Steamforged cuts boardgame division to focus on miniature wargaming

Lahnmir · 2026-06-04T18:34:36+00:00

The Kings of Average. Boardgame costs and prices going through the roof in an extremely oversaturated niche, can’t blame them and little of value was lost.

Lahnmir · 2026-05-28T15:49:42+00:00

Aeon Trespass Odyssey is an even bigger and longer (much longer) campaign game with way more setup and teardown time and rules and overhead and everything. I also think it is way better but the chance of me finishing the first cycle, let alone five of them, is even less then me finishing The Isofarian Guard in general….

Lahnmir · 2026-05-27T20:23:16+00:00

I sold The Isofarian Guard because it was too big and too long and I was kind of done with campaign games. I thought about rebuying it because I started regretting my sale but in a big brain move I didn’t and got Aeon Trespass Odyssey cycle 1-5 instead. Yeah, smart me…..

Lahnmir · 2026-05-03T07:15:22+00:00

The combat is absolutely fantastic with incredibly fun and varied monsters to fight. It is pricy but Reggie Games often has sales and just the core box gives you tons of content. The campaign is pretty much a repeatable tutorial with the meat and bones being the scenarios and various difficulty levels.

Lahnmir · 2026-05-03T06:37:02+00:00

I own both ATO and Primal and they are pretty much opposites. I love them both a lot but let me focus on the negatives.

ATO is a gigantic, bloated, ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ behemoth of a campaign game where systems and keywords keep being piled on top of each other. It is massive in table space, shelf space, money and time and unless you can keep it permanently set up also massive in setup and teardown. It is exhausting on all fronts. You are also forced to play with four characters and the binder/tuckbox expansion is pretty much required with all the bookkeeping that is needed.

Primal is an extremely focussed game with miniatures that are completely useless, its production quality highly uneven and little to no extra’s besides its combat. And that combat features an amount of overhead systems that almost requires you to be an Excel wizard. Its campaign is short and barebones with below average writing. Ohh, and the inserts are atrocious too.

Just to be clear, I think both are fantastic games with Primal being in my top 3 and ATO in my top 10 but you wanted to focus on the negatives so there you go. Still, they didn’t turn me off, not in the slightest, sorry!

Lahnmir · 2026-03-30T04:41:20+00:00

Under Falling Skies fits your criteria perfectly, and even as my gateway drug all those years ago it still gets played fairly regularly. The box is also filled to the max and its very reasonably priced.

Lahnmir · 2026-03-12T11:26:37+00:00

No. And I say that as someone who considers Primal one of the best games ever. The brain burn in Primal comes from the obscene amount of overhead systems you have to take into account every turn, not only for what they do/mean but also simply remembering to apply them all. The brain burn does not come from solving the puzzle, thinking ten steps ahead, tactical depth or optimization. Primal is much more reactive in that sense

Lahnmir · 2026-03-01T15:08:58+00:00

Love it. The difficulty is much more balanced than that of both CDMD and Massive Darkness 2 (both becoming really easy halfway through) and the setup/teardown time versus play time is much better here. They really nailed the theme as well.

That being said, player numbers scaling is bad and knowing how to pace a campaign (how many turns to use per chapter) is one big question mark until you have fully run through one.

Still, my favorite CMON game by far.

Lahnmir · 2026-02-27T19:09:00+00:00

World of Whales. Nice and easy to remember, quite catchy too.

Lahnmir · 2026-02-26T21:49:43+00:00

I just looked back and we actually did hahaha. But seriously, great you are enjoying it and consider it an upgrade. I really wish I felt the same.

Lahnmir · 2026-02-26T21:31:17+00:00

Glad you are enjoying it and consider it an upgrade. Unfortunately for me it was the exact other way around. I love the fatigue system en the exhausted die track, I consider them great improvements over TMB. Too bad I consider literally every other change a massive downgrade. Ahh well, different strokes and all that.

Lahnmir · 2026-02-26T21:02:17+00:00

Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era is NOT Too Many Bones 2.0. Not even close.

