Smash Up - review / recommendation

[Old Dwarf]

We're a hard crowd...the important thing is that you enjoy it. I'm not really into the theme but
if I had a larger group (usually it's just the 2 of us) I would enjoy it more it's a fun game.

OD

[alderdust]

I think there experienced gamer will understand the potential combos of both race and cards to see that some of the smash ups are very lopsided and can destroy others.. I thought the game had balancing issues.

I am surprised your magic friend doesn't like it. He should be naturally good at it.

[Raynor]

I would agree that some of the combinations are lopsided but we always play from a random pile so if you end up with one of those combinations well, good on ya lucky dog.

My magic friend will play with us and will do well but would rather be playing magic lol.

Oh well Old Dwarf. happy to have shared.

[mqstout]

Hmmm... Smash Up where your first side is random, but you select your second...

[Raynor]

If you were curious in our method we generally play 3-4 players. We take one card from each deck and 3 madness cards to serve as wild cards. Then we shuffle them all together and everyone draws their two factions. If you draw a madness card you get to choose your own.

It's a fairly organic and functional system and when you get a winning combination your pumping your fists, but in the meantime it forces you to try out all sorts of bizarre combinations you probably wouldn't have thought of yourself.

Time traveling - Robots for example are an incredibly potent combination I drew the first time we played the Science Fiction Double Feature expansion. Time travelers use a lot of bounce and flicker effects and the Robots jive very well in that respect due to a large number of enter the battlefield effects.

Time traveling - Locals, not such a great combination and something I would have personally avoided but surprisingly there was an unexpected synergy between the Local's abilities to power up and generate card advantage from creatures of power 2 and the Time traveler's "Jumper" minion who can return to your hand after scoring a base(very much like the Alien's Scout in the base game) it made for a very competitive and fun game for everyone.

I think playing the random with a selection of wilds keeps the game fun and fair for everyone.