Challengers! Review: This means War!

Tom Vasel takes a look at Challengers!

Intro 0:00
Overview 1:18
Review 7:43

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[philipjohnson]

While I almost never overlap with Roy on his perspective on games - I think this episode is a really good use case for WHY the "group reviews" Dice Tower does are a good thing. I play with some players more like Roy, I play with some players more like Tom, etc. By seeing greater than one perspective we can see "well, THIS player might hate that, THIS player might actually like that".

[kevinwallace]

this is the board game version of the popular digital genre "Auto-Battler"

[jasonbeane]

I picked this one up about a week ago, and I'm 100% with Tom on it! The decisions are light, but make a big difference. You make your choices, and see how it unfolds. There's a bunch of luck in how the cards come out, but it's silly and fun. Once you run through a round, you get an idea of how you should adjust for the next one.
It's honestly a bit like betting on a race. You make your choices ahead of time, and then watch what happens. You don't have any agency in what happens during the race itself.
It has choices like a filler, and plays like a party game, and the rounds are quick enough that it works!

[Lawrence_Miles]

Splits the room for the same reason as "Galaxy Trucker": set up your side, then watch helplessly as everything goes wrong.

[swcrusader]

Watching Roy made this review the best ever.

[flawed]

I think we can all feel Roy’s pain here. Everyone has one game that they hate and they can’t understand why other people even play it 🤣I definitely want to give this one a try

[Listan]

I’d like Roy’s reaction to Tom’s score as a GIF please! I often worry that the Dice Tower people are yes men to each other and Tom and a lot of group think, so I actually LOVED Roy’s reaction. He actually cannot believe Tom likes this game and has a twinge of disgust over it. Nice!

[JohnBystrom]

I thought Roy was going to throw up when Tom gave his rating 😂

[exe]

I played this a lot on board game arena with two other friends who have played hearthstone battlegrounds and teamfight tactics before. For context, I've hit Diamond in tft, one of my friends has hit Gold, and the other has hit Challenger multiple times on the NA server. There's actually a surprising amount of depth in the game especially with the reroll feature, and while there is a lot of luck involved there is still plenty of skill expression and it always feels fun. Auto battlers inherently have a lot of luck anyways, with random shops and fight rng, so I think the variance is actually a good thing.

[CodyHoover]

I think the rules explanation glossed over (and simplified) the impact that "redrawing" has. During the drafting phase, you can discard any number of cards and redraw that many, THEN choose which cards to keep.

So for example, if you draw 5 and get one 1 card you might want, you can discard and redraw 4 more (or keep 2, draw 3). Then from those 5 you can choose which 2 to add to your deck.

It might sound small, but this really does make the decisions more interesting and impactful than just "draw 5 keep 2.

It's still a light, silly game, but there's slightly more meat than this review suggests.

[adamkenney]

I could actually see this being a great transition from war to other games. My nieces enjoy war and I always liked it as a pastime, but I would much rather pull this out for that same feeling plus a bit more interest.

War has a certain feeling of being able to win even when you shouldn't. It's also a game where losing doesn't really matter. It's fun just for the comparisons between values and the upsets. Light, light, light.

[todddonaldson]

What an amazing set up by Tom to get Roy's opinion going. Sneaky good Tom @8:19 then @9:07; Roy got on a roll once you passed it on.

[jameswoodard]

The day we watched Roy die a little inside.
So, is this the widest score spread in DT review history?

[joaocarvalho]

More of savage Roy please 🤣... For what I saw in the review, not my type of game so I would probably give it a low score like Roy did 😅

[CoreyMarinoGames]

Serious question, does Roy like Quacks of Quedilinburg? That has basic "deck" construction, but then the rest is randomized.

[KingMePlease]

This has been on wishlist for my family since I heard about it and I still really want to get it, but mainly to play it with my kids. Surprised that wasn't brought up in this review that this would be a great family game. Did anyone play it with their kids, and if so, what did they think of it?

As for agency in the game, I think there is enough for me during the deck building phase when I am playing with my family. I like how the actual game play is on auto pilot (like War) as this would make it easier for my younger kids to play.

[conillet]

More bumper cards than bumper cars, actually.
I love Tom's smug smile during the whole video, first in anticipation of Roy's rant and then amused by his indignation at his own "8".
I'm definitely getting this game; with the right people it's gonna be a blast.

[ShamankingZuty]

@18:22 Roy's smile and optimism: Gone.

[Pikaphanpooh]

The reason the deck is gigantic is because it is sized for an 8-player game. The deck ends up getting tiny after 1 turn in those situations.

[fashwang]

I've played kitchen table MTG, but never got into Friday Night Magic or any other tournament TCG's like Yugi-Oh, Pokemon etc. Always wanted to have the experience of a sealed deck tournament, but having gotten into TCG/CCG's later in life I found the point of entry more difficult, so in the past few years I've found myself jumping into digital CCG's like Hearthstone and Marvel Snap, and leaning more towards the classic euros or themed co-op table tops for in-person game nights. The premise of Challengers being a microcosm of a CCG tournament experience, all in one self-contained box with approachable, "light" mechanics and rules to easily get players of all skill levels and experience playing quickly is really intriguing, and the physical adaptation of the relatively new genre of "auto battler" games is very interesting as well. Just ordered a copy and am excited to bring it to a group, and of course will make sure to level-set with them that it will likely be more of a "zany" fun experience with occasional strategic choices in deck construction, rather than a "true" MTG-like approach of player agency and tactical play.