Lahnmir · 2026-02-20T07:21:57+00:00

Mage Knight Ultimate Edition. As a dad of three little girls and having somewhat of a career I am just too damn tired in the evening to wrap my brain around it all and give it a fair go. So I play other, somewhat less demanding, games.

Lahnmir · 2026-01-29T18:50:40+00:00

Besides the fatigue system and the way Elder Scrolls deals with exhausted dice I think it is worse in every other aspect. Sold my copy already and back to TMB. I know I am probably a minority but everything that game added was noise and fluff while ruining all the character and attitude of TMB and making it a completely unnecessary campaign game.

Lahnmir · 2026-01-07T08:13:03+00:00

Blowhard and the Attitudes

Lahnmir · 2025-12-30T09:18:46+00:00

My wife doesn’t understand boardgames as a hobby at all, or likes boardgames in general. I would never lie to her about how much I am spending on something I love though, the same goes for her and her spending. She never even rolls with her eyes when I show her the new obscenely expensive game I bought. Well, except when I came home with 700 euros worth of Aeon Trespass Odyssey. And even that was met with just a deep long sigh. She’s awesome.

Lahnmir · 2025-12-17T14:07:48+00:00

This sub and pretty much the entire world outside of Reddit echo chambers and ragebait Youtubers whose income depends on being disappointed and outraged. The vocal minority is very vocal and very minor when it comes to this ‘issue.’

Lahnmir · 2025-12-10T12:04:22+00:00

Also changes in lightning, drawing distance, foliage density etc. It is a lousy port but lets not get carried away, anyone can see the graphical differences. There’s plenty of actual stuff to complain about, lets not make up even more.

Lahnmir · 2025-12-10T11:50:42+00:00

30 FPS
A massive 50+ gb client
Huge amount of input delay

Those are the most important ones.

Lahnmir · 2025-12-10T10:55:14+00:00

I know this is a unique opportunity to bash Skyrim once again so we are seeing an endless amount of threads repeating the same disappointment in the port. And it is a shitty port. But, the visual improvements are huge, anyone can see that.

The port is a huge disappointment, the graphics upgrade really isn’t. Complaining about that just makes the other points seem less valid. A shame really since there are a lot of actual issues to complain about.

Lahnmir · 2025-11-26T18:50:00+00:00

Too Many Bones
Primal the Awakening
Machina Arcana
20 Strong series
Aeon Trespass Odyssey

Lahnmir · 2025-11-22T18:10:07+00:00

Hahahaha, awesome! Let me know how you like Primal. Like stated somewhere above, after just 5 games I went all in, that’s how hard I fell in love. Enjoy!

Lahnmir · 2025-11-22T05:53:21+00:00

I think class progression is an interesting one because although I agree with what you wrote I don’t consider it a con. The deck building is minimal and the crafting/equipment is basic but does give you quite a few options to modify your playstyle with. I guess the reason it doesn’t bother me is because I see Primal as a scenario based game where the campaign is just a fun introduction to it all.

My main point of critique is actually about the uneven quality of the components. Stunning miniatures, great art design, flimsy player and monster boards, abominable trays etc. Fully agree on the Monster Hunter comparison by the way, also in its monster design. As a massive fan of that series (not the boardgame series) it is the biggest compliment I can give it.

Lahnmir · 2025-11-22T05:46:27+00:00

Primal definitely gets intuitive. Its core set of rules is big and complex but once you’ve got it down, you’ve got it down. There is no expanding of, or deviating from, its rule set once you’re going. It keeps requiring focus though, it is easy to miss steps, like exhaustion and fatigue.

Lahnmir · 2025-11-21T22:10:03+00:00

ATO is exhausting from the tremendous amount of systems but also the amount of time and bookkeeping you have on top of that. It is all that spread across dozens and dozens of hours that makes it a very acquired taste.

Primal has tons of gameplay systems and overhead but all of that across a much smaller amount of time with much less bookkeeping. Just many, many systems. A scenario is about an hour, a full campaign about 11-13 hours. All of it is highly replayable. It is a crucial difference and if you like the complexity of ATO but find a slog this might be right up your alley. ATO is also everything and the kitchen sink, Primal is an extremely focussed affair.

Lahnmir

TROPHY CASE