Set a Watch: Swords of the Coin is live (Set a paid Watch)
Update: Set a Watch: Swords of the Coin is live on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 23 days. You may back just Swords of the Coin or combine it with the Outriders expansion. If you don't have the Set a Watch base game, you may get the Deluxe edition along with Swords of the Coin, or go all-in and also get a cloth playmat.
Our preview post below was published on September 18.
Set a Watch: Swords of the Coin is a 1-4 player cooperative adventure game in which mercenaries keep watch and fight against the forces of darkness. This is a standalone expansion to Set a Watch, and it will launch on Kickstarter on September 22.
In the solo game, you have to control four mercenaries. Each round consists of a Camp phase, a Merchant phase, and a Watch phase. After rolling the available dice, you have to decide which hero(es) will stay at the camp and which will keep watch. The hero who stays at the camp will perform actions at the camp (chopping wood, healing etc.) or on their personal board, or on the back of the location cards by assigning dice to them.
In the Merchant phase, the hero who rests at the camp may spend money to purchase items either for themselves or to give to the other heroes. Some action spaces at the camp also require a coin to be activated, so you can leave coins on them for later use. In the Watch phase, combat with the enemies takes place. The heroes spend dice and make use of their own special abilities. The number of creatures you have to face depends on the campfire reveal level.
If, in the final round, the heroes have not exhausted all their abilities and there are no enemies remaining in the battle line, you win the game.
I take most reviewers with a grain of salt. It's so personal which kind of games you enjoy, and often they don't play enough sessions to really get a feel for strategy, mitigation possibilities, win chances and longevity. That the new game changes nothing will be a great reassurance for the target audience.
Most reviewers point out the swinginess of the deck of the original. The single tier deck mechanism is too prevalent to elevate SaW from anything meh level. Granted, there is the deck of unhallows as well, but the STD is too prevalent: sequences of monsters makes or breaks you regardless of skill. The new version changes nothing.
I think this article should have been called:
"Toss a Coin to Your Watcher"