Rogue Angels – a VERY well designed game!

In this video I take a look at MAPS and CHARACTERS and compare Rogue Angels to three other well done games (Pandemic Legacy, Artisans of Splendent Vale and ISS Vanguard).

You still can get in on this great game via Late Pledge on Gamefound. There are no added cost add-ons or expansions. One price is for everything!
=> Rogue Angels on Gamefound

Highlights, clarifications and extended comments are below this video window!

Highlights (and clarifications and additions):

Very well designed. Looking at Maps and Heroes. To see how well Rogue Angels is designed it may be beneficial to look at a few other well designed games (as points of comparison).

1. Pandemic Legacy has one map (that you sticker as you play) and 5 characters (to start with … but we ended up with 10 characters to choose from each game after we played through the campaign). Characters have cards that you can sticker as you play. Stickers can allow benefits to other characters with the same sticker. You also can add bonus abilities via stickers but you also might have to put on a sticker that reduces their benefits! While each character has a special ability (or two) there really isn’t any “story” for them. They are just a card that gives us those abilities. Rogue Angels utilizes this sticker aspect for character abilities.
2. Artisans of Splendent Vale has 35 maps and 4 characters. Actually, in addition the 35 maps in the spiral bound book there is one large fold out map just like the old road maps that we used to use to plan our trips and see where we were as we drove to distant locations. While having 35 maps sounds impressive, it was a mixed bag (for me anyway). The maps have wonderful art … but the art obscured the grid of squares, rectangles, hexes or circles and at times I couldn’t even tell where the spots were that my character would be moving through! The 4 characters don’t have “cards”. They have folded character sheets (that are very unique)… and character books… and character boxes! Each of the characters have their own quirks and abilities and we do get to know and follow them through the game. Each character has their own book that is several hundred pages long (pages are not numbered). However, these books present the long story that we become part of and much of each book is simply a duplicate of the books for the other three characters. However, there are places where only book has a certain map or view of a map or a bit of the story. Rogue Angels has something like this but places characters interactions and dialog in six campaign books (over 1,000 pages). As you play the game you get to know your character as their story unfolds for you. Rogue Angels takes that one step further in that you get to know your character as you play through the game … however, in Rogue Angels it is YOUR choices made that develop your character but creating their very own four quadrant personality grid PLUS a chart of their relationships with other characters in the game!
3. ISS Vanguard has 32 maps and 90 characters (crew members). Each crew member has a special ability (and a convert skill), but very minimal story (which does not evolve as you play (however for an added cost you can get the Personnel Files add-on that has a page or of added story (and a quest) for each of the characters). Rogue Angels takes that aspect (of an added story) and runs with it by letting our character develop during the game based on our choices and decisions (and mission outcomes). With ISS Vanguard you never can use the same character in two successive missions, so you can’t really identify well with them. You play the same character for the entire campaign with Rogue Angels. As for the maps … there are many (32). The use of the map in ISS Vanguard is different than Pandemic Legacy (where you move from city to city) or Artisans of Splendent Vale (where you move across and around a changing grid system). A map in ISS Vanguard has a wonderful background graphic and between 3 and 10 rectangle spaces that your characters move between. So there is very little moving about, but when you arrive on a space there often is something that happens (such as reading a log or changing the POI card). In Rogue Angels, moving (and maneuvering) about the map is strategic and essential.

Now … with that background from other nicely designed games, let’s look at maps and characters (heroes as well as a glance at enemies) in Rogue Angels:

1. There are 16 heroes (characters) to choose from as you get ready to start a campaign. Each hero has a character sheet that includes a four quadrant personalty grid. As you play the game your decisions and choices made (as well as mission outcomes) often will result in you being instructed to color in one of the white bars in one of the personality quadrants (see article=> Which Hero is Your Type? ). Gradually, through your choices, your hero becomes more or less of each type: Dominating, Inspiring, Cautions, Supportive as identified by expanding colored bars in each of those quadrants:
   
   For each white bar you color in you will get one token of that color at the start of each mission (thus, you are deciding how your hero will likely be able to help in upcoming missions via these four types of personality).
2. Next examples of how Shields and Focus (typically for rerolling dice) change from one hero to another (and how Memnon has one permanent shield).
3. Next examples of using Damage Cards. They typically are placed on your cool down track on the spot that matches the number in the top left of the card. If one of your action cards is there, it is returned to your hand and the Damage Card is placed in that spot. If there already is a Damage Card in that spot, then the card is place in the next slot to the right. If there are no available slots to the right (either there are no more spots or they are already filled with Damage Cards) then you character goes unconscious (ie, your hero is NOT killed) and no longer gets a turn until one of the other heroes come to “heal” them (healing means removing 1 or more damage cards from the cool down track). Laelia is the one hero that can ignore the first time she should go unconscious on a turn (but does go unconscious the second time that turn). She has this ability to ignore going unconscious on every turn!
4. There will be 88 different maps for Rogue Angels. Each will be different. There is not one map per mission (ie, there will not be 88 missions). Sometimes during a mission you will be instructed to switch maps. Other times during a mission you will be told update the current map (but adding a door or enemies, etc).
5. Enemy standees have their stats printed on them. The first number is the range that the enemy can attack from. The second number on the top is movement (how many squares can they move on their turn). The red number in the middle is how much damage they inflict when they hit you. The number in the bottom left is the amount of shields that they have to block your attacks. The final number at the bottom right is their health (or hit points) indicating how many hits it takes to destroy them.
6. One aspect (of many) that is extremely well done in Rogue Angels is that you don’t just run around the map shooting enemies. Often it is preferred (or even required) that you sneak around (go into stealth mode) where you try to never have any of your heroes be in the line of sight of any of the enemies. In some missions if you kill or remove an enemy, they will “respawn” back into the game (there will be a respawning square for them). This may affect how you strategize … what tactics you use to get through the mission successfully.