Hostile Takeover

Hostile Takeover takes the action and excitement of a skirmish miniatures game and combines that with the lowered cost and increased ease of play of a board game. I love it!

I love this game, quite honestly. I have seen it in several stages of development, and the evolution of this game since its initial conception has been truly remarkable. The mechanics are easily accessible to new or casual players without feeling "dumbed-down", and a typical game goes quickly enough to keep any player interested. I am eager to see this game hit the market!

Greatly enjoyed my demo/playtest at Origins 2013. The battle and movement systems are very easy to catch on and play for new players without being "simple". I can't wait for this to go to kickstarter so I can play it again.

Fantastic game with a great deal of potential. It provides the in depth min-based combat feel, without all of the initial set-up and time-wasting. Can't wait to own it!

Play-tested this game and just kept wanting more. Easy to learn and get into, but I quickly progressed to the Advanced Optional Rules to get more depth and screw factor going. There's just nothing quite so satisfying as lobbing a gas grenade into a mass of your friends' pieces and then lighting them up with a plasma thrower (cue Evil Laughter). It's like playing minis, but fun (sorry Garian and other minis players, that's how I feel about minis...). It's also a little like Descent, but faster-paced and more of a free-for-all. I look forward to the final version!

I love playing this game. It is really cool and easy to play.

Hostile Takeover Review

Note: In the interested of full disclosure, I am a close friend of the game's designer. I have played several versions of the game as it has gone through play testing and offered feedback where I felt it was appropriate. I am honored to post this review of Andy's first game, and I encourage everyone to take a look at Hostile Takeover and give it a try.

When I look at board games, I look for how they perform in five key areas, which I rank equally. Those areas are Game Play, Fun, Theme, Art, and Components. To calculate a score for BGG, I assign each of these areas a score from 0-2 points, plus I add in up to 1 point for "Wow Factor" to act as a bonus for games which might not quite fit the mold or which just blow me away. Here's how Hostile Takeover scores in my book (noting it is still in a prototype stage).

[1.75/2.0] Game Play - Is the game balanced (no one runs away with a win)? Are the rules clear and easy to follow? Is there depth? This is the kernel of pure genius in Hostile Takeover. It masterfully balances complexity with speed while still capturing the feel of minis in a very balanced game. In a word, the game play is brilliant! In terms of managing scenarios, Hostile Takeover has very clear and concise setup instructions which is not often the case in scenario based board games (this was a pleasant surprise to find in the instructions as I had not seen any documentation about the scenarios until today).

[1.5/2.0] Fun - Does everyone enjoy the game (even when not winning)? Is it replayable? Another big win for Hostile Takeover. Watching scenarios unfold even when you are on the loosing end is a joy. Can't beat that!!! Every time I play I have a good time.

[0.5/2.0] Theme - Does the theme feel bolted on? Does it add to the experience? Does it draw players in? This is my only real complaint about Hostile Takeover. The theme feels very much like an after thought to me. I have to wonder if this is an artifact of Hostile Takeover's minis heritage (while a few minis games I have played have tightly integrated themes, many like Hostile Takeover, feel like the game mechanics are independent of the theme). I should point out that art is an integral aspect of theme to me, and Hostile Takeover's art is not yet done, so this score could go up in the final version of the game. I have also not played the latest scenarios, so I may be missing out on thematic choices made in the scenarios. Please feel free to take the score in this area with a grain of salt.

[??/2.0] Art As I mentioned above, the art is not yet finished. In fact, Andy has said that the art will be completely redone before the game is sent out for production. So, I do not believe it is fair to rank the game on its art at this point in its development. Note, I know the artist personally, and I am sure that she will do an excellent job. All of her work is amazing. I eagerly await the game's final art.

[1.75/2.0] Components - This is all about quality, number, etc. Boils down to does the game feel cheap or well made? Will it last? Again, with the game still in development, it is difficult to say how the final product will turn out. However, unlike the art, several components are already of production quality, and the remainder have been fully spec'ed. Based on the details Andy shared with me, I believe the final game will have components of equal value to games from larger publishers. In fact, I expect to raise this score to a 2.0 once the final game is published.

[0.75/1.0] - Wow Factor - Final wild card parameter, do you walk away with a sense of wow (is it unique in some way or just really grabs you right away)? This is a major strong point of Hostile Takeover. It really makes minis-like game play accessible to board game audiences in a way I have not seen before. This alone makes the game a worthy endeavor and worth playing.

Final Score: 6.875 + 0.75 = 7.625 Note, the score was calculated without the Art score by scoring the remaining areas on an 8 point scale and converting that score to a 10 point scale. The Wow Factor was then added to this value to arrive at a final score.

The most unique thing about this game is the way it plays. I feel like I'm leading a team of super-soldiers, through a battle. Making tactical decisions in this squad-based combat simulator is both rewarding and exciting!

This is a really fun game! I love the components that come with the unique design too. Very creative and I would love to own it to share with friends. I can't wait to see it on Kickstarter!