Zeo: First Impressions

Buncha loons

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I'm a bit late. The box got to me Monday, and I just tried it out Friday night?? Y'all have other blog posts that came out, right? I not only GM multiple games a week but I put up play reports about them. Yeah, that took some work! Shove off!

Well, don't. Please. I have things to say and all that. Y'know, stuff.

At any rate, I finally went and played the Zeo team. Sat down, did full assault boss rush mode. Yeah, that means that all the special location stuff was on and the enemies I played against were boss monsters: Lord Drakkon, Master Vile, and Cyclopsis.

I TOLD YOU I WOULD FIGHT YOU. AND YES, YOU ARE SCARY

So, besides almost dying horrifically, what did I think? Honestly, they felt like a more advance version of the core rangers. Which, don't get me wrong, is exactly how they should be! The momentum gain for these folks is just ridiculous. You could probably play a good five or six cards before the enemy ever has a chance to act, if you do it right. I mean, jeez, this team just flows.

Tanya is turning out to actually be my favorite ranger of the bunch. Yeah, that surprised me too! But hear me out. Her ability is about maximizing damage, and the rest of her deck is about hedging her bets. I have horrible dice luck in this game. Well, I have horrible dice luck in general. So Tanya just destroys that problem, because even I can roll a two hit die if you give me enough of them, and I already know the rest are going to be O's anyway, so it's not like I really lost out!

Please, for the love of God, don't tell me that her nunchucks are actually called Double Clubs in the official lore.

Please don't.

NO.

They're nunchucks. Damnit, that's what they are.

But my favorite card, so far, in the whole expansion? Intercepting Strike. It's the ultimate snappy rejoinder to all those moments when a really awfully powerful enemy card goes off, because you can take that three shield flip and just trash a card. And, if you're playing with Zeo Green, you can then take that Bull Zord and tell that card that you meant it, you demand that it frickin' die.

Yes, I did that to the Master Vile card that adds 2 damage to all his cards. That felt so good.

Rocky is fine? He's alright? If he doesn't get Let's Party, so that way you can spread the energy around post-haste, I found that he didn't perform all that well. He's good, he's just not quite my style, I suppose. Reckless Assault was a really good finisher and I found that I was using it a lot to get Let's Party out, so that way I could start another chain. If you can use Rocky correctly he'd be a serious sweeper, but he takes some work to get there. I'm not terribly impressed so far, but give it some time. I need to get used to his gimmick. He's the deepest character in this box and has the potential to completely change team compositions. But you have to use him right. I know I wasn't.

Adam may the weirdest soft character I've ever seen. He doesn't look soft, but he's the guy you want taking hits and gets stronger because of it. And c'mon, Not Done Yet! capitalizes off of this flow of taking damage to do cool stuff in a really delayed fashion. Because the payoff isn't immediate. It's whenever you can use those hit tokens to just destroy someone. And did I mention that I love the Bull Zord? It may be my favorite zord in the set. "I said DIE" may or may not have been said a lot last night, once that zord came out.

Kat's character ability is wonderful. Yes, I just kept the top card of her deck flipped up. I mean, why not? With Dancer's Grace she can swap out cards as she needs to. Extremely solid character, just all around. I don't really have much more to say about her yet. I'll get there.

Tommy is what makes this team go just absolutely nuts. Lead by Example is going to completely change the way the game works, mark my words. Yeah, it costs an energy, but so friggin' what?? You can literally be the middle point of a chain of combo cards. You pair this dude up with Jen, from the Shattered Grid expansion? You're going to have multiple people playing cards at the same time, some of which will definitely generate energy. Like, that card alone is going to change everything. The rest of Tommy's deck is pretty cool, but Lead by Example is the most important leading card to come out since Covering Fire and Team Tactics, and may actually outstrip them both. A whole new horizon just opened up in the meta. Just you wait. We're going to see some crazy stuff coming out because of this one card.

I'm not going to lie, Jason Gold (who is not actually in this box, he's Kickstarter exclusive, with a retail launch in May) about broke my brain, just clean in half. You have a true embarrassment of riches to choose from, with the following caveats: the special ability you want to play cannot be on the card being played and you lose the card you revealed, as it gets shuffled back into the deck. So you're always having to play at right angles to the situation, always having to figure out how to deliver that special ability by another route, not the one you would have normally picked. This is probably the deepest character we have to date. He's extremely powerful and effective, but you really need to put your thinking cap on to get the most out of him.

I did not finish playing against Cyclopsis, as it was late and my firstborn had a really bad dream. That'll be another post for another time. He's tough. He's scary. He's a lot of fun. But that's another post.

Why am I making this post? Why bother? Most of what I was saying was "This looks great on first viewing, but I'll definitely be writing more so wait for that!". So, yes, that's true, but  I do have a bit of a reason why I'm talking about it now. Certain games are meant to be one and dones. Burning Wheel is two books. It is probably meant to be two books. You will probably never ever see another book, and it is designed to where you don't really want more. I love Burning Wheel so much that I GM multiple games of it at a time, but I don't really want another book (there's some caveats to that, but that's for another time!) I own a lot of those types of games, where you really don't need or want an expansion or whatever. I don't want another Bleak Spirit book. I just don't. Nor do I want more Mouse Guard. Or Against The Darkmaster (yeah, I know, we'll get to that). When Oath comes out I will be shocked if they make an expansion.

But there are other games that are designed to get you on the expansion treadmill, which this game really does. Either the concept is just too large or they want a regular stream of income or whatever. Usually these treadmill games are very modular, with questionable design and whatnot. They want you to take another hit.

That's just simply not the case with Heroes of the Grid.

Every. Last. Expansion. Has been extremely good, if not amazing. This is top quality design, every time, from a game designer who is doing exactly what he loves, for an IP that he clearly thinks the world of,  from a company known for their curation of the community and their love for innovation and joy in the game design world. There's so much love and joy packed into each and every single one of these boxes that I'd feel like a cynical idiot to not point it out. I mean, sure, it's a business, they need to make money, but that's not their overriding motivation. I've gotten to playtest some stuff for this game and I'm so grateful to do it because I get to see how much love goes into this. The folks at Renegade love this game. Jonathan Ying loves this game. I mean, yes, they want your money, but I would bet they want the money so they can keep working on the game, not the other way around.

So, if you're on the fence about Zeo, asking if it's worth the money, I genuinely think it is. I don't say that because I'm a Power Rangers fan, or because of my (very limited) involvement, or whatever. I think anything made with this much love and talent deserves support. The Zeo team genuinely brings something new and exciting to the table, and I can't wait to write more about these characters and this game and in this ridiculous time we're going through stuff like this should be spread.

Far and frickin' wide.

So that's why.

I think this is worth it. It may take me some more time to tell you fully why I think so, but I genuinely do.