Miami Dice - The Manhattan Project 2: Minutes to Midnight

Tom, Sam, and Zee take a look at the newest game in the Manhattan Project family from designer Brandon Tibbetts and Minion Games, Minutes to Midnight!!

00:00 - Introduction
01:45 - Game overview
17:18 - Final thoughts

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[evertstanley]

Another fantastic episode of Miami Dice, fellows. I like the amount of videos in this series you've been doing lately...the more the merrier. =D

[fszkVF]

Miami Dice is my favorite format of reviewing. It's great to hear different opinions from people that played together

[ODDin]

I'm surprised that when discussing the interaction in the original Manhattan Project, you ignored the spy track, which is a super cool interaction mechanism--and unlike the planes, I don't think I've seen a game without the spies being used.

[KabukiKid]

I am definitely curious to try this, as my tastes often line up with Sam quite often and I liked his points. Tom's points about how is scales sound like they should be heeded, though. I really love the original game, as well, so I seriously hope I can find a way to play this one before buying.

[Instinctive]

So this was a very interesting review, thanks for putting it up. Our games of the original MP are filled with Espionage and Air Strike actions, with Espionage strongest at low player counts and Air Strikes at high player counts. These actions are critical to pulling back the leader, and it's very hard to stop someone at the end, so these direct interactions start early in all our games.

I think players new to MP (a) think it looks like multi-player solitaire, and (b) have a hard time evaluating who is ahead. This leads to underutilization of the "interactivity" spots, and a belief that, because you built a building, you should be the one to use it!

Minutes to Midnight addresses both issues, as it forces players to interact, and it's easier to see who is going for which scoring opportunities. I have only a few games of MtM so far, but it feels very deep and strategic.

I'm gonna guess that Sam's love for the multi-player wheeling and dealing in Twilight Imperium carries over to both these great games. Two nukes up for both from me!

[kevinlause]

I just want to chime in on the topic of Who Should Do the "How to Play" segment:

I think that Variety is the Key to maintaining viewer engagement. One of the outstanding virtues of this great group is the way they reflect different tastes and interests in games while yet appreciating different points of view.
I think that this should also be reflected in the How to Play portion of the review by having all three members take turns in demonstrating and explaining the games.
Finally, I want express my strong support of Sam in all of this.
I find Sam to be more than competent in his explanations and would welcome him as an equal and vital participant in the type of rotation I am suggesting.
(Although I guess I wouldn't ever want to have Sam demonstrate a dexterity game given his well-known dislike of components too small for his enormous hands!)
All best to Sam, Sam's Ginormous Hands, and, of course, Tom and Zee.

Kevin

[jamesclarke]

Wow. I can't believe how much I disagree with Tom + Zee. My group and I have thoroughly enjoyed our plays of this so far. The game is all about trying to optimise your play given when the different elements score - all the while out-playing your opponents. You cannot play your own little game on your personal board - you have to play the players. I love this!

The potential swings in scoring (because scoring is mostly relative) amp up the competitiveness and force you to out-think your opponents in terms of timing. They also add a risk/reward mechanism in that the elements that score the most are also the most risky. If you don't like this, and want to focus inwardly, then you can target the ICMB, test site and airplane mechanisms. It's not easy to win this way, but it is possible. You should also focus on two, maybe three of scoring elements - this is certainly a game where you want to do everything, but only have time do half the stuff (if that).. but that makes each decision important and overall more satisfying when you pull off a big play.

I feel like Tom must have tried to do too much, or just had a bad play. I've always heavily relied on Tom's opinion, because I felt we had similar tastes. I'm so glad I bought this before watching this review, because I would not have bought the game otherwise. What a mistake that would have been.. I love this game!

[Schasm]

The Manhattan Project series has been one of the most formative games in my close friends and I getting into modern board games. MP remains as one of our favorite euros while Energy Empire fell flat because of the lack of interaction. Passive aggressive spot or building grabbing doesn't cut it for us which informs all of my euro purchases now. The bombing, or more likely the threat of it and the beautiful espionage track of MP was sorely missed in EE. If anyone wanted to play a well designed and thematic solitaire euro I'd still get EE out, it's just not our taste. Looking forward to getting this to the table though and see if it captures any of our love of the original.

[adilmajid]

TBH, I fast forward through all of their rules overview sections during these videos, regardless of which of them does it. It seems like they all try to teach the game which is tough for me when I can't see the individual components so well and don't have the game on front of me. I guess I'm more of a kinesthetic learner rather than audio/visual.

[BoardgamesBourbon]

Im with sam. As my experience with gaming has grown, I found this much heavier but satisfying. You also two choices: Play a shorter game and go for victory in one category or play the epic one and try to win all aspects.

[theicalvinist]

I am definitely a person susceptible to group think. Once a couple of people like/dislike something, I tend to follow suit. Really appreciated Sam's thoughts here.

[flameski_]

Any chance they'll reprint the first game to go along with this one? I'm interested but can't find it anywhere in my country.

[miguelfernan]

Im happy I missed the kickstarter for this, even though MP may as well be my favourite game of all time. But considering I mainly play it 2 players and we never use the atack spot of the board, this is definetely not for us.

[TechnicolorSprite]

I know Tom and Zee like the original Manhattan Project better than 2 Minutes to Midnight, but what about The Manhattan Project Energy Empire Game?

[dddmmm]

I really regretted having backed this one... I felt in the beginning this would not be as good as the first but I was stubborn and did it anyway... Not to mention Minion games really did not treat its backers in the best way... I am selling my copy and never backing Minion again...

[boardgameknight]

Sam, you are not bad at teaching games - I'm no better at it myself. It's a really hard thing to do well. Tom is remarkably exceptional at teaching games, so kinda sucks you get compared to him. That said, it's always nice to see folks do what they are exceptional at and to that extent, I miss the Tom explanations for Miami Dice. Specifically, I can't see the details on the components when Sam is talking about them in this review, the explanation goes on for over 15min (too long imo), the explanation seems to jump around a lot with a lot of editing - it's hard to follow.

[lioneart]

Seems like a better game than the first one. But also heavier than it needed to be. Subs and third world countries seem like totally unnecessary contrivances.

[cbazler]

Sam might want to go back and watch his GLOWING review for the Manhattan Project card game before declaring it "not that good".

[Subcomandante]

MP is a great game. Sad to hear that MP2 is a 'king maker' game :( Really hate that in games as winning or losing feels cheap.

[wawrzyniecbonk]

Please, can Zee or Tom do the "how to play" parts? Sam make those kind of boring and I tend to stop listening watching, even if i'm very interested in how to play "this" game... I do love your trio, when discussing things(final thoughs, top10s etc) but i/m not a fan of Sam's solo reviews/parts, as opposed to Tom/Zee