the game as well as one would hope in their presentation videos, in response to Polyhedron’s comment about the game appearing dry…I didn’t have that experience actually playing it. It was quite smooth, very engaging, and as I mentioned, a lot of fun. And with the lore of the game coming out, I can see the immersion factor increasing significantly. ^_^

I think Golem Arcana has a place as “the other tabletop minatures game I play” on a more casual basis, with friends who aren’t as immersed in wargaming, or with family that would appreciate not having to dive in to hours of rulebook study. ^_^

If you have any questions about my experience with Golem Arcana, which I am now an enthusiastic supporter of, you can ping me on Twitter via @UGEplex

Ja Mata!

-UGEplex

I don’t think this game is aimed at you, or any serious mini-wargamer. They love making terrain, converting models and painting. I think this is aimed at those people who stopped playing 40k when they where 18 and now play board games. They don’t have the time for all the extra curricular activities that miniature wargames entail but they can just get it out of the box.

Also you need to consider the huge success that miniature based board games have on Kickstarter. Deadzone, Cthulhu Wars and Rivet Wars have all made huge amounts of money.

Personally, I think the whole thing looks a bit dry and relies a little too much on the iPad. Oh and X-WIng is an awesome game