Golem Arcana Base Game Set

I had always been intimated by the collectible RPG miniatures genre of gaming. I felt I had missed the Warhammer boat - so many models and kits and new core rulebooks every year, not to mention the expense and space needed! A friend of mine gave me X-Wing, and while we both love Star Wars, memorizing the rules and distances, whipping out the measuring tape was just overwhelming.Enter Golem Arcana. I didn't know much about the game, and only recently picked it up a few weeks ago after reading about HBS's other projects. I was a bit hesitant because of my previous fears about other miniatures games. Golem Arcana goes a long way to be open to anyone who would like to jump into this genre of game. The first thing I really like about it: you don't have a huge bulky core rule book. The game is paired to an application that runs on iOS or Android platforms. The application takes care of many different things: like unit health, terrain/tile bonuses or penalities etc. It also automates a lot of the math involved. So there's none of the following: "OK, my attack has an 80% chance to hit, -5% because my enemy is in some forest, +10% because of my special ability, so if I hit my damage is 30, -15 because of my opponents armor...so that gives me....ugh" so that's kind of nice actually. It makes the game quicker, more brutal. The app will also update when rules change or point values change due to new units being produced. This means the units you invest in will always be relevant. The only issue Golem Arcana doesn't solve is the expense. You can also create your own custom maps, which is great - tailor your scenarios to the space you have available or preferred playstyle. This game is an investment. I dropped $150 for the base game and a few expansion packs. I didn't need to, but I really like to build different armies and min/max my set ups.I have the added benefit of coming in to the game at a great time - many bugs with the app, the stylus pen, and the core game have been squashed. There's a vibrant, growing community, expansion items being released about once a month and officially sponsored events. If you've ever wanted to try a tactical mini's game, pick up the base set and give Golem Arcana a try.

I like the game. The game is great, however, the quality isn't. My first box had the wing coming out of it. The wing wan't broken, it looked like it just slipped out. I was planning on super gluing it back in, but then the pen stopped working. It would work for about ten minutes and then stop. The pen would light green like it was working, but nothing came up on the screen. I returned it and bought another one. The 2nd box was missing one of the guys that rides the Golem monsters. It looks like they just forgot to put it back on. Then I had the same issues with the pen. I think it's a problem with the app (even though it says it's compatible with the Galaxy S4).As for actual game play this is a fun game. If not for the issues we had I would have given it 5 stars and bought all the expansions. I have a friend who uses it with their ipad and has no problems with the pen. I have no idea what's going on with the unglued or missing pieces in the sets I got. My son bought it with his own money so it's his call and he won't be returning it. He's just going to deal with the missing guy on his golem and we'll have to borrow a friend's ipad and make sure it's an app issue and not the pen.

I really really really wanted to like this game. It's one of the few things I've ever sent back to Amazon as I usually window shop and try to do a decent bit of research before I make a purchase. Unfortunately it just didn't work out for me this time.Positives:-I will say this about the game, it came packaged very well. All the pieces, game tiles, etc were of good quality. For me though this only made this more frustrating.Negatives:-Currently Samsung devices do not work with this game. The box reads that they do, their website read the same thing at the time of my purchase. However it has an asterisk now, stating that it should be considered non-compatible instead of just taking it off the list of compatible devices. Apparently they put out an update three weeks before I pulled the trigger on the purchase and you can no longer sync the stylus to most Samsung devices. Two months later they put it on their known bugs list, saying they've received reports of issues with pairing with Samsung devices and are currently compiling a list of known devices with problems as they've had trouble replicating the problem (Based on the number of complaints on the forums I find that to not be truthful, no one seems to be able to get a Samsung device to work.)-Bug fixes are very slow. I returned this game on the last possible day to get my refund and visited the forums most everyday hoping for an update on my non-syncing issue. What I've learned in this time is that there are many bugs and they do not seem to be fixed in a timely fashion or at all. It seems like the team is focused on pumping out new products for the game and does not have the resources to fix bugs.-This is nit-picking but for the high quality of the actual pieces it looked like a kindergarden class put the labels on the golems. Had I kept the game I would have removed them and reapplied them with more care.