Red November

Customer Reviews

-Underwhater fun- Review by Maxime Yazz

Price
Value
Quality

In Red November, player must work together in a race against time in a sinking submarine. This cooperative silver line game is a nice thematic game. It is not specified in the rules but it is possible to do solo plays with this game.

It is, like most cooperative games I have experienced so far, really hard and unforgiving. But that just make you want to play it again.

In terms of production values this game is very impressive. The board, an components are gorgeous and very fun to play with. All in all, if you like cooperative gaming then this is a good game for you. If you want to try out the cooperative genre then this is rather good and small one to start with. (Posted on 6/11/10)

A fairly good game Review by Morris

Value
Quality
Price

Good points:
- very packed tiny box with lots of board game pieces.
- good quality pieces as well. I like the thick game board and thick item tiles. Only problem I have was with the character figurines, they are supported by one leg and if I force the box close (because it's so jammed full of goodies), it may bend these little guys
- often intense. Lots of times throughout the game you will be rolling for possibly the last roll of the game (if you failed you'd lose). And even if you make a success (semi relief) you then got to rush to another point to try to fix something else that might also be your possibly last roll. The ratio of plot problems is generally for every 1 problem you fix, 2 problems show up, but don't fix a problem and things will build up even faster.
- the option of ditching your teammates was one of the rules I thought would be fun but I never had the chance to come across that scenario. You have to be carrying a certain item which i never once came across the game. If a player decides to ditch the rest of the team, he will win if the submarine breaks down before the team is rescued but lose if his/her teammates make it till they are rescued. If you suspect a player will ditch, you can decide to fight him/her and kill them to take their items.

Bad:
- although it is a cooperative game which I love, there's not much cooperative interactions, it's usually whoever is closest to a problem will fix that problem.
- there's not much thinking involved, it's usually just try to fix a problem (by rolling a dice) that is closest or most sever in the game.

Go or no Go?
- Go for it (Posted on 12/7/09)

Red November is a Fantasy Flight Game, so it should go without saying that you will get high production quality, great theme and good gameplay. As Gnomes trapped on a sinking submarine, players must work together in this co-operative game to keep the su Review by TR

Price
Value
Quality

Red November is a Fantasy Flight Game, so it should go without saying that you will get high production quality, great theme and good gameplay. As Gnomes trapped on a sinking submarine, players must work together in this co-operative game to keep the submarine in one piece before they are rescued.

Appearance: This is definitely a FFG game - the product quality is quite good, with thick card stock, a solid board and cute graphics. There are also a ton of tokens, which is quite daunting when you consider how small the box comes in (Citadels sized box - 19.5 * 10 * 4.5). In fact, it’s stuffed so full you might have trouble getting all the pieces back in.

Another problem with the game is the time track on the outer edges of the board. It is just too small. With all the time pieces of the gnomes stacked on it, it is very easy to knock over the time pieces (something we did regularly) and have to pick them up again.

On a side note, the game with its multiple tokens and pieces is rather daunting coming from such a small box. It‘s probably because it‘s a small box that players who finally see all the pieces are rather taken back, not being mentally prepared for the onslaught of tokens and rules. Certainly, this was my group’s initial reaction - and I would point out this is my regular gaming group who play Descent and World of Warcraft with me.

Rules / Ease of Learning: Red November isn’t a very rule heavy game. The goal is simple - survive till the end. Players all start on the appropriate time on the time track (varies depending on number of players). Each turn, players move, take an action and then resolve the updates. Movement between rooms costs time (specifically, opening the hatch), while the amount of time taken on any action dictates the chance of success (via a die roll with the target number (to hit or roll under) the amount of time taken plus bonuses). After all movement and actions are taken, players then update the chart, checking for new items that they may have received and new events.

To aid the gnomes in fixing the sub, items can be taken from the storage room or grog used from the Captain’s Cabin. Grog by the way is lethal - after using it, players have to check for inebriation and unconsciousness. Since fires and leaks can occur anywhere, its easy to be caught in a room and be unable to leave it due to falling unconscious - instant death for the poor player.

Events are triggered throughout the game at specific points in the time-track, with events ranging from timed calamities to fires, leaks and bad luck. This all makes the game quite tense, with multiple ways for the gnomes to lose.

Red November is actually one of the few FFG games that I had a problem with the rulebook. It required multiple readings to catch every point, and the layout had something to be desired. For what would eventually be quite simple during the game, it took a while to explain and teach. It might have something to do with the fact that the first time I thought it to the group, there were 5 people.

Gameplay: Firstly, Red November is fun. It’s tense, it is definitely a co-operative game and the thought of gnomes running around putting out fires is quite, quite humorous. So yes, the game is good and does hit the table. I’m just not sure how often. Here are some of the negative points of the game we found.

Grog is nasty. Very nasty - in the first game I played, on my first action, I was knocked out by the Grog. After spending over 15 minutes waiting to wake up, I was finally roasted alive by an unlucky roll of the die. This can definitely be a disheartening aspect of the game, especially for new players since there is nothing you can do. Depending on personalities, this could be a deal breaker for a player - which is why it might be worthwhile to consider playing the ‘not so permanent’ death variant.

Randomness is quite, quite high. Again, not particularly surprising, and it lends well to the mood, but because of the randomness, it can quickly go from an easy run to complete disaster. A couple of unlucky rolls and it’s quite easy for a well laid out plan to go haywire. While I personally think this lends to the disaster theme, I can see how it can be a problem for others.

The time track is fun and works with the theme, but it can leave players who have had to take a long turn with nothing to do (for their characters) for quite a well. This can be compounded even more by a bad inebriation check, knocking a player out for 15 or 16 minutes at a time easily. This is again another potential point where you could ‘lose’ a player.

Lastly, because the game is co-operative, the players should be careful about the time taken to reach a decision. Tense as it is, the game can begin to stretch a bit (especially for those without an active gnome) when trying to plan the next action. It’s particularly important to remember that even more bad things can happen, so some flexibility is definitely desired.

Conclusion: Red November is a fun, cute co-operative game that comes in a small enough box to make it easily portable. However, because of the time track and randomness, this is certainly not a game for everyone, especially those who cannot buy into a theme. (Posted on 3/9/09)