Board Game Arena

So I haven't played this game in person but... this game seems way unbalanced for this particular monster's power. The Meka Dragon's power seems to be able to quickly and easily win any game from my brief time of playing so I'm wondering if this is actually how the game works. Like, for instance, if the Meka Dragon user just focuses on "!" and claw rolls right away, the game seems to be over within a few turns. If it's not over in a few turns, the other monster is just healing the entire time.

Is this really how the game is supposed to work?

I feel like out of all the monsters, a Meka Dragon who's high rolling is oppressive. Lost to one that did 8 dmg turn 2 and 8 more turn 3. Pretty stupid. Also since his default potential damage in one turn is 9 dmg, you have to spend most of your time swimming against the current and spam hearts or get lucky and get a survival ability like camouflage. But that's only if he's rolling good. If he doesn't he's nothing special. In order for him to do damage all of his roll is dedicated to it. His strategy has one facet and he'll lose. I think the main issue is the feeling of player agency when playing vs him.

yeah, i feel the same after playing a few days. if i can, i take meka dragon and just spam his ability while using extra cubes to clear the board if there's anything good for my opponent. if I don't get meka dragon, i take gigazaur and hope to get a spotlight win before i die since nothing can really outpace meka dragon without power cards. it's usually a waste of time trying to heal against him unless you're trying to get to 5/7 to avoid the frequent 4/6 hit. the main way i've lost with meka dragon is either against gigazaur or a cyberkitty that gets a good power card to get early (healing/armor).

some balancing thoughts (even though they won't happen):
* Meka dragon's ability is: 2 !s = 2 hit
* add a "ban" round in the beginning .... this isn't great as there's no meta really so you'll just see the top two monsters get removed every game....which at least means you're playing with more balanced ones i suppose

for arena though, would be nice if it was just random on the hero select

It doesn't even matter if meka dragon is overpowered or not. Even if he loses more than wins, the problem is his mechanic nullifies every other game mechanic and turns the game into a coin flip. If he rolls well in the span of a couple turns, he wins. Otherwise he loses. It's absolutely brain dead game play, and the other player has zero agency. It completely ruins the game, even if you win against him.

Did they even play test this game at all?

Yep. Game isn't fun at all if someone is playing MD. Moving along the track is way too slow to ever catch up, and MD only needs enough energy to cycle the healing cards, don't even need to buy any.

I'm curious how this game would play if the fame and destruction markers moved on 2+ instead of 3+

All I know is that I just won with Meka Dragon in four turns. It was boring and unsatisfying. I'm one to normally wait a little before declaring something broken, and maybe ultimately MD isn't broken in a competitive sense but it is quite possibly broken in a fun sense.

maybe ultimately MD isn't broken in a competitive sense but it is quite possibly broken in a fun sense.

Well said, I think that's mostly what I was feeling after playing this game a bit. Like, I really enjoyed the tutorial and it focused on the pull mechanism which was cool, and I really enjoyed games where it was kind of a tug-of-war going on... It can be a super fun game. But, games with Meka Dragon are not super fun from what I've seen thus far.

I feel like other monsters can also end the game quickly ( or its end anyway ) with two very lucky first roll.

Meka dragon is dangerous but the game offers you a range of way to counter it. And boy is it satisfying to counter it.

So Yeah MD may lower the fun a bit but i don’t find it that unbalanced. At least not that unbalanced that we need to take it out. Maybe lowering its health in the actual board game would have been a fair move. But what’s done is done.

@ggluke : MD is the Tush Push. Powerful but don’t get in 4th and short often and you might be fine. Go Birds.

Meka dragon is dangerous but the game offers you a range of way to counter it. And boy is it satisfying to counter it.

I'm a smart guy but I literally can't think of a way to counter somebody doing like 4-9 damage naturally each turn right from turn 1... There's not like a natural "healer" or a natural "block" to counter it. I've lost several games before I even could buy a card due to the Meka Dragon. Sure, if you survive five turns then you can maybe start buying cards and doing other things to counter it but my issue is that it's hard to survive even a few turns against this power sometimes. With three rolls and two dice face to target, it's not hard for the opponent to get 3 to 6 claws+"!" on each roll to begin with. I truly think this should have been that "!" or claws could do damage; it shouldn't be a multiplier. That's insane. That's just my two cents though. Ultimately, I don't see myself playing this game very often in its current state anyway. There are better balanced games out there.

But, haha, I do love the tush push analogy. Go Birds!

I won with Meka Dragon in 2 turn. Made 3x3=9 heat on second roll