G is for Grimslingers

by Greenbrier Games

So my husband loves collecting role-playing games that it seems we'll never play, and one of those games is Deadlands. I think one of his groups played it for a session or two, but it fizzled. I've never played it-- though with how much he talks to me about it, I feel like I have. So when I first learned of Grimslingers, I thought it would be a good way to help him scratch that itch without needing to get a big group together and I added it to our never-ending wish list. When I saw it and one of its expansions at one of Phoenix Fire's swap meets, I had to get them. I had to.

Players: 1-6

Time: 15-90 minutes

Ages: 14+

Theme: Science Fiction/Fantasy Western

Mechanics: Rock-Paper-Scissors Card Duels, Campaign Co-op

I don't even know where to begin. This game is a hot mess.

I guess we can start with something good: The art is beautiful. Ultimately, it's what drew me to this game in the first place. Take a look at those covers above. Aren't they pretty?!

Now the frustrating as all get-out: This game has been re-printed several times with different editions/new rule books, which contain new/removed rules. We happened to get the version of the base game with 3rd edition rules and the expansion with 4th edition rules. Now, I insisted we play the base game with the third edition rules. Why? Because...

• That's how it was released and therefore how it was meant to be played.
• We had already completed half the campaign with the 3rd edition rules before we even realized that we could play it with the new rules/components. Why not stay consistent?
  
• What if we didn't have the expansion? It's components are required to play the base game with the new rules.
• I didn't want to open the components in the expansion in the event that we didn't want to play it (better resale value).
• I am stubborn.
  

Well, the 4th edition rules change game-play quite a bit (for the better). In retrospect, I wish I was less stubborn and that we played the first campaign with the 4th edition rules. The photos below illustrate the biggest rule changes. The first photo shows set-up for two players using 3rd edition rules. The campaign progresses from moving your team meeple along points and landmarks on a small map. The second photo shows set up for 4th edition rules. Players move through playing card "tiles," flipping them up to explore and resolve events. You need a lot more table space to play with the new rules. Also, the new edition comes with player boards, an enemy board, and an item board to help keeps things straight and remind you of turn orders and available actions.

3rd edition rules

4th edition rules

We spent a good 2+ hours just looking up rule clarifications for this game. Which is extra confusing when there are multiple versions floating around. The campaign booklet for the base game mentioned several rules that were no longer in existence and completely impossible to find. If you check out the bgg page for this game, there are 316 threads, the vast majority of which are questions asking for rule clarifications. On that note, another pro for this game: The designer, Steve Gibson, is very, VERY good about responding to all of these questions. Most of our issues were solved from scanning these forum threads and watching his videos. Some questions, however, went unanswered and we had to make judgement calls, which, as a complete rules junkie, was very hard for me... *sigh*

So, basically, the rules, as written, are pretty terrible, EVEN with the updated 4th edition rules, which are far superior to the 3rd edition rules. If you decide to play this game, save yourself huge amounts of PAIN and frustration by getting the expansion and opening it first! Throw the third edition rules in the GARBAGE.

I know I'm jumping around a lot (like the rules, ha ha), but I was being honest when I said I didn't know where to start... An interesting thing about this game is that there are two game modes. You can play versus duels (kind of like Magic) or you can play the campaign mode. Before you start the campaign mode, the game encourages you to play a versus duel to learn the fight mechanics. We did the versus duel with a couple of friends. We all ganged up on my poor husband, so he was out first. I was out second. And then our friends battled for the win. We all liked the theme enough that we decided to continue on to the campaign. Within half an hour of searching for rule clarifications, they abandoned us to Rock Band 4, and we had to play the campaign on our own at a later date. My point is, the versus portion of the game could be cool if you like that kind of thing. I'm more of a co-op gamer myself... (Because I'm a sore loser--unless we're all losing-- that I can manage better).

I don't want this review to drag on forever, so I will just say-- This game has such potential. The art and theme are awesome, the narrative (albeit silly at times) builds an interesting world, the characters are fun (I played La Fleur Noire, a vampyre that hangs out with a giant talking bear professor -- see above-- in both campaigns), and the game play is mostly fine assuming you're using 4th edition rules (and barring some hiccups requiring rules look-ups and some judgement calls).

Our Rating: 4/10  for the base game, 3rd edition rules... 7/10 for the Northern Territories expansion, 4th edition rules.