That’s part of the problem.. paying customers accepting poor quality from wargames rules producers. As if, its expected to be shite and the players are expected to use “house rules” and to not expect “balance” or a fully playable game. This is garbage. Maybe some people on this thread have so much time and money on their hands they can afford to spend it on half cocked rubbish and turd polishing for the benefit of a for profit enterprise.. but I can’t. Nor can anyone in my gaming club.

SPQR is a damnable mess, and it’s not just a couple of typos or a misplaced sentence. My group played it multiple times and really wanted to like it, but ultimately decided that the effort and resources it would take to generate all the house rules to plug the holes and prop up the core just wasn’t worth it. So we started playing Mortal Gods.. and we couldn’t be happier. Great game, clear, well thought out and PLAYTESTED rules. I think someone  may have actually played the game before it was put in the box! AND it’s a great value.

AND YES I did expect Tanks:Modern to be balanced. I paid good money for something functional and playable, but it wasn’t. And no, I’m not going to waste valuable hobby time re-writing rules and re-jiggering a points system. Plenty of other great BALANCED games out there.

Which loops back into why the current crop of YT “review” and “open box” videos are worthless. %90 of the people doing these videos haven’t played the game and are just reading the back of the book/box and then throw it on top of the huge pile of company supplied games in clear view behind them. And, No, when you are playing with the writer/producer/employee of the outfit putting out the rules I do not expect a real or truthful examination of the rules… but there should be one to follow.. yet there never is. I suppose this boils down to whether a site/channel is maintaining real journalistic integrity.. or  really is just another outlet for companies to flog their wares. If the latter, fine.. but say so.

Should I expect fair and balanced coverage/reviews/”open box” videos from a site that has banners all over the place for the big wargames companies AND owns and operates a store that sells products for said companies… no.. probably not. But good quality “how to play” and hobby videos are always welcomed.

TL:DR; YES it IS time for more critical analysis of rule sets.